ON SS. NEON AND PYRRHUS.
From the Manuscript Synaxarium of Dijon.
CommentaryNeon, Martyr, among the Greeks (St.) Pyrrhus, Bishop, among the Greeks (St.)
D. P.
That beautiful Synaxarium, which, written on thicker linen paper, we found at Dijon, with our Pierre François Chifflet; and, from the density of the material and the form of the characters, we judged to exceed at least four hundred years; praised by me in several places on March 6, where I first happily used it, treating of St. Hesychius the Wonder-worker; the Synaxarium of Dijon, I say, after the Eulogies of the other Saints of this day, and namely (if I rightly remember) of the above-praised St. Firmus; supplies the knowledge of two Saints, The former is said to have been slain by the sword, nowhere else named, in this way:
Ὁ ἅγιος Μάρτυς Νέων ξίφει τελειοῦται. St. Neon the Martyr is consummated by the sword; and a Distich is added:
Ἔρυθρον ἡμῖν ἡ γραφὴ πόντον λέγει, Καὶ γῆν ἔρύθραν ἐκτμηθεὶς τέλει Νέων.
The Scripture tells us of the Red sea: thou, Neon, cut down, dost redden the earth at thy end.
[2] the latter is praised for virginity: Then there is subjoined:
Ὁ ἅγιος Πύῤῥος Ἐπίσκοπος, ὁ παρθένος, ἐν εἰρήνῃ τελειοῦται. St. Pyrrhus the Bishop, surnamed the Virgin, rests in peace: and to this likewise a Distich is fitted.
Ἔστησε Πύῤῥος πύργον ἀγνείας μέγαν· Δι᾽ οὗ θεωρεῖ τὸν Θεὸν, χοῦν θεὶς κάτω.
When the lofty tower of chastity, built by the renowned Pyrrhus, now stood; he saw God, trampling beneath his feet the lowly mire of earth.
[3] Concerning the time and place in which the former underwent martyrdom, I would not dare to say anything even by divining. the first Saint of this name for us. For although it is familiar to this Synaxarium, more than to the Menaea, to honor with a peculiar Distich also the Companions of those Martyrs whose more prolix Eulogy is woven: yet because in the eulogy of St. Firmus Neon is not named, it would be rash to wish to think that some more prolix Acts of his existed, from which the Author of that Synaxarium received the name and martyrdom of Neon. About Pyrrhus much less is it permitted to conjecture anything; since I have not hitherto found anyone of that name either in the Lives of the Fathers or elsewhere; much less anyone, singularly commendable for the prerogative of virginity preserved. Found together, it pleased to give them together; but Pyrrhus the more gladly, because in Italy many even now are called Pyrrhi, who require a Patron, in that he occurred to us first with a Greek name: since with a Latin name we have several Rufi, inscribed in the number of the Heavenly ones. Neones are less rare to the Greeks: for three of that name the Menaea supply, who suffered with diverse Companions, namely on April 24, September 25, and October 30: but they have their name ἀπὸ τοῦ νεοῦν, which is "to renew."
[4] In the very old Greek Manuscript Synaxarium of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus at Paris, which seems formerly to have been in use in the Church of Constantinople, Likewise Pyrrhus on June 2 with Gerasimus and Erasmus. there is treatment of Pyrrhus on the following day, and to him there two other Companions are thus joined: Μνήμη τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων ἡμῶν Πύῤῥου Ἐπισκόπου, Γερασίμου καὶ Ἐράσμου. The memory of our holy Fathers Pyrrhus the Bishop, Gerasimus, and Erasmus. There flourished in the fifth century of Christ St. Gerasimus the Abbot, in Palestine near the Jordan, whose Acts we illustrated on March 5: but nothing is at hand whence I may define him to be the same. There is venerated also on the following day St. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr, who died at Formiae in Italy under Diocletian, and before suffered very many things in Illyricum: but since such a one is also referred there with the proper and fitting title, πολυάθλου, that is, "of many contests"; there is no appearance that the same is again set forth with the title of "our holy Father."