Lucilla

ON SS. LUCILLA, FLORA, EUGENIUS, ANTONINUS, THEODORUS, AND EIGHTEEN COMPANION MARTYRS.

AT ROME.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Lucilla, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Flora, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Eugenius, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Antoninus, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Theodorus, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Eighteen Companion Martyrs at Rome

BY G. C.

§ I. The ancient cult of these Saints, the uncertain time of their martyrdom, and their ambiguous distinction from others.

Of the immemorial cult of the first three Martyrs it is established from three sermons of St. Peter Damian, which he delivered on their annual festival, and in the last of which he sets forth historically the deeds and martyrdom of Lucilla, Flora, and Eugenius, or rather Eugegius. From ancient authors, Peter de Natalibus in his Catalogue of Saints, book 6, chapter 157, narrates the Acts and martyrdom of the first three, and concerning the remaining Companions of the martyrdom adds this: "By their example Antonius, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Capanus, Piosus, Corseus, Chorigenes, Pacus, Saturnus, Victor, and nine others, whose names were by no means found, acclaiming themselves worshippers of Christ, are slain with the sword by the same prefect (namely Helius, of whom he had treated before), and are crowned with martyrdom; the passion of all of whom is kept on the fourth day before the Kalends of August."

[2] Francesco Dini, advocate of Lucignano, who under the name of the Academician Recollectus published a dissertation in defense of the Acts of Saints Flora and Lucilla against Baronius, in the year 1723, printed at Lucca, with churches built sets forth the public veneration of these same Virgins and Martyrs, in that dissertation at page 48, in these words: "The cult of the holy Virgins appears wide enough in many places from the churches founded under the name of SS. Flora and Lucilla, and venerated by the concourse of peoples: for there stands a temple at Castro of Torrita not far from Arezzo, and a church at Stagiano, likewise a church at Sarna, and another at Verrazzano, as also a church at Poggiolo, and a church at Sapigno under the name of the same Saints; and a most ancient church at Ostia on the Tiber, and one sufficiently ancient on Monte Amiata, and the magnificent temple of Saints Flora and Lucilla of the city of Arezzo, and many other monuments in altars and pictures diffused everywhere." Of the renowned monastery of the Benedictine Order, which takes its surname from these two Virgins, and of their sacred relics translated thither, we shall treat afterward.

[3] Among the Martyrologies which we know to have made mention of these Saints, the first is that of Usuard, and by certain Martyrologies, which Greven published at Cologne in the year 1515, and in which, at the 29th day of July, the following are read: "Of Eugenius, king of the barbarians, of Flora and Lucilla, virgins, crowned with martyrdom together with many others." Molanus, on the same day, in his additions to Usuard, in smaller type expresses only SS. Flora and Lucilla, and mentions the others generally thus: "At Rome, of the holy virgins Flora and Lucilla, martyrs, with many others, whose Passion is extant, and there is extant concerning them a sermon of Peter Damian." Maurolico in his Martyrology treats of the first three by name, and reckons the number of the others thus: "At Rome, of the holy virgins Flora and Lucilla, with Eugenius king of the barbarians and twenty others, who suffered under the prefect Aclius" (probably he read c for e, and meant to say Aelius).

[4] the immemorial cult of these Martyrs is shown, Peter Galesinius thus expressed more of the names of the same Martyrs: "At Rome likewise, of the holy virgins Lucilla and Flora, of Eugenius, Antoninus, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Capanus, Piosus, Corseus, Chorigenes, Pacius, Saturninus, Victor, and nine others, who, under the emperor Gallienus, illustrious above all by the confession of faith through their noble contests, are crowned." And in the notes to this place of his Martyrology he indicates that he drew these things from a written book and from the tables of ecclesiastical annals, likewise from the sermon of Peter Damian, the twentieth, which is extant in manuscript. Since Peter Damian makes mention only of the first three Saints, Galesinius without doubt drew the remaining names of the Martyrs from Peter of Equilino or from other Acts of theirs. The Roman Martyrology, which we use today, agrees with Galesinius as to the number of the Martyrs, but calls fewer by their proper names, thus: "At Rome moreover, of the holy martyrs Lucilla and Flora, virgins, of Eugenius, Antoninus, Theodorus, and eighteen Companions, who under the emperor Gallienus underwent an illustrious martyrdom."

[5] If these Martyrs suffered under the emperor Gallienus, whom Baronius as is here said in the Roman Martyrology and in Galesinius, that is to be understood according to the admonition of the most eminent Baronius, who in the Ecclesiastical Annals, at the year of Christ 262, number 55, writes thus: "As for what concerns the Martyrs who suffered at Rome, in that some are said to have undergone martyrdom under the emperor Gallienus, this did not happen because, on the cessation of Valerian, they were crowned with martyrdom: since (as we shall say) Gallienus, his father Valerian having been captured by the enemy, presently ordered the persecution to cease, edicts having been issued on behalf of the Christians; but because Gallienus alone reigned at Rome, while Valerian was carrying on the war with the army in the East, therefore very many Martyrs, whether at Rome or elsewhere, are said to have suffered under Gallienus." Hence the most eminent annalist, in the same year of Christ, number 57

places the martyrdom of these Saints thus: "In the same place also Flora and Lucilla, virgins, Eugenius, Antoninus, Theodorus, and eighteen Companions were slain, at the command of Gallienus, as is handed down to memory in the Roman Martyrology, on their birthday, the fourth before the Kalends of August."

[6] I know not why the most eminent writer determinately assigned to this martyrdom the year of Christ 262, he wrongly asserts them to have suffered in the year 262 which certainly departs from true chronology; since Gallienus, his father Valerian having been captured by the enemy, presently ordered the persecution to cease, edicts having been issued on behalf of the Christians, as Baronius himself there confesses. But Pagi, in the Critica at the year of Christ 259, number 8 and following, contends that Valerian was captured by the Persians in this very year 259; while Tillemont, in his History of the Emperors, volume 3, pages 519 and 520, strives to prove that that captivity is to be placed in the year 260. Whatever be the truth of this chronological controversy, all the learned now abandon Baronius, who wrongly deferred that same captivity of Valerian all the way to the year of Christ 262. If therefore Gallienus, his father having been captured, straightway ordered the persecution against the Christians to cease, how could these Virgins with the others in the year 262 obtain the palm of martyrdom under Valerian and Gallienus? How is a determinate year under these emperors assigned, when hitherto no copies of the Acts nor any ancient monuments have come forth in which the glorious contest of these Martyrs is referred to the reign of Valerian and Gallienus?

[7] At the beginning of number 5 I said, "if these Martyrs suffered under the emperor Gallienus," because St. Peter Damian, in his third sermon on SS. Flora and Lucilla, Peter Damian refers their martyrdom to the year 180 under the prefect Helius which was published at Rome in the year 1606 by Constantino Caetani among his works, in volume 2 from page 247, greatly anticipates the chronology of the Roman Martyrology and of the most eminent Baronius, when there he begins to treat of the piety of these two Virgins thus: "The glorious virgins Flora and Lucilla, sisters, in the times, as far as can be understood and granted, of Antoninus surnamed Pius, when at Rome they burned with their holy morals in the divine sight, but outwardly, according to the propriety of their names, flourished and shone, chose the apostolic life." Now since Antoninus Pius governed from the year of Christ 138 to 161, Peter Damian probably gathered that these virgins flourished under his reign, as far as can be understood and granted from the time of the martyrdom, which they underwent after a captivity of twenty years, and of which Peter, in the same sermon, page 248, near the end, speaks thus: "Therefore while Marcus Antoninus Verus and Commodus Aurelius were reigning at Rome, namely in the year of the Lord one hundred and eighty or thereabouts, the holy virgins Flora and Lucilla, sisters, entering with Eugegius the king the city of Rome to undertake martyrdom for Christ, find, while Helius by name was acting as prefect of the city, the fury [1] of the heathen raging against the worshippers of Christ." Other transcripts of the Acts do not indicate a certain time of martyrdom, except one to be produced below, which also places it under the same emperors.

[8] whose name is not found at that time, But if perchance this history of Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius has been confused with the Acts of Luceia the virgin and Auceias the king, of whom we have treated on the 25th of June, their martyrdom would have to be deferred to the times of Diocletian: for in the year of Christ 301 Aelius Dionysius was prefect of the city of Rome, who perhaps in both these and those Acts, according to a custom common enough, is called by the single name Aelius or Helius. Of the other prefect of the city of Rome, who is called Aelius Cesetianus, and under whom these Virgins could have been afflicted with martyrdom about the year 275, we shall treat afterward. This one thing I here assert: that from the year of Christ 254 to the death of Valerian and Gallienus no Aelius occurs among the prefects of the city of Rome, whom our Bucher enumerates in his Commentary on the Paschal Canon of Victorius, chapter 13, from page 236, and a like catalogue of whom Georg Eccard lately published from the imperial codex among the writers of the Middle Ages, volume 1, from page 18. Hence it seems to follow that Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius did not obtain the laurel of martyrdom under the reign of Valerian or Gallienus, since throughout all that time no Aelius or Helius presided over the city of Rome, who nevertheless is constantly named in their various Acts. Wherefore in the margin of this commentary I have been unwilling to note anything certain concerning the time of martyrdom, since three manuscript copies of the Acts name no emperors, and under those whom Peter Damian and the Roman Martyrology have marked, I have been able to find no Aelius or Helius, prefect of Rome.

[9] although he may be called Helius or Aelius, But lest anyone here stick fast at the name of the Roman prefect, whom we have called now Aelius, now Helius, let him hear Raphael Volaterranus, who in his Commentarii Urbani, printed at Basel in the year 1544, book 13, folio 142, treating of the origin of the Aelii and of various men of that name, thus premonishes: "We find Aelios with the diphthong and Helios with the aspiration written in both ways on ancient marbles." I know that Johannes Glandorpius, in his Onomasticon Romanum, column 11, contradicts this testimony of Volaterranus; but meanwhile he must confess that the same freedman of Claudius, who under Nero domineered without restraint, is named Aelius in the Annals of Tacitus, book 13, chapter 1, who in the Epitome of Dio presently to be cited, page 294 and the following, is called Helius (in Greek Ἥλιος, that is: Helios). Add that Tacitus, in book 1 of the Histories, chapter 37, names the same without the diphthong, Elius. So too certain peoples of Gaul are by ancient geographers called indiscriminately Hedui, or Aedui, and simply Edui, and are expressed by the Greeks by the word Ἐδοῦοι or Αἴδουοι, that is: Edoöi or Aidouoi, as may be seen in Cellarius, in the Notitia orbis antiqui, part 1, book 2, chapter 2, page 136. There is no need of more examples of this promiscuous spelling, since the very defender of the present-day Acts—in whose favor especially we so scrupulously examine the smaller circumstances of this history—raises no difficulty for us here: for that advocate would gladly have seized upon any prefect of the city of Rome that came to hand, by the name of Helius or Aelius, under the reign of Commodus or of Valerian and Gallienus, as will appear plainly enough from what is now to be said.

[10] Francesco Dini, in the dissertation mentioned above, thinks whom Dini sought in vain, that he has found this Aelius or Helius prefect under the emperor Commodus, when there, at page 39, he writes thus: "They also mention Q. Helius Laetus, prefect of the praetorium or of the armies under Commodus, from Herodian, book 1, chapter 3, Gandorpius" (he doubtless meant to indicate the above-cited Glandorpius), "Baronius, etc." But in the first place Dini does not here show us Helius as prefect of the City, such as the Acts published by himself, in the same place at page 55, clearly require, in these words: "Then the handmaids of Christ, who, having been admonished, came to the city, showed themselves openly at Rome, and after a few days are seized, and are straightway led to the prefect of the city of Rome. And when they had been offered to Helius, prefect of the City, he said to them." But Dini is not unaware, I suppose, that among the Romans there was at that time an immense difference between the prefect of the City and the prefect of the praetorium. If anyone desires to know more fully the difference of these offices, let him consult Guido Panciroli in the Notitia dignitatum imperii, folios 6, 115, and following.

[11] Moreover this same prefect of the praetorium, whom Dini calls Q. Helius Laetus, and thinks he has found him, is by most ancient authors called Q. Aemilius Laetus. Thus the Epitome of Dio, which among the minor Greek writers of Roman history was printed at Frankfurt in the year 1590, in that edition, at page 383, has expressly that, while the emperor Commodus was fighting among the gladiators, Aemilius Laetus, prefect of the praetorium, stood by him. Indeed I confess that the same is named Q. Aelius Laetus in the Onomasticon Romanum, column 17, by Glandorpius, who perhaps followed a certain edition of Lampridius in which Aelius was read: for among the nineteen writers of the Historia Augusta, whom Janus Gruter published at Hanau in the year 1611, at page 284, in the very text of Lampridius it is thus given: "Quintus Aemilius Laetus, prefect, and Marcia his concubine, entered into a conspiracy to slay him." Hence also, among the six writers of the Historia Augusta, printed at Leiden in the year 1671 with various notes, besides the admonition of Salmasius, the editor there, in volume 2, page 520, at the same passage of Lampridius, orders these things to be noted: "Quintus Aelius Laetus; the manuscripts, Aemilius; so Dio and Zonaras." Certainly Zonaras in his own age seems to have read Aemilius in written codices, since in the Paris edition of the year 1686, volume 1 of the Annals, page 600, he writes thus of that same man: "Aemilius (in Greek Αἰμίλιος, that is: Aimilios) Laetus, the prefect, and Electus the chamberlain, when, offended by those deeds, they had admonished him to desist, fearing his anger and threats" (namely those of the emperor Commodus, of whom he there treats), "gave him poison in beef." Let these things suffice and more than suffice concerning that prefect of the praetorium, who does not pertain to our matter, even if he had really borne the name of Aelius.

[12] Besides the suspicion of confusion indicated above, which arises from the name of the prefect Aelius or Helius, under whom both Luceia the virgin and Auceias the king, and Flora and Lucilla with Eugegius the king, are in both Acts said to have undergone martyrdom, another scruple vexes us, which we propose to the learned, that they may pluck it out for us. In a manuscript copy of the Acts, We suspect that the Acts of these Martyrs are confused with others, a transcript of which our Father Beatillo sent from Naples to Bolland in the year 1640, besides Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius, the number and names of the remaining Martyrs are thus reckoned: "There were offered also thirteen others, whose names are these; that is, Asserius, Antonius, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Caponius, Pyosius, Corysius, Origenes, Paceus, Saturius, Victorius, Victor, and nine others, whose names we have by no means found." In the ancient codex of the church of Arezzo, from which we shall give their Acts below, after the narrated martyrdom of Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius, these things are read: "But the ministers offered also twelve others, that is, Asserius, Antonius, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Capomius, Piosius, Corseus, Origenes, Paccus, Saturius, Victor, and nine others, whose names we have by no means found." In almost a like manner our Utrecht manuscript of St. Salvator expresses the names, to which Peter of Equilino comes nearest, whose words we exhibited at the beginning of this paragraph.

[13] and their annunciation Now let us hear the Roman Martyrology, which on the 24th day of June has thus: "In the same place" (namely Rome, where also the preceding Martyrs had suffered) "of the holy Martyrs Faustus and twenty-three others." But he who is here called Faustus is in other Martyrologies called Festus or Sixtus, to whom the most ancient Hieronymian adds Lucia or Luceia in this manner: "At Rome, of Festus, Lucia" (in the Corbie manuscript Luceia is read) "with twenty-two others."

Other transcripts name this virgin and martyr Lucela, as may be seen in our Work at the 24th day of June, in the fourth volume of that month, page 808. Galesinius in his Martyrology, at the same 24th day of June, thus announces: "At Rome, of holy Luceia the virgin, of Aceias the king, and of twenty-two [1] martyrs." It will be helpful here always to observe the number of these Martyrs, which in both places is reduced to twenty-four, or comes very near it.

