ON SS. JUVENTIUS AND COMPANIONS.
From the Martyrologies.
CommentaryJuventius, Martyr at Rome (St.) Cyriacus, Martyr at Rome (St.) Exuperantius, Martyr at Rome (St.) Heraclia, Martyr at Rome (St.)
G. H.
[1] The Roman Martyrology begins this month on these Kalends of June (read: May) thus: At Rome, of St. Juventius the Martyr. Baronius notes: The name of St. Juventius; Concerning him the old manuscripts, from which Molanus on this day, namely in that edition which he alone used, of the year 1568. But in the two others that followed after, as if the error of the first edition had been noticed, it is read, At Rome, of St. Viventius the Martyr, and so have also the Martyrology of Cologne and Lübeck printed in the year 1490, and Greven in the augmentation of Usuard, and some Manuscript copies of the same Usuard, augmented for the use of the Belgian Churches; rather than of Viventius, in several of which also and in the Manuscript Florarium it is read, At Rome, of St. Vincentius the Martyr. The Martyrology of Bellinus, published more augmented at Paris in the year 1521 according to the custom of the Roman curia, and Galesini agree with the said Roman Martyrology, and have At Rome, of St. Juventius the Martyr. And this we prefer to retain, because the old copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, in the fourth place treat of him and three companions, and have nearly these things: At Rome, of Joventus, Cyriacus, Exuperantius, Heraclia. In some it is read also, of Juvencus, Cyricus, and Eraclia.
[2] Of these the names of Juvencus and Cyriacus are in the Martyrologies of Trier of St. Maximinus, and the double Roman of Cardinal Barberini. In the Manuscript of Prague it is read, of Viventius and Cyriacus. and of 3 Companions, In the Corbie one, of Joventia, Cyriacus. In the Manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, At Rome, of Cyriacus with three others, whom we have related. The Ughelli Manuscript, At Rome, of Viventius, and the Strozzi one, At Florence, of Viventius. The Manuscripts of Arras and Tournai, At Rome, the birthday of St. Exuperantius; for which in the Manuscript of Cologne of St. Mary ad Gradus is written, of Operantius, and there is added, of Joventus: in the older Manuscripts. for which also Juventius is read in the Augsburg Manuscript; Joventus in the Paris one of Labbe. We keep therefore in the first place St. Juventius the Martyr with the Roman Martyrology, from the consensus of very many; and to him we join Cyriacus, Exuperantius, Heraclia, added by others. In the Corbie copy of St. Jerome there was interposed the name of Nicomedes the Martyr: but, as we said among the Passed Over and rejected to other days, there is only on this day the dedication of his Church, but his feast is honored with solemn veneration on September 15.
[3] the age unknown. Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy celebrates St. Juventius, afflicted with martyrdom at Rome, but in what persecution, and by what kind of martyrdom he suffered, he says he could not find: which we too commonly confess about the ancient Martyrs; since in the aforecited Martyrology of St. Jerome usually only the names and the place of the Martyrdom are wont to be indicated; and from it others commonly transcribed their Calendars. Meanwhile Maurolyco, concerning Viventius (no doubt understanding Juventius, the first letter transposed) writes thus: At Rome, of St. Viventius, a Presbyter from Gaul, who flourished in the times of Theodosius and Valentinus. Whence he had this it is difficult to divine; and in such things, often caught deceiving by gratuitous fiction, it would be more difficult to have faith. Felice copied Maurolyco after his manner.
