Photinus and Companions

ON SS. PHOTINUS AND COMPANIONS.

IN THE YEAR 177.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. Concerning the Names of the Martyrs and certain doubtful points about them.

Pothinus or Photinus, Bishop, Martyr at Lyons in Gaul (St.)

BY G. H.

Lyons, a most ancient city of Gaul and even now a most celebrated trading center, triumphs on this day in its Martyrs, whose memory all the Martyrologies everywhere celebrate. We have distributed their names into five groups of ten. The first of these is that of Pothinus the Bishop, Zacharias the Priest, The Names of the Martyrs, Vetius Epagatus, Macarius, Asclibiades, Silvius, Primus, Ulpius, Vitalis, Comminus. Of these, Vetius Epagatus is one and the same person: in the copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology he is called only Vestius or Vethius; in Ado and others, Epagatus alone; in Gregory of Tours, book 1 On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 49, they seem on account of the punctuation to be reckoned as two. The second group is that of SS. October, Philomenus, Geminus, Julia, Albina, Grata, Æmilia, Potamia, Pompeja, Rodana. In some manuscripts the readings vary: Albinus, Milianus, and Rodianus. In Gregory of Tours, in place of Potamia, there is Posthumiana, and it is written Rodane. The third group is that of SS. Biblis, Quartia, Materna, Helpis, Maturus, Sanctus the Deacon, Attalus, Alexander, Ponticus, Blandina. For Helpis, there is also Helpis who is also Amnas; in Gregory of Tours, Elpen herself is Stamas, and Attalus is absent; but after Helpis it is added, "These, moreover, are those who were handed over to the beasts." The fourth group is that of Bl. Justus, Aristeus, Cornelius, Zosimus, Titus, Julius, Zoticus, Apollonius, Geminianus, Julia. The last three together with Ausona are absent in Gregory of Tours; in whom again, before Aristeus, these words are read in the manuscripts and in Ado, "These are those who gave up their spirit in prison." Then the names of Ausona, Æmilia, Jamnica, Pompeja, Domna, Justa, Trophima, Antonia make up the fifth group, but not a complete one: of these the first three, in the spurious Bede, are also held separately on 4 June. In Gregory of Tours, Mamilia is added, and other names are rendered in various ways. And these forty-eight Martyrs are asserted to have suffered at Lyons in that number in three copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology. In Ado, Sanctus the Deacon is omitted; and after Grata, Rogata is added; but it is indicated in the said copies that she is to be joined with the Martyrs who suffered elsewhere, of whom we treat below. In the Corbie copy only forty-six are listed in the heading, in the number 48, and yet forty-eight are enumerated with their names expressed: Julius, however, who is placed by us in the fourth group of ten, is found only in the said Corbie copy. Bede in his genuine Martyrology, and the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, which Holstenius greatly praises, name St. Blandiana with forty-seven others. In the manuscripts of Gellone, Augsburg, Labbe, and St. Gall, Photinus and forty-eight Martyrs are indicated, but there are so many together with Photinus. Usuard mentions Fotinus the Bishop, Zacharias the Priest, Sanctus the Deacon, Epagatus, Maturus, Attalus, Albana, Grata, with forty others; and thus, even according to him, forty-eight are reckoned together: by which number also the Tours author counts them, but they vary in the names.

