ON THE HOLY ANONYMOUS MARTYRS
IN BULGARIA.
IN THE YEAR 811.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Worship; eulogy, time of martyrdom.
Anonymous Martyrs in Bulgaria (SS.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
Very many tables of the Greeks, both written by hand and published in print, record these holy Martyrs, as is clear from the manuscript codex of the Medici, of the King of France, both of Turin of the Duke of Savoy, the Mazarine, the Sirmond, the Chifflet (but that in the Sirmond they are related on the 25th day of this month, [The worship of the Martyrs from the Greek Synaxaria, and from the Roman Martyrology] Henschen left observed in our Milanese apographs), and in the praised Milanese apographs, marked O no. 148. Add the great Menaea printed with Maximus, bishop of Cythera, and the Menology which, from the translation of Cardinal Sirletus, Canisius published in volume 2 of the Antiqua lectio; from which they were transcribed into the Roman Martyrology, thus announcing them: "In Bulgaria, the birthday of very many Martyrs, whom Nicephorus the impious emperor, devastating the churches of God, caused to be slain by a diverse kind of death, by the sword, the noose, arrows, long imprisonment, and famine."
[2] Which are had somewhat more fully in the praised Canisius in these words: it is established. "The commemoration of those who were slain in Bulgaria under Nicephorus the emperor, father of Stauracius, in the ninth year of his reign; of whom some, having received mortal wounds, departed from life; others, taken alive, since they would not deny Christ, were subjected to a manifold and bitter death: for some were beheaded with the sword, others, bound with ropes and hung, were suffocated: others, wounded with arrows, expired; others, consumed in prisons and by famine, were endowed with the crown of martyrdom."
[3] The Milanese apographs have their eulogy; In a somewhat longer eulogy, and more historically deduced, I read the deed in the aforesaid Milanese apographs. Receive the Greek text translated into Latin: Ἡ ἀνάμνησις τῶν ἐν Βουλγαρίᾳ τελειωθέντων Χριστιανῶν, ἀδελφῶν ἡμῶν ἐπὶ Νικηφόρου τοῦ βασιλέως, ὃς τῷ ἑννάτῳ χρόνῳ τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας κατὰ Βουλγάρων ἐκστρατεύσας, καὶ τούτους προβαλὼν, τὰ μὲν πρῶτα νίκην περιφανεστάτην κατ᾽ αὐτῶν ἤρατο. Τὰ δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα οὐ σιγῆς μόνον, ἀλλὰ θρήνου ἄξια ἐδρῶντο. Μιᾷ γὰρ τῶν νυκτῶν ἄφνω τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις ἐπιπεσόντες στρατεύματι, κτείνουσι τὸν βασιλέα, καὶ πολλοὺς ἄλλους τῶν ἐν τέλει· Καὶ ὅσοι μὲν καιρίας τὰς πληγὰς ἐδέξαντο, αὐτίκα τοῦ βίου μεθίστανται· ὅσοι δὲ μὴ θανασίμους πάνυ, κατὰ τῶν δυσηχόρων ἐχώρουν χωρίων· ὅσοι δὲ ζῶντες ἐλήφθησαν, μυρίαις αἰκίαις καθυπεβλήθησαν. Μὴ ἀνασχόμενοι γὰρ τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰ. Χ. ἐξωμόσασθαι, οἱ μὲν ξίφει τὰς κεφαλὰς ἐτμήθησαν· οἱ δὲ ἀγχόνης τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ἐξεῤῥάγησαν. Ἄλλοι βέλεσιν καταθρωθέντες πυκνοῖς τῶν τῇδε μετέστησαν, ἕτεροι φρουραῖς λιμῷ τε καὶ δίψει καταδικασθέντες οὕτω τὸν βίον κατέλυσαν, τὸν τοῦ μαρτυρίου στέφανον ἀναδησάμενοι.
[4] which is here rendered into Latin; That is: "The commemoration of the Christians, our brethren, who were slain in Bulgaria under Nicephorus the emperor; who, in the ninth year of his reign, after he had moved war against the Bulgars, and routed them, first indeed carried off a most splendid victory over them: but the things which were afterward done were worthy not of silence only, but of lamentation. For on a certain night, falling upon the Romans with an army, they slay the emperor, and many others conspicuous in dignity. But those who received mortal wounds soon departed from life; but those who received wounds not altogether mortal withdrew into sorrowful regions: but those who came alive into the hands of the enemy were afflicted with innumerable reproaches. For since they would not abjure our Lord Jesus Christ; these had their heads cut off with the sword; these were snatched from the present life by the noose; others, transfixed with frequent darts, were made partakers of the heavenly life. But others, mulcted with famine and thirst, left this life in prisons, being crowned with the crown of martyrdom."
