ON SS. AMMON, ZENO, AND COMPANIONS.
THE YEAR 249.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY. Knowledge of them from Eusebius, the cult derived to the Abyssinians from Egypt, the memory confused among the Latins.
Ammon, Martyr, at Alexandria in Egypt (St.) Zenon, Martyr, at Alexandria in Egypt (St.) Ptolomæus, Martyr, at Alexandria in Egypt (St.) Ingenes, Martyr, at Alexandria in Egypt (St.) Theophilus, Martyr, at Alexandria in Egypt (St.) Ischyrion, Martyr, at Alexandria in Egypt (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[1] Eusebius of Pamphilus, in book 6 of the Ecclesiastical History chapter 34 or 41 according to Valesius; recites the Epistle of St. Dionysius, From the Epistle of St. Dionysius of Alexandria, Bishop of Alexandria, to Fabius of Antioch, narrating how, the edict of the Decian persecution being published (which he reckons was affixed in that city in the year 249) some were dismayed, others were animated to act bravely. Then descending by name to the singular contests of certain ones; after praising a certain Nemesius, falsely accused as an associate of robbers and suffering by these very things heavier penalties, concerning whom see the Roman calendar of today on December 9, Eusebius thus proceeds in reciting the same Epistle in the aforecited place.
[2] there is contained the illustrious confession of 5 Soldiers, Ἀθρόον δέ τι σύνταγμα στρατιωτικὸν, Ἄμμων, καὶ Ζήνων, καὶ Πτολεμαῖος, καὶ Ἰγγενὴς, καὶ σὺν αὐτοῖς πρεσβύτης Θεόφιλος, εἰστήκεισαν πρὸς τοῦ δικαστηρίου. Κρινομένου δέ τινος ὡς Χριστιανοῦ, καὶ πρὸς ἄρνησιν ἤδη ῥέποντος, ἑπρίοντο οὗτοι παρεστηκότες· καὶ τοῖς τε προσώποις ἐνένευον, καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἀνέτεινον, καὶ συνεσχηματίζοντο τοῖς σώμασιν. Ἐπιστροφῆς δὲ πάντων πρὸς αὐτοὺς γενομένης, πρίν τινας αὐτῶν ἄλλους λαβέσθαι, φθάσαντες, ἐπὶ τὸ βάτρον ἀνέδραμον, εἶναι Χριστιανοὶ, λέγοντες· ὡς τόν τε Ἡγεμόνα καὶ τοὺς συνέδρους ἐμφόβους γενέσθαι· καὶ τοὺς μὲν κρινομένους εὐθαρσεστάτους, ἐφ᾽ οἷς πείσονται φαίνεσθαι, τοὺς δὲ δικάζοντας ἀποδειλιᾷν. Καὶ οὗτοι μὲν ἐκ δικαστηρίων ἐνεπόμπευσαν καὶ ἠγαλλιάσονται τῇ μαρτυρίᾳ, θριαμβεύοντος αὐτοὺς ἐνδόξως τοῦ Θεοῦ. The same things, only with sometimes other words, has Nicephorus Callistus, accustomed to follow Eusebius, in book 5 chapter 31; but the words of Eusebius I render thus into Latin:
[3] But forthwith a certain military maniple, Ammon and Zeno, and that voluntary, and Ptolomæus and Ingenes (Valesius renders "Ingenuus") and also the old man Theophilus, stood before the tribunal. When, some Christian having been brought into question, he was inclining to deny the faith; those standing by began to fret, to nod with their faces, to stretch out their hands, and to gesticulate with their whole bodies. Therefore, all being turned toward them, before others could seize them, they ran forward to the benches, and professed themselves to be Christians; so that it appeared that both the Prefect and his assessors were terrified: to the astonishment of the very judges. for the accused indeed were seen most animated to suffer whatever should befall them, but the judges trembled. These therefore went forth from the praetorium rejoicing, and exulting on account of their confession; but God through them gloriously triumphed. So Eusebius, not accustomed in the manuscript copies to mark proper names with capital letters, as the Latins do, and we too in the Greek being prepared for the press. Are their names all proper? But now a doubt arises hence, whether the Old Man praised in the last place is to be called by the proper name Theophilus; or whether he is so called only adjectivally; that is "dear to God" or "loving God." Surely if it were a proper name, the Article does not seem to have had to be omitted, with which a little before they are named by Eusebius, ὁ πρεσβύτης Ἰουλιανὸς, "the old man Julianus"; ἡ σεμνοπρεπεστάτη πρεσβύτις Μερκουρία, "the most reverend old woman Mercuria." Yet I hold here the name of Theophilus as proper; because Nicephorus renders the words of Eusebius thus, καί τις πρεσβύτης Θεόφιλος, "and a certain old man Theophilus," which Phrase favors the common understanding.
[4] From the words of the epistle itself it is not understood with sufficient certainty whether those five are to be held only Confessors, or Martyrs too, of whose contest completed by death nothing is distinctly read. From an Ethiopic Manuscript Hagiology. But this doubt the Alexandrian Calendars solve for us, unearthed by the Most Illustrious Man Job Ludolf. For since the Abyssinians, anciently known under the name of the Axumite Ethiopians, received the rites of the Alexandrian Church in the time of St. Athanasius, they can be most certain witnesses to us of those Martyrs whom that Church venerated; just as the Calendars of the Ruthenians or Muscovites help us not a little to confirm the usages of the Constantinopolitan Church, regarding the cult of the Saints received from it. recently rendered into Latin for us, For the composing of those Calendars there served first the Coptic Calendars, once indeed found by Selden, and inserted into the work on the Sanhedrins of the Hebrews, but, he being dead, most faultily printed and emended by Ludolf: but above all there served the same purpose the metrical Hagiology, of which so many specimens I have already given in the Treatise Preliminary to this Volume.
