ON SS. AGAPITUS AND DIONYSIUS.
From the Synaxaries of that nation.
THE YEAR 1095.
CommentaryAgapitus, Monk in Russia (S.) Dionysius, Monk in Russia (S.)
D. P.
After publishing in the year 1680 the first part of our May, to which I had prefixed the Greco-Muscovite Ephemerides, explained according to our measure then; I received at Moscow letters of Father George David, an indefatigable workman of our Society, The version of the Kievan Synaxary being received there procuring the Catholic cause with a Colleague, by which he thus asked to be helped by me in procuring necessary books; that he in turn would offer all effort concerning the Saints of those regions, especially those, who also by the Russians professing Roman communion are received. Nothing could happen more pleasant to me, long since persuaded, as in the Preface to the aforesaid Ephemerides I showed, that to that Nation, brought to the Christian faith about the year 990, by the Greeks indeed, but then well Catholic, the schism undertaken long after ought to be no obstacle, but that its own Saints, dead before it, be received by Catholics too as such. So I sent him some copies of our tables, which the Muscovites too use, with my Commentaries upon them; and besides the corrections which I had wished (for I did not doubt, but that through ignorance of the language I had sometimes hallucinated) I received rendered into Latin the Sobornik, that is the Synaxary of the Ruthenians, of the diocese of Kiev; containing not only the Saints, received from the Greeks; but also the Peczerian ones, that is those wont to be venerated in Pieczary the chief monastery of the nation near Kiev.
[2] Then in the year 1689 there came to Antwerp and visited us the most noble Lord John Gabriel Baron of Sparwenfeld, who had long stayed at Moscow for the King of Sweden, and most knowing of the language, and an old Slavo-Russian Menology, of which he had also made a Dictionary. He directed into Spain for the cause of his country's history, and having obtained for some days the inspection and use of our Manuscripts looking to that, left us a Slavo-Russian Menology, of a most ancient impression; and from his own Manuscripts dictated another, which he said he himself had translated word for word, a collation being made with various examples of various editions, and also with Manuscript codices; but chiefly from that, which in the year of the world 7187 according to the Muscovites, but in the year of Christ, according to us 1679, in the 2nd Indiction in the month of August came forth at Moscow, under the great Duke Theodore Alexeide and the Patriarch Joachim, still living, when that Synaxary or Menologion was dictated to us. and the interpretation of another more recent one, These supports being thus prepared, the aforepraised Father David was about to add a Latin version of a more prolix Synaxary, containing fuller Lives of the Saints, had he not been compelled to emigrate, and to yield to the whirlwind which lately shook the Muscovite Empire, the Princess Sophia, who administered the Empire for two minor brothers, being relegated to a monastery. It pleases meanwhile, to stimulate the diligence of others, who could supply further and more distinct notices of those Saints; to set forth here a few things concerning the two aforetitled holy Monks.
[3] there becomes known to us S. Agapitus, The memory of both the Justins from the Greek Menaea; at the Kalends of June, which to the Muscovites is called Tscherwets, in the Menology of Sparwenfeld, follows the commemoration of the holy and blessed Agapitus, the physician, not desirous of vengeance, the Patschiuric, who lived in the year 1095, that is closely after the faith was introduced to the Ruthenians. George David places the same in his Synaxary, not in the first, but the second place after Justin, with only the title of a Peczerian Monk. The printed ones subjoin to both Justins only Agapitus: in whose elogium I fear lest some Ruthenian word, ambiguous for signifying vengeance and reward, among the first from the conversion of the nation such as in the scriptures is the word Retribution, deceived the Interpreter, so that he wrote "not desirous of vengeance"; when it would have been better to say "not desirous of reward"; for this praise is everywhere given to holy Physicians among the Greeks, that they cured gratis; whence also SS. Cosmas and Damian are surnamed Ἀνάργυροι, taking no silver; and on 14 April, at the prior Life of S. Lidwina the Dutch Virgin no. 24 letter c I note, that Godefrid of Haga, physician of Albert and William Dukes of Bavaria and Counts of Holland, was commonly surnamed Sonder-dank, with the title of Monk and Physician: that is Gratuitous. But nothing prevents the same having been at once both Monk and Physician; and such in the Acts of the Sabaite Martyrs 20 March no. 63 is found a certain Thomas, a most expert Physician and at the same time a most religious Abbot. As to the title Patschiuric, whether it be taken from the name of the monastery or from elsewhere, I will be able to learn and teach another time.
[4] After Agapitus by Sparwenfeld, but by George David before him, likewise Dionysius the Wonder-worker. is indicated the Memory of our Blessed Father Dionysius Gluschinic, or of Hlustin, the Wonder-worker: concerning whose age, virtues, miracles, I think more is extant, and I hope sometime to obtain it. Now to have related only the name be enough, in hope of future time; and that on the occasion of the Agapitus to whom he is found joined, whom his age places beyond doubt; similar ones hereafter to be related among the omitted, until concerning their orthodoxy and other circumstances a fuller instruction be brought to us.