ON STS. ABDON AND SENNEN, MARTYRS.
AT ROME.
UNDER DECIUS.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Abdon, Martyr at Rome (St.)
Sennen, Martyr at Rome (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
§ I. The ancient cult of these Martyrs from various monuments.
The very great antiquity of the veneration of these Martyrs is sufficiently indicated by the Calendar of the Roman Church, which, drawn up about the middle of the fourth century, our Ægidius Bucherius inserted into his Commentary on the Paschal canon of Victorius of Aquitaine, The immemorial cult is proved from images, and which there, on page 268, reads thus: On the third day before the Kalends of August, Abdon and Sennen in the cemetery of Pontianus, which is at the Bear Wearing a Cap (ad Ursum pileatum). Paulus Aringhus, in the first volume of his Rome Underground, book 2, chapter 22, testifies that ancient images of our Martyrs were found in this cemetery of Pontianus by Antonio Bosio among other ancient monuments, and he there reproduces them on page 383. We here present the same images, drawn from his work and faithfully engraved in copper according to the prototype.
[2] The aforesaid Aringhus, in the place cited, page 376, discourses thus concerning this monument: At Rome in the cemetery of Pontianus At length, with wondrous and inexpressible exultation of soul, the sepulchre of the holy martyrs Abdon and Sennen—long sought after and most earnestly desired by Bosio—offered itself of its own accord to be contemplated. There stood a brick sarcophagus, seven and a half palms in length, four in height, and as many in depth, on whose front face a certain painting displayed Christ the Redeemer surrounded by a cloud, who with both hands crowns the unconquered martyrs Abdon and Sennen, there painted with equal skill and marked with their own names. Now these most illustrious Martyrs are there represented standing, and besides the diadem, which is the noble emblem of sanctity, they wear a certain little cap placed upon the head after the manner of the Persians.
[3] Furthermore, on the same sarcophagus, beside Saint Abdon there is also seen placed the image of blessed Milis, together with those found there, clothed, as we have already said, in lay garb; and beside Saint Sennen there is the image of Blessed Vincent the Levite, who is adorned, after the custom, with ecclesiastical vestments. On the rim of the same sarcophagus, that an inscription had been placed, its traces—now utterly consumed by excessive age—indicated; but at the beginning of that inscription these words alone could be read through, namely ONIS DIE, which, by conjecture rather than by explanation, it will here be permitted us for the present to set down and reckon, namely that the sense of the words is DEPOSITIONIS or TRANSLATIONIS DIE (on the day of the deposition or translation): referring these indeed to the time when the sacred bodies of the blessed Martyrs were there deposited, or at least translated. Those matters which Aringhus there disputes concerning the associated Martyrs are not of this place. For the rest, at what time the bodies of Sts. Abdon and Sennen were brought into this cemetery, we shall indicate hereafter on another occasion.
[4] Florentinius, in the notes to his Martyrology, rightly observes on this day and from the ancient Martyrologies that the most celebrated holy martyrs Abdon and Sennen received veneration at Rome from the most ancient time, and were noted in all the Martyrologies of the Western Church: for besides the monuments of antiquity already related, the most ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, the Calendars of Allatius and Fronto, and the Sacramentaries edited by Menard and Thomasius celebrate these same Saints. Add to these Bede, Florus, the author of the Little Roman Martyrology, Rabanus, Ado, Usuard, Notker, and Wandelbert, of whom the last sings thus on this day in his metrical Martyrology:
The third [day] designates the holy Abdon and Zennen, whom Persia gave to the realm of Rome from its own stock.
I judge that there is no need here to heap together the individual texts of those Martyrologists, since the immemorial cult of those Martyrs is abundantly established, and the longer announcement of Ado, or rather an epitome of the Acts, is to be exhibited hereafter.
[5] Wherefore I shall bring forward only the shorter announcement of Usuard, and a difficulty is proposed concerning the city which indicates the nobility of these Saints, the place of their captivity, and the manner of their martyrdom thus: At Rome, the birthday of the holy subordinate kings (subreguli) Abdon and Sennes, who, when they were suffering the bonds of the Persians in the city of Cordula under Decius, at last he led to Rome bound in chains, and, after they had been worn down with various punishments, there first they were beaten with leaded scourges and then slain with the sword. Similar things are narrated in their common Acts, from which these things were probably excerpted, as we shall see hereafter. Meanwhile the city of Cordula here gives us trouble, which is also written Corduba, Cerduba, Corduena, Cerduna, and in other ways, as has been observed on this day in our annotated Usuard. We here take no heed of Panciroli, who in his Hidden Treasures of the City of Rome, page 837, forces upon us Cordova in Spain.
[6] The most eminent Baronius, in his notes to the Roman Martyrology on the fifteenth and twenty-second of April, thinks in which these holy Martyrs are said to have been taken captive that what is indicated is Corduena, of which Ammianus Marcellinus makes mention, and which the cosmographer Æthicus calls Cordubenna; where he treats of the river Tigris. Ammianus Marcellinus indeed, in treating of the Persian war, book 24, chapter 8, names Corduena; but the Leiden edition of the year 1693 notes there that in a manuscript codex Cordua is read. Moreover Maurolycus supplies us with another ground for doubt, when on this day he affirms in his Martyrology that Sts. Abdon and Sennen suffered their bonds in the city of Chorodna of the Persians. Indeed I confess that Chorodna—by others Chorodra—is reckoned by Ptolemy in book 6 of his Geography, chapter 4, among the cities of Persia; but I do not know by what authority Maurolycus substituted that name for the others mentioned above, and I doubt whether Chorodna differs from Corduena and similar names of the same city. Therefore we gladly yield the place to those willing to dispel these shadows, and we proceed to confirming the cult of our Martyrs.
[7] The veneration of these Saints spread from the city of Rome That in ancient times a church was founded at Rome in honor of those Martyrs is sufficiently evident from Anastasius the Librarian, who in the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs, chapter 97, relates thus concerning Pope Hadrian I: The church of Saint Felix, situated outside the Portuensian gate, he restored anew: and at the same time he likewise renovated the basilica of the holy Abdon and Sennen and of blessed Candida, together with the other cemeteries of the Saints, in the same manner. Hence I gather that that basilica of Sts. Abdon and Sennen had already long existed, since it had to be restored in the eighth century. In the following century Pope Nicholas I renovated the collapsed cemetery of the same Martyrs, as the same Anastasius narrates in chapter 107 in these words: This benign Pastor also renovated the cemetery of blessed Felix the martyr, and the confession, on the Portuensian way: and also the cemetery on the same way at the Bear Wearing a Cap, where the bodies of the holy martyrs of Christ Abdon and Sennen rested, now laid in ruins, he restored with fair and wondrous honor.
[8] into Gaul Nor did this veneration halt within the city of Rome; but already for several centuries it passed into Gaul, where it still persists, as our Simon Mothier testifies in his notes to the Roman Martyrology: for there, after other matters, he asserts that these two Martyrs are invoked in various places of that kingdom for the preservation of the fruits of the earth, and especially that they are celebrated at Ernodorum or Exeludunum in the province of Bourges (in the vernacular it is called Issoudun) with a great concourse of people. Nicholas Catherinot, in his Sanctuary of Bourges, teaches that these same Saints are patrons of the church commonly called Givaudins, otherwise Javaldapns and Javaudains, and that their patronage is commonly implored against hail. Simon de Peyronet, in the alphabetical Catalogue of Saints, men and women, which was published at Toulouse in the year 1706 after his death, notes thus concerning St. Abdon, among other things: He has a parish sacred to him in this our diocese of Toulouse, where in the vernacular he is called s. DON by the natives. By what means the cult of these same Martyrs was propagated into other cities of Gaul and Italy will be easily understood when we treat of the relics and of the various translations of the sacred bodies.