[4] But it is wonderful how Ferrari, when he had celebrated in Gaul St. Virianus the Presbyter and Martyr, could in the Notes cite Maurolyco, who writes that he flourished under the Emperors Valentinian and Theodosius, and was crowned with martyrdom at Rome. But let this be to us a document, how wrongly Authors are often read and copied. Was Virianus made from Juventius by others? Both seem to have wished to indicate the Emperor Valentinian: but Saussay followed Ferrari in the Gallican Martyrology, when to St. Claudius Bishop of Vienne he joined Helladius the Bishop, and St. Virianus the Martyr, crowned in the contest of piety. Bellinus and Molanus, the place of the contest omitted, only mentioned St. Virianus the Martyr; to whom Greven in the Supplement of Usuard, and Canisius in the German Martyrology, and Justus added to him. add a companion with these words: Of Justus and Virianus the Martyrs. Was Virianus, then, just as Viventius or Vincentius was made from Juventius, so also? We do not wish to define this: but neither to augment with his name the number of the Saints of this day, on account of the defect of the ancient Catalogues: and we hold it enough to have indicated the matter, and to have related the names among the Passed Over, if perhaps someone can shed greater light, that even the reader may be drawn out of these shadows. Justinus indeed and Verianus are named in the Arona Acts of Sts. Gratinianus and Felinus, as having suffered with them on this day at Perusia: but we think they pertain nothing to this.
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[5] In the chapel which is on the right side of the most noble and most ample Temple of our Professed house at Naples The Relics of St. Juventius,, under the auspices and name of the Most Blessed Virgin our Lady, among the other Relics of the Saints, male and female, of which a sacred treasure is there laid up, there are many chief fragments of the Body of St. Juventius the Martyr; and they are preserved in the base of a gilded pectoral statue of the same Saint, depicted with a youthful face. This treasure of sacred relics, extracted from the cemeteries of the Martyrs at Rome by Apostolic authority, and brought to Naples by the Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord Cardinal Sforza, and given to the Lady Porzia Cigala, Duchess of Cardinate, and Princess of Satriano; as is established from the authentic letters, drawn up about it by the hand of public Notaries. By her again granted and handed over to Father Antonio Cigala of the Society of Jesus, or at Naples? it was long kept in wooden little chests, under the high altar of the same Temple; whence afterward translated to the aforesaid chapel, and laid up in gilded little chests, and in gilded half-statues likewise, representing the faces of the Martyrs, it is exhibited to the pious veneration of the faithful in the lateral walls of the chapel. So it was written to us thence in the year 1690 by the Reverend Father Giuseppe de Luciis, advising that an Office of the same St. Juventius is recited by ours under a Double rite, as if doubting nothing that those are the relics of him who is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. Such feasts were indeed believed about to cease, by a Decree published on October 19, 1691: but experience taught that a usage once piously introduced cannot be abrogated without inconvenience; and the execution of the Decree being in a manner suspended, it left all things in the same state in which it found them. Yet it pleases here to set it down, why the Decree lacked effect: for the memory of posterity. Since it became known to the Congregation of Sacred Rites, how many abuses had crept in concerning the recitation of the Office, under the pretext of the Decree published by the same Congregation in the year 1630, and printed in the Roman Breviary, in which it is permitted that there can be recited in church the Offices, and Masses celebrated, of the Saints whose Bodies or notable Relics are preserved in them; the Most Eminent Fathers, set over the same Congregation, intent especially on rooting out those abuses, adhering to the Decrees published elsewhere in similar cases, declared, that the aforesaid Offices of Saints, to be recited by reason of the Body or notable Relic, ought to be understood of the Saints only described in the Roman Martyrology, and provided it is established about the identity of the Body or notable Relic of the very same Saint, who is found described in the Roman Martyrology. But concerning the other Saints, not described in the aforesaid Martyrology, or to whom it has not been specially granted by the holy See, (excepting however those to be excepted, according to the Decree of Urban VIII, who wished nothing changed concerning those for whom the prescription of immemorial time militates) they forbade Offices and Masses to be recited, notwithstanding that their Bodies or notable Relics are preserved in churches: to which, however, concerning the Office not to be recited for such. approved by the Ordinaries of the places, the due veneration of the faithful, as hitherto observed, but without Office and Mass, under the penalties of not satisfying the precept of reciting the Office and the others contained in the Constitution of Blessed Pius V. I would wish that no one be found hereafter so simple, as to believe that the name alone suffices to prove the identity required in the Decree: otherwise the latest error would become worse than the first, since names alone sought from the Martyrology are imposed on the Relics to be offered from Rome; whereas there could have been a hundred Synonymous Martyrs who suffered at Rome.