Martyrs

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS

THEA, VALENTINA, AND PAUL,

AT CAESAREA IN PALESTINE.

In the year 308.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Their cult, eulogies, the combat-place of the martyrdom; who is this Paul? The Acts, the year and day of death; are the relics of St. Thea ours?

St. Thea, Martyr at Caesarea in Palestine. St. Valentina, Martyr at Caesarea in Palestine. St. Paul, Martyr at Caesarea in Palestine.

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

On altogether different days these three Champions of Christ are noted in the Greek Synaxaries or Menaea, both printed and manuscript; as may be seen in the Omitted matters at the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th of this month: On various days these Saints are inscribed in the Greek Calendars, whence we drew them back to this day, on which St. Valentina and St. Paul the Roman Martyrology reports, the Menology, which Canisius published from the translation of Sirletus, going before on the 15th of this month. It is not necessary here to heap up the several announcements by which these Martyrs are commemorated among the Greeks: concerning which the Omitted matters at the days just noted may be consulted: I note this one thing, that in the above title we have observed the order in which Eusebius recounts them.

[2] Moreover, the paper manuscript Synaxary of Dijon, or of our Pierre-François Chifflet, on the 17th of this month, honored with verses; to a small eulogy subjoins the following verses in praise of St. Paul:

Αἰγυπτιάζεις, Παῦλε, γλώττῃ τοῦ γένους, Οὐ μὲν δὲ πίστει, τοιγαροῦν κτείνει ξίφος. That is: "You play the Egyptian, Paul, in the tongue of your race, but by no means in faith; therefore the sword slays you." Which in Latin: "The tongue proves you Egyptian, Paul, by race; but by no means the faith: hence you fall by the sword."

Of SS. Valentina and Thea these verses are subjoined:

Οὐαλεντίνην καὶ Θέαν ἡττημένην Ἐχθροὶ Θεοῦ κτείνουσιν ὡς ἐχθρὰς πλάνης. That is: "Valentina and the vanquished Thea the enemies of God slay as enemies of their error." Which in Latin: "They slay Thea and Valentina with punishments, because they were enemies of error, enemies of God."

Αἰγυπτιάζειν means: 1. to have the Egyptian bearing, or to imitate the manners and language of Egypt: which is here applied to St. Paul, speaking that language (his native one, as the Greek Calendars will have it; not we, from no. 5 below). 2. It signifies metaphorically to act craftily and cunningly, to deceive, taken from the manners of the Egyptian nation, infamous for arts and impostures: whence is cited that saying of the poet Aeschylus:

Δεινοὶ πλέκειν τοι μηχανὰς Αἰγύπτιοι. That is: "Wondrous are the Egyptians at weaving artifices." Which in Latin: "The Egyptians, marvelous at contriving arts."

In both ways it is here taken, as will be clear to one considering the allusion. The other two verses have nothing singular to detain the reader.

[3] The Roman Martyrology thus registers the memory of St. Paul: and drawn hither with the Roman Martyrology. "In Palestine, of St. Paul the martyr, who in the persecution of Maximian Galerius, under the governor Firmilian, being condemned to lose his head, a short space for prayer being obtained, first for his fellow tribesmen, then for the Jews and the heathen, that they might acknowledge the truth of the faith; afterward for the multitude of bystanders; finally for the judge who had condemned him, and for the executioner by whom he was to be struck, having prayed to God with his whole heart, his neck being cut, received the crown of martyrdom": where in compendium you have those things which we shall presently report from Eusebius, describing his martyrdom at a little more length. The same Martyrology subjoins concerning the two others this: "In the same place, of St. Valentina the virgin, who, brought to the altar to sacrifice, when she had overturned it with her heels, most cruelly tortured, together with a companion virgin cast into the fire, ran to her Spouse": where you see that the name of St. Thea is not expressed, after the example of Eusebius, who also did not express it, although the things which the Greeks record of St. Thea are graphically adapted to her by him, the name being suppressed; whose name whether, and where, they found, or rather devised at pleasure, or borrowed from somewhere and applied to that Virgin whom they were unwilling to recount unnamed, I do not know. This is established, that the same person is everywhere indicated, as will become plain from the eulogies which we subjoin: and rightly does Henri Valois, in the notes to Eusebius, On the Martyrs of Palestine, page 177, observe that the name of this Virgin is wanting: "but this gap," he says, "we shall supply from the Menology of the Greeks," namely that published by Canisius. Meanwhile the Roman makes memory of St. Valentina cast into the fire WITH A COMPANION VIRGIN; and not therefore of St. Valentina alone, as Tillemont wrongly affirms, Ecclesiastical Monuments, volume 5, page 91.

