ON ST. PRIMITIVA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR,
AT ROME.
From the Martyrologies.
CommentaryPrimitiva, virgin and martyr, at Rome (St.)
J. B. S.
Concerning St. Primitiva something mentions
the Roman Martyrology on the
24th of February, yet in such a way that
our Elders showed it to be sufficiently doubtful,
whether it be not rather of Primitivus
than of Primitiva.
Another synonym, A virgin sufficiently celebrated, as the daughter of St. Anastasius the Cornicularius,
is reported on the 11th of May; but none more illustrious than she
who on this day is proclaimed, at least in the Martyrologies:
so that it is almost incredible that a Virgin so celebrated
is known by name only, since nothing anywhere
concerning her native land, age, deeds, or kind of martyrdom
is handed down to memory. From the Hieronymian ones
Notker received her, from whom most verisimilarly she passed
into all the fuller Usuardine codices, which in a long
series in our edition enumerated you will find. That by
Usuard himself she was passed over, will not seem wonderful to those
who remember that in his usual sources, the Little Roman,
Bede, or rather Florus, and Ado, she was
not found. The common announcement of all the Usuardine
codices is: At Rome, of holy
Primitiva, or: At Rome, the birthday of holy Primitiva,
with the title of virgin added in some.
[2] Concerning the Hieronymian announcement and the recurring
discrepancy among the codices Florentini disputes,
since somewhere is read Primitiae, but of whom the true place of deposition, elsewhere
Privatae, but in the most ancient Epternach one the place
of martyrdom is omitted, and the Saint is joined to a foreign
martyr; but these things are sufficiently ordinary. Another
question in him, what his codices' Via Acula or Accula means; which at length into
a question is resolved: Is Via Acula
now Aquapendente? I do not think so; since, that she may
as a Roman martyr be eagerly proclaimed; Aquapendente
is too remote from the City, about at the middle
of the journey toward Siena. Let us frankly confess,
whether this be the true place or a word corrupted from elsewhere,
that Acula is hitherto unknown, as also the determinate
place where the sacred body of St. Primitiva
either once was deposited or now anywhere is kept:
concerning whose relics, among pious worshipers, which elsewhere
so often we are compelled to deplore, there is no,
at least so far as we know, contention either at Rome or elsewhere.
[3] and her deeds are unknown. There remains the brief eulogy of Ferrarius, which for
penury of matter he thus composed in few words: Primitiva,
a virgin, and she herself at Rome crowned with martyrdom,
is reported in the Roman Martyrology and others.
But the time and Acts of the same are lacking:
that she was not a Roman we conjecture, because
concerning her in the book On the Virgins of Rome of Antonio Gallonio
there is absolutely no mention: although
by that author perhaps she was omitted, because what
he might write concerning her, he had nothing. This indeed
I think most true, but what the same Ferrarius
in his annotation observes, is worthy of commiseration,
by our grammar-school boys, whom Cicero's
epistles teach the Roman Kalends, altogether
to be hissed off. Baronius, he says, in the annotation
to the Martyrology, cites Peter in the Catalogue,
Book 2, chapter 200; but Peter there mentions Primitiva
as a virgin only, who on the 10th of the Kalends
of August rested. Unless you wish the particle only to be referred
not to the 10th of the Kalends, but to virgin, so that she may be distinguished
from ours, because this one is also called a martyr.