[2] The Acts of the martyrdom; The Acts of the martyrdom were written by the Church of Vienne and Lyons, to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia, and were published in the fifth book of the Ecclesiastical History, first in Greek by Eusebius Pamphilus, then in Latin by Rufinus the Priest: and the Latin Churches have hitherto held this Latin edition in esteem; to such a degree that the Acts drawn from it are found everywhere in manuscript codices; and those whose transcripts have reached us are these: the Lyons codex, belonging to the College of St. Justus; the Augsburg one, of Marcus Velserus; the Trier one, of the monastery of St. Maximinus; the Bodecke one, of the Canons Regular in Westphalia; then some of our own, and one found by Petrus Lovetus, Jurisconsult of Beauvais. In some of these the Acts are found abridged, or the names presented in altered order, or corrupted: and thus in the second volume of Mombritius the Passion of SS. Ponticus and Balbina, Martyrs, is set forth; and elsewhere the same things are found under the title of SS. Photinus and his fellow Martyrs. the name of Photinus written in various ways. From the same Latin edition the words of the Martyrologies were taken. Hence in Usuard, the Bishop of Lyons is written with the letter F, Fotinus, for which however Ado expressed the name of Photinus with the letters Ph, which, in conformity with the etymology of the name, taken from ἀπὸ τοῦ φωτός (from light), would be called in Latin Lucidus (Shining); and the later authors generally followed this. But St. Jerome, On Writers, in Irenaeus, writes Pothinus with the aspiration in the middle; and the Greeks, in Eusebius and Nicephorus, write Ποθεινὸν, from ἀπὸ τοῦ πόθου, as if you should say Desirable (Desiderabilis): in the Epternach copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, moreover, Potinus is found, with the aspiration omitted entirely. But in the Lucca and Corbie manuscripts, in place of Pothinus, Rogatianus is read, by I know not what carelessness of the copyists. Rainaudus, in his Little Index of the Saints of Lyons, determines that Pothinus is to be written with the aspiration in the middle. This is a matter of small importance, provided that one and the same most holy Bishop of Lyons is understood.

[3] Bede in his genuine Martyrology sets forth an elogium of SS. Blandina and Ponticus of this sort: The elogium of SS. Blandina and Ponticus from Bede On the same day at Lyons, of St. Blandina with forty-seven Martyrs: against whom, from first light until evening, ever renewing torments, in the end the torturers confess themselves defeated: who, also beaten with torments on the second day, is not overcome. On the third day too, bound to a stake and stretched out in the manner of a cross, she is prepared as food for the beasts. And when none of the beasts dared to touch her, she was again called back to prison: on the fourth day too, beaten with whips, scorched on gridirons, and having endured many other things, she is at last slain with the sword. Then also Ponticus, a boy of fifteen years, led around with her through every kind of torment, and strengthened by her motherly exhortation, completed his martyrdom before her, under Antoninus Verus. Written in the Ecclesiastical History, book five, namely by Rufinus the Priest.

[4] But a difficulty arises, in that Balbina is said on the second day, beaten with torments, not to have been overcome, and these things are related more fully both in Bede and in Rufinus; but in Eusebius the same things are attributed to Biblis, who had returned to profess more constantly the faith she had once denied, Whence the difference between Eusebius and Rufinus. concerning which difference between the two authors, so that the reader may be able to judge for himself, we shall leave the decision to him in the Notes. Now, just as Rufinus does not mention Biblis, so also Eusebius makes no mention of St. Zacharias the Priest, whom Rufinus praises, and whom all the copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology commemorate; the Tours author too, Usuard, Ado, Notker, and others. Did then Rufinus, having obtained a more genuine codex of Eusebius, render it otherwise than all the copies were, according to which the corrected editions were made? Or did he supply from the genuine letter of the people of Vienne and Lyons what Eusebius had omitted concerning St. Zacharias? Or finally, by his usual liberty of interpolating, did he insert into the letter of Eusebius what he had learned elsewhere about St. Zacharias, the colleague of St. Pothinus, being in this part a paraphraser rather than a translator? We, investigating this matter with Raynaudus, hold the notice of St. Zacharias the Priest as valid; since Eusebius himself even confesses that he sets forth the said letter in truncated form, and only the deeds of a few Martyrs are contained in it, while the names of the rest must have become known to the author of the Martyrology and to St. Gregory from elsewhere.