[14] in the Roman Martyrology Let us proceed to the following day, the 25th of June, with the present-day Roman Martyrology, where it is thus read: "At Rome, of holy Lucia, virgin and martyr, with twenty-two others." Here Auceias the king is omitted, whom Notker on the same day adds to the others thus: "At Rome, of St. Lucia the virgin and Auceias the king, who together with twenty-two others were likewise crowned with martyrdom." To these add Lucia, whom in volume 11 of July, page 249, we placed among the Passed-over, and of whom the Roman Martyrology on the 6th day of July thus makes mention: "On the same day, of St. Lucia the martyr, who, a Campanian by birth, seized by the vicar Rixius [2] and cruelly tortured, converted him to Christ; to whom were joined Antoninus, Severinus, Diodorus, Dion, and seventeen others, who in the Passion were sharers of their colleague and companions in the crown." Lest here we do over what has been done, see more in our volume 5 of June from page 11, and attentively consider the names of the Companions, who there in the Acts, page 14, are thus expressed: "There are offered to him twenty others" (namely besides Luceia the virgin and Auceias the king), "that is, Antonius, Hereneus, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Apamius, Pronicus, Coteus, Orion, Papicus, Satyrus, Victor, and nine others, whose names are known to God alone." Compare these things with what has been said and what is to be said, and diligently attend whether nowhere a confusion of annunciations may seem to have crept in.

[15] is repeated several times. Furthermore the same Roman Martyrology, on the 15th day of December, thus celebrates the following Martyrs: "At Rome, of the holy Martyrs Irenaeus, Antonius, Theodorus, Saturninus, Victor, and seventeen others, who in the persecution of Valerian suffered for Christ." Remember that the most eminent Baronius, in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 262, number 57, affirms that these twenty-two Saints also were crowned with the laurel of martyrdom under the emperor Gallienus, just as he there asserts of the twenty-three of the present day. Compare therefore the nearly equal number of those Martyrs, the similarity of some of the names, and diligently observe whether on the various days the annunciation of the same holy cohort be not perhaps repeated, although now more, now fewer names of those illustrious soldiers be expressed. But of this matter the discourse will recur again below, when we shall compare the Acts of Luceia the virgin and Auceias the king with the present-day Acts of our Saints, and shall detect the manifest imitation of the one by the other.

* read furorem (the fury)

* read duorum (of two)

* elsewhere Varo

§ II. The various copies of the Acts, both manuscript and printed, and their antiquity.

Among the four transcripts of these Acts which we have hitherto preserved in the literary furniture of our Museum, Of the Acts in the codex of the Roman Oratory the first comes forth from the collectanea of Father Antonio Gallonio, and is excerpted from a manuscript codex of the Roman Oratory, marked with the letter H, as is noted in the margin. These Acts, whose autograph I suppose is still to be found among the Roman Oratorian Fathers in their library, differ from all others at the beginning, and thus begin: "In the time when Marcus Antoninus with Aurelius Commodus had undertaken to govern the Roman commonwealth, namely in the year one hundred and thirty-third from the Incarnation of the Lord, a certain most powerful king, Eugegius, by nation and race sprung from the Parthians, having gathered a huge army, making for Italy, invaded the state of the Roman commonwealth with barbaric ferocity, and, victory won, seeking again the kingdom whence he had come, took Flora, a consecrated virgin, a citizen of the city of Rome, together with the most blessed virgin Lucilla her sister." The years of the emperors are here ill-composed with the years of Christ, which manifest error without doubt crept in through the yawning carelessness of the amanuensis, and is thus corrected at the end of the same Acts: "These glorious virgins and Martyrs of Christ suffered in the year of our salvation one hundred and eighty or thereabouts, on the fourth before the Kalends of August." The rest, which here we omit, plainly agree with the other copies of the Acts.

[17] We are not pleased here with that most powerful king, a Parthian by nation, Baronius most probably gave a right judgment, who with a huge army of his own is said to have invaded Italy, since from ancient writers it is established that the Parthians were at that time of their own accord attacked and vanquished by the Roman emperors in the East. These and other things displeased Antonio Gallonio also, as he indicated well enough in his observations to his Italian History of the Roman Holy Virgins, after the Acts of SS. Lucilla and Flora, at page 143 and the following. Hence most probably I gather that Gallonio had before his eyes these very Acts, which were most courteously communicated to our Papebroch from his collectanea.

[18] In vain, therefore, does Francesco Dini, in the aforesaid apology for SS. Flora and Lucilla, §2, strive to persuade us as against the opinion of Dini that the most eminent Baronius saw only the more prolix Acts of these Virgins, interpolated with Leonine verses and other digressions, as they are contained in a certain codex of the Arezzo monastery. In vain, I say, does he try by this reasoning to elude the severe judgment of Baronius—of which we shall say more below—and too confidently, at page 10, concludes thus: "Therefore these Acts, by the testimony also of Antonio Gallonio, who lived with Baronius, in the book on the Roman Virgins, page 142, on the 29th day of July, were sent to Baronius. It is not to be doubted that Gallonio and Baronius judged of those Acts which were preserved in the Roman library of the Oratory." But these are interpolated neither with verses nor with hymns—"which Acts," says Dini in the same place, "we believe were transmitted to Baronius with intervening verses, arranged into thirty lessons, suitably adorned with passages of holy Scripture": for the Gallonian Acts, except at the beginning, agree with the others almost word for word, as we noted above.

[19] it is shown from Baronius himself. Dini might have gathered his own hallucination from the very beginning of the Acts, which Baronius in his notes to the Roman Martyrology on this day thus cites: "Of the same kind are proved to be those things which we read in the manuscripts, whose beginning is: 'In the time when Marcus Antoninus with Aurelius Commodus, etc.'" One egg is not more like another egg than is the beginning here cited by Baronius to the beginning of the Gallonian Acts. Meanwhile Dini himself, at page 9 and the following, confesses that in the more prolix Acts of the Arezzo monastery there are first narrated various persecutions of the Church, and at last, in lesson IV, the history of these Martyrs thus begins: "In the aforenoted tempest, therefore, a certain most excellent and most valiant barbarian king, Eugegius." Compare these things with the beginning which we gave above from the Gallonian Acts at number 16, and the difference of the two openings will of its own accord strike the eyes.

[20] The Neapolitan and Belgian copies of the same Acts Antonio Beatillo, priest of the Society of Jesus and a strenuous helper of our work, sent from Naples to our Elders in the year 1640 another copy of the same Acts, I know not from what library or codex transcribed, which at the beginning differs entirely from the Gallonian transcript: for it indicates no time of martyrdom, makes no mention of an army bursting into the Roman empire; but simply asserts that those holy Virgins were captured by a most ferocious barbarian king, Eugegius by name, of whose race or nation it keeps deep silence. For the rest, it plainly agrees with the two following transcripts, except that in this one, besides the nine anonymous Companions of the martyrdom, thirteen others are named, where the other copies reckon only twelve, whom we expressed above at number 12 by their proper names. With this agrees the third transcript, which our Rosweyde formerly received from the Utrecht codex of St. Salvator, if you set aside the already indicated discrepancy of the twelve Companions and, at the end, a certain clause of little moment which is placed in the Arezzo copy of the Acts, of which we shall now premise a few things.

[21] they agree nearly with the manuscript codex of Arezzo, Finally, the most illustrious lord Honorio Turamini, while he presided over the Arezzo monastery of SS. Flora and Lucilla, in the year 1721, together with a most courteous letter, sent to us the manuscript dissertation of Francesco Dini, to which were prefixed the authentic Acts of the same Virgins, which Dini in the year 1723 published in print together with his apology against Baronius. All these that most worthy abbot, out of the singular love with which he followed the holy Patronesses of his monastery, kindly communicated to us, and took care that those Acts should be extracted from the ancient codex, fortified with the episcopal seal, and strengthened by lawful testimonies.

[22] Among other formulas which are wont to be employed in instruments of this kind, Angelo de Bisdominis, public notary of Arezzo, thus testifies of that copy of the Acts: from which we received an authentic transcript in the year 1721. "In the name of God, Amen. On Wednesday, the eleventh of the month of December 1720, a copy of the underwritten Life of SS. Flora and Lucilla was extracted from a certain book existing in the cathedral of Arezzo, covered with parchment on wooden boards [3]: although the pages are not numbered, yet the description of the Life of the aforesaid Saints is found at about the middle of page 96, and, because I found it to agree with its said original, I the underwritten notary have subscribed in attestation." Then to the transcript of the Acts was subscribed the notary's own name in his own hand, and thereupon followed the customary testimony of others concerning his office and good faith. We shall print these Arezzo Acts, collated with the others, after this commentary, and shall observe in the margin or in the annotations any discrepancy of graver moment. Now let us proceed to the printed copies of the Acts.

[23] Here the first place is merited by those Acts which were printed in the works of St. Peter Damian, volume 2, from page 247: Although Peter Damian relates a similar history for Peter Damian, in two other sermons which he composed on SS. Flora and Lucilla, and which occur in the same volume at page 95 and following, touches upon their deeds in few words, and sets them forth rather oratorically than historically; but in the third discourse already cited he runs through the whole series of this history, and explains certain circumstances of the deed which are passed over in silence in the manuscript Acts. Thus he asserts that king Eugegius was in the parts of Africa, of which part of the world there is deep silence in our three manuscripts. Nay, the Gallonian transcript indicates that he was a Parthian by nation. But that all these things may be the more easily compared among themselves, we shall reprint in the second place the Acts published also under the name of St. Peter Damian.

[24] Although concerning the first writer of the Acts and his age nothing certain can be determined, from more ancient Acts, yet it is established that more ancient Acts furnished the matter for the discourses of St. Peter Damian, since he himself, in the already cited edition of Constantino Caetani, volume 2, sermon 35, page 95, near the end, thus speaks: "These women, therefore, as is found in the history of ancient deeds, having been captured by a certain barbarian king, were kept under honorable custody through the doubled courses of a decade." Then, about the middle of the following page, he has these things: "But now

what the pen of the history relates—namely that the Lord spoke to them in the silence of the night, and challenged them to consummate their martyrdom at Rome, etc." Finally, in the last sermon, page 247, before the very narration of the Acts, he thus prefaces: "But let the history itself now speak to us, let it itself now set before us the origin of the Saints, itself the progress of their life, itself the glory of the completed contest." From these things it is clear that before the times of Peter Damian this tradition or history existed.

[25] Certainly the most erudite Baronius had read the earlier sermon of St. Peter Damian, these things, however, are not approved by Baronius, against whom Dini rises up, and nonetheless in his notes to the Roman Martyrology on this day he laments that the genuine Acts of these Saints have perished, and there calls into doubt their vulgar history from the very words of Damian, which in the same sermon, page 96, stand thus: "If, however, credit is to be given to the thing that is said." It does not escape me that Dini, in his dissertation, violently wrests these words of Damian into another sense, and therefore assails the most eminent Baronius, page 14, thus: "For the rest, Baronius would have struck a great blow at the holy Cardinal Damian, whom Werner the Carthusian calls a doctor of most weighty authority, and Trithemius of admirable piety, if indeed it were probable that he had in any point doubted of the truth of the history." Then, after an inept retort against the ecclesiastical Annals of Baronius, which here makes nothing to the purpose, on the following page he thus interrogates his adversary: "To what end, then, would that most pious writer have pieced together orations, with most apt passages of Scripture, as exhortations to the people flocking together, if he had been doubtful in any point concerning the truth of the matters?"

[26] and to Peter Damian But to Dini's question we answer that by the most erudite and most pious preachers the examples of the Saints and of the Apostles themselves are daily proposed to the people for imitation, even if the vulgar Acts of them are not held by them as certain. Thus preachers every year, on the feast of the holy mother Anne, of St. Margaret, of St. Barbara, and of very many other saints, rightly exhort the people to implore their patronage and to imitate their virtues, even though they are not ignorant that many uncertain and improbable things are narrated of their deeds. Does he strike a great blow at St. Peter Damian, to use Dini's phrase, who withholds credit from the Acts of St. Christopher, although Damian, in volume 2 from page 92, composed a sermon on his annual festival? St. Peter Damian could, therefore, usefully deliver various discourses on SS. Flora and Lucilla, and in good faith propose to the people their Acts, which were then commonly circulated, especially since he prudently restricted the certitude of his narration in these words: "If, however, credit is to be given to the thing that is said."

[27] in historical matters Similar formulas of doubting in historical matters are so usual with Damian that Dini vainly attempts, against the common sense of men, to explain this one away. Thus, in book 1, epistle 10, he signifies that he doubts of the truth of a certain history which he had written, in these words: "These same deeds which we write, because it happened that we heard them in passing, whether they hold an inoffensive line of faith, we do not hold certain in all points." Again, in book 2, epistle 14, after various miracles narrated, he thus writes to Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino: "All these things, venerable father, we describe not without great fear, lest either through our own forgetfulness, or through that of unfaithful reporters, we err." Finally, in book 2, epistle 15, he thus cautiously admonishes the same Desiderius: "These things, venerable father, and very many others, I write not without the anguish of great dread, lest, namely, either my reporters have not held the path of pure truth, or I myself also, being in any respect unmindful of the reports, have failed through forgetfulness." You see that not all things are to be held for undoubted which that holy writer easily believes and narrates from the testimony of others.

[28] greater authority is attributed to him Nay rather, sometimes from popular tradition he relates certain things so wonderful and improbable that the most eminent Bellarmine, in his book on the Ecclesiastical Writers, at the year 1060, after enumerating the works of St. Peter Damian, thus judged of certain of his writings in the first observation: "In the epistle to Dominicus, chapter 5, certain lighter things are narrated concerning the souls of the departed, which on the Lord's Day seem to have a refreshment of their pains, and are seen to go forth in the shape of little birds from the lake of Avernus; which are perhaps more like fables than history." This prodigious history is now read in the edition of Constantino Caetani, which appeared at Paris in the year 1610, in book 1, epistle 9, and is again briefly indicated in book 2, epistle 14. There are also other things which the most learned and most pious Bellarmine there reprehends in the very writings.

[29] than the holy writer himself requires. Wherefore this same Saint does not deny that certain things are narrated by him on whatever credit of others, and therefore submits them to the free judgment of the reader, as appears from book 1, epistle 9, where he thus excuses himself on account of this very history of the little birds: "But when I had set down in the page these things concerning the little birds and the raven, sometimes appearing among the black waters, sometimes hiding themselves, the religious abbot of the Monte Cassino monastery, Desiderius, arrived, and utterly denied that the matter was so. And when I had brought him and Humbert, namely my reporter, into mutual conversation, Humbert said: 'I indeed do not defend the testimony of this allegation, but nevertheless I have simply reported this, which I heard from the dwellers of that place.' But since those persons, namely Desiderius and Humbert, are of such great authority that credit ought to be denied to neither of them, I too, what I have written, do not saucily affirm, but decree that it must be left to the inquiry of the readers whether it be true or not." Did the abbot Desiderius strike a great blow at St. Peter Damian, when he contradicted his narration, and utterly denied that the matter was so? Let Dini, then, cease to require of us greater credulity than Peter Damian himself demanded, whose good faith and sanctity we meanwhile venerate.

[30] Here it may be asked whether Peter Damian followed any one of our four manuscript copies. who the Arezzo Acts Francesco Dini, in the dissertation now often praised, page 4 and following, thus confidently asserts it of the Arezzo transcript of the cathedral church: "The Passion of the same Martyrs agrees in the substance of the matters, which is found in a fairly ancient and most entire parchment codex, painted and gilt, of the cathedral church of Arezzo, in which they are contained everywhere by a briefer method, as is said in the exordium: 'The Legends of the saints of the whole year'; and the antiquity of the Legend of SS. Flora and Lucilla sufficiently appears from its simple style, which, as I firmly believe, is of the fifth century; and, that I may leave a place for the candid judgment of the readers, I have at the end thought it worth the labor to transcribe this whole Passion of the Saints faithfully to the letter, as is fitting. That St. Peter Damian made mention of these things appears, who wrote about seven hundred years ago, when in sermon 35 on SS. Flora and Lucilla he says: 'These, therefore, as is found in the ancient history.'" Here I am forced to require greater accuracy and fidelity of citation in Dini, because in that sermon these things are read thus: "These, therefore, AS IS FOUND IN THE HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT DEEDS, being taken by a certain barbarian king, were held under honorable custody through twice-repeated courses of a decade." Peter Damian does not say that these things are found "in the ancient history," but "in the history of the ancient deeds." But they could be ancient deeds, although the history of them was more recent, as too frequently we experience in elucidating the Acts of the Saints.