[9] and Mount Lebanon Indeed the Catholic cult of these Martyrs (I know not on what occasion or at what time) passed over into the East, as Franciscus Quaresmius testifies in the second volume of his Holy Land, book 7, pilgrimage 7, chapter 7, in these words: Far from Canobin, about three miles, is a village quite fertile and pleasant, abounding in olives, figs, walnuts, and other trees, and watered with waters; where there are many houses and some churches: and there is there one archiepiscopal church dedicated to Saint Sergius, and the see of the Maronite archbishop of Mount Lebanon, which is called Eden, perhaps on account of its pleasantness and delights: for Eden is interpreted "delights."
[10] Above it is a chapel dedicated to the holy martyrs Abdon and Sennen, it was propagated. which the Maronites call ABDA: on whose feast day (which they make movable, and which they celebrate on the first Sunday of May), when Mass is celebrated, a spring of living water flows forth beneath the altar; and when the venerable sacrament is elevated, it flows more abundantly, and after some days it dries up: and thus, when the circle of the year has been completed, it flows in like manner at the same time, and after the Gregorian Calendar and the change of ten days made, it likewise bestows its waters on the first Sunday of May. Thus I understood from the archbishop of Eden and from others who saw it. At Paris, in the year 1722, D. De la Roque published in French his Hodœporicon of Syria and Mount Lebanon,
in which, as an eyewitness, he affirms in volume 1, page 197, that these two Persian Martyrs are honored with great devotion by the Maronites at Eden. Nor is the wondrous gushing-forth of that spring to be doubted, which Quaresmius learned from the trustworthy inhabitants, even though D. de la Roque made no mention of it there, perhaps because, on account of his brief stay in that place, he heard nothing of it.
Notes* read positum ("laid")
§ II. Difficulties concerning the truth of the Acts, and certain conjectures about them.
Would that the truth of the Acts stood as firmly established as the lawful veneration of these Martyrs! Various Manuscript Acts, We have in our manuscript codices and in other copies various exemplars of these Acts, which nevertheless are in need of correction, as with the most eminent Baronius, in his notes to the Roman Martyrology on this day, we are compelled to confess. In Surius they are read inserted into the Acts of Laurence on the tenth day of August. In our codex, marked P Ms. 155, there are prefixed to them the Acts of St. Polychronius and of other Persian martyrs, of whom we have treated on the seventeenth of February and the twenty-second of April. Mombritius in his first volume, and Petrus de Natalibus in book 6, chapter 158, published them separately; with which our Vaucelles codex P Ms. 157, the Fulda copy, and the Saint-Omer copy so agree that they do not differ concerning the substance of the matter.
[12] We do not know by what author or in what century all these things were written. which seem to have been composed after the age of Constantine the Great But everywhere at the end of the Acts these or similar things are read: The bodies lay, after the example of the Christians, three days. After the three days there came a certain Quirinus, a Christian subdeacon, who dwelt there beside the amphitheater, and by night gathered the bodies and laid them away in a leaden chest in his own house on the third day before the Kalends of August. But afterward the bodies of the holy martyrs Abdon and Sennes lay hidden for many years, until the times of Constantine, who were by then Christians. And then the holy bodies were taken up and translated into the cemetery of Pontianus. If that Quirinus laid away the bodies of these Martyrs in his own house three days after the glorious contest had been accomplished, how is it that in the Bucherian Calendar and in other most ancient records their martyrdom is marked on the third day before the Kalends of August? But however these things may stand, at least from this concluding clause we not improbably gather that the writer of the Acts lived after the times of Constantine the Great.
[13] From another source, however, it is evident that these same Acts were written before the ninth century, and before the ninth century since Ado in his Martyrology abridged them thus: At Rome, the birthday of Abdon and Sennes, subordinate kings, under the emperor Decius: whom Decius ordered to be presented to him in the city of Cordula of the Persians; and to whom he said: Have you become so foolish that you do not remember that, because you do not worship the gods, you have been delivered into the hands of the Romans and into ours? To whom blessed Abdon replied: Rather have we been made victors, by the favor of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who reigns forever. Therefore, by Decius's command, bound with chains they were shut up in close custody. Then Abdon said to Sennon: Behold the glory which we have always hoped for. After four months Decius, coming to Rome and bringing with him the blessed Abdon and Sennen bound with chains, ordered the whole senate to be convoked, and held an assembly at the Telluda with Valerian the prefect on the fifth day before the Kalends of August, and ordered Abdon and Sennen, worn down with various punishments, to be presented to him. And he said to the senate: The gods and goddesses have delivered most ferocious enemies into our hands. Behold the enemies of the Republic and of the Roman empire.
[14] as is evident from Ado's epitome, And they were brought in, adorned with gold and precious stones, bound with chains; and the whole senate began to marvel at their appearance. And when they steadfastly confessed Christ in their sight, Decius, angered, ordered Valerian the prefect that, if they did not adore the god Sun, they should perish by the bites of wild beasts. He stripped them and led them before the image of the Sun beside the amphitheater, that they might sacrifice. But they, holding it in contempt, spat upon the image of the Sun. Then Valerian ordered that they be beaten with leaded scourges. Then, having been brought into the amphitheater, two lions and four bears were let loose upon them, which, roaring, came to the feet of the Saints, and in no way departing, guarded them. But Valerian, full of fury, ordered gladiators to enter and to slay the blessed subordinate kings, and to bind their feet, and to cast them before the image of the Sun, where the bodies of the Saints lay three days. After the three days there came a certain Quirinus, a Christian subdeacon, who dwelt beside the amphitheater, and by night gathered the bodies and laid them away in a leaden chest in his own house on the third day before the Kalends of August, where they lay hidden until the times of Constantine. Then the blessed Martyrs, revealing themselves, were taken up and translated into the cemetery of Pontianus. Whoever shall wish to compare this epitome with the Acts, to be exhibited after this commentary, will not be able prudently to doubt that Ado had the same Acts, or ones altogether similar, before his eyes.
[15] according to Baronius they are somewhat corrupted, Now perhaps someone will ask what we judge concerning these Acts. Since we always desire to defend the Acts of illustrious Martyrs, as long as it can be done with the truth unharmed, we prefer to express this judgment in the words of another rather than in our own. The most eminent Baronius confesses that these Acts are somewhat corrupted, when in his Ecclesiastical Annals, at the year of Christ 254, number 27, he writes thus concerning these and other Persian Martyrs: Decius abused the victory which he had obtained over the Persians by the aid of a Christian man: for, ascribing it as owed to the gods, he took the more bitter vengeance upon the Christians who despised them, slaying those who had fallen into his hands—the Persian Christians: Polychronius bishop of Babylon; the presbyters Parmenius, Elimas, and Chrysotelus; the deacons Luke and Mucius; and the most noble men Maximus and Olympiades; and at last, after long imprisonment, the subordinate kings Abdon and Sennen. Their Acts are extant, but somewhat corrupted.
[16] which corruption certain critics Certain more severe critics do not acquiesce in these statements of Baronius, but contend that the Persian expedition of the emperor Decius, on which all these things rest, was fabricated. Hear among them the most eminent Norisius, who in his third Dissertation on the epochs of the Syro-Macedonians, chapter 10, reasons thus concerning this matter: Moreover, that expedition of Decius against the Persians was carried into the Ecclesiastical Annals from the Acts which are prefixed to the narrative of the martyrdom of St. Laurence, which nevertheless are said by that most erudite Baronius himself, in the place praised, number XXVII, to be somewhat corrupted, and which in the notes to the Martyrology on the thirtieth day of July he confesses to be in need of correction. At the beginning of the Acts, chapter 1, it is said that Decius, having conquered the Persians in battle, recovered Babylon, Bactriana, and Assyria, and ordered a temple to be built to Saturn at Babylon; and when this was completed, Polychronius bishop of Babylon, refusing to pour libations to the gods there, was put to death, the clergy of the same church being dragged into the city of Cordova and there afterward slain.
[17] It is added that Decius led Abdon and Sennen, the subordinate kings of the Persians, from Persia to Rome, make greater, and ordered them to be slain on account of the worship of Christ, to whom within a few days he added as companions the holy Pope Sixtus and Laurence. Finally it is said that Decius, seized by a demon, breathed forth his soul at Rome amid torments; all of which are plainly fabulous: for Sextus Rufus in his Breviary, accurately recounting the wars waged by the Romans with the Persians, adds to the war successfully conducted against them by Gordian another afterward unsuccessfully waged against them by Valerian; which same things Eutropius likewise writes in book IX, so that nowhere is any expedition of Decius against the Persians to be read.