[5] Recent conjectures about St. Rodana, Here in the twenty-first place he seems to number Rodon, who is Rodana in the Martyrology, and who closes our second Group; and to Paradinus, who collected the records of the History of Lyons, and to Jean Marie de la Mure, who wrote a History of the Forez district, commonly called le Porez, she gave ample material for conjecture. For an old house among the people of Lyons, in which justice was administered, that is, the Court, is called Rodona in ancient documents, and commonly Roanne; which name they conjecture it retained from this holy Martyr, who was once its mistress or tenant. But I judge this to have no more probability than that the Arar, copiously stained with the blood of the Martyrs it had received, changed its name, so that it was thereafter commonly called the Saône. Nor does it seem less gratuitously thought up that the same holy Martyr was a citizen of the town of Rodumna, commonly called Roanne, distant only fourteen leagues from Lyons. Let those who delight in such things keep these recent fictions for themselves: greater credit deserves the old Homily on St. Blandina which is extant, in which mention is made of Pothinus and the others. an old Homily on St. Blandina. We attribute this to St. Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons; although Philippe Labbe, in On Ecclesiastical Writers, where he treats of the writings of Eucherius near the end, prefers to assign it to St. Faustus, Bishop of Riez. The author of that Homily congratulates the city of Lyons on so illustrious a trophy of Martyrs: namely, that it possesses peoples of Martyrs. Gregory of Tours, book 1 On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 49, The place of martyrdom, Athanacum, writes that they suffered at Athanacum, and that the Martyrs were called Athanacenses. Athanacum is among the people of Lyons, where now is the Abbey of St. Martin, and the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, at the very confluence of the Rhône and the Arar.

[6] Concerning the time of the persecution, the following is read in Rufinus in the Preface of the fifth book. The time of the slaughter after the death of Soter. Therefore, after Bishop Soter had served eight years in the priesthood of the city of Rome, Eleutherius succeeds the Apostles as the twelfth (not distinguishing, that is, Cletus and Anacletus). How these things are read in Eusebius we have stated on 22 April, before the Acts of SS. Epipodius and Alexander and their thirty-four Companions, who suffered martyrdom in the same persecution and in the same city of Lyons; under St. Eleutherius, indeed also on the same 22 April we gave the Acts of St. Soter the Pope; and we showed that he died in the year 171, and that St. Eleutherius then received him as successor; in whose Pontificate, in the year 17 of Antoninus Verus, in the seventeenth year of the reign of Antoninus Verus (that is the year of Christ 177), throughout many provinces of the Roman world, from the acclamation and sedition of the mob, the most dreadful persecutions were stirred up, so that many thousands of Martyrs were made in individual places, as will be evident everywhere from this work of ours. From these we gave on 13 May SS. Glyceria the Virgin and Laodicius the prison-keeper, Martyrs at Heraclea in Thrace; and on 14 May, SS. Victor the soldier and Corona, who suffered in Egypt. But also among so many Martyrs, of whom we set forth only the names on individual days, we judge that very many are to be referred to these times. From the Acts of the Saints belonging to the following months, it is fitting to bring here what concerning St. Marcellus, the Apostle of Chalon, will be given from the old Legendary of the Church of Chalon and other manuscripts on 4 September, where these things are read: Therefore under the Emperor Antoninus, the commands of impious persecution had arisen generally against all Christians, which by the Prefects and their Vicars, the Governors and Officers of the provinces, both from zeal to obey and from hatred of the Christian religion, The same is held from the Acts of St. Marcellus, and from the urgency of the sacrilegious persecution, were most vehemently carried out and fulfilled … At that same time, therefore, in the city of Lyons fifty most distinguished men, for the worship of the Christian religion, were thrust into the custody of prisons to be subjected to monstrous tortures. From whose number St. Marcellus and St. Valerianus were venerable Martyrs. When these were shut up, in the nighttime, by the favor of an angelic visitation, the bolts, divinely opened again, lay open for free egress. But the happy consummation of the rest was recorded; and by the manifest order of the passion, as is read concerning them, the victory of the glorious contest is not held unknown to the Nobles and the supreme Senate of Lyons, or to the surrounding towns and peoples of that same city of Chalon. If there were no public edicts of Antoninus against all Christians (such as Tertullian in chapter 5 of the Apology denies there were), at least private rescripts against them or against some of them must be acknowledged, such as are said below at number 13 to have been made against St. Attalus.

