ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF ANTIOCH
CYRIL, ANDREW, TEBELLIUS, AUREUS, AND STERTHEUS.
From the Hieronymian ones.
CommentaryCyril, Martyr at Antioch (St.)
Andrew, Martyr at Antioch (St.)
Tebellius, Martyr at Antioch (St.)
Aureus, Martyr at Antioch (St.)
Stertheus, Martyr at Antioch (St.)
J. B. S.
The Lucca or Fontenelle codex expressly attributes altogether five martyrs of this bundle to Antioch; in the Corbie one, doubtless, the name of Stertheus could not be read, in whose place dots are set, and two other names added, of Silvanus and Donatus, which are nowhere found in our codices, so that on that account I have thought those Saints must be omitted, ill intruded hither from elsewhere, unless I am mistaken. In the more ancient Epternach codex the aforesaid five names also are clearly expressed, but with the order somewhat disturbed, so that the transposition of the unskilled copyist easily appears, when he records Apollinaris on this day, and then thus continues: "At Antioch, of Andrew the martyr; at the city of Auritia of Galicia, of Plato, Cyril, Tebelius, Aulus, Stertheus." From these it is to me indeed no doubt that those five martyrs are most rightly marked at Antioch, to be distinguished by no other title than that of martyrs, whether Cyril or Andrew be reckoned their leader: so that I do not at all see whence, in the two little Hieronymian ones published by us, namely the Augsburg and the Labbe ones, the title of bishop accrued to Cyril, all the other copies being silent about it, even the Martène ones.
I said in those two alone, for that eulogy which from the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden or of St. Columba of Sens Florentinius adduced in his notes, I think from the Holsten codex; "At Antioch, of St. Cyril the bishop, conspicuous for doctrine and sanctity, with four others"—is not at all found in ours; inasmuch as in it is read most simply: "At Antioch, the birthday of St. Cyril with four others," where you plainly perceive that the names of Andrew, Tebellius, Aureus, and Stertheus, after the manner of those codices, were suppressed for brevity's sake, while in others at most Andrew is added; but nowhere, as I said, the appellation of bishop, except in those two codices, the Augsburg and the Labbe ones, which we have often warned were interpolated and augmented, as also the Gellone one, published by d'Achery. And so it must be judged concerning the codex of Rabanus, in which he read: "At Antioch, the birthday of Saints Cyril the bishop, Andrew": and likewise concerning the Notker one, in which it is thus held: "At Antioch, of Cyril the bishop, Andrew and Actebellus," doubtless for Aureus and Tebellius. And that Notker thus read is certain enough, so that I know not whence Florentinius drew the other things which he wrongly ascribes to Notker, unless from some fuller Ado, whom he more than once thought to be Notker. A somewhat purer codex Maurolyco followed, in which namely he found: "At Antioch, of Cyril, Andrew, and Sabellus." The Plantinian Bede's announcement was received from the corrupted Hieronymian ones: "At Antioch, of Cyril the bishop and Andrew," from citing which Baronius had better have abstained, to show that St. Cyril the patriarch of Antioch was known beforehand in the Latin calendars (whom he sought in vain among the Greeks), which is altogether not probable. Yet this was for him an occasion to insert Cyril in the Roman Martyrology, in which Galesinius had preceded him, composing a new eulogy of his own: "At Antioch, of St. Cyril the bishop, who shone in the episcopal office by his erudition in the sacred letters, and by admirable piety." But of this there must be treatment presently.