[18] Then from the letters of St. Cyprian and other ancient writers he endeavors to prove while they deny the Persian expedition of the emperor Decius, that Decius, who reigned at the most two years and some months, remained at Rome until the year of Christ 251, when he set out into Macedonia or the neighboring regions against Priscus, the rival for the empire, and against the Goths who favored him, where, conquered by the enemy, he fell. At last Norisius, after these arguments, concludes thus: Therefore that expedition of Decius against the Persians, narrated in the said Acts, is fictitious; as also Pope Sixtus and Laurence are there wrongly said to be martyrs slain under Decius, who were put to death while the emperor Valerian reigned; as it is also false that Decius breathed forth his savage soul at Rome, since he—as, with the others agreeing, the emperor Constantine says in his oration to the Assembly of the Saints, chapter 24—perished laid low on the Scythian plains together with his whole army.
[19] According to this judgment of Norisius and of others it would follow from which judgment it would follow that we can safely affirm nothing concerning these Martyrs, except what Florus in the Arras and Tournai codex, before the second volume of March, page XXVII, relates concerning them thus: At Rome, the passion of the holy Abdon and Sennes, who CAME from Persia to Rome, and, under the emperor Decius worn down with various punishments, at last were slain with the sword. Note that Florus does not say that those Martyrs were led to Rome by Decius, but speaks as if they came to Rome of their own accord, and there, having been detected by the heathen, underwent martyrdom under the emperor Decius. Nor is that Roman pilgrimage, undertaken by Persian Christians, without example: for we read in Florus, Ado, and Usuard that certain Persians came to Rome for the sake of prayer, among whom the last, on the twentieth day of January, has this: On the Cornelian way, of the holy martyrs Marius and Martha with their sons Audifax and Abacuc, nobles from Persia, who had come to Rome for prayer in the time of the emperor Claudius: of whom, after they had endured cudgels, the rack, fire, hooks, and the cutting off of the hands, Martha was killed at the Nympha, the rest were beheaded, and their bodies were burned.
[20] Hence it would also follow that that Persian expedition of Decius was gratuitously devised by the writer of the Acts, that a great part of the Acts is fabricated. so that a fitting occasion might be found by which Sts. Abdon and Sennen might be led from so distant a region to Rome. But then the greatest part of the Acts is false, and the reading of the Roman Breviary collapses, which rests on this foundation, and which to this day we recite thus: Abdon and Sennen, Persians, having been accused under the emperor Decius of having buried in their own estate the bodies of the Christians, which were being cast out unburied, are seized by order of the emperor and ordered to sacrifice to the gods: and when they neglected to do this, and most steadfastly proclaimed Jesus Christ to be God, having been delivered into close custody, Decius, afterward returning to Rome, led them bound in triumph. And when in the city they had been dragged to the images, detesting them they spat upon them. On which account they were cast to bears and lions, which the beasts did not dare to touch. At last butchered with swords, with their feet bound together they were dragged before the image of the Sun; whose bodies, secretly carried off from there, the deacon Quirinus buried in his own dwelling.
[21] Although the writer of the Acts cannot be freed from every error, We candidly confess that here we are at a loss, since we dare not convict the ancient monuments, seen and abridged by Ado, of so great a falsehood, and cannot fully satisfy the contrary arguments of Norisius. Nevertheless we are unwilling to defend all things of the Acts'
circumstances, in which here and there manifest errors are detected. Thus our Acts, in number 2, imply that St. Sixtus, the Roman Pontiff, was seized and put to martyrdom under Decius, whereas nevertheless he suffered under the emperor Valerian, as on the sixth of August it will be able to be shown by solid arguments. There occur also certain other obscure and corrupted matters, which we shall observe in the Notes. But if the writer of the Acts so unskillfully confused the times, he could also easily have mingled together those things which Decius did before and after attaining the empire; concerning which matter we shall now set forth our conjecture to the learned.
[22] nevertheless it can more easily be excused or explained Baronius, in his notes to the Roman Martyrology on the seventeenth of February, warns that the times of Decius, through the scarcity of writers, have remained most obscure, and that only those things concerning him have been made clear which the writings of Christians and the Acts of the holy Martyrs reveal concerning the persecution stirred up by him against the Christians. This warning also holds good for the deeds of Decius before he was raised to the imperial dignity, which are nowhere distinctly set forth among the historians. Nevertheless from Sextus Aurelius Victor, in his Epitome of the life and character of the Roman emperors, we learn that Decius was most ready in arms. The same author, in his Abbreviated History of the Cæsars, indicates that Decius, born of the village of Sirmium, ascended to the empire by the grade of military service. Indeed, that Decius was most skilled in military matters and vigorous in war is sufficiently evident from the fact that the emperor Philip set him, unwilling, over his army, as Zosimus narrates in book 1 of his Histories, who there adds that the empire was conferred upon Decius by the soldiers, because among other things he surpassed Philip in military experience.
[23] if Decius, before undertaking the empire Since therefore Decius was endowed with such great skill in military affairs, it is not improbable that, about the year of Christ 243, he led a certain part of the Roman army in the Persian war under the emperor Gordian, who, though still a youth, by the aid of his generals won various victories over the Persians, as Julius Capitolinus testifies in the Historia Augusta, page 162. Moreover, it is not alien to probability that then some Persians were taken captive by Decius, and their leading men led off to Rome, so that, after the customary manner, they might augment the pomp of the triumph which the Roman senate had already decreed to Gordian, just as the same Capitolinus, in the place just cited, relates in this manner: When these things had been read in the senate, chariots drawn by four elephants were decreed to Gordian, inasmuch as he had conquered the Persians, that he might triumph with a Persian triumph.
[24] with the emperor Gordian Meanwhile Gordian, about to return to Rome with his victorious troops, is slain by the treachery of Philip, who, according to Zosimus book 1, immediately seizes the empire, and, a friendship having been established with Sapor by the intervention of oaths, and the war laid to rest, sets out for Rome. But it could easily have come about that some captive Persians, especially Christians, who had already been led off to Rome, wished to remain of their own accord in that city, both because there they found more Christians, and because they had freer exercise of their religion under the emperor Philip, whom various ancient writers reckon to have been a Christian, and who certainly favored the Christians, as is gathered from St. Dionysius of Alexandria, a contemporary, who in Eusebius, in the Valesian edition, book 6, chapter 41, indicates the death of Philip and the succession of Decius thus: But straightway a change of that reign (namely of Philip), most benign toward us, was announced to us; and a most grievous terror of threats was menacing us. And already there was present the edict of the emperor, namely Decius, who stirred up a terrible persecution against the worshippers of Christ, as the same Saint there describes at greater length.
[25] But now let us suppose that, out of those noble Persians, Sts. Abdon and Sennen, for the aforesaid reasons, remained at Rome until the reign of Decius, obtained a victory in Persia, as we conjecture; who in the year of Christ 249 slew Philip, and, having been made emperor, out of hatred against Philip inflicted persecution upon the Church, as Eusebius says in book 6, chapter 39. It is therefore no wonder if he ordered these Persian Christians, whom some years before he had led from Persia to Rome, to be immediately seized and put to martyrdom. In this way the Acts of St. Polychronius and of the other Persian Martyrs, whom Decius is said to have slain in the East, will be able to be explained: for then, as victor and military commander under Gordian, he could without that fear slay certain priests and clergy, hateful to most of his own countrymen. In this way too our Acts can somehow be reconciled, if only we say that the writer of the Acts mingled together the deeds of Decius the commander and Decius the emperor, just as elsewhere he manifestly confused different times, and places the martyrdom of St. Sixtus the Pope under Valerian the prefect, which ought to be ascribed to the emperor Valerian. This whole conjecture, unless we are mistaken, neither exceeds the limits of probability nor is repugnant to ancient history.
