ON THE HOLY MARTYRS
FELIX OF NOLA, JULIA, JUCUNDA AND JANUARIA OF NICOMEDIA.
From the Hieronymian sources collated with the Roman.
CommentaryFelix of Nola, Martyr (St.) Julia, Martyr of Nicomedia (St.) Jucunda, Martyr of Nicomedia (St.) Januaria, Martyr of Nicomedia (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
The three first Martyrs, related here in the title, the Roman Martyrology marks on this day under the same location of Nola: but the first to join them thus and to attribute them to Nola was he who, from a dislocated Ado, devised for us Bede so often going astray, The announcement taken from the supposititious Bede namely the one which Plantin published in the year 1564, whence also he was long ago deservedly called the Plantinian, or supposititious Bede. Behold his words: In the city of Nola, of Felix, Julia and Jucunda: and from that Bede Baronius transferred the same into the Roman, citing that one and only Martyrology, to which nevertheless he says the old manuscripts agree, but which have not hitherto been found by us, nor by Ferrarius, however much he testifies that he most diligently searched them out; writing thus of the three Martyrs on this day in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy: Felix with Julia and Jocunda are reported to have suffered martyrdom for Christ at Nola by Bede, from whom the Roman Martyrology took them. But the time and the Acts of their passion are wanting: nor could any knowledge of them be had, beyond the bare name, at Nola, Rome, or elsewhere. In the annotation he repeats again: That no other memory of them exists beyond that which is read in Bede and the Roman Martyrology.
[2] I do not wonder at the useless labor of Ferrarius: for if the whole matter is well weighed, it is better established as also the archbishop of Otranto, illustrator of the Roman Martyrology, observed, that sentence of that Bede is badly put together, also in Greven and Molanus in the Usuardine supplements, where the first did not express Nola, but was content to call it Campania: but in whatever way you write it, that announcement is supported by no ancient authority at all, taken, I suppose, from Rabanus, but wrongly combined with some words cut out. Thus he had marked: In Campania, in the city of Nola, the birthday of St. Felix: and in another place of Julia and Jocunda; but why he neglected the location or place of martyrdom of these latter, which in the Hieronymian sources, whence the rest were transcribed, is so clearly expressed, I do not at all understand. It is most certain that only St. Felix is ascribed to Nola; whether he is another than the most holy priest, of whom there was laborious treatment on the 14th of January, or likewise than the bishop who is reported on the 15th of November, our Hieronymian codices do not sufficiently declare, at least not sufficiently uniformly. Nor indeed is this the place to resume the dispute concerning the synonymous Felixes of Nola, which has already more than once been ventilated in the Acts and in the Usuardine observations, to be retreated afresh on the said 15th of November.
[3] from the Hieronymian codices. The question here chiefly turns on what is the genuine announcement of this day, to be settled not from the confusion of the supposititious Bede, but from the far older and more approved Hieronymian codices, concerning which Florentini disputes at length on this day, rightly inclining to this, that the festivity of St. Felix is to be understood not of his birthday itself, but of his ordination, just as is expressly read in both Corbie codices: In the city of Nola, the birthday of St. Felix, of his ordination to the episcopate: Notker added, from some codex, such as the Blumian, "where many marvels are done." But Holstein testifies in his Animadversions that in the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden is read, "on the day of the ordination to the episcopate many marvels are done," which I did not find in our codex. For the rest, all the codices, even the Epternach, the Lucca, and nearly all the abbreviated ones, thus distinguish St. Felix from the two women, so as constantly to attribute him to Nola, but to ascribe those women, whether joined or separated, to Nicomedia, or at least elsewhere, and indeed in the larger ones to connect them with Januaria. The text of Florentini is: In the city of Nola, the birthday of St. Felix. In Nicomedia, the birthday of the holy men—he meant to say holy women—Julia, Jocunda, Januaria. More briefly the Epternach: At Nola, the birthday of Felix. Elsewhere of Justa, Jocunda; where Januaria is omitted, but by others so expressly placed that I at least would by no means have doubted that she was the companion of the others. Concerning St. Felix of Nola I shall not here discourse further, whether he be the same as the bishop who is venerated, as has been said, on the 15th of November, etc., which is to be examined on that day, I long ago referred in the observations to Usuard, and here too above I indicated in a word.