ON THE HOLY MARTYRS
OF THE THEBAID
IN EGYPT.
From the Roman Martyrology and St. Jerome.
ABOUT THE YEAR OF CHRIST 250.
CommentaryMartyrs of the Thebaid (SS.)
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
"In the Thebaid in Egypt, the commemoration of very many holy Martyrs, who suffered in the persecution of Decius and Valerian; when, the Christians wishing to be struck with the sword for the name of Christ, These Martyrs were first inscribed in the Roman Fasti the cunning enemy, seeking out slow punishments unto death, desired to slay souls, not bodies: of whose number one, after overcoming the rack, the plates, and the frying-pans, being anointed with honey, his hands bound behind his back, was exposed under the most burning sun to the stings of drones and flies: another, softly bound among flowers, when a most shameless harlot had come to him, to arouse him to lust, spat the tongue cut off with a bite into the face of the flatterer." Thus the Roman Martyrology, from which it was reformed: for before we find these holy Martyrs inscribed in no ecclesiastical Fasti;
nor indeed does Baronius assign any source even in the annotations at this day; content to have adduced St. Jerome in the Life of St. Paul, the first hermit, which we gave at the 10th of January, page 604; where he has thus, number 3:
[2] "Under the persecutors Decius and Valerian, at which time Cornelius at Rome, from St. Jerome Cyprian at Carthage were condemned by a happy shedding of blood, a savage tempest laid waste many churches throughout Egypt and the Thebaid. It was then the Christians' desire to be struck with the sword for the name of Christ. But the cunning enemy, seeking out slow punishments unto death, desired to slay souls, not bodies. And, as Cyprian himself, who suffered from him, says, 'to those willing to die it was not permitted to be killed.' That his cruelty may become better known, we subjoin two examples for memory's sake. A certain Martyr, therefore, persevering in the faith, and victor among the racks and the plates, he ordered to be anointed with honey, and, his hands bound behind his back, to be laid on his back under the most burning sun: namely, that he might yield to the stings of flies, who had before overcome the fiery frying-pans.
[3] in the Life of St. Paul, the first hermit. "Another, flourishing in youthful age, he ordered to be led off into most pleasant little gardens, and there, among white lilies and reddening roses, when nearby a brook crept with the gentle murmur of waters, and the wind brushed the leaves of the trees with a soft whisper, he ordered him to be laid on his back on a bed built up of down; and, lest he could shake himself from it, to be left entangled by the soft bonds of garlands. When, all withdrawing, a beautiful courtesan had come thither, she began to constrict his neck with delicate embraces: and (which is a crime even to tell) to handle with her hands his virile parts: that, the body being aroused to lust, the shameless victress might lie upon him. What the Soldier of Christ should do, and where to betake himself, he knew not. Him whom the torments had not conquered, an abominated pleasure was overcoming. At length, inspired from heaven, he spat the tongue cut off with a bite into the face of her kissing him: and thus the greatness of the succeeding pain overcame the sense of lust." Thus far St. Jerome; whom whoever desires illustrated at greater length, let him consult the Acts of St. Paul, vol. 1 of January in the place already assigned; or also Rosweyde in the Lives of the Fathers, page 22. But who are these; or how far do they extend?
[4] Further, to return to the Roman Martyrology, since, besides those two anonymous Martyrs, whose contests it pursues from Jerome, it besides announces very many others, it can at first seem doubtful whether here it designates a class of Martyrs who by the same judgment, or at least on the same day, all suffered together: which if it is so, we confess that this class is wholly unknown to us from elsewhere. But if those "very many," as appears more probable, be taken for a collection of all the Martyrs who in the Thebaid, while, on Jerome's testimony, a savage tempest laid waste its churches, in various places and times obtained the palm of martyrdom, and whose names severally, nor number, nor contests are known; if so, I say, they are to be taken; it will seem uncertain, secondly, how far that collection ought to extend itself, whether only so far as to include the Martyrs alone who there suffered under Decius; or more widely, so as to embrace besides those who afterward under Gallus and Volusian, and then under the emperor Valerian, from the year of Christ 250 to 260, were there taken away.