[26] and which conjecture we confirm from coins, Indeed Norisius himself supplies us with material by which we may confirm our conjecture: for in the third Dissertation on the epochs of the Syro-Macedonians he exhibits coins which, in the year of Christ 250, the colony of the Rhesænesians in Mesopotamia struck in honor of the emperor Decius, which colony Gordian, by a victory obtained there against the Persians, rendered most memorable, as Julian the Apostate testifies in the oration in Ammianus Marcellinus, book 23, chapter 5. Norisius raises for himself this scruple concerning those coins: Again another doubt occurs, namely why the Rhesænesians in one and the same year 118 (if you add these 118 years to the 885 years from the founding of the City, or the year of Christ 132, in which the Rhesænesians began their epoch in favor of the emperor Hadrian, you will arrive at the year 1003 from the founding of the City, or the year of Christ 250) stamped so many coins with the image of Decius, and some also with that of Herennia Etruscilla the Augusta, his wife, and likewise of each son of Decius the Cæsar, when hitherto rare coins of that same city representing other Cæsars have been found? Then he reports the opinion of Baronius, who reckons that the emperor Decius waged war against the Persians, and refutes it, as we have seen above from number 16.
[27] Finally Norisius concludes the same Dissertation thus: Therefore so many coins were engraved at Rhesæna in one and the same year, exhibited by Norisius, not because Decius halted there under the pressure of the Persian war; but either because the citizens were adorned with new benefits by the absent emperor; or because some legate of Mesopotamia, perhaps residing at Rhesæna, a Roman colony, saw to the stamping of so many coins in honor of Decius and of the whole Augustan house. But if it was permitted to Norisius to allege these little reasonings of the coin-strikers by conjecture, why will it not be permitted to us to conjecture that the Rhesænesians wished to commemorate the victories, not long before won by Decius, the commander of the troops, over the Persians around their city, so that by this flattery they might court the favor of the new emperor? But lest this conjecture seem devised altogether gratuitously, we shall set forth accurately the very inscriptions and images of the coins.
[28] which at Rhesæna in Mesopotamia Norisius, on the front part of his coin, displays a head wreathed with laurel, in whose circle these Greek characters are read: ΑΥΤ. ΚΑΙ. ΓΑΙ. ΜΕΣ. ΚΥ. ΤΡΑ. ΔΕΚΙΟΣ. ΣΕΒ. That is: IMPERATOR CÆSAR CAJUS MESSIUS QUINTUS TRAJANUS DECIUS AUGUSTUS. On the reverse part of the same coin there is represented a woman with a turreted head, seated upon rocks: she holds ears of grain in her right hand, and leans upon little hills with her left. Above there is seen an eagle, which carries a laurel crown in its beak: below there is a river, out of which someone seems to emerge. The Greek inscription here reads thus: ΣΕΠ. ΡΗΣΑΙΝΗΣΙΩΝ Λ. ΗΙΡ. That is: OF THE SEPTIMIAN RHESÆNESIANS, IN THE YEAR 118, as Norisius explains, who holds those Greek letters ΗΙΡ to be numerals. But others express these last characters a little differently, and take also the letters ΠΡ for the initials of the word ΠΡΩΤΟΣ, that is "first," so that they signify that those coins were struck in the first year of the Decian reign. But it matters nothing here to us, whether they pertain to the first year of Decius, or to the year of Christ 250, as we computed above. For the rest, Anselm Bandurus, in his Coins of the Roman Emperors, volume 1, page 16, notes that the Rhesænesians assumed the name of the Septimians from their founder. On other coins of the same period they call their city the Septimian colony, as we shall now see.
[29] Joannes Tristanus, in volume 2 of the Metallic Empire, page 588 and following, brings forward three other coins of the Rhesænesians, to the honor of Decius, of which, for the sake of brevity, we shall here explain only one. On one side is displayed the head of Decius encircled with a radiate crown, and to the shoulders is attached a military cloak, with this inscription: ΑΥΤ. Κ. Γ. ΜΕ. Κ. ΤΡΑΙΑ. ΔΕΚΙΟ. ΣΕΒ. That is, according to his own explanation: IMPERATOR CÆSAR GNÆUS MESSIUS QUINTUS TRAJANUS DECIUS AUGUSTUS. On the other side of the coin there is represented a woman standing with a modius, holding a patera in her right hand and a horn of plenty (as it is commonly called) in her left. Before her feet, on the right, is a lighted altar, from whose lowest part comes forth a branch of palm. There is seen on the right, in the field, an eagle with wings spread, holding a laurel crown in its beak, and standing upon a branch of palm. Here indeed such an inscription is written around: ΣΕΠ. ΚΟΛ. ΡΗΣΑΙΝΗΣΙΩΝ Λ. ΠΡ. That is, as Tristanus interprets it: THE SEPTIMIAN COLONY OF THE RHESÆNESIANS, IN THE FIRST YEAR.
[30] were struck with the signs of victory. But to what purpose, you will say, are all these things so scrupulously described? What do these effigies pertain to the question? I answer that we conjecture from these images that the Rhesænesians wished by these coins to indicate some victory of Decius: for what else would so many palms and laurels signify, which are also expressed on their other coins? Nor does Bandurus shrink from this our explanation, when in his Coins of the Roman Emperors, volume 1, page 16, he notes thus concerning this latter coin: But the woman expressed on this coin, some think to be Isis, others the genius of the city performing sacred rites for Decius; whence the victory is indicated by the aid of the gods through the palm rising from the bottom of the altar. But if the laurels and palms are signs of a victory obtained, what victory, I ask, did Decius carry off from the enemy in the first year of his reign, or in the year of Christ 250? If therefore these coins, struck in the first year of Decius or in the year of Christ 250, indicate victories obtained by Decius before he undertook the empire, shall we not more probably interpret them of the victory won around Rhesæna against the Persians, which that Roman colony had seen a few years before, and now congratulates Decius, its new emperor? These conjectures we have set forth in order somehow to preserve our Acts, leaving a free judgment concerning them to the learned readers.
§ III. Various relics of these Saints, and their translations.
From the fragment of the Acts and the epitome of Ado adduced above, we know that the bodies of Sts. Abdon and Sennen lay hidden in the house of Quirinus the subdeacon until the times of Constantine the Great, The bodies of these Martyrs, which when they were translated to the cemetery of Pontianus. It is not altogether certain how long those sacred bodies rested in that cemetery: for if we believe certain Acts of St. Zenobius, bishop of Florence, and understand them strictly, that sacred treasure, after the middle
of the fourth century was translated to Florence, since indeed in the Life of St. Zenobius, written by John, archpriest of Arezzo, we read this in Surius on the twenty-fifth of May: But let us return to our Zenobius, to whom Pope Damasus gave as a gift a splendid present, namely TWO BODIES of the holy Abdon and Sennen, as it were a monument for posterity of the mutual friendship between themselves: which bodies Zenobius placed in the greater church, namely of the Holy Savior, under the altar, in a leaden chest.
[32] But the more ancient Acts of St. Zenobius, which we edited on the twenty-fifth of May, are said to have been translated by St. Zenobius, make no mention of those Saints' bodies having been translated. Nevertheless I do not on that account deny that some relics of Sts. Abdon and Sennen are preserved in the church of Florence, since in the year 1584 they were inspected and recognized, as is reported in our work, volume VI of May, page 66, from trustworthy instruments, and where the reliquary is described thus: On the side of that same chest was a little leaden case, soldered and bound fast, in which were found the relics of the holy Crescentius and Eugenius, companions of St. Zenobius, and of Sts. Abdon and Zennen, martyrs, etc. Franciscus Cionacci, in an Italian little work concerning the relics of the metropolitan church of Florence, asserts that the said little case was found within the altar of the Holy Cross with this inscription: Relics of the holy Eugenius and Crescentius, and of Sts. Abdon and Sennen, martyrs, and of other Saints. From this very inscription and from the smallness of the aforesaid little case I gather that John of Arezzo, in the Life of St. Zenobius, after a manner quite usual among hagiologists, wrote the whole for the part, and I judge that the Florentines claim for themselves only some bones of these Martyrs.