[7] By Rufinus, and others. Rufinus begins the first chapter thus: Among the most noble cities of the Gauls are reckoned the city of Lyons and that of Vienne, past which the Rhône, most noble of rivers, flows in a headlong descent. In these, what and how great things were done toward the Martyrs of God, in the times of Antoninus Verus mentioned above, were described in order by them to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia, and transmitted in a faithful account. Concerning which, that more certain credit may be had, I will subjoin the very examples of the writers. Ado, Bishop of Vienne, in his Martyrology, asserts that these suffered at Lyons; but in his Chronicle he says that they fulfilled their martyrdom from the city of Vienne and Lyons, namely that they were brought from Vienne to Lyons, where the Governor was present; and Sanctus at number 5 below is said to be the Deacon of Vienne. Rightly, therefore, it is read in the Life of St. Clarus, Abbot of Vienne, published on the Kalends of January at number 12, that the church of these 48 Martyrs is at Vienne. Moreover, when Asia is named, as distinct from Phrygia, that Province of Asia is understood whose capital is Ephesus, as is also taken in the Acts, chapter 2, number 10.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM From the Letter of the people of Lyons and Vienne, published in Greek by Eusebius, rendered into Latin by Rufinus.

Pothinus or Photinus, Bishop, Martyr at Lyons in Gaul (St.)

BHL Number: 6841

FROM THE LETTER OF LYONS AND VIENNE.

CHAPTER I. The occasion of the persecution, some Acts of SS. Vettius Epagatus, Zacharias, Balbina, and Sanctus.

[1] The servants of Christ, dwelling in Vienne and Lyons, cities of Gaul, to all the Brothers who throughout Asia and Phrygia bear the same faith and hope of the redemption of Christ which we bear; peace be to you, and grace, and glory from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. The magnitude of our tribulation and the fury of the Gentiles, which they directed against the holy Martyrs, we are not able to recount as it is, not even we who were present, much less to comprehend in writing. For the enemy attacked with all his might; as one who already, through the bitterness of the persecution, was displaying the beginnings of his coming, and through this was instructing and training his ministers, Amid bitter persecutions, to fulfill with speed every ministry of wickedness against the servants of God: so that at first the dwelling in houses was forbidden us, then next the use of the baths, afterward also the going out into public; and finally that we should not be seen at all in any place whatever, at home or abroad, in public or in private. But the grace of God was present, which snatched the more fragile of our people from their hands; but it brought forth into the midst men more stable than columns, the athletes of Christ, who could through their patience not only bear the assaults which the enemy devised, but also seek them out of their own accord, and willingly expose themselves to all the torments either of reproaches or of tortures; and when the torturers were now almost wearied, they themselves still thought it little, because they believed that this was in a way a delay to them, hastening to Christ; almost crying out by the very deeds from the virtue of patience: That the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us. They therefore bore bravely the acclamations against them, and the reproaches and injuries of the people, and they counted their insults as their praises. But also they accepted patiently being beaten by them, and stoned, ready to endure all things, and shut up; receiving with equanimity whatever that madness of the raging mob had devised. Finally, at a certain time, while the Tribune and the chief men of the city stood by, the Brothers, seized merely for the acclamations of the people, are brought before the Governor: were thrust into prison until the arrival of the Governor, and were offered to him when he came: against whom he used such cruelty that no one can set forth the individual forms of his savagery.

