Hyacinthus

ON ST. HYACINTHUS, MARTYR

AT ROME IN PORTUS.

Hyacinthus, martyr, at Rome in Portus (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

Thus the Saint is announced by him who first treated of him, the author of the Little Roman, as we observed on this day on Usuard, where, among the other things that are given in the Acts, the position comes to be noted; At Rome in Portus. In the Little Roman he is noted, adorned with a eulogy by Ado Some history of his passion must have existed at least in the ninth century, from which Ado took his eulogy, conceived in this manner: At Rome in Portus, of St. Hyacinthus, under the consular Leontius, Luxurius, the first man of the city of Terracina, betraying him. Who, cast into the fire, could in no way be hurt: thence cast down into a most violent torrent, he was thrown out unharmed to the shore. This is announced to the consular Leontius, and he sent an executioner with soldiers to seize him and strike him with the sword. Then a certain religious matron, by name Julia, coming by night with her servants, gathered his body, and buried it with honor in her estate near the city of Rome, on the 7th day before the Kalends of August. These same things, word for word, Notker described from the Viennese, contracted into a compendium by Usuard, as we noted in its place, thus it is read there: At Rome in Portus, of St. Hyacinthus the martyr, who, first cast into the fire, then cast down into a most violent torrent, escaped unhurt: after these things, struck with the sword by the consular Leontius, ended his life.

[2] And that eulogy of Ado indeed we acknowledge to be such from Acts not sufficiently sincere that it is necessary to confess that even then the Acts were not sufficiently sincere. For what has Luxurius, the first man of the city of Terracina, to do with the Roman Portus? Because Terracina brought the Martyr thither? But this the Acts do not insinuate. How does Julia the matron bury the Martyr at Rome, who is supposed to have been beheaded in the Roman Portus? More rightly perhaps Equilinus suggests that she buried him near the very city of Terracina in her estate: as one of whose Martyr's relics none are known to have been found at Rome: but there too the Roman Portus is not rightly enough joined with Terracina. Another difficulty is afforded by the note of time added in the Roman Martyrology, no less controverted, when the announcement there is so formed that St. Hyacinthus is asserted to have been struck with the sword under the emperor Trajan: which note is nowhere expressed either in the Acts or in those more ancient eulogies, added by Baronius from that opinion which he also maintains in the Annals at the year 100, number 12, where several Martyrs are related to have suffered at the same time, of whose true age it is hitherto not sufficiently certainly established.

[3] The Acts themselves in Surius commemorate other things besides, which, I am mistaken if he does not observe at first sight whose substance, however, is true. who has been even moderately versed in examining such things, were inserted by an interpolator for the sake of ornament. We have the manuscripts themselves, collated from the Utrecht codex of St. Salvator with the Saint-Omer and Vaucelles ones, which exist in several other codices, in nearly the same phrase, in which, needing to be a very little corrected, Surius did not greatly err, since on any such change the truth of so many circumstances in no way depends, which you would seek in vain in those Acts. We have already spoken of the place, which I would not indeed dare to determine: likewise of the time of the emperor Trajan, to which by no means suits what is said, that "our lords the emperors ordered." You may safely say that this was taken from some Acts relating to later times, when two reigned at once. The name of Luxurius, and the deadly history, are also fetched from elsewhere, that we may not now discuss the rest more scrupulously. Let the substance of the martyrdom itself be safe for us and suffice, abundantly proved from so many sacred Fasti: yet, lest you think anything here exaggerated by us, weigh the Acts themselves with mature judgment. What Tamayus wrote of St. Hyacinthus on this day does not merit being reported.

ACTS

From Surius.

Hyacinthus, martyr, at Rome in Portus (S.)

BHL Number: 4053

Luxurius handed over St. Hyacinthus to Leontius the consular. Him therefore, brought in, Leontius questioned by the voice of a herald: After a signal profession of the faith he is condemned Who art thou called? He answered: I am called Hyacinthus. Leontius the consular said: Art thou a slave, or freeborn? Hyacinthus says: I am a slave. The consular Leontius said: Of whom? Hyacinthus answered: Of my Lord Jesus Christ. Leontius said: Our lords the emperors have ordered that those who will not sacrifice to the gods we should afflict with divers pains and punishments. St. Hyacinthus said: Your pains can be divers, they cannot be eternal. And so, since I do not so much fear divers punishments as eternal ones, I neither hearken to thee commanding, nor to thy prince

nor to thy prince threatening. For today your wrath both blazes up and vanishes: and when you shall be dead, thenceforth you shall be nothing. Then Luxurius, crying out, said to Leontius: Dost thou hear Hyacinthus casting insulting words with injury to the princes, and dost thou still delay to subject him to punishments? Leontius the consular answered: What sentence, then, is to be passed upon him? Luxurius said: that he be burned with fire, and then his body cast down into the torrent. Blessed Hyacinthus said: Me indeed thou hast burned [*] with fire, but the water, which regenerated me, will receive me as its own son reborn from it: and it will presently make me a martyr, which before made me a Christian. But thee, Luxurius, today a serpent shall devour, that all this region may know that God avenges the blood of His servant, which thou hast ordered to be burned with fires, and, for thy pleasure, to be cast into the water.

[2] and, Luxurius being slain by a serpent, he is beheaded. When therefore blessed Hyacinthus had been cast into the fire, on that day neither fire nor water could prevail against him: but immediately the fire was extinguished: and the water, into which he was thrown, cast him out unharmed to the shore, on which Luxurius lay, all swollen from the bite of a serpent. For, sitting on his horse, he was hastening alone to take his meal in his villa. And as he was riding past a tree, a serpent, gliding in between his neck and the collar of his tunic, tore his belly with its bites, reaching to his heart. But lying thus swollen, before he gave up the ghost, he saw with his own eyes the Martyr of Christ walking near the waters, and thus singing: We have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought us out into refreshment. These things are announced to the consular Leontius, and he sends an executioner with very many soldiers to seize him, suddenly pronouncing a capital sentence against him. The soldiers therefore led him not far from the city, and there struck him with the sword. Moreover a certain religious matron, Julia by name, coming to the city of Rome, by night with her servants gathered his body, and buried it, chiefly with honor, in her estate, which was in the same place: where also she built for herself a chamber near the sepulcher of the blessed Martyr: where all who believe in Christ obtain benefits: who reigns forever and ever, Amen.

* read "thou shalt burn" concremabis