ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF MAXULA
ANDREW, ELIANUS, AND AIABOSO OR AIOBOSO.
CommentaryAndrew, Martyr of Maxula in Africa (St.)
Elianus, Martyr of Maxula in Africa (St.)
Aiaboso, Martyr of Maxula in Africa (St.)
BY J. B. S.
In vain on this day did Florentinius seek in the Hieronymian codices the arena of those three Martyrs; reduced to this, that he thought the sacred wrestlers were from Cappadocia, from the city or region of Militana, where, he says, The place corrupted elsewhere, there was a frequent slaughter of martyrs. Hither the various formations of the place in the codices impelled the man, so that the Lucca one wrote "Militanarum," the Corbie one "Militanorum," finally the most ancient Epternach one "Maxilitatorum," so that it is plainly no wonder that the place of the martyrdom, or the fatherland of the Martyrs, corrupted by the yawning of the copyists, could not at all be found by Florentinius; which would be equally unknown to me, had not the Kalendar of the Carthaginian church opportunely come to my aid, published first by Mabillon, then by Ruinart among the sincere Acts of the first martyrs, in which, though mutilated in some part, there is expressly read on this day, at the eleventh of the Kalends of August, "of the holy Maxulitans," so that it now seems scarcely to be doubted that those Martyrs are indicated under the name of Militani and Maxilitatores in the Hieronymian Martyrology.
[2] it was found in the Carthaginian Kalendar, But whether to the same is to be referred the tract or sermon of St. Augustine cited by us on the ninth of April, or to those there related, and almost of the same name with these, at least from the determination of the place, namely the Massylitans, I could not easily say, since the month of April is wanting in the aforesaid Kalendar. Nor did Mabillon dare to assert this in the notes to the aforesaid Kalendar. But that the holy bishop of Hippo spoke also of these Castellanus wrote, in that manner namely which he is wont, that he may indeed celebrate the festivity of the Saints, but for the rest the whole treatise be directed to the amendment of morals, whence from it neither the deeds, nor the kind or time of the martyrdom, is easily drawn out. Let it be enough for us to have restored the true appellation, depraved in our codices. The variation of the last name arises from the same codices, inasmuch as in the Lucca codex is held "Aiabosi," in the Corbie one "Aiobosi," worse, unless I am mistaken, in the Epternach one, "Cabosi." In expressing the two others there is one method of all the copies; but from the smaller or contracted ones you would fetch nothing but darkness.
[3] A somewhat more distinct notice of Maxula and of the Maxulitans Ruinart supplied in his notes to the Vandal History, somewhat illustrated by Ruinart. where, concerning the Proconsular province (whose bishops sent into exile, and among them Carcadius the Maxulitan, he had enumerated), he observes, page 234, that Maxula was ancient, called by Pliny "Maxula the colony"; and there he recites Numidius the Massylitan, and Numidius bishop of the Catholic Maxulitan church: finally also another Numidius, bishop of the same city, who subscribed to the Carthaginian council under Boniface in the year 525. Thence he proceeds to our Martyrs, recording their festivity from the Kalendar cited by us at the eleventh of the Kalends of August; where he aptly dissolves the doubt which Castellanus had thrust upon us. "Of these," he says, "we have two sermons of St. Augustine, which are inscribed 'On the holy martyrs Massylitans'"; so that perhaps they are plainly the same martyrs whom we gave anonymous on the ninth of April, but here expressed by their proper names, concerning whom in vain would you seek elsewhere more or clearer things.