[33] This opinion of mine is confirmed by a very old codex of the Vallicellian library, but for the greater part are still preserved at Rome, which in Aringhus, volume 1 of Rome Underground, book 2, chapter 19, page 363, after the burial of the same holy Martyrs in the cemetery of Pontianus has been narrated, adds the following: But afterward Pope Gregory translated them thence within the City into the basilica of St. Mark the Pope, and there placed them honorably; in which place many benefits abound even to the present day. Aringhus there, not without foundation, ascribes this translation to Pope Gregory IV, who restored the church of St. Mark before the middle of the ninth century, and adorned it with various gifts, as Anastasius the Librarian testifies in the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs, chapter 103. Pancirolus, in the Hidden Treasures of the City of Rome, page 837 and following, multiplies those translations and recounts them otherwise; but since he cites no witnesses of his assertion, and agrees with the other Roman writers, who assert that the greater part of those bodies is honored hitherto in the church of St. Mark the Pope with an annual festivity, he ought not to detain us here longer. Add to these William of Malmesbury, who in book 4 of the Deeds of the Kings of the English, chapter 2, writes that in his age Sts. Abdon and Sennen, with other Saints, were preserved in a church near the Portuensian gate. Hence it is evident that St. Zenobius did not translate the whole bodies of these Martyrs to Florence, and that from the Florentines the part is to be taken for the whole; which is also to be judged concerning the other claimants of the same sacred bodies, whom I shall now enumerate.
[34] Jacobus Gualla, in the Sanctuary of Pavia, book 6, chapter 5, after the martyrdom of Sts. Abdon and Sennen has been narrated, adds this: although certain cities of Italy claim the same for themselves. Their venerable bodies, indeed, having been carried from Rome to Pavia, are buried in Santa Maria Nova. Ughellus, in volume 2 of Sacred Italy, in the most recent Venetian edition, column 142, treating of the cathedral church of Parma, writes among other things thus: In it the pious devotion of the Parmesans and ancient memory relate that there rest the bodies of Sts. Herculanus the patron, who at the Roman port on the fifth of September was crowned with martyrdom, John Calybita, Pudentiana, Abdon and Sennen, etc. But Ferrarius, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, on the thirtieth of July, after the epitome of the Acts has been set forth, prudently annotated this: The bodies of these holy Martyrs are kept at Parma in the cathedral church, as the records of that same church teach. The same are thought to rest at Rome in the basilica of St. Mark, and at Pavia in the church of St. Eusebius; which can only be according to a part. Doubtless he would have spoken thus also, if he had seen the diploma of the eleventh century, in which the bodies of the same Martyrs are so roundly attributed to the monks of the Amiata in the diocese of Chiusi, in Ughellus, volume 3 of Sacred Italy, in the edition just mentioned, column 624: On the altar of St. Mark, beneath the columns, his own body, and the bodies of Sts. Abdon and Sennen, and the relics of St. Martin. The same is to be judged concerning the body of St. Abdon, which Ludovicus Vedrianus, in the Monuments of the Saints of Modena, page 121 and following, affirms to be honorably preserved among the Benedictine monks at Modena in the church of St. Peter. Now let us pass to the Gauls, who claim the same sacred bodies for themselves.
[35] An old Breviary of Paris, The monks of St. Medard at Soissons for many centuries so firmly believed that the bodies of Sts. Abdon and Sennen had been carried to their monastery, that this translation was read in the Breviary of Paris of the year 1636, after the synopsis of the Acts, on the thirtieth of July, thus: Whose bodies, secretly carried off from there, the deacon Quirinus buried in his own dwelling; from which afterward, with prodigies flashing forth, they were raised to veneration, and at last were translated into Gaul, and at Soissons, in the sanctuary of the famous church of St. Medard, deposited with much honoring: whence, cast out by the heretics, in the last age now passing, they were impiously burned; but not without a manifestation of divine glory and justice against the sacrilegious, as is more fully narrated in the Martyrology of Gaul.
[36] I suspect that here the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay is assigned, which on the twenty-fourth of March has this: and the Gallican Martyrology, At Soissons, the reception of the relics of the holy Abdon and Sennen, martyrs, which, carried from Rome into Gaul under Louis the Pious, were there in the basilica of St. Medard deposited and long preserved with worthy cult, together with some precious remains of the heavenly ones, until, by the impious fury of the modern heretics, they were cast out from the sanctuary of the aforesaid monastery, and burned in a pyre which those impious ones had kindled in the bosom of the church, together with the bodies of about thirty other Blessed. But not otherwise than incense in fire, they emitted a most sweet odor, whose fragrance the orthodox perceived with extraordinary consolation; but the heretics, on the contrary, were affected by so great a stench thence, that some were compelled to depart in haste. One also, as a sign of the divine vengeance, straightway struck in the throat with a pestilent ulcer, a few hours after, wailing and despairing, was miserably extinguished.
[37] I readily believe that those sacrilegious devastators of sacred things were publicly punished by the just judgment of God; in which the same bodies are related to have rested at Soissons in Gaul, but I marvel that the bodies of Sts. Abdon and Sennen and of other Saints are here in both places so roundly named, as if they had been whole in the Soissons monastery of St. Medard, whereas nevertheless other churches claim for themselves the greatest part of them by a stronger right, and perhaps at Soissons there were slight relics of them. This whole persuasion of the Benedictines of St. Medard rests on a certain narrative, which we once received copied from the manuscript codex of St. Stephen of Besançon, and which afterward Mabillon inserted into the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine order, fourth century, part I, from page 411. Now the title of that narrative is this: Here begins the letter of Odilo to Ingrannus concerning the arrival and reception of the bodies of the holy martyrs Tiburtius, Marcellinus and Peter, Marcellianus and Marcus, Protus and Hyacinthus, Marius and Martha, Audifax and Abacuc, Abdon and Sennes, which is on the day before the Ides of July.
[38] Our Papebroch, in volume 1 of June, from page 206, on the occasion of the translation of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, convicts that letter of fiction, do not seem to rest on a solid foundation. and overthrows it with many arguments. Indeed the very author of the letter sufficiently indicates that in his own time there was doubt concerning these relics, when a little after the beginning he writes thus: Accordingly, because many speak many things concerning the translation of the blessed martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, Marcellianus, Marcus, Protus and Hyacinthus, Marius and Martha, Audifax and Abacuc, Abdon and Sennes, from the city of Rome into Gaul, and either pretend that they themselves do not know the place of their repose, or by negligently pretending enviously deny it, it was worth the effort that both the truth of the ambiguous matter concerning the bodily presence of such great soldiers of Christ should give satisfaction, and the faith of the doubting should advance for the better by believing to the love of the Martyrs. The rest may be seen in Mabillon in the place just cited, who does not seem to have made much of that letter, as will appear from what follows.
[39] The monastery of Arles-sur-Tech, situated in the county of Roussillon not far from the borders of Catalonia at the Pyrenean mountains, The monks of Arles-sur-Tech in Roussillon also boasts that already for many centuries it received the bodies of Sts. Abdon and Sennen from the city of Rome. The most erudite Baluze, in the Appendix to the Marca Hispanica, sets forth for us from an old Arles parchment a quite long and wondrous history of this translation, to which he prefixes such a warning: Since I could not find the time in which Arnulf, abbot of Arles, lived, and therefore it was difficult certainly to define when that translation of the peoples took place; and since I was unwilling to embrace as true those things which are read concerning it in the Spanish Martyrology, where on the thirtieth of July these things are said to have happened in the time of the emperor Charlemagne, I preferred to place that narrative out of order at the end of this appendix, rather than to place it in a spot perhaps not its own.
[40] [have for seven hundred years now ascribed to themselves the bodies of Sts. Abdon and Sennen,] For the rest, that it is ancient is easily gathered from titles 143 and 216 of the same appendix, from which it is established that in the age of Robert and Henry, kings of France, it was believed that the bodies of the holy Abdon and Sennen were kept in the monastery of Arles. On the contrary, in the acts of the consecration of the church of the Holy Savior of Monte Amiata in the diocese of Chiusi, I find that those who performed that consecration in the year 1036 noted that on the altar of St. Martin (each Ughellian edition has "of St. Mark") there had been placed the bodies of the holy Abdon and Sennen … The same the Parmesans think they possess in their cathedral church, as Ughellus relates. The monuments of the monastery of Arles seem to me to be more certain. Then follows the narrative of the translation itself, which we shall append after this Preliminary Commentary to the very Acts of the holy Martyrs.