[5] In our Chifflet apograph I find noted under this 23rd day these little verses, as also the little verses from the Chifflet Ms. with which their martyrdom is sung:
Ἄνδρας δικαίους καὶ τρόποις οὐ ποικίλους, Ἄνδρες φονεῖς κτείνουσιν ποικίλοις τρόποις.
That is: Just men, and not varied in their ways, A frenzy of murderers slays in varied modes.
The allusion in the adjective ποικίλους and ποικίλοις and the substantive τρόποις has little charm, as being one which can be applied to almost any Martyrs. But it is not new, in Greek verses of this kind, for cold and jejune allusions to be thrust in; in which one might justly require a little more salt and savor.
[6] Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 810, no. 3, Certain things are here observed, treating of the triumph of our Martyrs, rightly asserts that the Greeks in the Menology keep their birthday on the 23rd day of the month of July; and, their eulogy being produced from the same source, he adds: "Concerning these also all the Latins keep the same in the Martyrology: where they relate that these were slain by Nicephorus, although others attribute it to the Bulgars." Three things here, saving the reverence of the most wise founder of the Ecclesiastical history, we judge to be corrected. First, the year of Christ 810 coheres rightly neither with the ninth year of the emperor Nicephorus, nor with the time of the death of those Martyrs; as will be made plain from those things which we shall presently subjoin on this matter. Nor is there need of words, since Baronius himself corrects himself in the notations to the Roman Martyrology; where to the eulogy of the Martyrs he subjoins the following: "These things they relate were done in the year of Christ 804, in the 5th Indiction: but according to the truer computation in the year of Christ 811." But here Baronius could have noted that with the year 804 concurs the 12th Indiction, not the 5th; which ran with the year 812.
[7] Secondly, he asserts too liberally that concerning these also all the Latins keep the same (day) in the Martyrology: and they are corrected in Baronius, for neither among the ancient nor among the modern Martyrologists any, whom I at least
have seen, have I found the least mark noted, if you except the Roman Martyrology. But again in the notation he tacitly corrects himself, when he says: "The Greeks likewise keep these in the Menology," no mention being made of even one Latin Martyrology. Thirdly, we judge that the slaying of the holy Champions of Christ is to be imputed not to the emperor Nicephorus, but to the Bulgars, contrary to what Baronius establishes at the year cited above, 810, no. 3, treating of them in these words: "But how impious this most savage enemy of the Christians (Nicephorus) was, learn even from this, that in this very ninth year of his reign he slew several Christians by a dire punishment."
[8] who is not sufficiently consistent with himself. The same the Roman Martyrology imputes to him, as we saw above. But Baronius himself, at the year 811, the eulogy of the Martyrs being cited from the Menology of the emperor Basil on the 23rd of July, I know not what (for in the editions among us at the end of volume 1 of July nothing of these was then found), seems here to have sufficiently indicated the error of the Roman Martyrology and his own, although he mitigates it by the "perhaps," when he thus says: "Of the same treatment is made in the Latin Martyrology, but faultily PERHAPS it is said to have been done by Nicephorus, which was done under Nicephorus." From what has been said, therefore, it is clear that Baronius was not sufficiently consistent with himself on this point, but spoke various things at various years, not sufficiently cohering among themselves. We therefore judge that we must altogether subscribe to the opinion of those who, as Baronius above rightly said, attribute it to the Bulgars, Pagi agreeing in the Baronian Criticisms at the aforesaid year 811. But let us establish this at greater length.
[9] Concerning the author of the slaughter We know indeed that that wicked emperor was more than capable of these deeds, whose crimes and impiety Baronius touches from Theophanes, who beheld these things present. Of the same man's enormous cruelty Theodore of Studium, a writer of the same time, also makes mention in the funeral oration of St. Plato; which see in volume 1 of April, from p. 366; but since neither Theophanes, nor the Historia Miscella, nor Cedrenus impute this slaughter to Nicephorus, why should we impute it to him? For at that time the Bulgars were not yet converted to Christ; which is noted in Baronius first to have happened under their king Bogoris in the year 845: although Teleric their prince, a fugitive to Constantinople, and there washed in the sacred laver of baptism, had cast the seeds of the future conversion of the Bulgars; as you may see in Baronius at the year 777: therefore Nicephorus, devastating the churches in Bulgaria, as the Roman Martyrology above related, did not slay Christian Bulgars.