[31] Now further I contend that Peter Damian did not have the aforementioned Arezzo Legend before his eyes. and our other manuscripts First of all I prove this from the time of the martyrdom which Peter Damian expresses, and of which in this Arezzo Legend there is utter silence. Then in the sermon of Peter Damian it is said that Eugegius was a barbarian king in the parts of Africa, and that he carried off the holy Virgins into Africa, which region is not named in the Arezzo Acts. Finally, Damian makes no word of so many companions in martyrdom, who in the Arezzo Legend and in our other manuscripts are recounted. Do not they too confer honor upon the holy Virgins, when in those Acts they are brought in thus answering the prefect Helius: "Be it known to thee that we are Christians, and believe in Christ, in whom blessed Flora and Lucilla believed"? Why, then, would he have omitted these glorious companions and imitators of the contest, if he had had these very Acts in hand?

[32] to have had before his eyes, From these things also I conjecture that the Gallonian Acts did not shine before Peter Damian, because Eugegius in them is written to be "by nation and of Parthian stock sprung," as we noted above: for if he had seen them, how would he have transformed Eugegius from a Parthian into an African? Yet on that account I do not deny that Damian had other Acts at hand, which he could also call ancient, although they had been composed only one or two centuries before his age. Whatever be the case, that advocate does not prove from the simple style that the Arezzo Legend existed in the fifth century, even though he affirms that he firmly believes it.

[33] from which the more recent drew their own, except Tamayo: Peter de Natalibus, book 6, chapter 157, also asserts that those holy Virgins were carried off by Eugenius (thus he constantly writes for Eugegius) into Africa, as will appear below, when on another occasion we shall produce a compendium of the Acts from him. From the sources hitherto assigned the more recent drew their own, except Tamayo, who in his Spanish Martyrology, volume 4, page 289, against the more ancient writers, composed their Passion on his own authority, and liberally endowed Eugenius with the Roman citizenship, thus magnificently beginning to narrate the Acts in another type: "Eugenius, a Roman citizen, in the time of the emperors Valerius and Gallienus, when a dire and monstrous persecution arose against the Christians, and Helius the prefect cruelly raged against the members of Christ, so that he tore the bodies of many faithful with the atrocity of tortures, being constant in the faith, with the other companions, awaited the martyrial encounter, etc." It is not worth the labor to relate the rest, since Tamayo himself there confesses that he drew all these things from more recent authors, none of whom, however, so far as I know, called Eugenius a Roman citizen. It is of no concern here to recount in a long series the other writers who, on account of the sacred relics of these Saints, which they suppose to have been translated to their own country, published their Acts in French, German, and Spanish: for of those authors mention must be made again below on another occasion.

* that is, wrappers

§ III. The diverse judgments of the more recent authors concerning the Acts of these Saints.

After Baronius, they doubt of the sincerity of the Acts Cardinal Baronius, in the notes to the present-day announcement of the Roman Martyrology, thus judges of these Acts of the Martyrs: "Molanus likewise treats of these in the additions to Usuard. There is extant a manuscript sermon of Peter Damian on the birthday of the aforesaid Virgins and Martyrs. It begins: 'Let us rejoice, brethren, etc.' But the things which Peter

writes of these in the Catalogue, book 6, chapter 157, are known to be wholly apocryphal, and rest upon no truth at all. Of the same kind are proved to be those things which we read in the manuscripts, whose exordium is: 'At the time when Marcus Antoninus with Aurelius Commodus, etc.' It has very many things which agree in no part with the truth either of the times or of the matters. Nor does Peter Damian seem to have gotten better than these, when, weaving a sermon on the same Acts, as though doubtful, curbing with a certain bridle his oration running out over the broad field, he says: IF, HOWEVER, CREDIT IS TO BE GIVEN TO THE THING THAT IS SAID, etc. We grieve that the genuine Acts of these most illustrious Martyrs have perished; but we grieve more that by some idle and unskilled person certain fabulous fabrications have been substituted in their place." This judgment of the most eminent writer some approve, others disapprove, as we shall now see.

[35] Antonio Gallonio, in his History of the Holy Roman Virgins, embraces the opinion of Baronius, and there, in his observations, proposes several difficulties against these Acts. other writers. Silvano Razzi, in his Lives of Women Illustrious for Sanctity, volume 4, folio 107 verso, translates the mentioned words of Baronius into Italian, and consents to his opinion. Nicolas Des-Guerrois, priest of Troyes, in his French Annals of Christian Sanctity, at the year of Christ 262, folio 27 verso, grieves with Baronius that the genuine Acts of these Martyrs have perished, and with the same judges that St. Peter Damian doubted of the certitude of those Acts. Philippo Ferrari, in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, on the 29th of July, in his annotation to these Acts, declares his opinion in these few words: "Peter treats of them in the Catalogue, book 6, chapter 157. But differently: for he narrates certain things which seem little probable, especially concerning that king Eugenius."

[36] Nay rather, Tamayo himself—which you may wonder at—is here, contrary to his custom, so scrupulous and, contrary to his custom, Tamayo himself that in volume 4 of the Spanish Martyrology, page 289, he thus roundly pronounces of the suspect Acts of St. Eugenius: "Hence come to be rejected the Acts written of this holy Martyr by the most illustrious Lord Pedro González de Mendoza, archbishop of Granada, in the History of Saliceto, book 4, chapter 9, folio 818, where, following an apocryphal writing, he wove together the fabrications of Peter Equilinus and others." So he, who a hundred times elsewhere defends the fabulous Acts of the Saints, and augments them with new fables; nay, in these very Acts, which for his own bent he verbosely adorns, he makes St. Eugenius, on his own authority, without witness, without records, a Roman citizen, and nonetheless obtrudes this lucubration of his upon us as genuine history. But that he may not seem to have repented of so unusual a judgment, after the Acts of SS. Lucilla and Flora, there on page 291, he thus repeats the same: "These are the genuine Acts of those holy Virgins; but those which Peter Equilinus pieced together are, beyond doubt, to be reckoned apocryphal, as Baronius, Gallonio, Razzi, and Ferrari noted, whatever to the contrary Lord Pedro González and Father Vargas may allege."

[37] At least from these words of Tamayo I learned that the Acts of these Martyrs are vindicated against Baronius by the most illustrious Pedro González de Mendoza against two Spanish writers and by the reverend Father Alfonso de Vargas. First, therefore, I consulted the most reverend archbishop, who in the Spanish History of the divine Virgin of Saliceto, book 4, chapter 9, after many reasonings, prudently doubts whether the history of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugenius is distinguished from the other of Luceia the virgin and Auceias the king. Then there, page 823, he opines that they were carried off into Africa in the time of the emperor Gordian, or in the year of Christ 242, and after a captivity of twenty years, in the year of Christ 262, under the empire of Valerian and Gallienus, obtained the palm of martyrdom. This opinion of his he strives to prove from Baronius himself, who in the Annals, at the year of Christ 242, no. 1, thus writes: "Sabinus and Venustus were made consuls, under whom (as Capitolinus is author) Gordian suppressed Sabinianus rebelling with his followers in Africa."

[38] I confess that this rebellion of the Africans is related by Julius Capitolinus among the six writers of the Augustan History, page 161; who try to defend those Acts, but nowhere there is it read that those conspirators were so powerful that they dared to burst of their own accord into Italy. Yet let us grant gratis that certain Africans infested the Roman shores with piratical ships; there will still remain to be assigned, in the year of Christ 262, a prefect of the City, by the name of Helius or Aelius, such as is not found under the whole empire of Gallienus, as we said above in §1 according to the ancient catalogues of Bucherius and Eccard, in which the prefect of the City under the consulship of Gallienus for the fifth time and of Faustinus, or in the year of Christ 262, is called Nummius Albinus.

[39] although both, concerning the time of the martyrdom Alfonso de Vargas, of the Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis of the Observance, in his Lives of the Glorious Martyrs whose relics are honored in the Convent of the Mother of God at Huerta, rendered the history of SS. Flora and Lucilla from Peter Damian into Spanish, the time of the martyrdom, however, being changed, as there, folio 6 verso, he sincerely forewarns. Then, folio 14, in his observation on those Acts, he repeats the already mentioned conjecture of the most illustrious prelate of Granada, which he had formed concerning the time of the captivity from the African rebellion, and at the end of his observation concludes that the authority of St. Peter Damian suffices, so that no one should dare to doubt of the truth of this history. But how did Alfonso de Vargas dare to doubt of the age of these Virgins, which St. Peter Damian openly expressed? Why does he defer their martyrdom until the time of Valerian and Gallienus, which St. Peter Damian expressly assigned under M. Antoninus Verus and Commodus Aurelius?

[40] depart from the opinion of Peter Damian: We desire to learn whether any writer more ancient than Peter Damian placed the contest of these Virgins under the empire of Valerian and Gallienus. But if, according to Alfonso, Peter Damian here so greatly departed from the true chronology, could he not also err in the other circumstances of the same history? For the rest, we have already shown in the preceding paragraph that Damian himself, in historical matters, does not require of us so blind a credulity as to be unwilling to leave his narrations to the prudent inquiry of the readers.

[41] Dini defends these Acts professedly, These two defenders of the Acts the now often praised Francesco Dini greatly surpassed in labor, who in the year 1723, under the name of the Academician Recollectus, published a Latin dissertation, that he might vindicate the history of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugenius against Baronius. In that apology he struggles, with hands and feet, so to speak, against the above-related judgment of the most eminent Baronius, and scrapes together arguments on every side, that he may render those Acts probable, being prepared for either alternative—whether you will have the martyrdom of those Virgins to have happened under the emperor Commodus, or prefer to defer it about eighty years, until the empire of Valerian and Gallienus. I have already above touched upon some of his conjectures, which hitherto do not satisfy me, and which therefore I refuted there. For the rest, I praise the pious endeavor of Dini, although I grieve that it has lacked the wished-for success. Nonetheless, in his favor, I shall here gladly now indicate which difficulties of that history he has in some measure dissolved.

[42] and certain difficulties, First, he proves sufficiently and more than sufficiently that the name of king, by which Eugegius is called in the Acts, did not anciently have so restricted a signification as is now commonly attributed to it. Whence here by "king" he understands a lord or powerful toparch, and this he draws from the Acts themselves, in which it is not said that he left palaces, cities, or a kingdom, but only his house and his matron and his sons and all his most ample possessions. Finally, from various sacred and profane monuments he concludes that the name of king could be attributed to a rich and powerful pirate. But there was no need of so many testimonies to explain that title of dignity, which the most eminent Baronius and our Papebroch had already long ago set forth, and which learned men not with difficulty admit.

[43] Secondly, he rightly shows that rebellion against the Roman emperors was so frequent in Africa that Eugegius, at one time or another of them, could easily have brought a piratical ship to the mouths of the Tiber, attempts to explain those occurring in them; and, descending to land, have carried off with him into captivity those Roman Virgins, dwelling in the country. These things are not improbable, since daily experience teaches us that in our times similar things are more often perpetrated secretly by African pirates on the shores of Italy and Spain. But then the Gallonian Acts are to be rejected, which hint that Eugegius invaded Italy with a land army, and fought successfully with the Romans, as is gathered from these words: "A certain most powerful king, Eugegius, by nation and of Parthian stock sprung, having gathered a great army and seeking Italy, invaded the state of the Roman commonwealth with barbarous ferocity, and, victory being won, seeking again the kingdom from which he had come, took Flora, a nun virgin, a citizen of the city of Rome, together with the most blessed virgin Lucilla her sister." We would gladly prefer to these Gallonian Acts the Arezzo Acts of the cathedral church and the others, if the remaining difficulties were so probably solved.

[44] But Dini twists himself in every direction to find a prefect of the City, by the name of Helius, but he labors especially to find a prefect of the city of Rome, who is clearly expressed in all the Acts. But since he did not find such a one under the empire of Valerian and Gallienus, on page 40 he brings this excuse: "In innumerable and most approved Acts the names of the Augusti are not read, but only of the governors, whose names it is impossible to verify from the histories of those times, although then, as most illustrious, they were known to all." But that excuse does not hold here: for although I gladly concede that all the names of such governors cannot be proved from ancient histories, nevertheless I legitimately conclude that no Helius under Valerian and Gallienus was prefect of the city of Rome, because in Bucherius and Eccard cited above there exists a most ancient catalogue, in which the prefects of the City from the year of Christ 254 to the year 354 are recounted without any interruption, and there, under the whole empire of Valerian and Gallienus, prefects of the City far different from Helius are named every year. This express enumeration of the prefects of the City, therefore, destroys the frivolous excuse of Dini, which otherwise, from the silence of antiquity, he could have alleged not altogether in vain.

[45] Nor had Dini less to labor to seek a certain Helius that he may find one by the name of Aelius: who under the emperor Commodus administered the prefecture of the city of Rome. Hence on page 39 he mentions Q. Helius Laetus; but we have already said above that this man is more probably called Q. Aemilius Laetus, and Dini himself confesses that he was prefect of the praetorium, whereas a prefect of the City had to be assigned. But since he sufficiently perceived that this prefect of the praetorium was not easily to be admitted by the learned for a prefect of the City, he is forced to have recourse to P. Helvius Pertinax, who under Commodus acted as prefect of the City, and afterward governed the Roman empire. On that hypothesis he asks gratis that Helvius should, for Helius, against the unanimous

consensus of the Acts, be read: "And if it be attributed to an error of the copyist," he says, page 34, "where the Passion of the holy Virgins is referred to the times of Commodus, Helvius, not Helius, would have to be read as prefect in the Acts." But Dini, compelled by necessity, against the constant reading of the Acts, without any foundation devised this error of the copyist, which therefore is as easily denied as asserted.

[46] But to a diligent man, vainly seeking everywhere the prefect Helius, let us bring the help we can, provided he be willing to recede a little from his own opinion. First, therefore, let him say to whom, laboring in vain, we bring help, that those two Virgins under the empire of Valerian and Gallienus were rather carried off by some barbarian lord, than that they consummated their martyrdom under those emperors; and after a captivity of twenty years we will show him an Aelius, prefect of the City. By this assertion he will not contradict the Arezzo Acts of the cathedral church, which designate no Roman emperors, but only name Helius, prefect of the city of Rome, under whom those Virgins, together with Eugegius, gained the crown of martyrdom. Nor will he improbably assert that those Virgins were carried off into captivity under the empire of Valerian and Gallienus, since barbarian peoples at that time rushed everywhere into the Roman empire and into Italy itself, as we shall now show from an ancient historian.

[47] and at an opportune time Zosimus, who in the year 1590 at Frankfurt was printed in Greek and Latin with the other writers of Roman history, in book 1 of the Histories, page 646, has these things to our purpose: "Valerian, having perceived the danger which threatened the Roman empire from all quarters, chose his son Gallienus as consort of the empire; and because the public affairs were everywhere infested, he himself moved toward the East, that he might resist the Persians: he handed over the European armies to his son, exhorting him to oppose himself with those forces to the barbarians rushing in from every side. Gallienus, seeing that the Germanic peoples were more hostile than the rest, who more sharply vexed the Celtic nations dwelling by the Rhine, took this part upon himself to defend from the enemy, and ordered the other generals, with the armies of those places, to make war upon those who through Italy, Illyricum, and Greece were intent upon driving off booty." Tillemont, in his History of the Emperors, volume 3, page 322, affirms that Gallienus was taken as partner of the empire in the year of Christ 253, and so the barbarians were infesting Italy about this time, which afterward it is fitting to remember. Nay, the Scythians afterward under Gallienus afflicted all Italy with their incursions, and proceeded even to Rome itself, as Zosimus there, page 650, testifies.

[48] we assign Aelius prefect of the City And so it would in no way be strange if those holy Virgins, in so frequent an irruption of various peoples, had been taken by some barbarian prince who about the year 253 or 254 was laying waste Italy. This being laid down, after a captivity of twenty years, which are numbered in all the Acts of those Saints, we bring them back to Rome, and there opportunely find Aelius Cesetianus, who perhaps under the empire of Aurelian administered the prefecture of the city of Rome, and certainly was present at the election of the emperor Tacitus in the year 275, and discharged this office, as Vopiscus in the Leiden edition of the Augustan History, volume 1, page 605, testifies in these words: "There the prefect of the City, Aelius Cosetianus, spoke thus." If Dini had embraced this system, he would have advanced nothing foreign to probability, and would easily have reconciled all these things with the Arezzo Acts of the cathedral church, whose antiquity and credit he so greatly extols.