[5] For although these words of the Martyrology, "who suffered in the persecution of Decius and Valerian," Whether only to those under Decius, seem to indicate at once the seventh and eighth persecution, and so the whole decade: Baronius, however, perhaps the chief author of this announcement to be inserted into the Martyrology, so interprets these things in the Annals at the year of Christ 253, number 3, that they can pertain to the times of Decius alone; for he judges that here Valerian is added to Decius, not as emperor, but as vicar of Decius, who had set out for war; rightly or wrongly, I do not discuss; our elders certainly had followers in this opinion; although now the learned so far oppose. And so whatever in this place concerning the Martyrs of the Thebaid is asserted either in the Martyrology or in Jerome, all that he himself refers to the first year of Decius's reign, which he wrongly believed to have fallen on the year already said, of Christ 253. And indeed you will say that Jerome looked to the first year of Decius, when to the text recited above he subjoins the flight of St. Paul into the wilderness in these words: "Through the same time, then, in which such things were done in the lower Thebaid," etc. For that that flight happened at the beginning of the Decian persecution is the constant and common opinion. There is added, that the testimony of Cyprian adduced by Jerome for the time of which he discourses appears to be taken from his epistles, according to the Pamelian edition, the eighth, ninth, and especially the sixteenth, which are all referred to the year of Christ 250, the first of Decius. These are, as I think, the moments by which Tillemont in the Persecution of Decius, article 4, and others were impelled to place the Martyrs and the tempest of the Thebaid recorded by Jerome under Decius alone, in this part at least subscribing to Baronius.
[6] But what if St. Jerome in this place was unwilling to play the strict chronologer, whether also to those who suffered under Gallus and Valerian? or to define the retirement of Paul by as narrow and confined a space as he could; but was content to assign a decade, within which both the flight of Paul and the rest that he narrates happened? Then indeed it will be difficult to confine the martyrdoms of the Thebaid recorded by Jerome within the times of Decius alone, and not also to extend them to the emperors Gallus and Valerian; as to the tyranny of Gallus is extended the martyr Cornelius, to that of Valerian—not at all as censor, prefect, or vicar, but as emperor—the martyr Cyprian, both in the Chronicle and in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, chapters 66 and 67, by that same one who a little before inserted them for the time of which he was about to speak, in these words: "Under the persecutors Decius and Valerian, at which time Cornelius at Rome, Cyprian at Carthage, were condemned by a happy shedding of blood, a savage tempest laid waste many churches throughout Egypt and the Thebaid." And indeed for attesting the slow punishments of the Martyrs not only under Decius, but also under Valerian's reign, Cyprian could be alleged (who suffered more under the latter than under the former) as is plain from his epistle 77. But if Jerome wished to produce the martyrdoms of the Thebaid as far as those of SS. Cornelius and Cyprian; why did the Roman announcement, not obscurely derived from that very passage of Jerome, not also produce it thither?
[7] To Diocletian certainly none of these pertains. However it is, Nicephorus Callistus wanders wholly off the road, Ecclesiastical History, book 7, chapter 13; where he places that most chaste Martyr, of whom we made mention above, under Diocletian; deceived perhaps by certain corrupt codices of St. Jerome, such as are the Avignon and Toulouse ones, which in the text just cited, as Martianay testifies in his edition, vol. 4, part 2, col. 69, have not "Under Decius and Valerian," but "under Diocletian and Valerian," which is a most manifest fault. For who ever placed Diocletian before Valerian? What could Cyprian, cited by Jerome, know of Diocletian? What had the fleeing Paul in common or in any way cohering with Diocletian? Rosweyde indeed doubted whether the Martyr of whom Nicephorus there treats was the same as the Hieronymian and ours: but all things consonate too much to leave place for a prudent doubt. Nor does it matter that Nicephorus calls him ἀσκητὴν (askētēn): for that word properly signifies a Champion, and so fits any Martyr better than the Latin word "Ascetes," which Nicephorus's translator employed, and which among the Latins commonly designates either a monk or an anchorite.