ON ST. JUSTUS THE MARTYR,
AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
From the Greek Synaxaria and the Roman Martyrology.
CommentaryJustus, Martyr, at Constantinople (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
[1] Various Synaxaria exhibit this Martyr to us; namely the printed Menaea with their manuscript Index, Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, and the Menaeon of Chifflet; to which is to be added the Basilian Synaxarion, from which I thus render the passion into Latin: The cult from the Synaxaria; the elogium from the Basilian; The holy martyr Justus was sprung from the city of Rome. But while he served in the order of the numeri, and had returned from war, he sees a crystalline cross, and from the cross hears a voice coming forth, and saying to him that he should leave the idols, and believe in Christ. Having therefore set out for Rome, his goods being distributed among the poor, he gave himself to leisure, exulting in the faith of Christ. When this had become known to the Tribune, he was seized by him. And when he could not be brought to deny Christ, bound with chains he was sent to the prefect Magnentius. And because he clung the more to the faith of Christ, beaten with raw thongs, and his head clad with a fiery helmet, afterward stretched out with his body naked over a hearth kindled with coals; and at last cast into a great furnace of fire, he gave up his spirit to God.
[2] Sirleto has similar things; adding at the end that his holy body remained whole, not even a hair harmed by the fire into which he had been cast. And hence it passed into the Roman Martyrology, thus recording him: At Rome, of St. Justus the soldier under Claudius the tribune, who, a Cross appearing to him divinely, believed in Christ; and soon baptized, gave out all his goods to the poor. Then seized by the prefect Magnentius, commanded to be beaten with sinews, to be covered with a fiery helmet, and cast into a pyre, not harmed even in a hair, in the confession of the Lord he gave up his Spirit. The printed Menaea, otherwise very much consonant, omit the apparition of the Cross; and have also at the end that the fire touched not a hair of the Martyr.
[3] in what place the holy Martyr is venerated. But the place in which the Saint is venerated is marked in the Supplement from the Synaxarion of Sirmond and the manuscript of Chifflet, today also announcing him: Τελεῖται δὲ ἡ αὐτοῦ σύναξις ἐν τῷ ὀρφανοτροφείῳ. But his solemnity is celebrated in the Orphanotrophium: of which Du Cange in Constantinopolis Christiana, book 4, page 165, number 19, gathered various things; contending first, against Codinus, that this place was not built by Justin the Younger and Sophia, but existed before the times of Justin. To this, that a certain Zoticus, marked in the Menaea on December 31, was its first curator, and the first, as is reported, inventor of the office of orphanotroph. There, moreover, you will find that the same place was afterward restored by Romanus Argyrus, and then by Alexius Comnenus augmented with cells of monks and nuns, and furnished with schools of Grammar for instructing orphans and the children of the poor in letters; and finally enriched with new revenues. You will learn, lastly, from the church of St. Paul, which stood in that quarter of the city which inclines toward the acropolis, to which the Orphanotrophium was built adjoining, as Anna, daughter of Alexius Comnenus, writes, it clearly appears that it is the Orphanotrophium within which stood the church of St. Paul; of which the said Author treats in the same place, page 114, number 21. Receive now the verses, from the same Supplement: Μὴ θῦμα βαλεῖν εἰς τὸ βωμοῦ πῦρ θέλων, Εἰς πῦρ Ἰοῦστος θῦμα βάλλεται ξένον. Unwilling to cast a victim through fire before the altar, Justus is cast into the fire, behold, a new victim.
[4] Certain observations on the announcement of the Roman Martyrology. Of the time of his death, the arena of his martyrdom, and the Emperor under whose reign it happened, I have nothing ascertained. I have announced him at Constantinople, not because it is established that he there consummated his martyrdom, but because his memory is celebrated there. In the Basilian Synaxarion he is indeed noted as born at Rome, but not as having suffered there. In vain would you flee to the Latins, to acquire a little more of knowledge. Baronius in the notations on the Roman Martyrology reports this one thing, that he is handed down by the Greeks with a description of the contest agreeing with the text of the said Martyrology. Whence then did he draw the holy Martyr to Rome? Most rightly did Castellanus observe in a marginal note to the text of his Roman Martyrology; that this Saint was unknown to all the preceding Martyrologists. More things pertaining to this had already long since been studiously noted by Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy: There exists among the Latin writers no mention of this martyr: nor at Rome is any memory of his body or relics found. And, what also increases the doubt, no commemoration is made in his Acts of the Emperor under whom he suffered. I fear that he was crowned rather elsewhere than at Rome. Where you see handed down almost in compendium the things which we have here noted.
[5] Ludovico Vedriani, On the Saints of Modena, from page 179, Whether the Saint's relics were brought from Rome into the territory of Modena, treats of St. Justus M., whom he summons from Rome to Trinanum, commonly Trignano, situated in the duchy of Modena on the river Dardagna; and there in the parish church of St. Peter the Apostle he places his sacred remains; and besides this fourteenth day, on which he is venerated, he notes that his translation is celebrated with the highest solemnity and a most frequent concourse of people on the second Sunday of August, the relics of the Martyr breathing a sweet fragrance. The collection of the martyrdom which he has, agreeing with those things which we have above transcribed from the Synaxaria and the Roman Martyrology, sufficiently indicates that he treats of the Justus of whom we here inquire: and so the arguments hold here which were brought forward a little before. Then at last shall we be about to believe those things which have hitherto appeared to us incredible, when he shall have proved from somewhere the things which he asserts. For us meanwhile it remains fixed, neither here nor elsewhere to follow guides groping in darkness, unless they carry a light before them, lest truth somewhere stumble.
[6] or whether translated into Spain? But more than all the rest, if it please the powers above, did Tamayus see, in the Spanish Martyrology on the fourteenth of this month writing these things: In the college of Baeza in Baetica of the Discalced Brothers of the Most Holy Trinity, the deposition of St. Justus the Martyr, who suffered at Rome; whose sacred pledges, brought to Spain, the Minister General of the aforesaid Order imparted to that college; where they are honorably venerated. He proves the translation from an authentic testimony, in which are noted, extracted from the cemetery of St. Calixtus, the bodies of SS. Felicissimus, Maximus, Justus, Innocentius, Hilarius, Justinus, Maurus, Felicianus, Hyacinthus, Vitalis, Alexander, Gratianus, Joannes, Vincentius, Bonifacius, Valentinus, Dionysius, Claudius, Valentinus, Calixtus, Martyrs; and of the holy Concordia, Flora, Fabiana, Aurelia, Restituta, Victoria, Candida, and Eugenia, Virgins and Martyrs; of which, brought to Madrid, Tamayus relates that the body of St. Justus was given to the college of Baeza; and that this is clear from the completed distribution, printed at Madrid on the 30th of March 1651. But who is so blind as not to see, even at first glance, that here are enumerated anonymous holy women and men before the extraction, and after it called by the common names of various Saints; whom they call "baptized"? Then, since there is so great a multitude of Martyrs called by the name of Justus, of whom here and there in our Acts; I ask, whence could Tamayus know that this body was rather of the St. Justus of whom we here treat, than of another? Because he suffered at Rome, he will say. But this is refuted from what has already been said. And so, since the arena of St. Justus is uncertain, the time of his death, the Emperor under whom he suffered, the place where he rests; the consequence is that Tamayus here, after his manner, egregiously hallucinates.