[4] Eulogies The praised Menology of Canisius, Sirletus the translator, relates this: "On the same day (the 15th of this month), of the holy martyrs Valentina and Thea, who were led from Egypt to the city of Diocaesarea, and, offered to the judge Firmilian, having confessed the name of Christ our true God, their left feet being burned, and their right eyes dug out, were consummated by sword and fire: and with them many other men and women, having confessed the name of Christ, endured martyrdom: of whose number the blessed martyr Paul, after the sentence was passed that he should be struck with the sword, standing and praying for the Christians, for the Jews, for the Samaritans, for the Greeks, and for other nations too, that they might come to the knowledge of the word of God, and that the persecution of the Christians might cease, drew all to mercy and tears. And so he was beheaded." Similar things almost the Basilian Synaxary, the great printed Menaea with Maximus of Cythera, and the Turin one [α] of the Duke of Savoy record; in which they are called not only Egyptians, but ἀδελφοὶ, "brothers" too; if you except the Basilian, in which Valentina alone is called the sister of Thea: which are to be weighed and corrected on the faith of Eusebius. In the Passion to be subjoined to this Commentary he gives both Martyrs the title of virgin, not of sister. Perhaps Valentina's prayer in the same, by which, not enduring to see the torments of Thea any longer, she thus addresses the judge, led the Greeks into error: "How long at last will you so cruelly torture MY SISTER?" But that this word is to be taken in a broader signification, either for a companion of virginity or of orthodox religion (in which sense all Christians were formerly wont to be called brothers), the same Eusebius seems tacitly to indicate; for "coupling both together," he says, "namely this one (Thea) with her whom she had CALLED her sister, he ordered them to be consumed by the flames." Weigh "had called"; and conclude.

[5] The same is persuaded from the different native land of each in the praised Eusebius: with our observations concerning certain circumstances, "The former of these (Thea) was reported to have been born of the region of the people of Gaza: but the other, Valentina by name, well known to many, had Caesarea for her native land." Of St. Paul's native land Eusebius makes not even a word's mention; much less does he say that he was the brother of those two virgins. From the same source too correct the name Οὐαλέντης in the printed Menaea and in Maximus of Cythera, and with Eusebius write Οὐαλεντίναν (Valentina). The governor under whom the holy Martyrs suffered is called by Eusebius Firmilian (as may be seen, On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter 8, at the beginning; through the course of which he describes the combat of our Martyrs), successor of Urban in that office throughout the province of Palestine, and afterward punished with capital punishment, according to Eusebius at the end of chapter 2. But from him it is confirmed that that name is rightly written in Sirletus, and in the Roman Martyrology: which the Basilian does not express; but the printed Menaea with their follower Maximus and the Turin Manuscript wrongly put Firminus; so certainly Maximus would have wished to put it, although in him it is written corruptly φιμίνου, for φιρμίνου.

