ON ST. IGNATIUS STEIRONITA.
The cult, from the Greek Fasti.
Ignatius Steironita, among the Greeks (S.)
J. P.
This Ignatius was deferred from the 21st of July to this day, on which the printed great Menaea of the Greeks treat of him; in which, however, besides the simple announcement τοῦ ὁσίου Ἰγνατίου τοῦ Τζηρονήτου, That is: of the holy Ignatius the Steironite, we have found nothing handed down to memory to our purpose. The cult of the Saint among the Greeks, Our Greek Sirmond-Chifflet copies add a little more, when they thus say on the said day the 21st: Ὁ ἅγιος Ἰγνάτιος ὁ Στειριωνίτης ἐν εἰρήνῃ τελ. That is: St. Ignatius the Steirionite is consummated in peace. In the Sirmondian Synaxarium the Saint is commemorated on the 26th; according to what Papebroch left noted after this announcement; to which are subjoined these little verses:
Πρὶν γῆς ἀπελθεῖν, ἀρετῶν καρποὺς φύσας, Τὸ στεῖρον ἐκπέφευγεν ὁ Στειρωνίτης.
That is: Before he departed from the earth, having brought forth the fruits of the virtues, the Steironite escaped barrenness, proving himself by no means barren.
[2] The poet's allusion is evident, in the word στεῖρον, "barren," by force of the prepositive article here signifying barrenness; with some observations of ours and in the proper name Στειρωνίτης. For he means to say that the barrenness which that name bears before it was alien from our Saint, most flourishing in the germ of the virtues. That name is formed otherwise in the said Menaea; but faultily, as I think, here; because they elsewhere are not free from several faults. Nay, the same is written a little otherwise in the copies just cited than in the distich, excerpted from the same; in whose text perhaps the letter iota before ω was removed, for the sake of the meter; lest otherwise a foot should have been redundant for it. Whatever be the case, it does not appear that it is thus wrongly written: and this manner of writing too we have followed in the title above.
[3] concerning the things which pertain hereto. For the rest, from this clause of the announcement, ἐν εἰρήνῃ τελ, That is: is consummated in peace, we gather that St. Ignatius was a confessor, not a martyr: which is also not obscurely made out from the little verses, making mention only of virtues, but none of pains or martyrdom. But now the things which pertain to his age, manner of life, place of veneration, year of death, and the rest, conducing to a greater knowledge of the Saint, are altogether unknown to us. Nor indeed, besides this simple announcement τοῦ ὁσίου Ἰγνατίου τοῦ Στειρονίτου, That is: of the holy Ignatius the Steironite, does anything supply us in the transcript which we have, from the Turin codex; where the Saint is also reported on the same day as above, the 26th of this month; and with the surname indeed, as you see, expressed somewhat otherwise than we exhibited it. Let us be permitted for a moment to suspect that this name was imposed on him ἀπὸ τῆς Στειρίας, from Steiria, a place of Greece in Attica; concerning which one may see Cellarius, Ancient Geography, book 2, chapter 13, page 746; where perhaps the Saint was either born, or dwelt.