ON ST. FIRMUS, MARTYR, AMONG THE GREEKS.
UNDER MAXIMIAN.
CommentaryFirmus, Martyr, among the Greeks (St.)
G. H.
In today's Roman Martyrology, after the memory of St. Ischyrion, rejected by us to December 22, the constancy of St. Firmus the Martyr is praised, who in the persecution of Maximian, afflicted with most bitter blows, Eulogy from the Roman Martyrology struck with stones, and at last beheaded. In the notes is cited the Menology, collected by Cardinal Sirleto, in which these things are had: On the same day, of St. Firmus the Martyr, who under the Emperor Maximian, seized for the faith of Christ, was led to the President, Magnus by name. the Menology of Sirleto, And when he could not be persuaded to sacrifice to the idols, he is beaten naked with sinews, hung up he is mangled, and the whole structure of his body being dissolved, at last beheaded, he obtained the crown of the contest.
[2] The same things somewhat more fully in the very Greek source whence Sirleto drew his, are read thus. Οὗτος ἦν ἐν τοῖς χρόνοις Μαξιμιανοῦ· διὰ δὲ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν πίστιν συλληφθεὶς, ἄγεται πρὸς μάγον· καὶ μή πεισθεὶς σπονδὰς προσενεγκεῖν τοῖς εἰδώλοις, γυμνωθεὶς μαστίζεται νεύροις· καὶ ἀνατεθεὶς ξέεται, καὶ ξυρῷ τὰ νεῦρα τέμνεται καὶ ἐξαρθροῦται τὰς ἁρμονίας· καὶ τὴν κοιλίαν καὶ τὰς κνήμας καὶ τοὺς μηροὺς μαχαίραις κατατέμνεται, καὶ λίθοις βάλλεται· καὶ τέλος τὴν κεφαλὴν ἁποτέμνεται, καὶ τὸν στέφανον τῆς ἀθλήσεως δέχεται. Which are thus rendered into Latin word for word: This man, for the faith of Christ, seized in the persecution of Maximian, the Menaea, is led to the Magus. And when he could not be persuaded to offer libations to the idols; stripped of his garments, he is beaten with thongs, and hung up is mangled with iron; his sinews are cut with a razor, the structure of his whole body is dissolved; with axes his belly, shins, and thighs are cut; he is exposed to be overwhelmed with stones; and at last beheaded, he receives the crown of martyrdom. These things in the Menaea: which are also read in Maximus Bishop of Cythera in the Lives of the Saints.
[3] Pietro Galesini says he translated his martyrdom from the Greek with these words: In Greece likewise, of St. Firmus … the Martyr, who in the persecution of Maximian seized for the faith, by no blows even the most bitter, Galesini: which Magnus the Prefect had ordered to be inflicted on him, could be moved from the step of piety: wherefore at last struck with stones, not only was he not overcome by the force of this torment; but a victor, having at last given his neck for Christ the Redeemer, is endowed with a distinguished crown. So Galesini, assigning as the place of the contest Greece, by which name he commonly understands the Eastern dominions, in which the use of the Greek language flourished. We prefer to write in the title, "among the Greeks," because among them he is in veneration. But since both Sirleto and Galesini, neither knowing anything of the other, agree in naming the President Magnus, the President Magnus. because they probably so found it in the manuscript Menologies; through the carelessness of the typographers it can be believed to have crept into the Menology, τῷ Μάγῳ for τῷ ἐπάρχῳ Μάγνῳ; otherwise it would be permitted to conjecture that the Saint was crowned in Persia, where the chief authority of the Magi, as of Pontiffs, and bitterness against the Christians, existed.
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[4] Meanwhile because no certain place of the contest was noted in the Roman Martyrology; lately some Spaniards, by I know not what audacity, Whether St. Firmus is rightly transferred to the Spaniards drew to their Spain as many of the Saints of an unknown region as they thus found expressed there; and namely this St. Firmus, lately completed among them, they inscribed in the Chronicle of Flavius Dexter in this manner: In the year 300, in the city Mellaria of Baetic Spain, St. Firmus the Martyr, who afflicted with most bitter blows, burned with lamps, and at last beheaded, completed his martyrdom, under the President of Spain Marcus Aurelius Verus, a Consular man. Whose body too in the course of time was brought to Rome, and is especially venerated on the first day of July. Thus far the aforesaid Chronicle in Francisco Bivar; but in Ludovico Caro it is said to be especially venerated on the first day of January. So they, lest they seem to have copied their things from the Roman Martyrology. But they will never prove that that Saint had at Rome any cult on any day of the year, except that which all the Saints have who were inscribed about a hundred years ago in the Roman Martyrology, renewed by order of Gregory XIII. Besides, that the body was brought to Rome, was added by mere fiction.
[5] By such, then, and no other certainty, that is by a blind desire of augmenting from any source the number of the Spanish Saints, St. Firmus was inscribed in the Spanish Martyrology of Juan Tamayo de Salazar in the first place: who Author then, from that pseudo-chronicle and Menology, wove a prolix eulogy; yet so that in the Notes he charges the Menology and the interpreters of the Menology, Another than this is venerated at Vienna in Austria. that they were ignorant of the true name of the President; and undertakes to illustrate it from the inscriptions of old stones: then laboriously distinguishes the Menralia of Ptolemy, from the Mellaria of Pliny, and disputes about their site; all which to relate, as the dream of a sick head, let no prudent man smear paper. I do not think the directors of the Theresian nuns of Vienna were so simple, that when they had received from Rome the body of some St. Firmus, they themselves believed it to be of this Firmus; yet I judge they believed, by the usage common to many, that no more apt day could be noted by them for venerating it, than this on which a Saint of such name occurred in the Roman Martyrology: which we cannot approve, nor do we wish vehemently to accuse. We treated of such a translation on another occasion on May 21, as already said among the Passed Over.