[6] The above-mentioned Valois, after he had produced the eulogy printed by Canisius, which in the same of which above, and had from it supplied the name of Thea, wanting in Eusebius, subjoins the following: "That narration does not agree with the narration of our Eusebius: for neither does Eusebius say that they were apprehended in Egypt; but he records that the one was taken at Gaza; but the other at Caesarea, Valentina by name. But neither does he say that her left feet were disabled with glowing iron, or her right eyes dug out." But Eusebius nowhere there clearly says that St. Valentina was taken at Caesarea, but that she had Caesarea for her native land, ἀπὸ τῆς Καισαρέων ὡρμῆσθαι (that is: "that she had set out from that of the people of Caesarea"), as Valois himself renders it. But that both were of the number of the Martyrs who had been taken at Gaza, although it seems to be established, yet is said a little more clearly by Eusebius of St. Valentina's companion than of St. Valentina herself; for of the former, the words being premised, "who had been taken at Gaza," he at once subjoins, "of whom certain ones, etc."; but of the latter more determinately, "another certain woman"; whether different from them only in number, or in other circumstances? Moreover, of the many other men and women who together with them endured martyrdom, as the Menology of Canisius above, Eusebius, the printed Menaea with Maximus of Cythera and the praised Turin one, are silent. Now of the combat-place of the martyrdom.

[7] This was not Diocaesarea, as the Menology of Canisius and the Basilian Synaxary relate; are brought forward, for which the printed Menaea with the praised Turin codex better put Caesarea. Three Diocaesareas are noted in Baudrand: of which one is of Asia

Minor, in inland Cappadocia, episcopal under the archbishop of Caesarea, now called Tisaria, as some believe. Another Diocaesarea is noted, a city of rugged Cilicia in Asia Minor, between Aphrodisias and Philadelphia, episcopal under the archbishop of Seleucia. A third is reckoned to Asia Minor, which is also Ceratapa, in burnt Phrygia about 20 milestones from Apamea to the north: concerning which the geographers may be seen. None of these pertains hither. For that Eusebius treats of the Martyrs of Palestine is more manifest than that it should need proving, both from the beginning of the first chapter, where the first of the Martyrs of Palestine is given by him as Procopius, of whom we treated on the 8th of this month; and from the end of chapter 2, which, after Eubulus, who last sealed the combats of the Martyrs of Caesarea, is thus concluded: "And these indeed are the martyrdoms which were perpetrated in the city of Caesarea throughout the whole time of the persecution." And so the combat-place of the martyrdom of our Martyrs must be fixed as Caesarea in Palestine (of which more in Carolus a S. Paulo, Sacred Geography, page 311), where Eusebius, first presbyter, then bishop, as presbyter saw in person, or at least could see, most of the combats which in his times, in the most savage persecution, begun by Diocletian and prolonged by others up to the tenth year, the invincible Champions there endured for Christ, whose triumphs he describes. By what right, therefore, does Tillemont say that the Greeks note more expressly that Valentina and Thea suffered at Caesarea than Eusebius, who from what has been said is proved to say it most expressly? Besides, Tillemont with reason displeases, that besides the great Menaea he cites the Menology published by Canisius, in which, as we have seen, not Caesarea, as is contained in those Menaea, but Diocaesarea is put; which I wonder Tillemont either did not see, or did not correct; especially since that very thing could be numbered as one of the various falsehoods by which, page 98, he affirms the history of St. Thea to be entangled by the Greeks.

[8] The Paul who is here given is not to be confounded with one of the same name. On the 16th of this month we gave St. Paul, martyr at Caesarea in Cappadocia, with St. Mammes — the combat-place of the martyrdom and companion, who is announced as having either suffered together with him, or at least joined with him at Caesarea under the same position — to be distinguished from today's Paul. Francesco Maria de Aste, archbishop of Otranto, in his Disceptations on the Roman Martyrology on this day, confounding the two, committed various hallucinations, being about easily to reconcile Eusebius, Notker, and the Roman Martyrology, if he had distinguished the Saints, and assigned to each his own combat-place, namely to today's Paul Caesarea in Palestine, but to the other Caesarea in Cappadocia. But I forbear to discuss the particulars at more length, since to have indicated these things suffices.