[41] as is evident from ancient instruments, The instruments which Baluze here cites for the ancient possession of the monastery of Arles are found in the same Appendix of the Marca Hispanica, from columns 948 and 1063, in that work. In the former, which was made in the year of Christ 994, the witnesses are said to have sworn in the church over the holy martyrs Abdon and Sennen, in order to prove the truth of a certain matter. In the other, which was given in the year of Christ 1036, it is read thus:
I, William, by the grace of God count, together with my wife and son, having heard the complaint, place the aforesaid inheritance under the power of the Lord and of Holy Mary of the monastery of Arles, to be possessed wholly by perpetual right: namely also that third part of the aforesaid inheritance which, according to the custom of our land, is owed to me by right, I give to my Lord and to the holy bodies which * rest in the aforesaid monastery, whose glorious names are, namely, Abdon and Sennen, so that they may possess wholly by perpetual right the above-noted third part, so that perpetually, each year, from the produce or from the services and renders, lights may be assiduously kindled before the aforesaid bodies of the Saints. Edmund Martène, in the New Thesaurus of Anecdota, volume 1, column 155, recently published this same latter diploma also, from the Arles autograph.
[42] and Mabillon Mabillon, in the Benedictine Annals, at the year of Christ 796, book 26, number 56, treating of the monastery of Arles, records the same translation of the sacred relics thus: Thither, by Arnulf the abbot, are said to have been translated from the city of Rome the bodies of the holy Abdon and Sennen, dug out from the cemetery of the extramural basilica of St. Laurence: the narrative of which matter, being destitute of chronological notes, is uncertain as to what time it is to be assigned. Nor can this be drawn out from the epitaph of Arnulf the abbot, who is said to have brought these relics from Rome and to have died on the ninth day before the Kalends of November. Here, however, the erudite Baluze skillfully observes that this translation is ancient, as is gathered from the diplomas of Robert and Henry, kings of France, in which it is held for certain that the bodies of the holy Abdon and Sennen were then kept in the monastery of Arles, although the church of the Holy Savior of Monte Amiata in the diocese of Chiusi, and the cathedral church of Parma, boast that they possess them, as also the Soissons monastery of St. Medard. If Mabillon had judged the above-mentioned letter of Odilo to be genuine, he would have said more in favor of the Soissons claim to the bodies of the same Martyrs.
[43] Two Benedictines of the congregation of St. Maur, in their Literary Journey, and two more recent Benedictines confess. which they published at Paris in the year 1717 in French, part 2, page 61, confess that not long ago they found in the monastery of Arles instruments by which it is proved that there, for seven hundred years and more, it was believed that the bodies of Sts. Abdon and Sennen exist there. Moreover, as eyewitnesses they affirm that at the entrance of the church of Arles there is seen a stone sepulchre, in which these holy Martyrs are said formerly to have rested, and that this sepulchre, resting upon four columns so that it does not touch the ground, is found in a prodigious manner always full of water. They add that the people, through a small aperture, dip little linen cloths into this water, so that these may afterward be applied to the sick: from which follows the effect, they say, which their faith deserves.
[44] It now remains for us to give some forewarning concerning the prodigious history of that translation, Concerning the translation of those bodies to the monastery of Arles whose writer and age we do not know. Antonio Vincenzo Domenech, of the Order of Preachers, in the General History of the Saints of Catalonia, on the thirtieth of July, from folio 69 verso, probably from a Latin manuscript of Arles, published in Spanish the miracles which occurred in that translation. To these he adds some more recent ones, which will obtain easier belief from sensible men, since they are not so astonishing, and are rendered more credible by the express circumstances of the matters: for among other things he reports that the abbot of Arles, in the year 1492, was asked by the consuls of Perpignan, in a great calamity of drought, to permit the relics of Sts. Abdon and Sennen to be translated to Perpignan for a time, and that, when these had been devoutly translated thither, straightway an abundant supply of waters was obtained. Then he adds that the citizens of Perpignan in the year 1519 were again affected by a similar benefit, and that the inhabitants of Arles, in excessive drought of the land, often experience the same intercession of the Saints. Finally he narrates that certain sick persons, by the pious invocation of these Martyrs, were suddenly restored to their former health.
[45] Antonio de Yepes, in the General Chronicle of the Order of St. Benedict, volume 3, century 3, folio 266, at the year of Christ 778, judges and concerning certain miracles we give some forewarning. that all these miracles do not have equal certainty, and signifies that that Spanish collection of miracles would have pleased him more, if Antonio Vincenzo Domenech had chosen fewer and better ones from among them. I judge that Yepes so pronounced on account of the more ancient prodigies, which occurred in the translation itself, and which nevertheless are read in the manuscript codex of Arles: for the more recent ones could have been known to the city of Perpignan and to the whole province of Roussillon, and perhaps are there confirmed by authentic testimonies. Whatever the case may be, Antonio Vincenzo Domenech diligently gathered his work from various authors and archives, so that we do not doubt his good faith. Nevertheless, for the reasons alleged above, we cannot agree with him when, on folio 70 of the said work, he says that Arnulf, abbot of Arles, received the whole bodies of the holy kings Abdon and Sennen from the Roman Pontiff. Furthermore, the judgment of Yepes concerning the astonishing miracles we dare neither to approve nor to disapprove. Let the reader himself judge concerning them, to whom now, first, we shall exhibit the Acts of these holy Martyrs, and then the Arles history of the translation.
Notes* read quæ ("which")
THE ACTS
by an anonymous author.
From the Fulda Manuscript, which has been collated with others.
Abdon, Martyr at Rome (St.)
Sennen, Martyr at Rome (St.)
BHL Number: 0006
FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.
Decius the Saints Abdon and Sennen out of Persia From that time Decius began carefully to seek out the Christians, and sent his authority into all Persia b. Then, because lamps that were shining could not be hidden under a bushel, they were set upon a lampstand, that they might give light to all who are in the house of the Lord. Then the pagans came to him and said to him: Behold, those to whom in your victory you gave back their blood gather the bodies of the Christians, and lay them away in their own estate, and neither humble themselves to the gods, nor follow your precepts, that the gods may be honored with sacrifices. Decius said: Who are these profane men? It was said: Abdo and Sennes. In that same hour Decius ordered Abdon and Sennen to be presented to him, who, when they had come before the sight of Decius, he says to them: So have you too become foolish? Or remember this at least, that because you do not worship the gods you have been delivered into the hands of the Romans and into ours. Abdo answered: Rather have we been made victors, by the favor of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, who reigns forever. Decius, angered, said: Do you not know that your life is humbled in my hand? Abdo answered and said: We are humbled before God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who for our salvation deigned to come to earth and to be humbled. Then Decius ordered them to be shut up in close custody, bound with chains. Then Abdo said to Sennen: Behold the glory which we have always hoped for from the Lord c.
[2] he leads to Rome, At the same time it was announced to Decius that Galba d had died: and he proceeds to Rome. Now Decius, coming to Rome after four months and bringing with him the most blessed subordinate kings Abdon and Sennen, bound with chains for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, kept them for a spectacle, because they were noble, for the display of the Romans. Valerian ordered all the Christians to be held and shut up by public authority. At the same time he held the most blessed old man Sixtus, Bishop of the Romans e, with all his clergy, and shut them up in public custody, and they were shut up for many days. Then many Christians came to them, that they might receive from them the blessing of the sacrament: because the time of persecution was pressing; and thus they came into the custody and brought their sons f and their kinsfolk from among the pagans, and they were baptized by the blessed Bishop Sixtus.
