ON ST. SISINNIUS, MARTYR,
AT ALEXANDRIA.
From the Hieronymian copies.
CommentarySisinnius, Martyr, at Alexandria (S.)
J. B. S.
Florentinius had read in his Lucca or Fontanelle codex on this day, At Alexandria, the birthday of the holy Sisinnius, whence he says a hope was raised in him that some companions would be designated in other books; in which, as he candidly confesses, his hope deceived him. Better, I think, would he have conjectured that the copyist of that codex had found the letter S for sancti (holy) interwoven with the first letter of the name Sisinnius, whence perhaps he supposed a triple S rolled together, and from the first two formed sanctorum (of the holy ones). Certainly the most ancient Epternach codex simply has, At Alexandria, of Sisinnius, whom the Corbie codex rendered with a feminine inflection, against which even Notker's codices read, and all the abridged ones (of which two wrongly reported Sisinnius on the previous day), to which the supplements of Bede may be added. Concerning the reading, therefore, there is no room for doubt; it could only be asked whether the present Sisinnius is not to be confused with another of the same name, inasmuch as under that name four different men are announced in the Roman Martyrology, and many more in the Hieronymian copies. But I do not see that the Alexandrians should be deprived of their Saint, until solid arguments are brought forward, from which it may appear that this St. Sisinnius of ours is to be identified with some other, whether he be an Alexandrian or of another place.