[9] [By whom the Acts were published; the year of the martyrdom to be corrected in Baronius; the day of the same martyrdom.] The Acts composed by Eusebius, Theodoric Ruinart printed among the select and sincere ones, from the translation of Henri Valois, which we too shall follow. The same from the praised Eusebius Tillemont collected in the cited fifth volume, article 35, from page 90; which the new French Legendist too printed among the Lives of the Saints. But in what esteem those Acts are to be held is clear from what was said, no. 7. Baronius from Eusebius inserted the same into his Annals at the year 307; marking the same also in the notes to the Roman Martyrology; but for that year 308 is to be substituted: for since the persecution of Diocletian began in the year 303, in the month of February (you may see Tillemont, note 6, page 594), and since in the 6th year of the same persecution, according to Eusebius at the beginning of chapter 8, our Martyrs were raged against, it is clear that in the year 308 of the vulgar era, then still running, their martyrdom happened, and so that it is to be tied, with the more recent writers, to the said year 308. The deed was done under Maximin, who then held the highest power of affairs in Egypt and Syria. The day indeed of the martyrdom of SS. Thea and Valentina Eusebius does not express; but it can be gathered from the day of the death of St. Paul, who died, according to the Acts, on the 25th of the month Panemus, as it is called in Macedonian, that is, before the 8th day of the Kalends of August, or the 25th of July; and whose martyrdom followed immediately upon their combat, according to Eusebius in the same Acts: nay rather, that all three fell together on the same day, is clear from this, that St. Paul is there narrated to have been condemned to capital punishment at the same point of time, and by the same sentence as those Virgins.

[10] From the Life of St. Porphyry, bishop of Gaza, composed by his disciple Mark and published by us at the 26th of February, The relics of St. Thea at Gaza seem to be of another St. Thea. chapter 3, page 648, we have that outside Gaza (not at Gaza, as Tillemont writes in the place to be presently cited) was the martyrium (or sacred shrine) of the glorious martyr Timothy, in which were laid up … the relics of Maurus the martyr and of Thea, who was reckoned in the number of the confessors; of our Thea, or of another? Tillemont, note 42 on the persecution of Diocletian: "It could be believed," he says, "that this Thea is the companion of St. Valentina, if the Life (of St. Porphyry) did not add that she was reckoned in the number of the confessors, while meanwhile the same Life gives St. Maurus the title of martyr." But from the fact that to the one is given the title of martyr, to the other of confessors, it does not follow that both were not martyrs: for it is established that martyrs anciently were also called under the name of confessors. Let it suffice, that I may not pursue more, that saying of Ambrose, book 2 to the emperor Gratian: "Now enough, almighty God, by our destruction and our blood have we washed away the deaths of the Confessors, the exiles of the priests, and the wickedness of so great an impiety." This, therefore, in no way stands in the way that by this Thea, reckoned in the number of the confessors, our Thea the martyr be understood; but rather another thing stands in the way, if namely (as at the 19th of December it is contained in the Roman Martyrology, and concerning which, from our notes to the said 26th of February, page 649, see Tillemont in the same note) SS. Maurus and Thea suffered at Gaza in Palestine, which can be treated in its own time: for ours, from what was said, no. 6, consummated her combat at Caesarea in Palestine.

MARTYRDOM

By the author Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, Rendered into Latin by Henri Valois, from page 330.

By Eusebius.

After these ^a, then, certain others, who had been taken at Gaza while they were gathering to hear the lessons of sacred Scripture ^b, part The torments inflicted on the virgin Martyr sustained the same mutilations of eyes and feet as those former ones; part, their sides being furrowed, endured much graver torments. Of whom ^c a certain one, bearing a manly spirit in a woman's body, when she could not endure the threat of ravishment, having cast a reproach against the tyrant, namely that he had committed the provinces to be governed by such savage judges, was first indeed scourged with whips; then, hung aloft on the rack, endured the claws ^d applied to her sides.