[3] Then Decius ordered the whole senate to be convoked; and he held an assembly with Valerian the prefect g on the fifth day before the Kalends of August, and, the arrangement having been made, who, being led into the senate, Decius ordered Abdon and Sennen, the Christian subordinate kings whom he had led from Persia, worn down with various punishments, to be presented to him, and Decius said to the Senate: Let your assembly hear, conscript fathers: the gods and goddesses have delivered most ferocious enemies into our hands: behold the enemies of the republic and of the Roman empire. And they were brought in, adorned with gold and precious stones, bound with chains; and when the whole senate had seen them, they began to marvel at their appearance. For the Lord conferred so great grace upon his Servants, that there was more grief in love for them than fury.
[4] Then Decius ordered Claudius, the pontiff h of the Capitol, to be brought, and the pontiff Claudius carried with him a tripod, and being tried in various ways in vain, and Decius Cæsar says to Abdon and Sennen: Sacrifice to the gods and be subordinate kings of Roman liberty, and possess all our things and the peace of the Roman empire; you shall be increased with riches and resources and honors, and take counsel for your own selves. Abdo and Sennen answered: We, unworthy and sinners, once offered ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ as an offering and sacrifice; not sacrifices to your gods. Decius said: For these the sharpest torments are to be prepared, and Decius ordered fierce bears and lions to be prepared. Abdo and Sennes said: Why do you delay? Do what you think fit: we are secure concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, who is able to destroy all your thoughts and yourself.
[5] On another day they came and announced to Decius that the bears and lions had died in their cages; that they might sacrifice to the gods, but Decius, angered, ordered a show* i to be prepared for him in the amphitheater: and it came to pass that, when they had come to the amphitheater, Decius was unwilling to enter; but he ordered Valerian the prefect, saying: If they do not adore the god Sun, let them perish, torn apart by the bites of the beasts. Then Valerian said to Abdon and Sennen: Take counsel for your birth, and offer incense to the god Sun; but if you do not do this, you shall perish by the bites of the beasts. Abdo and Sennes answered, saying: We have already told you: We adore the Lord Jesus Christ. For to images made by hand we never humble ourselves. In that same hour he stripped them, and, filled with fury, led them before the image of the Sun beside the amphitheater, and commanded the soldiers to compel them to sacrifice. But they, holding it in contempt, spat upon the image, and the most blessed Abdo and Sennes said to Valerian: Now do what you are about to do.
[6] Then Valerian ordered, by the voice of the herald, that they be beaten with leaded scourges, first they are cast to the beasts, which did not harm them, saying: Do not blaspheme the gods: and he ordered them to be brought into the amphitheater, that they might be consumed by the bites of the beasts. And when they had entered, Abdo and Sennes answered in the sight of Valerian, saying: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we enter to the crown, who forbids you, unclean spirit; and, having made the sign of the cross, they entered into the amphitheater; and when they had entered in the sight of Valerian with body bare, yet clothed with the body of Christ, Valerian says: Let two lions and four bears k be let loose: which, when they had been let loose, came roaring to the feet of the Saints
Abdo and Sennes, and in no way departed from their feet, but rather guarded them. Valerian said: Their magic art has appeared; and no one could approach them because of the onslaught of the beasts.
[7] Valerian, full of fury, ordered that gladiators should enter with three prongs l of the gladiators, and at last they are slain with tridents. and should themselves slay them; who, when they had been struck, bound their feet by the command of Valerian, and dragged them, and cast them before the image of the Sun beside the amphitheater, and the bodies lay, after the example of the Christians, three days. After the three days there came a certain Quirinus, a Christian subdeacon, who dwelt there beside the amphitheater, and by night gathered the bodies and laid them away in a leaden chest in his own house on the third day before the Kalends of August m. But afterward the bodies of the holy martyrs Abdo and Sennes lay hidden for many years, until the times of Constantine; concerning which matter it came to pass that, the place being revealed, they found the blessed Martyrs themselves in the times of Constantine, who was by then a Christian. Then the holy bodies were taken up, and translated into the cemetery of Pontianus.
NOTES.
* otherwise "a session"
THE TRANSLATION FROM THE CITY OF ROME TO THE MONASTERY OF ARLES.
From the Arles Manuscript, which Stephen Baluze published in the Appendix to the Marca Hispanica, from column 1449.
Abdon, Martyr at Rome (St.)
Sennen, Martyr at Rome (St.)
BHL Number: 0008
FROM THE PRINTED SOURCES.
CHAPTER I.
A description of the territory of Arles, its calamities, and their remedy sought at Rome by the abbot Arnulf in the relics of the Saints.
For the explanation of those things which are to be said concerning the translation of the bodies of the most blessed martyrs Abdon and Sennen to the place of Arles a, The dwellers of Arles it is to be known that the said place of Arles is situated in a certain valley, through which passes a river which is named by the inhabitants Tech b, in the county of Roussillon c and in the territory of Vallespir d and in the diocese of Elne e, in which is situated a certain monastery of the black monks of the Cluniac Order.
[2] In this valley, therefore, from the reflection of the sun, since hail is thus naturally generated, by storms there was wont, at the time when the fruits of the earth ought to come into the hands of the laborers, to arise storms of hail and lightning to such a degree that neither fruits nor leaves remained in the vineyards, nor in the fields did anything appear except only chaff without grain.
[3] Moreover there was in the said place and valley another storm or pestilence not moderately harsh, since by day and by night there were seen wild and ferocious beasts, and afflicted by other calamities and especially wildcats f and also apes, and likewise many other kinds of wild beasts, which, not fearing the face of man, entered through the places situated in the said valley, and snatched children from their cradles, and suffocated, and also devoured and ate them g, not to the small terror and horror of all, both clergy and laity, dwelling in the said valley, and also to the great trouble of the said monastery and of the said monks, on account of which the whole of that portion of the land, and also its neighbors, were in many ways and not undeservedly burdened.
[4] What more? All, both clergy and laity alike, took counsel as to what was to be done. Now there was at that time in the said monastery a certain abbot by the name of Arnulf [h], they endeavor to appease God. who was of holy life, and adorned with virtues and good morals, humble, devout, pious, prudent, and religious. When therefore by this venerable abbot and also by other good men, clergy and laity alike, it had been ordained that they should apply themselves to fastings and prayers, that the Lord through his holy mercy might deign to relieve and take away such pestilences and tribulations from his people, at last, by the said lord abbot and by the said monks and other worshippers of Christ, fastings and prayers and processions were celebrated, by which very frequently God was seen to be appeased and to show indulgence to the people. But not even from this did the storm cease, either from the craft of the devil, the enemy of human nature, or from the malice of those dwelling in the said valley or territory.
[5] The abbot of Arles, seeing that these evils did not cease, Seeing this, the aforesaid abbot Arnulf thought within himself that, if perchance this came about on account of his own sins or those of the people dwelling in the said territory, the harm could not pass away or be relieved without the relics of some Saint, which should be carried into the said place of Arles. And for this reason he thought to go to Rome for two causes. First, to visit the thresholds of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of the other Saints who there suffered for the name of Christ in the time of various emperors. The second reason, that from the said relics he might merit to receive from the Supreme Pontiff some relics, which he might carry to the aforesaid place of Arles, that at least on account of their merits God might be propitiated and have mercy, and remove the said pestilences from the people.
[6] He sets out for Rome, Which aforesaid and devout abbot, moved not by his own counsel, but by the counsel and ordinance of him whose it is to govern all things, who after many tears brings in laughter, and after the overflowing of rains grants serenity, and after the storm makes a calm, went to Rome, and there visited various cemeteries with great devotion, where various relics and bodies of the Saints rest. And when daily with great devotion and fervent spirit and prayer he visited the said places, it came to pass that the Supreme Pontiff was one day making a procession in a certain cemetery, where is situated a church in honor of blessed Laurence i; which procession was called a "station."
[7] And when the Supreme Pontiff had seen the said abbot so assiduous in prayer and in the visitation of the places of the stations, having summoned him, and he sets forth to the Pontiff the calamity of his fatherland, he asked him whence he was, and for what cause he had come there. Who, when he had been questioned by the Supreme Pontiff, since he was a man of great prudence and most eloquent in speech, answered the Supreme Pontiff very reverently, humbly, and wisely, indicating to him whence he had come, and how he was abbot of the said monastery of monks, and that in the said valley there had arisen tribulations, such storms and pestilences.