[2] Vettius therefore Epagatus, one of the Brothers, who kept both perfect charity toward God and integrity toward men, whose life, when he was a young man, had been so examined and approved by all that he was preferred even to the gravest old men. pleading for them, St. Vettius Epagathus: For he walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord without complaint, and was most ready for the service of the servants of God. He, when full of divine zeal and the fervor of the spirit, saw such cruel punishments inflicted on the servants of God, and so many penalties devised against human flesh contrary to right and law, no longer bearing the unworthiness of the thing, demanded to be heard, intending to speak on behalf of the excellent citizens, against whom no impiety could be proved to have been committed: for he was most noble among us and most learned. But when the obstinacy of the Judge would not receive a defense, he asks only of him whether he too was a Christian. Indeed that he was a Christian, he is joined to them, he testified with a most clear and free voice. "As the Advocate," he said, "of the Christians": and he himself is associated with the number of the bound.

[3] But in this they did not know what they should say: but he, having in himself Jesus as advocate for us, deserved by this name to be honored, having followed the example of the holy Presbyter Zacharias, who had shown the fullness of charity toward the Saints: who himself too, while present with the Brothers, and carrying out the defense of the liberty like also St. Zacharias the Priest: which consists in our religion, having followed the Lord's example, laid down his life for his sheep and for his friends: and therefore together with this man, like faithful disciples of Christ, in the coming kingdom they will follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Using therefore these excellent and most faithful leaders, all the rest of the choir of the Saints, ready and eager, laid down their lives for the liberty of the faith. But some, found unequal and weaker, and unable to bear up under the weight of the persecution brought upon them, about ten in number, by their fall left us grief and great sadness; and broke the spirits of many whom an earlier faith had kindled. meanwhile for the 10 who fell, Whence also we were all greatly terrified; not on account of the torments which seemed to be inflicted more cruelly, but on account of the uncertain outcome of the confession; because the falls of our own people tormented us far more grievously than the torments which were inflicted. others come forward: Yet daily there were arrested those whom the Lord judged worthy to substitute into the number of those who had fallen; so that from each Church, all who seemed zealous and great, and by whose labor and industry the Churches were governed, were all alike held.

[4] [and the hatred of the Gentiles being more inflamed by the calumnies spoken against them,] It happened, moreover, that even servants of some of our people were arrested, being Pagans; since indeed it had been publicly commanded that all be sought out and held. And these, by the instigation of the demon, since they greatly feared the torments which they saw inflicted on the Saints, being urged to this very thing by the soldiers to whom it had so been commanded, fabricated against us, as though we perpetrated Thyestean banquets and Oedipal incests; and other things which it is not lawful for us even to speak or to think, and such as we cannot even believe were ever done among men. When these things had been spread abroad about us among the populace, we began to be the object of the greatest horror and execration among all men; even among those who before thought that some moderation ought to be maintained toward us: and all alike began to rage against the Christians and to be furious with an incurable hatred. Then we saw fulfilled that which was said by the Lord, John 16:2 That the time will come, in which everyone who kills you will think that he is offering a service to God.

[5] After these things, the manner of the punishments and torments which was inflicted on the holy Martyrs, with Satan urging on, is now beyond every kind of narration; certain ones especially are tortured, namely that even by their confession something of the kind might be drawn out from us as having been committed, in which all persisted with equal and the same fury, the mob, the judge, the officials, the soldiers; pressing especially upon a certain Sanctus by name, the Deacon of Vienne; and Maturus, a neophyte indeed, but most robust in faith and patience; but also Attalus, a citizen of Pergamum, who was the column and support of our Church in all things; and the woman Blandina, through whom Christ showed that those things which among men are despised and held in contempt especially St. Blandina, are reckoned in great glory before God; and that his charity makes most strong those things which are by nature fragile. For when we all trembled for her, and even her own carnal mistress, who was one of the number of the Martyrs, feared lest perhaps Blandina should yield under the torments, and on account of the weakness of her body should scarcely suffice even for the torments of the first confession; she was strengthened with such great power of endurance, that the hands of the torturers, but by saying, "I am a Christian," she was wonderfully comforted, who succeeded one another in turns on account of the contentious animosity of the judge, were first loosened and gave way. Finally, from first light until evening, ever renewing the torments, in the end they confess themselves defeated; amazed how the spirit remained in her, when nothing of bodily soundness was left in her. But she, truly Blessed, as she herself later related to us, as often as she uttered the voice of confession and cried out, "I am a Christian," so often were new strengths restored to her body; and, as if the pains were taken away through the confession, she was renewed fresher for the contests; and the more she had understood that the pious utterance extinguished the sense of pain, the more often and the more eagerly she proclaimed, "I am a Christian, and nothing evil is done among us."