[2] But when the ministers appointed for this, pressing on with all obstinacy and all straining of their strength, at the judge's command were torturing her, another certain Woman, St. Valentina, not enduring it, rebuking the judge who had embraced the purpose of virginity just as the former, in aspect indeed mean and despicable, but endowed with a strong and, beyond what her sex bore, lofty spirit, and far more excellent than those combatants who among the Greeks are celebrated on all mouths for their freedom in speaking, when she could not endure so great an atrocity, from the midst of the crowd began to cry out against the judge: "How long at last will you so cruelly torture my sister?" At which saying, he, exasperated, orders the Woman suddenly to be seized. Dragged therefore into the midst, when she had marked herself with the august name of our Savior, she was first solicited with more coaxing words, that she would be willing to sacrifice. But when she refused this, she was dragged by force to the altar.

[3] [and overturning the altar, after a most grievous butchery, is together with the former delivered to the flames.] But then she, like herself, and remitting nothing of her former alacrity, with firm and confident foot assailed the altar with her heels, and overturns it ^e, with the pyre placed upon it. For which cause the judge, aroused like some truculent beast, first ordered her sides to be lacerated with as many and as great blows of the claws as never any before; so that he seemed to wish to be sated with her raw flesh. But after satiety of his wickedness took him, coupling both together, namely this one with her whom she had called her sister, he ordered them to be consumed by the flames. The former of these was reported to have been born of the region of the people of Gaza: but the other, Valentina by name, well known to many, had Caesarea for her native land.

[4] St. Paul, having prayed to God for the salvation of various people, But that martyrdom which followed immediately, by which the most blessed Paul was adorned, in what way at length could I explain it worthily? Who, when at the same point of time, and by the same sentence as those Virgins, he had been condemned to capital punishment, the time of his consummation impending, demanded from the executioner, who was now about to cut off his head, that a short space of time be granted him: and this being obtained, with a strained voice first indeed he poured out prayers to God for the whole Christian nation, praying that he would be willing to be reconciled to them, and that peace and security might as soon as possible be restored to them. Then he supplicated for the Jews, that, converted to God through the faith of Christ, they might draw near. Then, proceeding in order, he besought the same for the Samaritans. After these, for the heathen, who were held entangled in error of mind and blinded by ignorance, he prayed to God that they might at last come to the knowledge of him ^f, and receive the true religion.

[5] is beheaded. But neither did he pass over mention of the promiscuous crowd of bystanders. After all these (O truly excellent and inexplicable meekness of spirit!) for the very judge, by whom he had been condemned to capital punishment; for the emperors, and for the very executioner also, who was now about to cut off his neck, that very man, and all who were present, hearing, he as a suppliant besought almighty God, that the crime which they were committing against him might not be imputed to them. Having prayed these things with a clear voice, when all, moved by pity of him, inasmuch as he, an innocent man, was being slain, shed tears; he nevertheless composed himself ^g, and offering his bare neck to be struck by the sword, was adorned with a divine martyrdom on the 25th of the month Panemus, that is, before the 8th day of the Kalends of August. And such indeed was the end of those Martyrs.

ANNOTATIONS.

churches and oratories being destroyed, the Christians could hold assemblies only in private houses.

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS

STERCORIUS, CLEMENS, AND JULIANUS

From the Hieronymian sources.

St. Stercorius, Martyr. St. Clemens, Martyr. St. Julianus, Martyr.