[49] from a certain hypothesis, Our hypothesis is confirmed from this—that the emperor Aurelian, not long before his death, which according to the more exact chronologists occurred in the year of Christ 275, stirred up a persecution against the Christians, as Lactantius in his book on the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter 6, indicates in these words: "Aurelian, who was by nature frenzied and headlong, although he had remembered the captivity of Valerian, nevertheless, forgetful of his crime and its penalty, provoked the wrath of God by cruel deeds. But he was not even permitted to finish what he had planned; but forthwith, in the very beginnings of his fury, he was extinguished. His bloody writings had not yet reached the farther provinces, and already at Caenophrurium, which is a place of Thrace, he himself lay bloody on the ground, slain by his own friends through a certain false suspicion." Aurelian, therefore, toward the end of his life (say at the close of the year of Christ 274) began to persecute the Christians with bloody writings, or edicts composed against us, as Eusebius in the Valesian edition, book 7 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 30, says. But although those edicts did not reach the farther provinces, nevertheless they had probably been published at Rome and in the nearer regions.

[50] Nor do we see a reason for asserting that this persecution ceased with the death of Aurelian: which we propose to the learned. for Eusebius, in the place just cited, teaches us that Aurelian was impelled by the counsels of certain men to excite this persecution against the Christians. Who would not believe that, even after Aurelian's death, the heathen abused these edicts to persecute the Christians? Who will easily persuade himself that the impious priests and sacrificers of the gods, especially at Rome, neglected this occasion by which they could vent their hatred against the Christians? It is not, therefore, absurd, if it be said that Aelius Cesetianus, after the death of Aurelian, the empire being vacant for six or seven months, condemned Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius to capital punishment on account of their profession of the Christian religion in the year of Christ 275. Of this persecution of Aurelian, and of the martyrs who suffered about that time, consult Tillemont, volume 4 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 345 and following. These things indeed are probable, and repugnant neither to the Acts nor to ancient history; nevertheless for their truth we do not dare to vouch, since another difficulty stands in the way, which in the following paragraph we propose to be solved by any defenders of those Acts.

§ IV. The probable confusion of the Acts with others, and their manifest mutual imitation.

Already in §1 I began to indicate something concerning the doubtful distinction of these Martyrs from others; but here I shall propose to the erudite reader the reasons on account of which someone might not rashly suspect that it may be shown that the Acts are confused or at least similar, that the history of Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius is confused with the Acts of Luceia the virgin and Auceias the king, which our Papebroch illustrated at the 25th of June. I know that there Luceia alone is brought in, and the king is called by the name of Auceias; but here Flora with her sister Lucilla intervenes, and the king is named Eugegius. I am not ignorant that the martyrdom of Luceia and Auceias is placed under the emperor Diocletian; but I have also noticed that in the three manuscript Acts of Flora and Lucilla no Roman emperors are named, and that St. Peter Damian and the present-day Roman Martyrology greatly differ among themselves in assigning them. Finally, I do not deny that a similar history could have happened twice, although it does not seem to have happened twice in fact. But at least I contend that, if the Acts are not the same, the one was drawn from the other. Wherefore I here exhibit at once a compendium of both Acts, that the reader himself may judge of this matter.

[52] Peter Equilinus, in his Catalogue, book 6, chapter 4, thus writes of the holy Luceia the virgin and Anceias the martyrs: we exhibit a compendium of the twofold history "Luceia the virgin and Anceias her temporal lord suffered martyrdom at Rome in the times of Diocletian. She, of Roman origin, was taken by Anceias, king of the barbarians, and led into his own country: whom, when the barbarian wished to violate, hearing from her that she had the God of heaven as her spouse, he dreaded to deflower her, and, treating her reverently, placed her in a solitary house, other handmaids being appointed to her for service, who day and night was intent upon fasts and prayers; by whose prayers also the same king several times triumphed over his enemies. Whence also, converted to Christ by the example of her sanctity, he set the Virgin free. But when she wished to return home, being forewarned by a divine revelation, Anceias, by the providence of God, his kingdom being deserted, followed the Virgin all the way to Rome, where both of them, detained for the confession of the name of Christ, fulfilled their martyrdom by the sword on the eighth day before the Kalends of July." Vincent of Beauvais, in the Speculum, book 12, chapter 97, exhibits an almost similar synopsis of the same Acts; but he defers the martyrdom of Luceia and Auceias to the following day, and thus adds to them twenty-two companions: "There suffered also with them twenty-two others, who had then been sent into prison, the martyrdom of all of whom is celebrated on the seventh day before the Kalends of July."

[53] from Peter Equilinus, Now hear what the same Equilinus, in the Catalogue, book 6, chapter 157, narrates of the holy Flora and Lucilla, virgins, and their companions the martyrs, in this manner: "Flora and Lucilla, virgins, with their companions Eugenius and others, suffered martyrdom at Rome under Helius, prefect of the City. These, being Christian nun sisters, and sprung from the city of Rome, were taken by Eugenius, king of the barbarians, and led into Africa: whom, when the tyrant wished to violate, they said to the king that they had the God of heaven as the guardian of their virginity and the avenger of its corruption. Hearing which, he feared, and began to revere them, and shut them up in a certain chamber, handmaids being appointed for their service, who were intent upon fasts and prayers. But the king, when he often went forth to war, commended himself to their prayers, and continually carried back victory over his enemies, and all things succeeded prosperously for him according to his wish. And thus, remaining twenty years with the barbarian, after that time they are divinely admonished to return to Rome and receive martyrdom. Which when they had told the king, he, now made a Christian in mind, drawn by the divine Spirit, was unwilling to desert the Virgins; but, his kingdom being left, came to Rome together with them. But they, being seized by the prefect Helius, when they would not sacrifice, are punished with beheading, together with whom Eugenius also, professing himself a Christian, is likewise beheaded. By their example Antonius, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Capanus, Piosus, Corseus, Chorigenes, Pacus, Saturnus, Victor, and nine others, whose names have not at all been found, acclaiming themselves worshipers of Christ, are, by the same prefect, slain with the sword and crowned with martyrdom, the passion of all of whom is kept on the fourth day before the Kalends of August."

[54] If anyone still doubt of the confusion of the Acts, because in the earlier compendium of Peter Equilinus Helius, prefect of the City, is not mentioned, and certain texts of the longer Acts nor are the companions of the martyrdom recounted, we think he will be utterly convinced of the identity of the Acts, or at least of their mutual imitation, when he shall have wished to compare both the longer Acts with each other. We here shall give in few words one specimen or another concerning the prefect Helius and the companions of the martyrdom, who are omitted in the earlier compendium of Peter Equilinus. In the Acts of SS. Luceia and Auceias, which at the 25th of June, in the fifth volume of that month, from page 13, we published from the Vatican and Amand manuscripts, it is read thus: "After a few days holy Luceia was seized by the ministers, and is led to Aelius, prefect of the City, who said to her: Art thou a Christian? The Virgin of God answered: I am a Christian; for to this the Lord, after

twenty years, deigned to recall me from captivity, that I may receive the crown of martyrdom… Thus the prefect, sentence being given, ordered her to be beheaded." In the present-day Acts these things are narrated of SS. Flora and Lucilla thus: "After a few days those women too are seized, and are led to the prefect of the city of Rome: and when they had been presented to Helius, prefect of the City, he said to them: Are you Christians? The Virgins of Christ answered and said: We are Christians; for to this our Lord Jesus Christ, after twenty years, deigned to send us from captivity, that we may attain to the crown of martyrdom… Then the prefect, this sentence being heard, ordered them to be beheaded."

[55] But as concerns the companions of the martyrdom, they in the Acts of SS. Luceia and Auceias, in the cited volume, page 14, are thus enumerated: we compare among themselves, "There are offered to him twenty others, that is, Antonius, Hereneus, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Apamius, Pronicus, Coteus, Orion, Papicus, Satyrus, Victor, and nine others, whose names are known to God alone." But the Acts of SS. Flora and Lucilla, which we received from the codex of the cathedral church of Arezzo, thus commemorate the present-day companions of the martyrdom: "But the ministers offered also twelve others, that is, Asserius, Antonius, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Capomius, Piosius, Corseus, Origen, Paccus, Saturius, Victor, and nine others, whose names we have not found." What difference is there here, besides the dislocated names of certain Martyrs? In a word, so great is the similarity of both histories that it may seem the same, or at least the narration of the one was without doubt drawn from the other, a few things being changed, as anyone will easily perceive from an attentive collation of the longer Acts.

[56] I say, at least the narration of the history was without doubt drawn from the other, from which it is at least established a few things being changed: for it could have happened that two Christian sisters were carried off by force or fraud by some heathen lord, whom they afterward converted to the Christian faith by miracles, and even had as a companion of their martyrdom. This synopsis, whose other circumstances were unknown, perhaps furnished a foundation to some writer of a later time, that from the Acts of Luceia the virgin and Auceias the petty king he might adorn this history. Something similar could have happened to one Christian virgin, whose unknown deeds perhaps some embellisher of Acts—of which kind not a few existed from the ninth century—amplified with the same episodes from the history of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius.

[57] Since, therefore, the mutual imitation of the Acts must be established for attentive readers of both, of the mutual imitation of the Acts. I ask Dini, or any defender of his apology, to teach us which history was first written. I confess indeed that this can be determined with difficulty, unless the very originals of the Acts were collated with each other, which one can scarcely hope. Our Papebroch, in the fifth volume of June, page 11, thus assigns the codices from which he published the Acts of SS. Luceia the virgin and Auceias the king: "We have those Acts from two notable manuscripts, the one Vatican found by us at Rome, the other found by Rosweyde in the monastery of St. Amand in Hainaut; and we remember to have seen the same more often elsewhere." We have already above recounted the manuscript Acts of the present-day Martyrs; but of those codices from which they were excerpted we are ignorant even of the antiquity, of which without ocular inspection or the certain testimonies of skilled men we should rashly judge. Wherefore we think it cannot be pronounced with certainty which Acts are genuine, unless the greater antiquity of the one or the other has been established.

[58] Perhaps Dini will reply that the Arezzo Acts of the cathedral church are most ancient and composed in the fifth century, Dini is given a choice, as in his dissertation, page 4, he gathered from the simple style. But I answer that this is as easily denied as asserted, and the same could be said of the Acts of SS. Luceia and Auceias, since these are written not only with a similar style, but with almost the same words or phrases. But if he should contend that they were seen by Peter Damian, and are called ancient, as he affirms on page 5, I will roundly deny his assertion for the reasons which I produced in §2, no. 31. Nay, on account of this very discrepancy of the same Acts, I shall suspect that the Acts of Luceia and Auceias, which are consistent with themselves, surpass in sincerity and antiquity the present-day Acts of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius. Let Dini, therefore, firmly determine which Acts of SS. Flora and Lucilla he wishes to defend: for like a shipwrecked man he seizes now one plank, now another. Now, with Peter Damian and the codex of the Arezzo monastery, he concedes that those Virgins suffered under the emperor Commodus; soon again, with the Roman Martyrology and Galesinius, he places their martyrdom under the empire of Valerian and Gallienus, and in both cases attempts to emerge from the storms of difficulties, while meanwhile, under these emperors, he can assign no prefect of the city of Rome by the name of Helius or Aelius.

[59] whether you prefer to place this martyrdom under Aelius Cesetianus, Wherefore I amicably advise Dini to defend the Acts of the cathedral church of Arezzo alone, which he thinks to be most ancient. Nor does he seem to shrink much from this counsel of mine, when in his dissertation, reduced to straits, on page 39 he thus speaks of these very Acts: "But in those of the cathedral of Arezzo, which Acts can be asserted to have been faithfully excerpted from a more ancient original… nothing is said that they suffered under Commodus, but only the name of Helius, prefect of the City, is added." Let him defend, I say, these Acts alone, according to which a probable occasion of the abduction, the twenty years of captivity, and Aelius Cesetianus, prefect of the city of Rome, are opportunely found, as in the preceding paragraph, from no. 46, we showed.

[60] or under Aelius Dionysius, But then the question will return, whether the Acts of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius (for a while we suppose that the one history is different from the other) were first written, and supplied matter to the writer of the others: for in the Acts of SS. Luceia and Auceias the opportune time of the captivity, the prefect Aelius, and the other circumstances are explained equally probably, as our Papebroch at the 25th of June, in the preliminary Commentary before those Acts, learnedly demonstrates. First of all, the prefecture of Aelius Dionysius, which falls in the year of Christ 301, agrees excellently with the rest of the history of the Acts, which affirms that Luceia completed twenty years in captivity, and after those was crowned at Rome with the laurel of martyrdom under Aelius, prefect of the City: for if you number twenty years backward from the prefecture of Aelius, you will arrive at the times of the emperor Probus, in which this abduction could most probably have taken place, whether you will have it done by open war or by secret brigandage, as you will understand from what follows.

[61] since all the circumstances of the Acts with the time Flavius Vopiscus, published among the six writers of the Augustan History at Paris in the year 1620, in the Life of the emperor Probus, narrates many wars which he waged against various barbarian nations, and on page 239, after other things, thus writes: "He subdued also the Blemmyes, whose captives he sent to Rome, who afforded a wonderful sight of themselves, the Roman people being astonished." Geographers everywhere testify that the Blemmyes dwelt in Africa about Egypt. It can scarcely be doubted that the Roman victors, together with the other captives, sent to Rome the chief leaders or petty kings of the Blemmyes, that after their custom they might render more august their triumph over the subdued people. Why should not some more powerful leader or petty king of that people, secretly fleeing, or sent back into his country by the Romans themselves, have carried off with him a Christian virgin, intercepted by guile, with barbarian license, to abuse her?

[62] But if you prefer to believe that that virgin was carried off by open force, and ancient history hear the same Vopiscus, who there, on the following page, thus speaks of Probus: "Peace, therefore, having been made with the Persians, he returned to Thrace, and settled a hundred thousand Bastarnae on Roman soil, who all kept faith. But when he had likewise transferred very many also from other peoples, that is, from the Gepidae, the Gautunni, and the Vandals, they all broke faith, and, Probus being occupied with tyrannical wars, wandered through almost the whole world on foot and by sailing, and brought no little trouble to the Roman glory." If so many barbarian nations wandered through almost the whole world on foot and by sailing, and vexed the Roman empire, distracted by other rebellions, why should not some barbarian lord or powerful pirate have brought his ship to the mouths of the Tiber, and, with other booty, have carried off one or another Christian virgin?

[63] Now the mentioned deeds of the emperor Probus and the rebellion of the barbarian peoples happened about the year of Christ 279 or 280, are easily reconciled. as may be seen in Tillemont, in his History of the Emperors, volume 3, from page 429. But if you compute twenty years of captivity from that time, you will reach the year of Christ 301, in which Aelius administered the prefecture of the City, under whom Luceia and Auceias are said to have obtained the crown of martyrdom. On account of this agreement of the Acts with ancient history, our Papebroch, whom I think not easily to be accused of too much credulity, thus ends the preliminary Commentary on these Martyrs, in the fifth volume of June, page 12: "These things being thus previously explained, I see no reason why these Acts cannot be received, not only as ancient, but also as sincere and gravely and probably written; nor in any way like those which we are forced to excuse, as to be judged, being adorned with circumstances many centuries after the deed, from a little sincere tradition or even from a presumed similarity, to relate a fable rather than a history."