[6] Also the Deacon, Sanctus by name, himself too beyond what can be told, Sanctus the Deacon likewise always answering, and beyond what it is lawful for human nature to bear, with the ministers of the demon pressing more fiercely upon him, in order to draw from him some unlawful confession; bore new kinds of penalties, and such as far exceeded the substance of the human condition. But that man, full of God, so far laughed at their cruelties, and the beastly savagery in the questioning, that he never deigned to confess to them even who he was by birth, whence he was by home, or by country, not even at least his own name: but being questioned about these things one by one, I am a Christian: he answered nothing else in all the torments except that he was a Christian: "This is my name, this my race and country: I am," he said, "nothing else at all but a Christian." Whence also an incredible madness drove them, that with so many kinds of penalties consumed, they could not wring from him even the profession of his own name. At last they apply glowing plates of bronze and iron, with the fires renewed, against the groin and the more delicate of the members: he even suffers fiery plates, from which his flesh, scorched by the fire, was indeed flowing away, but he himself remained immovable, unshaken, undaunted; tempering in himself the human flames by the heavenly and eternal fountains, which proceed from the belly of Jesus. Nevertheless he was a Martyr in all his members, and his whole body bristled as one wound. The recognition of human form perished in him, and not only who he was, but also what he was, the cruelty of the torments had taken away so that it could not be recognized. Yet Christ alone was recognized in him through the glory of martyrdom, who through his patience was destroying the adverse powers, and strengthens his soldiers through the example of his endurance; showing to all, that there is nothing terrible where the Father is loved; there is nothing of pain, indeed even after repeated torments, where the faith of Christ is. But the artificers of crimes by no means blushed at the virtue of the Martyr. For after a few days, considering that if, while his wounds were still swelling, which felt pain even at the gentlest touch of the hand, they should again inflict torments, and again vex the already putrefied members; he recovers health. one of two things would happen, either that he would yield to the laws of their impiety, or, if he had laid down his soul amid the torments, that a terror of cruelty and fear should be threatened to the rest. But this turned out far otherwise than the impious had thought. For, what can scarcely be believed by the unfaithful, his body was restored to its first appearance through the second torments: and the functions of the members, which the first cruelty had taken away, the second restored; so that the repeated punishments brought not a savage penalty, but a healing.

NOTES BY G. H.

CHAPTER II. SS. Pothinus and others killed by the stench of the prison: Blandina tortured: the martyrdom of SS. Maturus and Sanctus, Alexander and Attalus.

[7] But also α Blandina, whom we mentioned a little before, is by a like example recalled to a second round of punishments: who, when, almost half-alive, St. Blandina preaches amid the resumed punishments. and set as it were on the very border of death, she had been beaten with repeated torments; as if suddenly awakening from a certain sleep, she came to the remembrance of future blessedness; and with a steady voice, as though preaching to the people from a high and elevated place, she said, "Greatly do you err, O men, in thinking that those feed on the entrails of infants who do not even use the flesh of dumb animals." And thus enduring in her confession, she is again associated with the number of the Martyrs and thrust back.

