ON THE HOLY MARTYRS
APOLLONIUS, EUGENIUS, AND VITALIS, BISHOP (as they will have it) OF RAVENNA.
Cult from the Greek Fasti and the Roman Martyrology.
Apollonius, Martyr among the Greeks (St.) Eugenius, Martyr among the Greeks (St.) Vitalis, bishop (as they will have it) of Ravenna, Martyr among the Greeks (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
Four Martyrs together on this day announces the Menologium from the interpretation of Cardinal Sirletus, edited by Canisius: The birthday of the blessed martyrs Apollinaris, Vitalis, bishop of Ravenna, Apollonius the Roman, Besides the cult of these Martyrs from the Greeks and the Roman Martyrology, and the holy martyr Eugenius. The great Menaea, with Maximus of Cythera, only three of them thus mention: Of the holy martyrs Apollinaris, and Vitalis, bishops of Ravenna, and Apollonius of Rome, Eugenius being omitted, who in our copy of the same Menaea is added by hand. In our manuscript index to the aforesaid Menaea, Apollonius, from the Mazarine, with thirteen unnamed companions, is noted by Henschen. On the 22nd this Martyr I read in our transcript of the Synaxarion of Dijon, or of our Peter Francis Chifflet, in these words: Ὁ ἅγιος Ἀπολλώνιος ἐπίσκοπος Ῥώμης, εἰς πῦρ βληθεὶς καὶ τοξευθεὶς τελ. That is: St. Apollonius, bishop of Rome, cast into the fire, and struck by arrows, dies. There follows this distich: Ἀπολλωνίῳ διπλόμαχος ἡ πάλη Μοχθοῦντι πρὸς πῦρ καὶ τὰ τῶν τόξων βέλη. That is:
A double kind of struggle Apollonius bore, Enduring the fires and the darts of the bows.
[2] Concerning St. Apollinaris we treated separately on this day. But holy Vitalis of Ravenna, certain things concerning them are noted. and Valeria his wife, martyrs, we gave on the 28th of April. Vitalis a bishop, no one of Ravenna do we know: nor does Ughelli have such in the catalogue which concerning the archbishops of Ravenna he wove. More in the preliminary Commentary on the Life of St. Apollinaris, paragraph first. The title of bishop of Rome, added to St. Apollonius, but in the Roman Martyrology more rightly omitted, we likewise think should be struck out. St. Eugenius to some one of the given or to-be-given synonymous Martyrs perhaps is to be recalled; concerning whom soon more. However the matter may stand; it is enough if, besides the Greeks, for the cult of both those Saints we produce the Roman Martyrology, which simply announces: Of the holy martyrs Apollonius and Eugenius. Their age, wrestling-ground, and deeds are hidden from us. Hence can be corrected the announcement in our transcripts from the Milanese Mss. Menaea of the Ambrosian library, O n. 148, thus expressed: Ἄθλησις τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Ἀπολλιναρίου καὶ Βιταλίου ἐπισκόπων Ῥαβέννης, καὶ Ἀπολλονίου ἐπισκόπου Ῥώμης, καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Ἐυγενίου. That is: The contest of the holy martyrs Apollinaris and Vitalius, bishops of Ravenna, and Apollonius bishop of Rome, and the holy martyr Eugenius.
[3] Little verses concerning St. Eugenius. Furthermore, St. Eugenius is reported in the praised Synaxarion of Dijon, on the 21st of this month, in which I read the following: Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ ὁ ἅγιος μάρτυρ Εὐγένιος ξίφει τελ. That is: On the same day (21st of July) the holy martyr Eugenius by the sword is slain. Of the little verses which I subjoin, the allusion is plain of itself. Γενναιότητος εὐγε τῆς Εὐγενίου, Ὃς γενῶς στὰς πλήττεταὶ κατ᾽ αὐχένος. That is:
Well done, for the nobility of Eugenius: death, Who, giving nobly his neck, struck by the sword, dost undergo.
In the Menaeum or manuscript parchment Synaxarion of the convent of St. Louis, Pope, of the Preachers at Paris, is mentioned St. Eugenius, Martyr, on the 23rd, as above: on which also he is noted in the third Mazarine, as in our transcript it is ascribed, most ancient, through the whole year containing only the memories of Saints.
[4] Wrongly by pseudo-Julian St. Apollonius is drawn into Spain. Against St. Apollonius, fixed to no certain place in the Roman Martyrology, as against a masterless and abandoned thing, ravaged after his manner the masked Julian, him and indeed (if it please the Gods) with companions, foully and violently into Spain drawing, in these words in the Chronicle, number 39: In the Baetica of Marchena, which Marcia Colonia is called, St. Apollonius with Companions for the persecution of Christ the Lord are slain. This harpy's trifles here adopts our Antonio de Quintanadueñas in the little work which he edited in Spanish, On the Saints of Seville, from page 287; not likewise the most learned Nicolás Antonio, an eliminator of the Saints fictitiously attracted into Spain; who in his unedited Mss., communicated to us at Madrid at the close of the year 1721 by his nearest kinsman, impugns these. Let it suffice to have noted one thing with him, that the word Marchena* of Julian betrays its novelty. Who then, those things which he here observes concluding, that these things now concerning the Saints of Seville against de Quintanadueñas just cited he had noted, affirms lord Martín de Anaia Maldonado in a certain little book, not sufficiently obvious to all. Whether more rapacious shall I say or more audacious, not content with Apollonius alone, Eugenius also to Spain ascribed Tamayo.
Notes* colony.