ON ST. LOLIANUS, MARTYR.
Notice from the Greek Fasti.
Lolianus, martyr, among the Greeks (S.)
J. P.
Scarcely anything of those things which pertain to this holy Martyr of Christ has antiquity transmitted to us, except only his name, thus announced on this day in the great printed Menæa: Of the holy martyr Lolianus. A little more is set forth by the following distich, and it suggests some rude idea by what kind of death he consummated his martyrdom:
Ποσὶ προθύμοις ἔδραμε τρίβον τέλους ὁ Λωλιανὸς, οὗ ποσίκρουστον τέλος.
Lolianus ran the path of his death with eager foot; whose death it was to be trodden by the foot.
The metrical allusion is clear of itself; by which we understand not obscurely that the Saint, trodden by the feet of men or of beasts, passed to the heavens. Maximus of Cythera also records him, and the Menæum of Chifflet; which expresses his name with a doubled λλ. The rest of the things which pertain either to his Life or to his death, his country, his age, the place of his arena, escape us. Concerning St. Lolion the martyr among the Greeks, overwhelmed with blows and trampled, we treated on the XX of March, page 84; as also concerning another of the same name, called the younger, who, dragged along the ground, expired; each equally as obscure as our Lolianus; whom, however, we think to be distinguished from those two almost of the same name; although the names and the kind of martyrdom do not clearly prove it.