ON SS. THE VIRGINS AND MARTYRS JULIANA AND SEMPRONIA
IN THE TERRITORY OF BARCELONA.
PERHAPS IN THE YEAR 303.
CommentaryJuliana, Virgin Martyr in the territory of Barcelona (St.) Sempronia, Virgin Martyr in the territory of Barcelona (St.)
J. B. S.
These two holy women Juliana and Sempronia, or, as others write, Semproniana, altogether unknown elsewhere, Ferrarius had suggested to us from the records of the church of Barcelona, I suppose from the history of Domenech, above on the 22nd day of this month, Plainly unknown elsewhere, whence we referred them hither, because they were reckoned by Domenech and Tamayo in the Spanish Martyrology on this day, on which the same Ferrarius likewise again marked them. Why I judge that these Virgins have been taken from the Reverend Father Antonio Vincentio Domenech, of the Order of Preachers, this especially persuades me, that I find them nowhere memorialized by any older writer: but he, in his general history of the Saints and illustrious men of the Catalonian principality, published in Spanish in the year 1602, brought them forth on this day, with a far-fetched narration, of which only the last lines make mention of the holy Juliana and Semproniana, testifying to their cult, and that their sacred relics are held in great veneration at the celebrated Octavian monastery of St. Cucuphas, called del Valles, of the Order of St. Benedict in the diocese of Barcelona.
[2] Concerning that monastery and its ancient and new appellation, there has been much dispute above, where there was discourse concerning St. Cucuphas himself on the 25th of this month, they are venerated in the monastery of del Valles, as disciples of St. Cucuphas, whence the reader may seek again the things which might here be desired. This is capital in this matter, that neither thence nor from elsewhere do I perceive it to be established that these women were the companions or disciples of St. Cucuphas, that they stood by him in his torments, visited him in prison, committed him to the earth when martyred, and were themselves at last endowed with the same laurel; inasmuch as no trace at all of all these things occurs in the Acts of that Saint, although they are exceedingly adorned from other sources. All the monuments by which Domenech tries to establish his account are at last reduced to this: that a painting is said to exist in that monastery, where the holy women are represented as spectators and admirers of the contest of St. Cucuphas; and moreover a certain little silver plate, on which they are depicted burying the same holy Martyr. But what age all these things savor of, neither could Domenech teach us, nor is it ready for us to conjecture. His credit, from eyewitness testimony, establishes this: that these two holy women are there celebrated with annual cult under such names as virgins and martyrs, whose relics he asserts to be dispersed among various altars of the church.
[3] from mere paintings This therefore is the chief, nay the only thing, in which we think we can safely believe Domenech reporting, namely, that they are venerated in that monastery with Mass and Office under a double rite from the common, put together to the ordinary collects of the Roman Breviary: Grant us, we beseech You, O Lord our God, the ceaseless palms of the holy martyrs Juliana and Semproniana, etc. More proper is the prayer which Tamayo adduces from the ancient manuscript Breviary of the place, where the festivity of the holy women is noted, also from the common Office, but with this collect: O God, who have made for us the holy solemnity of this day for the commemoration of the glorious passion of Your blessed virgins and martyrs Juliana and Semproniana, be present to the prayers of Your family, and grant that we may be aided by the merits and intercessions of those whose feasts we celebrate today. Thus here and elsewhere she is everywhere called Semproniana, whom in his announcement Tamayo most expressly called Sempronia, of whose Acts, or rather eulogy composed for the holy Virgins, anyone will easily judge who knows the orator from elsewhere: let it be said in a word, that nothing is found in it which rests on a solid foundation. Thus from the paintings he weaves a history:
[4] whence Tamayo fashioned a history. Juliana and Semproniana, virgins, natives of the city of Barcelona, when they first heard the words of truth from St. Cucuphas preaching the catholic faith, adhered to his teachings, and forthwith washed by him in the sacred laver, and numbered among his disciples, with steadfast mind followed the steps of the holy Martyr in life and in death. Hence they visited their most blessed Master in prison, and brought him necessaries. Hence they stood forth as intrepid witnesses of his sufferings, tending his wounds, and wiping away his poured-out blood, awaited the last term of his contest. Hence, gathering the body of the Martyr by night, they both embalmed it with spices, and committed it to burial with manly constancy. Then the officers, having observed the piety of the Virgins, led them to the tribunal of the president, who, because he knew them to be Christians, after the straits of sufferings, condemned them with a capital sentence, and they ran happily to the bridal chamber of the eternal Bridegroom, their necks cut off, on the 6th of the Kalends of August in the year of the Lord 303. Whose bodies, gathered likewise by the Christians, laid near the pledges of St. Cucuphas, are still honorably kept in his monastery. The Domenechian paintings, perhaps today somewhat worn away by age, could not be renewed by a more elegant brush.