[64] If Dini or any other defender of the Arezzo Acts shall have solidly shown Although the present-day Acts seem confused with others, that the history of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius is different from the history of SS. Luceia and Auceias, we will gladly pass the same judgment concerning it, or at least concerning its substance, and will defend our hypothesis, proposed above from no. 46, as a thesis. I added that we would at least gladly so judge concerning the substance of the one or the other history, because the mutual imitation of words and phrases in the longer Acts is so manifest that it cannot be denied. But I fear whether anyone can demonstrate the very diversity of substance clearly enough. Although, on account of the vehement suspicion of confusion, we could have placed this band of holy Martyrs among the Passed-over of this day, and referred the reader to the Acts of SS. Luceia, Auceias, and their companions, nevertheless we have wished also to illustrate the Acts of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and the others on this day, with the Roman Martyrology, for the reasons which we shall now allege.

[65] First of all, among so many and so diverse incursions of the barbarians, nevertheless, for certain reasons, they are illustrated on this day. as I noted above, it could absolutely have happened that such an abduction of Christian virgins occurred twice at different times, and had a similar outcome, which furnished matter to some writer of a later age, ignorant of the circumstances, to imitate the more ancient Acts of a similar history. Besides, we made it a matter of religion to omit St. Flora (even though the virgin Lucilla and the king Eugegius perhaps might not be distinguished from Luceia the virgin and Auceias the king),

of whose immemorial cult it was established from St. Peter Damian and certain Martyrologies. Finally, out of reverence, we have followed the Roman Martyrology, which on this day announces St. Flora with the others, and we have fully discussed this history, that those whom it concerns might more easily discern whether the announcement of the Roman Martyrology at the 25th of June and at the 29th of July is to be retained in both places, after they have attentively compared it with the Acts of SS. Luceia, Auceias, and the others—these

ACTS

by an anonymous author,

from a manuscript codex of the cathedral church of Arezzo, an authentic transcript of which was sent to us in the year 1721.

Lucilla, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Flora, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Eugenius, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Antoninus, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Theodorus, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Eighteen Companion Martyrs at Rome. BHL Number: 5017

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

The holy Virgins, taken captive by the petty king Eugegius, Flora, a nun virgin ^a, a citizen of the city of Rome, was taken together with the most blessed virgin Lucilla by a most ferocious barbarian king ^b, Eugegius by name. But when he had taken them, he led them into his own country ^c, and, seeing that they were most beautiful, he wished to corrupt them. When the most blessed Virgin Flora saw the madness of his lust, she said to him: "Do not offer violence, for I have a great Spouse, who forthwith avenges my injury upon thee." But he, filled with wrath, said to her: "And who is thy Spouse, or of what power, that he should avenge thy injury upon me?" But she, confidently, as a handmaid of Christ, fearing nothing, said to him: "My Lord Jesus Christ I have as my Spouse, who is in heaven, to whom I and my sister Lucilla have vowed ourselves to be handmaids, who has power over all flesh, and we serve Him without spot; who also has power to grant all things to those who can approach Him by faith, and who acknowledge Him."

[67] they resist his lust, But he, when he had heard these words, said to them: "Therefore, as I see, you are Christians?" The most chaste ones of God answered: "We are Christians plainly." But hearing that they were Christians, he was greatly terrified by them. And so from that hour he began to honor them worthily, as they deserved, hoping to be honored in the Lord; and straightway he ordered a most worthy chamber to be prepared in a remote place, where none of the men should have entrance. And when the Elect of God entered into it, he ordered also most worthy maidens to render service to them, whom he charged that they should not depart from their service, but should honorably serve them as handmaids of Christ, saying to them: "Great indeed are they who worship God, who is in heaven."

[68] and are honored by him But those Handmaids of Christ began in the chamber to give themselves to prayers and fasts, giving great thanks to God day and night, because the Lord had held His handmaids worthy, placed in captivity, and had granted them so great glory that they had found grace in the sight of a foreign king. For him also they frequently prayed to God, that no evil should befall him nor in his house. But when he had done these things, it happened to him after a little time that he went forth to war against his adversaries, and when he was setting out, he called the handmaids of Christ, and said to them: "Flora and Lucilla, handmaids of Christ, pray to your God for me, that I may return safe to my house, having overcome and conquered my adversaries, and I will honor you the more." But they said to him: "Go," they say, "safe and sound; for we believe in the God Jesus Christ, who is in heaven, that thou shalt return thence unharmed."

[69] But he, having set out against his adversaries, quickly conquered them, for whom also they obtain victory by their prayers. and returned safe to his house with great glory; and thereupon he began to honor them and to hold them as mothers, because it had so turned out for him. For he understood that through their prayers God had helped [him] in all things. And because it is long to relate in order all that the Lord wrought through them, of the things that were done I will briefly pursue a few. For as often as he went to war, his adversaries, whether by their will or by force, being overthrown, he gathered to himself. So it befell him that, his enemies being laid low, he returned thence a victor to his homes. The wealth also and the honor of his house increased, and from day to day it prospered. All these things the Lord Jesus Christ granted by the prayers of His handmaids, blessed Flora and Lucilla.

[70] But when the aforementioned handmaids of God, Flora and Lucilla, had completed there twenty years, After a captivity of twenty years the Lord said to them in a dream by night: "Rise, Flora and Lucilla, and delay here no longer, but return to the city of Rome, your city; for it behooves you there to complete your martyrdom." But they, rising at early dawn, exulting and rejoicing, giving thanks to God, because that night He had deigned to charge them to return to their city—nay rather, to hasten there to receive the grace of martyrdom—blessed Flora and Lucilla say to the king: "Let us go, that we may return to our country, because there it behooves our martyrdom to be consummated, since God calls us to the crown of martyrdom: for so our Lord Jesus Christ has deigned to reveal to us, whom we serve with an immaculate body. See that thou wilt not detain us here, and be burdensome."

[71] But he said to them: "If you say you go hence, why should I remain here? Eugegius accompanies them to Rome, for it is not expedient for me: for my adversaries will come hither, whom your God, through your prayer, drove back from me; they will kill and slay me, and therefore I leave all things and will go with you." They said: "We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, that He has adopted thee to Himself as a servant unto the fellowship of His holy flock." And he, when he had heard so great a promise, left his house and his matron and his sons and all his most ample possessions which he could possess, and accompanied the Handmaids of Christ, not as a stranger, but as their domestic fellow-citizen, not as a barbarian, but as a citizen of the Romans, not as a wolf, but as a sheep of Christ. He takes the journey with the great handmaids of God, Flora and Lucilla. All three hasten to go to Rome, they enter the city, and there the time of persecution was being enacted.

[72] But then the Handmaids of Christ, who, being admonished, came to the city, and together with those Virgins showed themselves openly at Rome, and after a few days those women too are seized, and are led to the prefect of the city of Rome. And when they had been presented to Helius ^d, prefect of the City, he said to them: "Are you Christians?" The Virgins of Christ answered and said: "We are Christians; for to this our Lord Jesus Christ, after twenty years, deigned to send us from captivity, that we may attain to the crown of martyrdom." The prefect said: "The most just emperors have commanded that Christians either sacrifice to our gods, or be handed over to them." Then the Handmaids of Christ answered: "We tell thee that we are prepared to die for the living and true God; for to this our Lord deigned to call us from captivity, that we may receive the passion of the contest." Then the prefect, this sentence being heard, ordered them to be beheaded.

[73] for the faith of Christ he is smitten with the head, And when Eugegius the king had seen these things, because the Handmaids of God had received the crown of martyrdom, he manfully offered himself to the prefect, saying to him: "Put me down also with them, for these two are both my ladies." And when the prefect had heard this, he interrogated him, saying: "Who art thou?" Eugegius answered: "I am Eugegius the king, and I am he who led them hence captive, when I was fighting against the Romans: for the Lord granted me many things through them, because I preserved them in captivity for twenty years. But when their God appeared to them, saying to them: Return, Flora and Lucilla, to Rome to receive martyrdom, I chose rather, leaving all my own, to follow them. For I too, for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, desire martyrdom with them." The prefect said: "Thou art not a Christian; how then canst thou die for the name of their God?" Eugegius said: "I believe that the shedding of blood makes me a Christian, and that Christ makes me not a stranger from His sight." And this venerable man, in the confession of Christ, the prefect ordered to be beheaded. And when he had done this, he went out into his praetorium.

[74] to whom other Martyrs also are joined. But the ministers offered also twelve others, that is, Asserius, Antonius, Theodorus, Dionysius, Apollonius, Capomius, Piosius, Corseus, Origen, Paccus, Saturius, Victor ^e, and nine others, whose names we have not found, whom the prefect interrogated whether they were Christians; but they confessed and said: "Be it known to thee that we are Christians, and believe in Christ, in whom blessed Flora and Lucilla believed"; and when he had heard this, he ordered them likewise to be beheaded. And they with great joy venerably received martyrdom, giving thanks to God, who deigned to lead them to the confession of His name and of His glory; and these glorious Virgins and Martyrs of Christ suffered on the fourth day before the Kalends of August, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

OTHER ACTS

by St. Peter Damian.

From the Roman edition of his Works, prepared by Constantino Caetani, volume 2, from page 247.

Lucilla, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Flora, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Eugenius, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Antoninus, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Theodorus, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Eighteen Companion Martyrs at Rome. BHL Number: 5018

BY PETER DAMIAN.

PROLOGUE.

We have learned, the Psalmist being witness, that God is wonderful in His Saints, not only in this, that He works wonderful signs through them in those who are sick; but also, The Author praises the fortitude of all the Martyrs, in that through Him they themselves, growing strong,

from the common infirmity, are made strong in war. For the infirmity of men longs to flee death, especially indeed if it is to be inflicted with tortures. But the holy Martyrs, overcoming this infirmity through the grace of God, not only bore the torments offered, but through them poured out their life: nay, they even of their own accord offered themselves to the tyrants and executioners for the most atrocious punishments. Which kind of men I should say, with the best right, changed their fortitude by a divine gift. Since, what by nature is loved, they lay down, none compelling; and, what is naturally shuddered at, they themselves of their own accord follow. Which strength of mind, indeed, although in the men themselves it be wonderful and worthy of the highest praises, is nevertheless far more wonderful and more praiseworthy in the female sex, which, by the coldness of its nature, is timid and soft: and as it is most unfit for wars, so it hates swords and arms, and shudders at not only the sight, but even the memory of blood.

[76] These things I have premised for this reason, that you may understand, dearest brethren, and he especially extols their wonderful constancy. of what sort and how great are the Virgins to whose solemnities you assemble ^a, in whom we ought to venerate not only their religion, nor only their virginity, but also their very martyrdom: nor any sort of martyrdom, but such a one to which they of their own accord ran from remote regions, no otherwise than as to the highest delights. In which act of the highest fortitude they not only shone forth, but also, by the example of their virginity, led the king of the barbarians, not yet reborn by the wave of baptism, to undergo the same contest with the same affection, by a most holy emulation. Which Virgins indeed, and the king, if we compare with one another in the act of so great a virtue, in sex they surpass him, in piety and example; but they are surpassed by the king, in that he, not yet regenerated in Christ, began his apprenticeship from so great a height of perfection that he became a martyr before he received the sacrament of the faith: and he who had not been washed with water was washed in his own blood. O truly the greatest spectacle, to behold him who had not been a Christian stretch out his neck for Christ: and him who had not yet been reborn by baptism, by the palm of martyrdom, preferred before very many of the baptized! But let the history itself ^b now speak to us, let it itself now set before us the origin of the Saints, itself the progress of their life, itself the glory of the completed contest.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The piety of these holy Virgins, their captivity, and their liberty in captivity.

After praises of the city of Rome It is manifest that the city of Rome went before all cities in every kind of nobility, and was the head of the world. For if you consider before the nativity of Christ the Lord, you find the Romans lords of affairs; but if after, you see it made the head of the world through the see of Blessed Peter; if you revolve in mind the men who came forth in it, you will approve them cautious in counsel, strenuous in arms, supreme in fortitude, excelling in justice, moderate in all things. The one thing which before Christ had been lacking, namely the piety of the faith, brought in through Peter, so ennobled the city—which hitherto in the rest had surpassed the rest—that in this too it goes before the rest. For who could suffice to number how many natives of this city, in Christian times, shone forth in war and in peace? Their number indeed surpasses opinion, surpasses even belief. But among those who by their tortures purchased the heavenly kingdom, these, to whose solemnities you assemble, obtain a special dignity, putting on indeed a manly spirit. Born at Rome, they deserved to live most religiously at Rome, and at last to die most constantly at Rome.

[78] the pious life of these Virgins is narrated, The glorious virgins Flora and Lucilla, sisters, therefore, in the times, as far as can be understood and granted, of Antoninus surnamed Pius ^a, when at Rome by their holy manners they burned in the divine sight, but outwardly, according to the property of their names, flourished (florerent) and shone (lucerent), chose the apostolic life, by which they might withdraw themselves from the love of earthly things, and offer the sanctified vessels of their body by the sanctification of chastity: and they who had known that the angels fell through pride, might prepare for themselves through humility an ascent to the heavens. Since, therefore, through these and other good deeds they pleased God and men, the Lord willed to prove them through tribulations, as gold through fire, that He might make them more glorious in His sight. For when God had furnished the holy Virgins with the virtue of fortitude, He was unwilling that they should lie hidden, but that they should come forth into the field of contest: that they who had conquered the passions of their body and the temptations of the devil, might also overcome the very world.

[79] whom the barbarian petty king, having taken captive Taking his beginning, therefore, from lighter things, by his holy counsel, whereby out of evils also He draws forth good things, He permitted the Saints to be withdrawn from their own region, that they might both take the merit of patience, and announce the name of Christ to foreign nations, and lead them to His worship. For there was at that time in the parts of Africa ^b a barbarian king, by the name of Eugegius, who, hostile to the Roman regions, attempting to lay them waste ^c, led into his own region, among the rest of the captives, the holy Virgins, God willing it: whom, when he saw excelling in youthful age and beauty, he burned with love of them. To whom, when he took care that a woman's finery should be exhibited with royal splendor, the virgin Flora, prudently perceiving what the barbarian intended, said to him: "See what thou dost. For we have a most powerful Spouse, who, moved by our injuries and His own, will rouse His fury against thee."

[80] The barbarian rages, these things being heard, and, swollen with the vanity of pride, on account of the intrepid defense of her virginity not thinking that anyone could be found who could exercise vengeance upon him, with a troubled mind and an arrogant voice answered: "And who is your Spouse, or of what power, that he could avenge his own injuries, or yours, upon me?" But the Virgin of the Lord, Flora, in nothing trembling, inserting a manly confidence into a woman's thought, said: "We have as our Spouse God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who founded heaven and earth out of nothing, and all things which are contained within the compass of heaven; whom all things serve, to whom nothing can be difficult; to this Lord God we have pledged ourselves, to Him we serve with immaculate heart and body. To violate which, to pollute which, to make it serve thy lust—how absurd, how impious, and how impossible it is, thou mayest see. For thou canst not persuade thyself that, if thou hast handled to violate the temple of God, which we are, thou shalt go unpunished: but thou oughtest to persuade thyself, more certain than certain, that thou shalt forthwith be destroyed by Him whom thou provokest in our injuries."

[81] These things heard, the most invincible king, wondering at so great a constancy of a woman, affects her with honor, eloquence, and love of chastity, is terrified by the nod of the Lord, and, changing the impure affection with which he had prepared defilement for the virgins into religion, venerates the supreme and true God in their breasts: and straightway ordered a secret and adorned chamber to be prepared for them, to which entrance should lie open to none of the men, but only to virgins, whom he had dedicated to the perpetual service of the Saints. Whom also he charged that they should not depart from their ministry, but should serve them with the highest reverence, as handmaids of God, who dwelt in the heavens.

[82] Seeing, therefore, so great a providence of God concerning them, and by their prayers whereby out of a robber He had made a patron, and out of a corrupter of modesty a defender, and had changed the court of princes into a monastic cloister, the holy Sisters, wondering at the divine counsel, gave great thanks to the Author of all good things, who had made them, even placed in captivity with a foreign king, find so great grace; for whose safety, and at the same time perpetual salvation, they frequently prayed to God, as was just, lest they could be marked with any stain of ingratitude.