[8] But after the tyrannical punishments had vanished through the patience of the blessed Martyrs, the devil again prepares to assail the servants of God with other devices: namely that, consumed by the affliction of the prison and its penal squalor, and with their feet (contrary to what it is right to believe) stretched to the seventh hole, as they say, in the stocks, they should perish in the inmost place of darkness, through all the kinds of penalties which the savagery of the raging men could devise. Very many therefore are consumed in this way in the prisons, the Lord receiving their end of this kind, whose aid of divine majesty was not lacking even there. For some of those who had endured the most savage torments, and were not permitted to obtain any human healing, on account of the stench of the prison various ones are extinguished: began in a wonderful manner by the power of the Lord to grow strong and to recover a sudden cheerfulness of mind, even to a vigor of body that had been despaired of; so that by their exhortation they confirmed the rest to patience: and those were the more impatient of the penalties who had recently been seized, and whose bodies the torments had not yet hardened: those, finally, were the ones who were being killed by the horror of the stench and the darkness of the enclosure.

[9] But it is not right to pass over in silence the glorious confession of martyrdom of Blessed Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons: who, though he was more than ninety years of age, St. Pothinus, after various injuries and torments, dies there. and weak in body (as befitted that age); already dead to the world, lived by the love of martyrdom alone. He is led, or rather carried, to the tribunal, undone by old age and feebleness: whose soul was preserved for this alone, that Christ through him might triumph more magnificently in a fragile body. Meanwhile the old man is set before the tribunals: the shout of the impious populace is raised from every side: they cry out that this very man is a Christian. Then he is questioned by the Governor as to who was the God of the Christians. He answered: "If you are worthy, you shall know." Hereupon a kind of rage of some immense fury invaded them all, so that those who stood near pummeled the old man with their fists, others with their heels, paying no deference either to his age or his gravity; but those who were farther off threw from a distance whatever weapon had come into the hands of the raging men; so that each one reckoned it to be the height of crime for himself, if he had not inflicted some violence upon the old man: for in this they believed that their gods were being avenged. And when they had thrown him half-dead into prison, a little afterward he gave up his uncontaminated spirit.

[10] At the same time a certain immense dispensation of God is procured, The apostates are detained shut up with the rest: and mercy is sought out from the inspired skill of Christ the Lord, which we remember was almost never before done by persecutors. All these, who when first arrested had denied the faith, being seized are handed over to prison: and so that not even some comfort of penal destruction might be afforded to the unhappy ones, they were detained not as Christians now, but as murderers and incestuous persons, the wretches having a double penalty: since indeed the hope and crown of martyrdom mitigated the punishments of the rest, and the charity of Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit relieved the afflicted; but in the case of these, their conscience feared more heavily than the very penal chains and the weight of the prison, so that they were distinguished from the rest by their very countenance and aspect: for those others were brought forth from the punishments joyful, with a temper so unequal amid the penalties, as also the cause was unequal, and bearing I know not what divine quality in their very faces, they reckoned their chains as precious necklaces; made, amid the squalor of the prison, the good odor of Christ; so that they seemed to themselves to be shut up, not in a prison, but in a perfumery: but those others, sad, cast down, horrid even in their very looks, and fouler than every deformity of baseness, were exposed also among the Gentiles themselves in much reproach, as degenerate and cowardly, who had lost the faith, and found a crime; and who indeed lacked the name of Christians, yet did not escape the penalties of murderers. When the rest saw that it was thus, they were incredibly strengthened; so that those arrested, steadfast without any change of mind, confessed themselves to be nothing else than Christians. And when they had pursued certain things in these places at greater length, after a while, they again subjoin these things.

[11] After these things, the Lord Jesus Christ, weaving as it were a certain crown of their martyrdom, composed of various flowers, through diverse forms, offered it to the Father; that from him, as victors of a great contest, they might take the rewards of eternal recompenses. For Maturus, and Sanctus, and Blandina, and Attalus, are set in the middle of the arena on the days of the games, with countless thousands of various Gentiles gathered for the spectacle. SS. Maturus and Sanctus afflicted with new punishments, And again Maturus with Sanctus, as if nothing had been done before, are renewed to all kinds of torments and blows; the adversaries striving in every way to break their patience, and to snatch their crowns from, so to speak, the very top of their head, urged on by the insane voices of the people. But the hope of glory now near strengthened their spirits all the more, which they seemed already and at once to touch with the hand and to handle with their right hands. And when both the kinds of punishments and the penalties of the spectacles had now consumed the time, and they had not been able in any way to be moved from their resolve, they are beheaded: when also, placed upon iron chairs, the fire administered beneath scorched their flesh consumed by the blows; at last they put to flight the indefatigable spirits of the Martyrs, their necks cut by the sword.