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

We have already sufficiently indicated that the names are changed, dislocated, and repeated from the tablet of the preceding day, especially from that class which we there said could be referred to the companions of St. Athenogenes, whose name too, differently truncated, we have already exhibited. This you will perceive more clearly from the whole class enumerated, of which only the first three Martyrs, and that only somewhat timidly, we have here announced. The text of Florentinius thus has: "And elsewhere, the birthday of St. Stercorius, Clemens, Julianus, Charito, Emeritus, Sterce, Sticianus." Either I am greatly mistaken, or these last four are repeated from the said tablet of the preceding day, where Charito, Emerita for Emeritus, Stercatius, and Statianus seem to be plainly the same names. That in other codices "Suticianus" is read is, without doubt, another hallucination and corruption of the amanuensis. All which being weighed, this place could be given only to the three alone expressed above by us, of whom the middle one, namely Clemens, among his holy Clements on this day our Oldoinus reported.

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS

FLORENTIUS AND FELIX

At Forconium in the Vestini of Italy.

St. Florentius, Martyr at Forconium in the Vestini of Italy. St. Felix, Martyr at Forconium in the Vestini of Italy.

J. B. S.

The memory of these two Martyrs is thus announced in today's Roman: "At Forconium in the Vestini, of the holy martyrs Florentius and Felix of Siponto," no Calendars being assigned whence they were taken: this only Baronius noted, that these two are of the number of those 83 soldiers, of whom it is treated on the day before this. Whether from the ancient Martyrologies that number 83 of the martyr-soldiers is sufficiently certain, there is reason to doubt; so that from that class these two, Florentius and Felix, easily allow themselves to be taken out. And indeed their Acts, altogether connected with the Acts of St. Justa, virgin and martyr, daughter of St. Florentius, five copies of which are extant among us in Manuscripts, are so composed that from them you understand at least this, that neither of these Martyrs ever followed military service. Let us say that they are of that class of Acts which need at the least a prudent examination. But since they pertain chiefly to St. Justa, and her festivity is solemnly observed in the collegiate church dedicated to her at Aquila on the 1st of August, we thought that the discussion of the aforesaid Acts should be remitted thither, here describing only those things which concerning the holy Florentius and Felix from them, according to the mind of Baronius, Ferrari contracted in this manner: "Florentius and Felix, soldiers of Siponto, of the number of 83 who at Amiternum obtained the palm of martyrdom for Christ, the chief of that cohort, who, as they were most closely joined by lineage (for they were brothers), so also equal in the Christian religion; of whom the former was the father of St. Justa, virgin and martyr. When therefore they had come from Siponto to Chieti, and thence set out to Forconium, and had begun to preach, and were leading several to the faith, by that miracle, that they had restored sight to the blind grandson of their host Hilarius, they are denounced by the priests of the idols to the emperor Maximian. Who commands Aurelius, prefect of Forconium, to apprehend them, and to kill them refusing to venerate the gods. Wherefore he, doing the emperor's commands, orders the holy soldiers to be apprehended, and, led to the temple of Jupiter, when they would not sacrifice to it, ordered them, near the river Abellinus flowing past the city, to be beheaded on the 8th of the Kalends of August: whose bodies blessed Justin the presbyter buried there."

ON ST. HIERUSALEM, MARTYR

From the Calendars of the Greeks.

St. Hierusalem, Martyr among the Greeks.

J. P.

That holy woman is known to us from a Greek manuscript Synaxary, which our Elders found in our college of Dijon among the papers of Pierre-François Chifflet; in which she is thus commemorated: Ἡ ἁγία Ἱερουσαλὴμ ξίφει τελ. That is: "St. Hierusalem, slain by the sword." There are added these two verses:

Τομὴν κεφαλῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ φέρει, Καὶ τὸν ἄνω Ἱερουσαλὴμ βλέπει. That is: "Hierusalem endures the cutting of her head, and beholds the Jerusalem above." Which in Latin: "Hierusalem by her severed head reports her martyrdom, and beholds the roofs of the heavenly Jerusalem."

In the manuscript Synaxary of our college of Clermont at Paris, or of Père Sirmond, she is noted on the 26th of July, Appion being joined to her, as Papebroch noted on our praised Chifflet copy. In our manuscript index to the Menaea, however, both are put on this day from the Clermont one. Where, under whom, and when this Martyr suffered, we do not know.