ON SS. PAUL AND MAMMES, MARTYRS
AT CAESAREA IN CAPPADOCIA.
From the Hieronymian Martyrologies.
CommentaryMammes, Martyr at Caesarea in Cappadocia (S.)
Paulus, Martyr at Caesarea in Cappadocia (S.)
I. B. S.
[1] All our codices refer St. Paul at Caesarea in the Hieronymian Martyrologies as joined with St. Mammes, to which some more contracted ones are added: a characteristic note, appended to him only in the Lucca codices, "whose deeds are had," St. Mammes, who is here joined to Paul, but which we have thus far sought in vain, and before us Notker, who—in a manner rather unusual to him—alone among the classical authors mentions this Saint on this day, writing thus: At Caesarea in Cappadocia, of St. Paul, whose deeds, known to St. Jerome, as he himself confesses, are unknown to our sluggishness. He indicates, that is, that he had read the former words, namely "whose deeds are had," in some copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, but that those Acts had never come to his knowledge. The consensus of those codices sufficiently proves his ancient memory in the sacred Fasti, and his singular conjunction with St. Mammes, whence you may understand that the transformation, by more recent Martyrologists, into "of Paul" is to be rejected, as it is had in the manuscript Florary of the Saints, in the Lübeck-Cologne edition, in Grevenus and others, whom it is not worth the trouble to cite, still less to examine, since the matter is clear from the source itself, and they contribute nothing to explaining it, which things Florentinius on this day distinguished accurately enough. Nor would I admit "Florida," superadded by the Epternach codex alone to two others, since probably, just like Cyricus, it was inserted by the carelessness or levity of the copyist into the little list, otherwise mutilated; let it suffice to have mentioned it here at least in passing.
[2] whether he is to be distinguished from another. A greater question can be raised, whether Mammes, in some way a companion of Paul in martyrdom on this day, certainly joined with him under the same position at Caesarea, is to be said the same as the one who in our classical Martyrologies and in the Roman is far more celebrated on XVII August, on which day I have noted some things in the Observations on Usuard, to be examined again hereafter. From Notker, Florentinius gathered that Caesarea, indefinitely or indeterminately placed, is to be sought in Cappadocia, as the arena of the martyrdom; and this he tries to persuade the more from the longer elogium which Notker attributes to this our Mammes the Cappadocian, who—as if forgetful of the same—ascribed another similar one, though briefer, to that Mammes who is certainly venerated on the aforesaid day XVII August, so that, although he related the history of the same Saint twice, he must nevertheless be judged to have split him into two. It is plainly established that a certain Mammes, or Mamma, otherwise Mamas, a monk, who suffered at Caesarea in Cappadocia, is also marked in the Hieronymian Martyrologies on XVII August, concerning whom Florentinius there also disputes, not daring to confound him with the present Mammes, which neither have we thus far undertaken to prove, being about to leave here Mammes with Paul, and to discuss the rest at the day so often mentioned, as far as it shall be permitted, on which another Mammes also is ascribed to Alexandria.