[10] it is discussed, Neither does he seem to have slain the Christian soldiers of his own army: for the expedition undertaken against the Bulgars in the year 811, in which we think this slaughter happened, could persuade the emperor nothing less than the butchery of his own men; especially since a few days after his entry into Bulgaria the fatal disaster of Nicephorus followed. To this is added that, since it has been shown above that the Latin Martyrologies are wrongly cited by Baronius as treating of these Martyrs, it may justly be asked of the praised Baronius who those "some" are who relate that the Martyrs were slain by Nicephorus, as above, relying, namely, on a false supposition of Martyrologies, he affirmed. The Menaea printed with the Menology which Canisius published say that they were slain under Nicephorus, which is equivocal. We judge therefore that one must abide by the eulogy of the Milanese Synaxarium, which expressly ascribes their death to the Bulgars.
[11] and the time, But now, since Nicephorus more than once turned his arms against the Bulgars, you will ask at what time this slaughter happened. "In this year," says Theophanes, published in the royal type at Paris in Greek and Latin in the year 1655, p. 408 (which, from the 14th Indiction which he prefixes, ought to be 806 or 807), "Nicephorus turned the war against the Bulgars; and, having set out for Adrianople, when he had learned of a conspiracy stirred against him by the imperial courtiers and the ranks of the soldiers, the matter being wholly unaccomplished, and set far from his proposed end, unless perhaps by the severity exercised against his fellow-tribesmen, whom he avenged with beatings, exiles, and proscriptions of goods, he returned to Constantinople." Which last I would wish to be better and more clearly rendered thus: "the matter being wholly unaccomplished, effecting nothing, except this only, that he exercised vengeance against his fellow-tribesmen, subjecting many of them to beatings, exiles, and proscriptions of goods, he returned to Constantinople." Therefore, because then nothing was done by him in Bulgaria, the often-mentioned martyrdom did not then happen, to which also the year noted above does not fit. Better would fit those things which are narrated in Theophanes, p. 410, done before Easter, in the second Indiction, running with the year 809: "In this year also, before the solemnities of Easter, Crummus, prince of the Bulgars, an expedition being undertaken, and an army being arrayed against Sardica, partly by wiles, partly by pacts, took the city; and from the Roman ranks, the promiscuous common folk of private men not being counted, slew six thousand soldiers; among whom perhaps were our Martyrs."
[12] But I judge that their slaying is to be deferred still further, both that the year 811 may be fitted to it with Theophanes and Baronius; in which it happened; and that the circumstances of this slaying may remain intact, which we have just given from the eulogy of the Milanese Synaxarium; with which in substance almost agree those things which Theophanes has at greater length concerning the death of Nicephorus, from p. 415, although he does not clearly and distinctly on that occasion make mention of these Martyrs. "The timid Thraso (Nicephorus)," he says, "on the 20th day of the month of July enters Bulgaria under the most pernicious rising of the dog-star… But after three days and the first lighter skirmishes, when he seemed to draw with him fortune conspiring to his wishes, he did not ascribe the success of victory to God the author of prosperity; but praised the felicity and providence of Stauracius alone… Two days, namely Thursday and Friday, were spent on these devices, in which Crummus, as is premised there, exasperated on account of the peace suppliantly sought, but obstinately denied him by Nicephorus, fortified the entrances and exits of the region with wooden barriers in the manner of a wall."
[13] namely in the year 811, on the 25th of July. "But on the night which preceded the Sabbath, grievous tumults and movements of armed men, heard about Nicephorus and his soldiers, cast the minds of all into terror and anxiety. Presently, at twilight, an attack being made on the tents of Nicephorus and his nobles, they miserably slew them (whose names he expresses) WITH AN INNUMERABLE COMMON MULTITUDE OF SOLDIERS; so that all the beauty and splendor of the Christians was that day laid low, and altogether extinguished." Among the innumerable common multitude of soldiers I place our Martyrs, conformably to the eulogy rendered above into Latin. The praised Theophanes binds the deed to chronological reckonings, when he thus proceeds: "These things happened on the 25th day of the month of July, in the 4th Indiction, which concurs with the year of Christ 811." But now, because the year of Nicephorus's death is here so clearly and distinctly expressed, Labbe seems to be corrected in his chronological synopsis, where he says that he fell on the Sabbath day, the 26th of July; which 26th day of the same month is also not rightly noted among us in the notes on the funeral oration of St. Plato, praised above. But why the birthday of the holy Martyrs is celebrated on the 23rd, and not rather on the 25th of July, on which we have said their martyrdom happened, I do not care to divine. Meanwhile it will be helpful to have recalled to memory that they, as we said above in no. 1, are marked on that day in the manuscript codex of Sirmond, on the testimony of Henschen.
Notes* Bulgaria