Martyrs

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS

VALENTINUS, THEON, AND DIOCLETIUS.

From the Hieronymian Martyrologies.

Valentinus, Martyr (S.)

Theon, Martyr (S.)

Diocletius, Martyr (S.)

I. B. S.

Whether these three Martyrs also are not to be ascribed to Caesarea in Cappadocia, the Lucca codex of Florentinius would almost cast a doubt, since after St. Mammes it immediately subjoins: And the birthday of the holy Valentinus, Theon, Diocletis; but all the other larger copies, together with the smaller Barberini one, insert them so distinctly, and elsewhere, that they most fully remove all doubt. Therefore neither the arena of these Martyrs, nor their age, nor their deeds, besides the bare names, have come down to us; but not even the names themselves are uniformly expressed by all; for instead of Valentinus in the Epternach codex there is Valens, instead of Theon it reads Nethon, and finally Coclei, so that you may most clearly perceive again that the whole text of this day is corrupt in several places in that codex. Whether you write Diocletis, or Diocletius, or Diocletes, matters very little indeed: you have the words of the Hieronymian Martyrologies, outside of which, in no others that I know, are the aforesaid Saints known, so that no more can be said of them here.