[5] In this Hagiology, or (as Ludolf prefers to call it) Encomium of the Saints, there is contained the day of cult, and indeed as of Martyrs; it is read nearly thus on the 7th day of the tenth month, called by them Sene, by the Copts Baune, which day corresponds to our Kalends of June: I bid salutation to five soldiers, who were covered and crowned with the helmet, with him; namely Aschiro; concerning whom there, in the same strophe, these things had preceded, I salute Aschiro, who patiently bore temptation, when the Armenian apostate cut his privy parts and his head, and he was deprived of the life which is in Christ. But this one seems altogether to be Ischyrion, concerning whom Bishop Alexander, about to speak, in Eusebius thus continues the begun narration. But also several others, throughout the towns and villages, were torn apart by the Gentiles; as also of Ischyrion, of whom I will commemorate one for example's sake. Ἰσχυρίων ἐπετρόπευε τινὶ τῶν Ἀρχόντων ἐπὶ μισθῷ. Τοῦτον ὁ μισθοδότης ἐκέλευσε θῦσαι· μὴ πειθόμενον, ὕβριζεν· ἐμμένοντα, προσεπηλάκιζεν· ὑφισταμένου, βακτηρίαν μεγίστην λαβὼν, διὰ τῶν ἐντέρων καὶ τῶν σπλάχνων διώσας, ἀπέκτεινε.
[6] A certain Ischyrion was managing the affairs of one of the Magistracy, but with some diversity of passion hired for pay. Him the one who had hired him ordered to sacrifice to idols, and, when he did not obey, treated him injuriously; persisting in his purpose, he afflicted him with insults; and at last, seeing himself to be in vain, taking a great staff, drove it through his entrails and inward parts and killed him. But thus, when I have reconciled with this witness of first authority the Abyssinian Poet, so that among the insults with which the apostate master (Armenian or Merchant) afflicted Ischyrion, the most atrocious of all was the cutting-off of the privy parts; and through that very wound a knotted staff driven upward passed through his intestines and inward parts; and thus the head of the man pierced through was cut off with a knife. But these things the Ethiopic Synaxaria or Menaea will suggest more certainly and distinctly, if at some time they are brought hither, to supply the defects of the Coptic and Alexandrian Synaxaria; and to exhibit in compendium the passions of those, not to be reconciled equally with Eusebius. of whom scarcely the names are had from the Calendars. Nicephorus, transcribing Eusebius, explains the condition of Ischyrion thus: ὃς τῶν κατ᾽ οἶκον εἶχε τὴν ἐπιτροπὴν τῶν ἐπισήμων τηνικάδε τινός· to whom the management of the house had been entrusted by a certain distinguished man of that place, in one word we would call him a Steward (Oeconomus).
[7] The error of the Latins concerning them. The revisers and amplifiers of the Roman Martyrology under Gregory XIII, having obtained some obscure knowledge of the aforesaid Martyrs on this day, wrote thus, and so it is even now read: In Egypt, of the Saints, Ischyrion, Leader of soldiers, and of five other soldiers, who under Diocletian were slain for Christ in various ways. The error, committed no less in the condition of the Martyr than in the name of the Emperor, does not move me to suspect that these are others than those of whom on this very day the Abyssinians, and Alexander in the Epistle, speak: only I am at a loss whence to suspect this example of erring was taken. For although Baronius in the Notes adds that the same are treated among the Greeks, I do not comprehend whom he means. The Menology of Sirletus, such as exists published by Canisius, has nothing similar: if Baronius had something further and more accurate from the same Sirletus, by whose eyes alone he himself read the Greek Menaea and Synaxaria; I shall continue to wonder, among so many Manuscript Greek works of that kind which I have seen, that not yet has one occurred, where we might read anything about those Martyrs.
[8] But that Baronius may not seem perhaps to have looked back to Eusebius and Nicephorus, the day December 21 chosen for Ischyrion he himself prevents it, when he adds: This one (Ischyrion) is different from the one whom Dionysius of Alexandria mentions. The aforementioned errors, namely, made him be believed different; and the spurious Bede, on the authority of Usuard, referring the same to December 21. The words of the older Usuard on that day are these: At Alexandria, of blessed Schyrion (the printed Pseudo-Bede of Cleridon) Martyr. He, when he was compelled to sacrifice by enticements and injuries, and despised it; at the discretion of Usuard. was pierced through the entrails by a sharpened stake, and given over to death: which things, transcribed from Usuard, with however the full name of Ischyrion restored, are read in today's Roman one: but they will be better replaced on these Kalends, if ever the Martyrology is corrected. Meanwhile by this example we learn that even the ancient Martyrologists, such as Usuard was, assumed for themselves the license of augmenting the sacred Calendars, having chosen at their discretion the Birthdays of those, of whom, as certain and illustrious as the passion was from Eusebius, so, with him silent, the day was unknown; to be known more certainly, if the Calendars of the Eastern Churches had been known to the Western ones.