[83] Meanwhile the mind of the king is formed to the faith, and so greatly did he trust in their holy prayers that, about to set out to war, he obtains various benefits. he most instantly commended himself to them: by whom, when he was bidden to be of good courage, or heard that he would return home with safety, as if fortified by a heavenly oracle, conceiving a certain hope of victory, he descended into battle, and always by the nod of God carried back the victory. By which most evident signs of their sanctity, the king, understanding that through their prayers he was protected by God and helped in all his doings, pursued the Virgins with greater honor, and held them as mothers, judging himself blessed, and his kingdom ^d, which was protected by the merits of the handmaids of Christ and strengthened by their prayers.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The liberation of the Virgins from captivity, their return to Rome, and their martyrdom together with their captor.

The holy virgins, after a captivity of twenty years The holy Virgins, therefore, in the African region under king Eugegius, living religiously and holily, and the king pursuing them with continual services and benefits, the twentieth year was now being enacted from the time they had been taken captive from their own city. After which space of time, the Lord Jesus, willing to draw His most faithful Spouses out of the laborious contest of the present world, and to introduce them into the very heavenly bridal-chamber, and knowing them to be most ready to undergo martyrdom, was unwilling that they should be adorned only with domestic triumphs; but that they should come forth into the field, and, by a holy contest, end their glorious life by the triumph of a glorious martyrdom. For not in vain does our King gird His soldiers with the strongest arms, which assuredly He would then do, if He should strengthen any for martyrdom, and not set the contest before them, and should suffer them to yield to nature in peace.

[85] they are forewarned to undergo martyrdom at Rome, Their Spouse, therefore, under the silence of the untimely night, appears through a vision, and addresses them in these words: "Beloved spouses, make no further delay in these regions, but rising, return to your country, where it behooves you to be consummated by martyrdom." Which being heard, the Virgins, rejoicing with great joy for so great a message and benefit, gave the highest thanks to their Spouse Christ; and in the morning they narrated it to their prince, asking that it might be permitted them to return to their country, according to the oracle made to them, to obtain the palm of martyrdom.

[86] whom the captor himself accompanies But then the king, hearing these things, and weighing that it was impious, and at the same time impossible, to resist the divine precepts, and pondering with deep consideration that hitherto, through the presence of the Virgins, he had been not only preserved in warlike affairs, but

increased and made glorious in all things through them, and fearing for himself and his life's destruction through their absence, decreed to give himself as a companion to their journeys, and said to them: "Since you must depart, and it is not whole for me to remain in these regions after your departure, if you permit, I too will come with you." But they nodding assent, and desiring that this be done, and asserting besides that he, more certain than certain, was to be aggregated to the flock of Christ, as if moved by a divine response, his kingdom, sons, and wife being dismissed, he becomes a companion of the Handmaids of Christ: and he who had already carried off the virgins from their regions with barbarian fury, was now leading them back as a most loving father.

[87] If you compare between the two, you behold the change of the divine right hand. changed by divine grace, For there you find Eugegius a most ferocious wolf, here a most gentle lamb. Then he tried to seize others' goods, to corrupt virginity, to slay the innocent: but now he counts his own goods as nothing, defends chastity, desires to die for Christ, and of his own accord runs from distant regions to lay down his life for Christ. Let the gentiles and the unbelieving wonder at these things, let those wonder who know not that God is wonderful in His Saints, as we said before ^a. For we ought not to wonder at such things, but to love them, knowing that all things are possible to the faithful.

[88] While, therefore, M. Antoninus Verus and Commodus Aurelius ^b reigned at Rome, and under Helius, prefect of the city of Rome, namely in the year of the Lord one hundred eighty or thereabouts, the holy virgins Flora and Lucilla, sisters, with Eugegius the king, entering the city of Rome to undergo martyrdom for Christ, find, while Helius by name was acting as prefect of the city, the fury [1] of the gentiles raging cruelly against the worshipers of Christ. Whom they, not at all fearing, showed themselves openly, and, seized by the guards, are presented to Helius, prefect of the City ^c, by whom, being questioned about the Christian worship, they without delay declare themselves Christians, adding that, after a captivity of twenty years, by the command of Christ, they had returned to Rome for martyrdom.

[89] To whom Helius asserts the precept of the emperors, after their martyrdom and inculcates that it is this—that Christians either sacrifice to the gods, or be slain with grievous punishments. To these things the Virgins answered that they were prepared to lay down their own life for the living and true God, for which they had come, by a divine revelation, from the distant regions of the world. Then the impious Helius, seeing that they could not be moved from their holy purpose, ordered them to be condemned by a happy shedding of blood; according to whose command, Eugegius standing by and admiring their constancy, smitten in the head by the lictors, they gained the crown of martyrdom.

[90] After their departure, Eugegius the king, seeing that Flora and Lucilla, his mothers and ladies, crowned through so great a constancy, had left him surviving, beheaded burning with love of the martyrdom whose examples had already gone before in the female sex, of his own accord offered himself to the prefect, saying: "Put me down also with them, since they are both my ladies, and after their departure I refuse to live." But being asked who he was, he declares his name and country, and manifests the whole history of the virgins and his own, adding that he sought death for the name of Jesus Christ. Helius drew back, and called into doubt that this man, who was not a Christian, should wish to die for Christ. To whom king Eugegius said: "The shedding of my blood will make me a worshiper of Christ, who will not count me a stranger from His grace." After which confession of the faith, the venerable Man is beheaded by the command of the prefect.

[91] Thus the glorious virgins Flora and Lucilla, with king Eugegius, by the cutting-off of the head and by death, gains the unfading crown of glory. acquired immortality on the fourth day before the Kalends of August, whom the angelic spirits led to the bridal-chamber of the highest Spouse, whom, while they lived and in death, they pursued with the whole affection of their mind and with love, for whom they most gladly despised riches, pleasures, honors, and life itself, than which nothing is dearer to man. Resting in whom, and blessed, they acquired, for their voluntary poverty, inestimable and true riches; for temporal fasts, eternal banquets; for the contempt of a most foul itching, honesty and perpetual pleasures; for the ridiculous and puerile honors of this life, true, solid, and everlasting honors; and for a momentary and fragile life, they merited a perpetual life.

ANNOTATIONS.

APPENDIX

On the posthumous glory of the same Martyrs.

Lucilla, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Flora, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Eugenius, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Antoninus, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Theodorus, Martyr at Rome (St.)

Eighteen Companion Martyrs at Rome. BHL Number: 5021

BY G. C.

§ I. The first burial of the sacred bodies, and their translation to the diocese and city of Arezzo.

The Gallonian manuscript, of which we made mention in the preliminary Commentary, no. 16, The bodies of these Martyrs buried in the suburb of Ostia, thus indicates the first place of burial at the end of the Acts: "These glorious Virgins and Martyrs of Christ suffered in the year of our salvation one hundred eighty or thereabouts, on the fourth day before the Kalends of August, whose bodies, honorably buried by the faithful worshipers of Christ in the suburb of the city of Ostia, there rested for almost seven hundred years." From this text alone it can be drawn that the bodies of Flora and Lucilla were buried there. Nonetheless, Antonio Gallonio himself, in the Italian history of the Roman Virgins, page 143, affirms that the other companions of the martyrdom were entombed, together with those two Virgins, in the vicinity of Ostia. Peter Damian, who treats only of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius, after the sermon published above, in volume 2 of his Works, page 249, subjoins these things concerning the burial of these three: "But their bodies were collected by the faithful, and buried in Christian fashion in the suburb of the city of Ostia, where they rested for seven hundred years and more, namely until the year of the Lord nine hundred one: at which time the religious father John, bishop of Arezzo, chancellor of the Palace, sought and received the sacred bodies of the holy Flora and Lucilla and Eugegius from Benedict, the third Roman Pontiff of that name." Then he subjoins the history of that translation, which, if it is really to be attributed to Peter Damian, a huge anachronism has crept into it, as we shall presently observe.

[93] afterward they were translated There is also a chronological error in the other narration of the same translation, which our Papebroch excerpted from the collectanea of Gallonio, and which runs thus: "In the year of the Lord's incarnation 861, John, humble bishop of Arezzo and Roman chancellor, obtained the aforesaid bodies (namely of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius, whose names the title expresses) from the lord Pope Benedict III, and, having them carried by his household to his bishopric, the bishop himself, by another way, lest he should be found by the pursuing Romans, accomplished his journey. But it happened that his household, with the holy bodies, lodged between a lake, by the name of Disortium, and the marshes of Arezzo; but the inhabitants of the place, understanding from the reverence of the servants that the sacred relics were there, miraculously obtained a certain particle of the most precious relics, and there building a church, they have it consecrated in honor of the Mother of God, Mary, and of the holy ones of God, Lucilla and Flora: whence also the castle took its name from St. Flora, and thus the Counts of that region are called Counts of St. Flora, who before were called Counts of Amiata."

[94] Thence, therefore, proceeding, they began to make the journey begun; to the church of the diocese of Arezzo reaching all the way to the plain of Arezzo, they could carry the sacred bodies no farther. But the bishop, as was said above, taking his journey by another way, came before them to his city; but when it had been announced to him what had happened, he ran to meet them with the greatest multitude of clerics; but since the sacred pledges could not at all be moved from that place, counsel being taken with those who were present, they let a beast of burden go, that whatever place the animal should seek, they might know, without any hesitation, that the holy Virgins had chosen it for their dwelling: which animal with swift course ascended the mountain which was then called Titanus, but now the mountain of St. Flora of Turrita, distant about two miles from the city of Arezzo. There in a church the holy bodies rested for many centuries and ages, where our Lord Jesus Christ wrought magnificent and many wonders, to the praise and glory of His name.

[95] Thus far reaches also the narration which is ascribed to St. Peter Damian, or a monastery, and which can be compared with this Gallonian manuscript; nor does it differ from it in substance, except that to the above-said church of the mountain Titanus it adds a monastery, when, after the narrated prodigy of the immovable relics, it proceeds in this manner: "Then the devout prelate, the message received, and attended by the greatest multitude of clerics and people, went to meet the Saints, and, sacred prayers being sent before, and sprinkled with tears, by himself attempted to move that beast of burden. And when he too could not, counsel being taken with his own, they let the beast go, knowing for certain that that place was chosen by the Saints to which the beast of burden of its own accord had flown. Which done, the brute animal, led by the angels of God and the holy Martyrs, as if it burst from the starting-gates, with a most swift course ascended the mountain which was then called Titanus, and stood still in a certain place appointed to the Saints from heaven, which is distant from the city of Arezzo about two thousand paces: where in a short time, by the devotion of the faithful, a basilica was made, and a monastery of monks, which by the sanctity of those dwelling in it, and by the intercession of the Virgins, wonderfully grew up with frequent and great miracles for many years: for the celebrity of which monastery and the devotion of the Saints a castle was founded there, and took its name from St. Flora, as also the whole mountain itself, which flourished for very many years."

[96] If here, in one or the other narration, the year of that translation were rightly marked, whose foundation is unknown. we could gather at what time the monastery of SS. Flora and Lucilla was founded, concerning whose origin the monastic writers themselves grope in the dark: for Placido Puccinelli, before the Chronology of the general abbots of the Cassinese congregation, thus writes concerning the noble abbey of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius of the city of Arezzo (this is its title): "We have not found the proper foundation of this abbey; but it is ascertained by us that it was built before the coming of St. Charlemagne into Italy, who also enriched it with a most noble diploma, in the year 800, commanding that the abbots of the said abbey ought to be from the patricians of the same city, and not foreigners. Therefore only from the year 965 have we begun the series of prelates of the said abbey." If one or the other history of the translation be true, the diploma of Charlemagne here cited by Puccinelli is spurious, and so great an antiquity of the foundation collapses, which also escaped Mabillon,

a diligent scrutinizer of ancient monuments, when in the Benedictine Annals, at the year of Christ 939, book 44, no. 5, after relating the donation of King Lothair, made to the monastery of SS. Flora and Lucilla, he thus doubts concerning the beginning of the same monastery: "At what time that monastery was founded, or who were its founders, is uncertain. Certainly I should believe it existed not much before this time." I said that we could gather the time of the foundation if in one or the other narration the year of the translation were rightly marked, because I shall now demonstrate that in both histories the chronology cannot be composed with the persons introduced.

[97] Peter Damian, Peter Damian affirms that the bodies of these Martyrs rested for seven hundred and more years in the suburb of the city of Ostia until the year of the Lord nine hundred one, and that at that time John, bishop of Arezzo, sought and received these sacred relics from Benedict, the third Roman Pontiff of that name. But in the year 901 Pope Benedict, the third of that name, had already forty-two years before departed from this life, as the chronologists everywhere relate. Nor does John, prelate of Arezzo, seem to have been still among the living in that year, since Ughelli, in volume 1 of Italia Sacra, in the most recent Venetian edition, column 414, mentions these things concerning his successor: "Peter, the third of this name, is related to have been bishop of the people of Arezzo, from the privilege of Louis, king of Italy, in the year 901, and from a monument of the church of Lucca in the year 905, as we shall see below among its bishops." Hence it is sufficiently clear that St. Peter Damian, or whoever is the author of this narration, wrongly joined the times of Pope Benedict and of John, bishop of Arezzo, with the year nine hundred one.

[98] and the Gallonian manuscript The Gallonian manuscript exhibited above, which binds that translation of the sacred bodies to the year 861, comes indeed nearer to the years of Benedict III the Pontiff; but it cannot be reconciled with them: for that Benedict died in the year 858, after he had governed the Church from the year 855 for two years, six months, and only ten days, as is proved in Pagi, in the Breviary of the Roman Pontiffs, volume 2, from page 79. John of Arezzo, therefore, could not in the year 861 obtain those sacred relics from Benedict III the Pontiff. Hence it follows that Francesco Dini is mistaken, when in his Dissertation, page 45, he writes that Baronius saw the petition of John, presented to Benedict, in the year 861; "which," he says, "would that it had reached us; since from it we might draw clearer notices for the celebrity of the holy Virgins." I do not know by what metamorphosis Dini transmuted the history of the translation into a petition of John, presented to Benedict, in the year 861, since Baronius, on this day, in his notes to the Roman Martyrology, thus openly speaks: "We read the little book concerning the translation of the same sacred bodies, which thus begins: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 861, John, humble bishop of Arezzo, etc." Does the most eminent writer by these words indicate a petition offered to Pope Benedict? Certainly from this beginning of the little book it is sufficiently manifest that the same Gallonian manuscript, which we gave above from no. 93, was read by Baronius. In vain, therefore, does Dini desire this history of the translation, a like one to which he had among the Works of Peter Damian, and from which he would not have drawn clearer notices for the celebrity of the holy Virgins.

[99] Further, if the sacred bodies of those Martyrs were translated under the pontificate of Benedict III, ill-combining the persons with the years it behooves that it happened between the year 855 and 858, to which time the episcopate of John is not repugnant, of whom the praised Ughelli, in volume 1 of Italia Sacra, in the already mentioned Venetian edition, columns 413 and 414, has these things: "John, bishop of Arezzo, and count palatine, was present at the consecration of the emperor Charles the Bald, celebrated by Anspert, archbishop of Milan, in the year 876. He was Apostolic legate, when the oath of fidelity was rendered to the same Charles the Bald, in the year 877. Mention of the same John is also extant in a certain privilege of Duke Sigifrid in the year 858; and Baronius makes mention of him at the year 876." Then there, from the common opinion of others, he thus ascribes the mentioned translation of the sacred bodies to that John: "From Ostia on the Tiber he translated to Arezzo the bodies of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugenius, the African king, concerning whom Peter Damian, and Baronius in the notes to the Roman Martyrology on the 29th of July." Ughelli here prudently omitted the determined year of that translation, in marking which Peter Damian and others departed from the true age of Benedict III the Pontiff, as we have already shown.

[100] When Ughelli here says that that John translated the bodies of those three Martyrs to Arezzo, in narrating the translation of the sacred bodies, he is to be understood of the territory of Arezzo, from which they were afterward brought to the city of Arezzo, as Constantino Caetani, if I am not mistaken, after the aforesaid history of Peter Damian, notes in these words, printed in another type: "But the monastery, in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred ninety-three, was destroyed through the Guelf and Ghibelline factions of the people of Arezzo. Which desolation accomplished, it was translated, with the holy relics, into the city of Arezzo, where until today the holy Virgins are venerated with great veneration of the people. But the castle was afterward, in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred ninety-six, destroyed on account of the same factions." These things perhaps are drawn from Pietro Ricordati, who in his Monastic History, folio 452 verso, relates similar things in Italian.