[8] And when the said abbot had related beforehand to the same Supreme Pontiff all the things that had been done, and asks of him some relics of the Saints, the Supreme Prelate, having compassion on the said abbot Arnulf and also on the inhabitants dwelling therein, answered thus: I pray God that through his most gracious mercy he may deign to console you, and send his angel from heaven, who may guard and protect you from such great tribulations and dangers. When these things had been said, the reverend aforesaid abbot Arnulf, casting himself at the feet of the Supreme Pontiff, addressed him thus: Most blessed Father, know that I, your servant, have come here before your paternity, by God's disposition, that your holiness may deign to grant and give to your servants, who endure such great pestilence, some relics of some Saint or Saints, so that at least on account of the merits of the blessed Saint or Saints God may turn away so great and so strong a plague from his servants.
[9] which are graciously promised him. Hearing this, the Supreme Prelate, moved by piety and likewise by kindness, weeping, spoke thus to the abbot: I see the necessity which you have, and the devotion which you have. I grant to you and likewise deliver whatever relics you shall wish, except the relics of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of the blessed martyrs Stephen and Laurence. Then the holy abbot answered thus: Most blessed Father, since you wish, by God's bounty, to do so great a grace to me and to your servants, give me the space of one night, that I may beseech God to deign to show me which will be the relics that are to be translated into the said monastery or valley. The petition pleased the Supreme Pontiff, and he counseled that he should so act.
NOTES.
Compacted of dust, here in the dust lies the aged … Arnulf, the venerable nursling of Christ. Here the excellent father, living ever studious Note: perhaps "mystic songs" to bring forth in the mystic Davidic song upon the harp (nablum) set in order for the monks the teachings of father Benedict. He indeed carried from the Roman shores the holy relics of the holy martyr Sennen and Abdon. Grant him, O Almighty, to ascend the heavenly realms, where the shining hosts hold [him] with flowery garlands Note: read "sertis" (garlands). Therefore on the ninth day of the Kalends of November, in peace, his spirit departed from this world. Take up your journey, traveler, and suppliant say: Spare [us], Redeemer.
CHAPTER II.
The revelation concerning the relics of Sts. Abdon and Sennen, their translation, and the miracles wrought on the journey.
The holy abbot therefore that night gave himself to prayer with tears, that God through his mercy might deign to show him his will concerning the aforesaid matters. Yet, when he had persisted in prayer, The abbot, taught by a revelation, he slept a little. And then in a vision there was shown to him the aforesaid cemetery, where the church of blessed Laurence is situated, and in the said cemetery there were shown to him two tombs, and from each there flowed blood in the manner of a fountain, and in the midst of the blood there appeared green stripes a.
[11] that he ought to carry the relics of Sts. Abdon and Sennen to his fatherland, Who, marveling exceedingly, sought within himself whose relics of Saints they were. To whom by the same vision it was answered that they were of the most blessed martyrs Abdon and Sennen. Who, turning to the voice, the said abbot said: O Lord, if it were pleasing to you, that I might carry these with me for the deliverance of my fatherland! The voice answered: These are the relics which God has granted to you, to take away the tribulation and plague which you suffer. And therefore rise and go to the Supreme Pontiff, that he may deliver to you the said bodies b of the Saints; and that they may be made manifest to you, search the cemetery shown to you, and you shall see blood flowing from their tombs, and the things which have been shown to you. Then the said abbot, rising, went to the Supreme Pontiff, and told him all the things that had been shown to him.
[12] and having indicated his vision to the Roman Pontiff, Then the Pope with great joy called the whole clergy, and with a procession they came to the said cemetery, and so they found it, just as it had been shown by the vision to the abbot. Then all, giving thanks to God, who does not forsake those who hope in him, but fulfills in them his mercy, breaking open the tombs with iron instruments, so great a fragrance emanated thence, that it seemed a storehouse of aromatics and a cellar of all spices was present, by the touch of which various kinds of diseases were healed.
[13] he obtains them from him, and translates them, Now the said abbot, receiving the aforesaid relics with great devotion, and having received leave from the Supreme Prelate, took up his journey with the intention of returning to his own place. But the said abbot was anxious as to how he might securely carry such precious pearls to the said place of Arles. Then by good arrangement he had a barrel c quite large and suitable for this, in which he made three little compartments of boards and pitch, and in the middle he placed the aforesaid relics, and in the others, on each side, wine, as though wishing to make provision for the voyage; and this done, he came to the city of Genoa d.
[14] by which a woman possessed by a demon is delivered, And when he had come to the seaport, that he might there board a ship, there was there a certain woman possessed by a demon, who, seeing the holy abbot carrying the barrel with a beast of burden, the demon cried out: I am tormented, because the holy ones of God Abdon and Sennen have been here. Now when the said abbot had heard this, he took some of the wine which was in the barrel, [and] wished to give the woman drink. But when the wine now approached her mouth, the demon could not endure it, but with great cries and stenches went out, and the woman received health.
[15] demons are afflicted, These things done, he boarded the ship or vessel, hastening to come and return to his own place. But when they had been at sea for ten miles, there were heard in the air voices and lamentations of demons, saying: Holy ones of God, why do you afflict and torment us? Meanwhile there arose a not moderate storm in the sea, to such a degree that all the sailors feared shipwreck, especially when they saw the yardarm broken by the wind, and many other misfortunes and dangers threatening.
[16] Then the devout abbot made a prayer, that the Saints by their merits might pray to God, and the storm arisen at sea is calmed, that God through his mercy might hear them, so that, delivered from death and danger, safe and sound, they might give thanks to God. And when the abbot with all the others had completed the prayer, there were seen by all who were in the ship two young men, beautiful beyond what can be told, who, holding the yardarm with their hand, raised it with the sails full of wind; and thus they happily arrived at the port named by the inhabitants Capdequers e, where, in memory of the said miracle, a certain church or chapel was built in honor of the said Saints not far from that place.
[17] The oft-mentioned abbot set out and came to a certain place named la Jonquera f; Various miracles and there he found a woman and two blind boys who were begging; who, when they asked alms of this lord abbot, he, having drawn wine from the barrel, gave them drink. Who, when they had tasted, immediately received health. Then, approaching the said place of Arles, lest it seem discordant with the dignity and office which he held, if he carried the said barrel on his shoulders, he hired a man with a beast of burden, who might carry the said barrel to the oft-mentioned monastery. But when they passed through the places, the bells rang of themselves, no human aid assisting.
[18] But when the said carter g had perceived this, when he had come near the aforesaid monastery of Arles, are wrought in the rest of the journey, and all the bells rang of themselves, as has been said, the said carter said: By God, I will see whether I am carrying devils, or what I am carrying. And he goaded the beast, and it fell down a great bank, which was very high; but on account of the merits of the Saints, God so preserved the beast, and the things which it carried, that it was in no way harmed; nay, God leading, the beast was in the said monastery sooner than the carter, nor the said abbot, who were coming with it.
[19] From all which it can clearly be understood how great is the merit before the Lord of these most glorious Martyrs, and the relics are placed in the monastery of Arles, who shine with such great powers of miracles. Now when the said abbot had come to the said monastery with so great a treasure of the Saints, he was, and not undeservedly, received with great joy by clergy and people, and with great honor and solemnity the said relics were placed in the church of blessed Mary. And from that time, on account of the merits of the said Saints, God relieved and made to cease those pestilences which formerly were in the said valley.
[20] where various benefits are conferred on those who honor them. There they continually shine with miracles and powers, granting health to various kinds of diseases. God also grants to all who ask in that place, on account of the merits of the most blessed martyrs Abdon and Sennen, the desired effect, if they ask justly. Let us therefore pray to the most merciful God, that through the merits of the blessed martyrs Abdon and Sennen he may confer upon us here his grace, and in the future everlasting glory, in which lives and reigns, through the infinite ages of ages, the blessed God. Amen.