ON ST. FAUSTUS, MARTYR
From the Greek Synaxaries and the Roman Martyrology.
under Decius.
CommentaryFaustus, Martyr among the Greeks (S.)
J. P.
In the various Fasti of the Greeks this Martyr is marked with a brief elogium, everywhere the same in substance. The Great Greek Menaea have it thus: He lived in the times of Decius. But, seized for the faith of Christ, and freely professing Christ, he is fastened to a cross, and wounded with darts: and when he had persevered five days upon the cross, he delivered his spirit into the hands of God. There follows, after the manner, Maximus of Cythera: and the Menology translated by Sirletus agrees; from which he was admitted into the Roman Martyrology, which relates it a little more briefly: The birthday of St. Faustus the Martyr, who under Decius was fastened to a cross, lived on it five days, and at last, pierced through with arrows, passed into heaven. The time of his martyrdom is clear from the Emperor who is appended; concerning whose most grievous persecution against the Christians, stirred up in the middle of the third century, Baronius treats at the year 253. Claudius Castellanus, in his Universal Martyrology, judges this Martyr to be probably the same as another of the same name, announced on the XIX of November in the Roman Martyrology: which is by no means approved by us, on account of the circumstances of time and death, which are very different; as you may see in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History book 7, chapter 11, and in the Roman Martyrology on the said day XIX November: of whom hereafter he will be treated.