[101] Our Gallonian manuscript, concerning the same overthrow of the monastery, which were afterward translated into the very city of Arezzo, and the following translation of the sacred bodies to the very city of Arezzo, thus makes mention at the end: "But now they rest in the city of Arezzo, in the church which was built in the year of the Lord 1383, after the overthrow of the castle and monastery of St. Flora of Turrita; which castle, church, and monastery were destroyed and overthrown through the wars or factions of the people of Arezzo, namely the Guelf and Ghibelline. And although in our days the devotion of men is far diminished, nevertheless they still work many miracles for those imploring their patronage." I do not sufficiently clearly understand how that monastery of the territory of Arezzo was destroyed in the year 1193, and after that destruction placed, together with those sacred relics, in the city of Arezzo, while meanwhile in the Gallonian manuscript we read that those sacred relics rest at Arezzo in the church which was built in the year of the Lord 1383, after the overthrow of the castle and monastery of St. Flora of Turrita. These things, I say, I do not sufficiently clearly understand: for where, in all that interval of time, which flowed from the year 1193 to the year 1383, did those relics rest? At Arezzo in another church? Or was that church, which is said to have been built in the year 1383, restored in that year? Or did perhaps an error creep into the number of the years?

[102] However that matter may be, that monastery outside the city of Arezzo bore the surname from these Martyrs in the time of St. Peter Damian, in which they are said hitherto to rest. who, in book 7, epistle 14, thus writes of it: "I shall indeed relate what Henry, the venerable rector of the monastery established in honor of the blessed Virgins Flora and Lucilla in the territory of Arezzo, reported to me." This monastery still flourishes in the city of Arezzo, and for the sake of brevity is commonly called only by the name of St. Flora, as may be seen in Ughelli, in the most recent edition of Italia Sacra, volume 1, column 403, where, among the other ornaments of the diocese of Arezzo, it is thus recounted: "Scattered through the city and diocese are several monasteries and temples magnificently adorned, seen as a most certain proof of the piety of the people of Arezzo toward God. Among them stands out the noble monastery of St. Flora of the Order of St. Benedict, which possesses vast revenues and most ample privileges obtained from emperors and kings." Now it remains to examine the dispute which is moved concerning the relics of some of these holy Martyrs.

§ II. Various churches in Italy, Spain, and Gaul claim for themselves the relics of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugenius.

Besides the relics of these Martyrs in Italy, Not with difficulty do I believe that certain sacred bones of the holy Martyrs, of whose translation into the diocese and city of Arezzo we treated above, were communicated to neighboring churches. At least, concerning their venerable remains which are honored in Italy, Francesco Dini, pages 48 and 49 of his Dissertation, teaches us the following: "Their relics are venerated in the churches of the Servites, and in that of St. Sebastian at Perugia, and Jacobilli makes mention of a relic of St. Eugegius after the Lives of the Saints of Umbria: and in the archive of the abbey of Arezzo, book 39, page 101, there is a memorandum of the abbot Aleotti, in which it is narrated that in the church of St. Flora of Mount Amiata, the relics being lost by a hostile fire, a bone and a finger of the same Saints was consigned to Boso, Count of St. Flora, at his request, and received with great veneration of the people. And in the year 1649 a letter was sent by the bishop of Sarsina for obtaining, for the said church of Sapigno, some relic of St. Flora from the abbot Gregorio Riccardetti; which, being honorably transmitted, the same bishop with all the clergy betook himself outside the church to receive it."

[104] The Spaniards claim for themselves notable parts of them, I understand easily enough that certain neighboring churches in Italy could receive some particles of the sacred relics from the treasure of the Arezzo monastery; but I do not see on what foundation Tamayo brought whole bodies of these Martyrs, or notable parts of them, into Spain. First of all, in volume 4 of the Spanish Martyrology, page 289, in the Acts of St. Eugegius or Eugenius, which he composed out of his own brain, he has these things concerning his sacred relics: "Whose body, then buried by the Christians, after a part of it was translated to Arezzo in Italy, and a part to the monastery of Saliceto in Spain, is in both places most honorably kept and venerated." Then he thus more widely explains this text of his Acts: "We said that a part of the body is kept at Arezzo in Italy, and rightly: for that church contends that it has the whole, from the donation of Benedict III the supreme Pontiff made to John, bishop of Arezzo, as Gallonio, Razzi, and Ferrari report: and lest the Friars Minor of the Convent of Saliceto in Spain, who also contend to possess the whole body of the Martyr from the good pleasure of Paul V the supreme Pontiff, whose diploma the same Lord Pedro González reports in the said book 4, chapter 9 of the History of Saliceto, should be burdened by the weight of confusion, it was fitting to assign to each a part of the pledges." Confidently enough, if truly enough. But let us approach the very source which Tamayo assigns.

[105] The most illustrious Pedro González de Mendoza, in book 4 of the History of Saliceto, chapter 3 (not chapter 9, and some whole bodies as Tamayo wrongly cites), produces the assigned diploma, which thus begins: "In the name of God. Amen. Be it known to all that in the year from the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand six hundred seven, on the fifth day of the month of February, in the fifth indiction, in the second year of the pontificate of the most holy Lord our Paul the Fifth, by divine providence Pope, before me, Apostolic public notary, and the witnesses undersigned, in the Aracoeli Convent of St. Francis of this gracious City, there personally appeared

the very reverend father Brother Luis de San Juan Evangelista, preacher and professor of sacred theology of the Order of St. Francis of the Discalced, and said that he was making a donation of certain whole bodies of holy Martyrs." It is worth while here to pause a little. If the bodies of those Martyrs, among whom some Eugenius is named, were whole, by what right does Tamayo mutilate them, and leave a part of St. Eugenius to the Arezzo monastery, and grant the other to the Convent of Saliceto?

[106] But let us proceed with the same diploma, in which the names of the holy Martyrs are thus expressed: which they received from the Roman crypts, "Crescentius, Philip, Eugenius, Titus, Aurelia virgin and martyr, and Eusebius, Pope and martyr. Which sacred bodies were taken by me, the said Apostolic notary, with my own hands, from the cemetery of St. Sebastian outside the walls of the gracious City, with the license and supplication of the most holy Lord our Pope Paul the Fifth." Can this Eugenius, whose body was extracted from the cemetery of St. Sebastian outside the walls of the gracious City, be said to be the same with Eugegius or Eugenius, who had his first burial in the suburb of Ostia, and whose body was thence, already many centuries ago, translated to the diocese of Arezzo, as we learn from ancient instruments? For the rest, in this diploma, which there is no leisure here to transcribe whole, it is rightly proved that those relics of the holy Martyrs, transmitted from Rome into Spain, may lawfully be exposed to public veneration; but besides a certain similarity of name, there is nothing from which you may gather that that Eugenius is the same with our Eugenius or Eugegius: nay, from the time and place it is manifest that they differ much among themselves.

[107] Nor does it suffice Tamayo to have gratuitously divided the body of our St. Eugenius, that he might enrich the Spaniards with that part of the sacred treasure; as appears from the Spanish Martyrology of Tamayo but he even liberally attributes to his countrymen a part of the body of St. Flora and the whole body of St. Dionysius, from the same cohort of Martyrs, when to the Acts of SS. Flora and Lucilla, drawn from Ferrari, he adds these things by his own authority: "By whose example, Dionysius, inflamed with the desire of martyrdom, and the other companions, freely preaching Christ, were beheaded by the command of the same judge: whose bodies were buried by the Christians, together with the bodies of the holy Virgins, at Ostia; from which afterward we have ascertained that a part of the remains of St. Flora was translated to Arezzo he perhaps meant to say Arezzo, or understood the monastery in Italy, and a part of the same body of the virgin, together with the whole body of St. Dionysius, to the monastery of St. Mary of Huerta near Lorca in Spain."

[108] and by other Diplomas Whence Tamayo drew that translation, he signifies a little below in the notes in this manner: "As to the translation of a part of the body of St. Flora, sister of St. Lucilla, of the Roman virgins, and the whole sacred remains of St. Dionysius, their companion and of the other Martyrs, from Rome [to] the monastery of Huerta of the Friars Minor near the city of Lorca in the kingdom of Murcia in Spain, the reverend Father Brother Alfonso de Vargas is to be seen in the History of the Virgin of Huerta, §7, folio 76, where at folio 77 he reports an authentic testimony of such a translation of the sacred clods, from which it appears that in the year 1623 these sacred pledges were thence translated from the City." But how do these things again cohere? Tamayo in the preceding number confesses that the bodies of these Martyrs were buried by the Christians at Ostia: but in this number he asserts that some part of the same was translated in the year 1623 from the city of Rome into Spain. Were these relics perhaps translated from the first burial at Ostia to some Roman cemetery, from which they were taken according to the very instrument which Alfonso de Vargas exhibits in the History of the Virgin of Huerta from folio 77, from Latin into Spanish? But where are the witnesses or records of such a translation from one sepulchre to another found? From these things, therefore, for the above-said reasons, I also conclude that those Saints who are honored in the Convent of Huerta are different from our present-day Martyrs.

[109] and by testimonies, In the same volume 4 of the Spanish Martyrology, page 289, there is mentioned St. Flora, virgin and martyr, a Roman, whom Tamayo distinguishes from this our own, and of whom he there thus notes: "Her sacred pledges, by decree of Urban VIII the supreme Pontiff, in the year of the Lord 1640, were translated to Spain, the reverend Father Brother John of the Annunciation of the Discalced Friars of the Most Holy Trinity, procurator general of the redemption of captives, granting it, as appears from the diploma adduced above." That diploma he had adduced at the 9th of April, in volume 2 of his Martyrology, from page 564, where it is said that the body of that St. Flora, with the relics of many other Saints, was extracted from the cemetery of Calixtus, and transmitted into Spain. But Tamayo, in volume 4 of the aforesaid Martyrology, page 290, affirms that her sacred pledges were granted to the college of Salamanca through the reverend Father Brother Isidore of St. John, then minister general.

[110] which, for its own possession, But then he there alleges this ground of distinction: "What or of what sort this virgin and martyr may be, I am utterly ignorant: for she cannot be the sister of Lucilla, because we know that her body is kept partly at Arezzo in Italy, and partly in the monastery of the Minors of the holy Virgin of Huerta in Spain near Lorca." Truly Tamayo here is scrupulous beyond his custom! Since he had already begun to divide up the body of St. Flora, on the same foundation, that is, on none, he could have divided it into three or more parts, that he might gratify the college of Salamanca as well as the Convent of Huerta. We do not dare to grant to any outside Italy the true relics of SS. Flora, Lucilla, or Eugegius, unless they have lawfully proved that they received them from the Arezzo monastery. Hence the prudent reader will easily gather what is to be thought of the following competitors for the same bodies.

[111] they themselves allege. Martín de la Naja, rector of the college of Calatayud of the Society of Jesus, published at Saragossa in the year 1653 the Acts of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugenius in Spanish, from Peter Damian and Peter Equilinus. Occasion for this little work was furnished by a certain St. Lucilla, whose body in the year 1643 was translated from the city of Rome to Calatayud, and is there honored in our college, as may be seen at the beginning of that Spanish narration, page 1. But everywhere the reverend Father rector supposes that this St. Lucilla is the same with the present-day sister of St. Flora. Nevertheless, after the Acts, at the end of page 22, he relates from Baronius and Gallonio that the bodies of these Saints were delivered to burial by the Christians in the city of Ostia, and that their illustrious martyrdom and sacred relics are much celebrated at Arezzo in Tuscany. But we, from this burial at Ostia and the celebrity of the relics at Arezzo, conclude that the St. Lucilla translated to Calatayud was, on account of mere homonymy, confused with the other, who is narrated to have undergone martyrdom with her sister and Eugegius the king.

[112] From Spain let us pass into Gaul, where also some churches claim for themselves the true relics of the same present-day Martyrs: The sacred heads of SS. Flora and Lucilla for Nicolas Des-Guerrois, in a French book, whose title is "Christian Sanctity," and in which he especially illustrates the history of Troyes, at the year of Christ 262, from folio 27 verso, rhetorically amplifies the Acts of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugenius, and at last, folio 30 verso, asserts that the sacred heads of these two Virgins are honorably preserved from immemorial time in a monastery of the Premonstratensian Order at Troyes, which is commonly called the chapel of St. Mary "ad plancas," and are every year, on the 29th of July, visited with great devotion of the flocking people. Nevertheless, a little above, from Baronius, he relates that the translation of the same bodies to the diocese of Arezzo happened in the year 861, and therefore cautiously adds that perhaps that treasure of the two sacred heads was at the same time brought into Gaul.

[113] Nicolas Camuzat, in the Promptuarium of the sacred antiquities of the diocese of Troyes, folio 363, thus treats in passing of the mentioned monastery of the Premonstratensian order: in the diocese of Troyes "Nor indeed did the same counts suffer to lack the fruit of their exceptional liberality either the monastery of Beaulieu, which had a little before received the monks of the same rule, or the monastery of the Chapel, which the common people call St. Mary of the Chapel 'ad plancas' or of the planks, established at almost the same time (namely in the twelfth century) in the diocese of Troyes." Since, therefore, the translation of those Saints to the diocese of Arezzo was made in the ninth century, and the Counts of Brienne founded the monastery of the Chapel only in the twelfth century, it lies upon the Premonstratensian monks of that place to prove that the sacred heads of those Virgins were already from the ninth century brought into Gaul, or afterward came from the Arezzo treasure to their monastery. But before I attribute these notable relics of SS. Flora and Lucilla to them with certainty, I require ancient and trustworthy witnesses and records of this translation.

[114] At Limoges in Gaul the body of St. Eugenius is exposed to public veneration, and the body of St. Eugenius is alleged to be at Limoges in Gaul. whom some confuse with the present-day St. Eugegius or Eugenius, as I learned from the letters of a certain Frenchman, whose name by chance has been torn away from the rest of the epistle, and who writes thus to our predecessors, after other erudite questions: "The reverend Father A. Girard of the Society of Jesus, in the new and great Legend of the Saints, which he lately published, at the end added some Lives of Saints whose bodies have been translated from the city of Rome to various churches of Gaul, as of St. Marinus the senator and martyr, who is venerated on the 26th of December, and whose body was translated to the Ursulines of Caen in French Normandy in the year 1655. Likewise of St. Theodora, virgin and martyr, of whom in the Acts of St. Alexander the Pope, who is venerated on the 1st of April, and whose body was translated to the same Ursulines at the same time, as may be seen in that Legend. Finally, he has also the Life of St. Eugenius, a certain African king and martyr, at the 29th of July, whose Acts Peter Damian reports in volume 2 of his Works, at the end: and at the end that Father Girard adds that the body of that Eugenius, king and martyr, was found at Rome in the cemetery of Calixtus in the year 1662, and thence translated to the Discalced Carmelites at Limoges in the year 1663, and there solemnly exposed to the veneration of the faithful. That these bodies are those of the Saints whose Acts are extant, I do not easily persuade myself." Nor will we easily bring ourselves to it, as can be sufficiently gathered from the preceding and following.

* read "soror" sister

§ III. The relics of SS. Eugenius, Antoninus, and Theodorus, which are supposed to be in Germany.

The monastery of Ursin in Germany Besides the Italian, Spanish, and French relics of the present-day St. Eugegius or Eugenius, of which we treated in the preceding paragraph, the monastery of Ursin claims the same for itself, whose situation and foundation Bruschius, in Century 1 of the Monasteries of Germany, folio 161 verso, thus describes: "Ursinium, or

(as it is now corruptly called) Irsing, once a castle founded in that very place where today the church of St. Stephen is beheld on a higher hill, but now a most ample and most beautiful monastery of the Benedictine Order and institute, situated a little below the imperial town of Kaufbeuren, not far from the river Wertach, in the midst of the densest woods, was founded and enriched in the year of Christ 1182, in the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, duke of the Swabians and most glorious emperor, by Henry, margrave of Ronsberg, and his sons Godfrey and Berthold and his daughter Irmelgard, buried there in the middle of the church." Corbinian Khamm, in his Hierarchia Augustana, part 3, chapter 13, section 1, page 363, thus more clearly indicates the place of the same monastery from the distance of the neighboring towns: "Ursinum, Ursinium, Irsingum, in the vernacular tongue called Irsen, Irse, an imperial, most ample, and most beautiful monastery, is distant one hour from the imperial town of Kaufbeuren, four from Mindelheim, five from Ottobeuren, and six hours from Landsberg."

[116] according to the letters of the most ample abbot The most ample Lord Placidus, abbot of this monastery, in the year 1670 wrote a most courteous letter to our Papebroch, in which, after honorable mention of our Work, he thus proceeds: "But since I too, for my monastery, obtained a few years ago the whole body of St. Eugenius, king and martyr, brought from Rome, which is now held in great veneration, and since I have certain documents concerning his Life and translation, as the enclosed little books will show, I would wish and ask that Your Reverence would insert this St. Eugenius also, if it can still be done, and if it shall so seem good, into your Calendar at the 29th of July: but you will be able, if the cited authors shall not seem sufficiently trustworthy, to add, subtract, augment, diminish, change, as shall please. However it may be concerning the authority of those who write his Life, this nevertheless is certain, which is written concerning his finding and translation. I could also relate certain benefits conferred by him upon the sick, which, since they are not yet approved, I omit."

[117] and a German booklet That most kindly abbot indeed permits doubt to be entertained concerning the truth of the Acts, and grants us too great a license of augmenting, diminishing, and changing them; but he supposes that that St. Eugenius does not differ from the present-day Martyr of this name. This appears more manifestly from the German booklet which the same abbot joined to his letter, and in which, after the vulgar synopsis of the Acts, the solemnity of the translation is adorned with German verses, a musical choir, and other ornaments of that kind. To this booklet is also prefixed an image which adorns St. Eugenius with a crown, a scepter, and royal garments, and represents him as the glorious patron of the monastery of Ursin. Below that effigy, engraved on copper, are read the following: "St. Eugenius, king and martyr, having suffered at Rome in the year 262, was there, by command of the most holy Pope Alexander VII, in the year 1666, together with St. Antoninus his companion in martyrdom, dug up from the cemetery of Priscilla by the most reverend and most illustrious archbishop Ottaviano Carafa, and thence at last, in the year 1668, solemnly translated into the imperial monastery of Ursin of the Order of St. Benedict, under the most reverend Lord abbot Placidus." From these things the common persuasion of those monks is sufficiently understood.

[118] For the rest, we, according to the desire of the most reverend abbot, in no way doubt of the true relics of some St. Eugenius, claims for itself the body of the present-day St. Eugenius, translated to the monastery of Ursin, since the finding, translation, and lawful veneration of those relics are proved in the same booklet by legitimate instruments; but besides the similarity of the name we see no foundation for believing that these relics pertain to St. Eugenius the martyr, who on this day is reported in the Roman Martyrology. But if this similarity of name suffice to assert that, we shall be able, on the same foundation, to contend that the body of St. Eugenius the king is preserved in the Professed House of Antwerp of our Society, since we have received a martyr of that name from the Roman crypts, and expose him to public veneration with lawful license. Meanwhile none of us persuades himself of this; but we venerate his sacred relics as those of a true martyr, whose deeds we are ignorant of.

[119] The monastery of Engelberg, which is situated among the mountains of Uri and Unterwalden in Switzerland, and in the Swiss monastery of Engelberg a martyr of the same name would, by the same right, believe to pertain to St. Eugenius the king the body of St. Eugenius the martyr, received from Rome, concerning which the reverend Lord Ignatius, abbot of the same monastery, thus writes to our predecessors: "A few years ago there was brought to our mountains from Rome an exceptional pledge of divine favor, namely the sacred body of the holy martyr Eugenius, which, by the mandate of the most holy lord Alexander VII, was extracted from the cemetery of St. Cyriaca together with ten other sacred bodies (the stone of his very tomb being engraved with a palm and the name S. EUGENIUS M.), given by the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Marcello Anania, at that time vice-gerent of the most eminent Lord Mario Cardinal Ginetti, vicar general, in the year of the Lord 1655, to the most noble Lord Tommaso Candido of Venice, knight of the golden militia, with the faculty of exposing it to public veneration in any church; and by the same knight Lord Tommaso, on the last of May in the year 1660, transmitted to the most reverend and most ample Lord Ignatius, abbot of the aforesaid monastery of Engelberg and absolute lord of the valley, in a wooden chest well fortified with the seals of the most eminent Lord Cardinal vicar and of his vice-gerent; and to the same most reverend Lord abbot, on the 29th of June in the year 1660, through the honored man Oswald Zelger of Unterwalden, presented and consigned into his hands with solemn rite in a public place appointed for this."

[120] Which afterward, carried in a most devout procession into the church of the said monastery, affords prodigious benefits and exposed to public veneration in the chapel of the holy princes of the Apostles Peter and Paul, at the first time it could be done, was placed upon an altar recently built, at great expense, in his honor by the aforesaid most reverend Lord abbot Ignatius, the parts of the sacred body being first joined among themselves by an artful bond, and notably adorned with embroidered work, in the form of one gently reclining. And indeed the splendor or the fame of so great a star at once excited great devotion both of the inhabitants and a great concourse and frequency of strangers through pathless and out-of-the-way places, nay, through the steeps of the mountains; while presently to sound bodies health of soul, but to the sick also cure of their bodies, was imparted, so that, within the last three lustra and more, the miracles rightly proved by the legitimate attestation of trustworthy witnesses easily exceed the number of seven hundred. Certainly the prodigious beneficence of this Martyr Andreas Kuster, on the second day after the coming of the sacred body—one of the vassals of our territory, the chief officer of the most reverend Lord abbot, whom they call the "amman," more than sixty years old, a man of notable experience and prudence both in war and in peace—experienced. He, from a malignant disease with which he had for some time been dangerously bedridden, unbecomingly limping, imploring aid from the holy Martyr with the humblest prayers, on the next day obtained sudden and lasting soundness.

[121] with many piously visiting his relics. There were (that I may prudently pass over the complete cures of various languors of the body) men and women who, having for a long time, through enormous crimes, and, what is graver, through sacrilegious confessions, dragged wretched and utterly contaminated souls in a body otherwise sound, a vow being made to St. Eugenius, happily washed away their stains no more by confession than by tears. Certainly the highest and the lowest alike proclaim Eugenius a great friend of God, a holy and glorious martyr. And indeed that his death was precious in the sight of the Lord, who made his sepulchre so glorious, even this, besides the more frequent miracles, can be a proof—the whole and so great abundance of sacred votive offerings hung up in the region of his chapel—so that, what we have already often experienced, and piously hope we shall forever experience, we deservedly more frequently sing in solemn commemoration: "In His servant, the holy martyr Eugenius, God will console us. Amen." These things I have wished to relate more fully, that all may understand that the relics of unknown Saints, on account of frequent miracles or the celebrated cult of them, are not to be ascribed to the more known Saints of the same name: for the monks of Ursin will not easily grant the body of St. Eugenius, king and martyr, to those of Engelberg, although among these latter more and more illustrious miracles are wrought. We consider that for both nothing stands but the bare name of the same martyr.

[122] The Cistercian nuns in Bavaria think The monastery of Cistercian nuns in Lower Bavaria, which is commonly called Happy Valley, or in the vernacular Seligenthal, and concerning which Caspar Jongelin, in the Notitia of the abbeys of the Cistercian Order, book 3, page 21, can be consulted, in the year 1668 received from the Roman crypts the body of St. Antoninus the martyr, and in that place very many think that that St. Antoninus is of the present-day number of Martyrs: for in a certain German booklet, which was published at Munich in the year 1669, the vulgar Acts of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and their companions are related from Peter Equilinus, and St. Antoninus is described as a tender, beautiful, and noble Roman youth, and is especially brought upon the stage speaking with the prefect Helius, even though in those Acts of Peter Equilinus no word is made of all these things, but only the name of St. Antoninus is expressed.

[123] The same German booklet, page 15 and following, asserts that St. Antoninus and the other companions of the martyrdom were buried by the Christians in the church of St. Sebastian outside the city of Rome, on the Appian Way, in the cemetery of Calixtus, that the body of the present-day St. Antoninus has been translated to them, and that in that place the body of that Martyr rested for one thousand four hundred four years, ten months, and twenty-two days, until Pope Alexander VII permitted it to be extracted from those crypts, which was then solemnly translated to the Cistercian nuns; but the body of St. Eugenius the king, then drawn from the same crypt, was honorably placed in the monastery of Ursin of the Benedictine order, as authentic instruments testify. I do not know by what authority or show of probability the author of that booklet assigned this place of burial to SS. Antoninus and Eugenius the king.

[124] I will not here oppose to him Peter Damian, who affirms that the bodies of SS. Flora, Lucilla, and Eugegius the king were first buried in the suburb of Ostia. to which opinion some difficulty is opposed. But he contradicts the very authentic instruments of the monastery of Ursin, to which nevertheless he appeals: for the reverend Father John Lawrence of St. Andrew, procurator general of the Discalced Carmelites, in the year 1667, in a letter which the monks of Ursin published among the authentic testimonies of the translation at the end of their German booklet, thus writes: "The cemetery from which the two bodies of the holy martyrs Eugenius and Antoninus were extracted was that of Priscilla, which was not expressed in their authentic letters, because the said authentic letters were derived from an original containing the authentic general attestation of all the bodies which were extracted on the same day from the cemeteries: nevertheless in the particular little chests the cemeteries of each are marked when they are dug out, of all which I myself am a witness, who, being present sometimes at the said digging for devotion's sake, saw the aforesaid two bodies extracted together from the same place, buried under the same stone, with their own proper names."

But the cemetery of Priscilla is far different from the cemetery of Calixtus. How, then, can the Cistercian nuns affirm that the body of their St. Antoninus was drawn from the cemetery of Calixtus? Let them reconcile these things among themselves, if they can. We meanwhile proceed to another Martyr of the same band, whom some suppose to have been translated into Germany.

[125] Simon Mayr, priest of our Society, wrote thus to our Janning from Augsburg in the year 1694: The body of the present-day St. Theodorus at Augsburg "There was lately sent to us from Rome the body of St. Theodorus the martyr, together with authentic letters, and given to the church of our Society here at Augsburg; and now, as far as our strength allows, the sacred bones are being adorned, that they may be exposed to the public veneration of the faithful, to which end we think also of publishing in print a brief epitome of the life, death, and martyrdom of the same holy Martyr, that we may satisfy the pious studies and vows of the Catholics. We ask, therefore, Your Reverence that, if any monuments concerning this holy Martyr exist, you would take care to have them transcribed, even in a few words, and deign to communicate them to us: concerning his life, I say, his nation, age, condition, death, and kind of martyrdom, if however antiquity has left anything noted concerning these. But I fear whether anything exists. But since there are several holy Martyrs of this name, that no doubt may be left concerning our sacred pledge, it has been written to us from Rome that they are the relics of St. Theodorus the martyr, whose memory is celebrated in the Roman Martyrology at the 29th of July." I inquired in Baronius concerning this Saint at the year of Christ 262, volume 2, folio 617, but besides the name and the death I found scarcely anything. And so, if Your Reverence shall find any further document, I beseech you, deign to write it to us, when you have leisure.

[126] Janning answered these letters, that the name of Theodorus was recently given to that sacred Martyr's body, and it is thought to be preserved at Milan. and that the 29th of July seemed to be assigned to his cult only for convenience' sake; but for the rest, that concerning St. Theodorus, who is mentioned on the 29th of July, nothing certain exists besides the name, which, with the others who suffered after the holy virgins Flora and Lucilla, is recounted. We have nothing to add to this judgment of Janning except another St. Theodorus, whom Pietro Paolo Bosca, in his Milanese Martyrology, at the same 29th of July, thus announces: "At Rome, of St. Theodorus, whose body is religiously preserved at Milan in the church of the Conception of the Capuchin fathers." But in the notes he says that he received this notice from the archive of the Capuchin Fathers, who today perform the Office with a double rite of St. Theodorus. Whether that St. Theodorus is of the present-day band of Martyrs, I leave to others to investigate.

[127] Reasons are suggested Let no one here say to us (this I have sometimes heard objected by indiscreet and ruder Catholics) that by a critical examination of this kind the devotion of the people toward the sacred relics is diminished, since the common folk desire to know the deeds of those Saints whom they venerate. But we answer that the cult of the Saints, which ought to rest upon truth, is not to be augmented by a false persuasion of the people. But if the fervor of some grows cold, because they understand that that Saint is unknown, it is the part of the preachers to meet that plebeian error, and to exhort their hearers to the true and solid veneration of the sacred relics. Let them teach them that through the intercession of unknown Martyrs sometimes more benefits are granted, when their help is implored with a living faith. An example can be St. Eugenius, who is venerated in the monastery of Engelberg, and by whose invocation more than seven hundred miracles have happened, as we related above, no. 120, from the testimony of the most ample abbot. Let them narrate the terrible punishment of the sacristan who, despising the relics of a certain Saint unknown to him, was so chastised by the Saint himself appearing, that on the next day he died, as in our work, at the 26th of May, volume 6 of the same month, page 440, is related from trustworthy testimonies.

[128] But if the preacher wishes to propose to the people more ancient examples of this or a similar matter, and examples, let him go to the Life of St. Gregory the Great, which is illustrated in our work at the 12th of March, and there, in volume 2 of the same month, page 154, he will find that miracles were wrought through cloths which had only been applied to the bodies of the Saints. Hence the same St. Gregory the Pope, to the empress Constantia, asking for relics of St. Paul the Apostle, in book 3, epistle 30, after other things, thus answers: "But let the most tranquil lady know that it is not the custom of the Romans, when they give relics of the Saints, to presume to touch anything of the body; but only a brandeum a cloth is put in a pyx, and placed at the most sacred bodies of the Saints: which, being taken up, is laid up with due veneration in the church which is to be dedicated, and so great virtues are wrought through it in that place as if their bodies were specially brought thither. Whence it happened that, in the times of Pope Leo of blessed memory, as is handed down from our forefathers, when certain Greeks doubted of such relics, the aforesaid Pontiff, scissors being brought, cut this very brandeum, and from that very cutting blood flowed out."

[129] with which the people Also of these cloths or brandea, consecrated by the touch of the holy bodies, is St. Gregory to be understood, when in book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 38, he brings in Peter thus interrogating: "What shall we say is the reason that, even in the very patronages of the Martyrs, we perceive it to be so, that they show not so great benefits through their own bodies as through their relics, and there work greater signs where they by no means lie by themselves?" But then St. Gregory there thus answers Peter interrogating: "Where the holy Martyrs lie in their own bodies, there is no doubt, Peter, that they can show many signs, as indeed they do, and to those seeking with a pure mind they show innumerable miracles. But because it can be doubted by weak minds whether they are present to hear there where it is established that they are not in their own bodies, there it is necessary that they should show greater signs, where the weak mind can doubt of their presence. But those whose mind is fixed in God have so much the greater merit of faith, as they know that they there both do not lie in body and yet are not wanting in hearing."

[130] These and similar examples, of which a diligent preacher will easily find more, may be excited to the cult of unknown Martyrs. supply matter for exciting the people to implore with great confidence the patronage even of unknown Martyrs: for if through brandea or linens, applied to the bodies of the holy Martyrs, prodigious benefits are granted to the faithful, how much more are they conferred through the very bones of the holy Martyrs, of whose truth there is in no way to be doubt, since bodies of such Martyrs are not transferred from the Roman crypts to other regions before they have undergone a severe examination, and certain signs of martyrdom have been found in their tombs, as may be seen in Marcantonio Boldetti, in the Observations on the cemeteries of the holy Martyrs, published at Rome in the year 1720 in Italian. For the rest, I have wished to discuss these things more accurately, that by the same labor I might refute the lies of the heretics, who calumniate us, as though without any rules of prudence we eagerly seize and venerate as sacred any bones that come to hand. Meanwhile let the Catholics, despising their calumnies, continue, according to the custom of their forefathers, piously to venerate the Saints, and pursue the relics even of unknown Martyrs with due veneration.