[12] St. Blandina, unharmed by the beasts, is shut up again in prison: But Blandina, bound to a stake and stretched out in the manner of a cross, is prepared as food for the beasts. Yet she, hanging on the wood, with an undaunted and quite cheerful countenance, poured out a prayer to the Lord, by which she might pray both for constancy for herself, and perseverance for the rest of the partners of her contest; and she easily hoped that the vows would be fulfilled which she aided by her own examples; at the same time teaching also this, that to the partners of the sufferings of Christ, it is certain that the partnerships of his glory also are to be granted. But when none of the beasts dared to touch her body; being taken down from the wood, she is again recalled to prison, to be prepared for still other contests; that through many victories she might indeed bruise the head of the tortuous serpent, and stir up the spirits of the Brothers to endurance through this, that she herself in a small and fragile body remained unconquered through so many combats, and departed crowned from each contest.

[13] Attalus too is demanded by the voices of the people. For he was very noble, and, to the same emperor St. Attalus, because he was a Roman, is sent back: what is nobler than all things, a man of the best conscience, and in the faith of Christ always through all practices a Martyr. And when he had been led around in the amphitheater, with a placard going before him, on which was written, "Attalus a Christian," the fury of the raging mob began to roar more vehemently. But when it had been indicated to the Governor that he was a man of Roman citizenship, he orders him to be received into prison with the rest; at the same time he refers the matter to Caesar, and awaits his decision as to what he should command concerning him. But the men placed in prison during the delays do not allow the time to pass unfruitfully for them; but with vigor of mind and the eagerness of their faith, they encouraged those who seemed weaker; and themselves not yet Martyrs, by their exhortations made Martyrs. where many are brought back to the faith: From which great joy was born to the mother Church, seeing her sons, who had seemed almost to have fallen into death, restored to life through these: and by their admonitions many, who by denying had already been made as it were a kind of miscarriage, were as it were brought to birth again, and Christ was again formed in them. For they were taught by these, that God does not will the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live.

[14] Therefore when a rescript had come from Caesar that those who persisted should indeed be punished, whom Alexander, encouraging them to constancy, but that those who denied should be released; on a certain most crowded day, on which they are accustomed, coming together from all the provinces, to hold a market among us; in that very thronged assembly, ascending the tribunal, the Judge orders the Christians to be presented to him and brought in, to provide a spectacle of punishments to all who were present. So again crosses, again penalties, again torments are renewed: and if by chance any Roman citizens were found, he decrees that these be beheaded, but the rest handed over to the beasts. Yet immense glory was conferred on Christ by all, on behalf of those who had earlier denied, and could neither be released nor remain deniers; but now, when pardon was offered to those who denied, persisted in their confession, and, recalled from the flock of perdition, were joined to the number of the Martyrs. Therefore when the questioning was being held concerning the aforesaid, a certain Alexander, a Phrygian by race, a physician by profession, a religious and prudent man, and dear and acceptable to all for the probity of his life and morals, stirred by the love of God, when he stood by the tribunal, by his nods exhorted to confession those and Attalus, are thrown to the beasts, and unharmed are slain, against whom the questioning was being conducted, so that it became plain to all who stood by what he bore in his mind. And when the people had noted this, being greatly indignant on account of those whom, having earlier denied, they now recalled by a revived confession, they cried out against Alexander, that these things were committed at his instigation. He, ordered by the Governor to be set in the midst, and questioned who he was, testifies by a free profession that he is a Christian. Him he immediately condemned to be prepared for the beasts: and on the next day he is brought forth together with Attalus: whom, contrary to the command of Caesar, wishing to gratify the people, he ordered to be handed over also himself to the beasts. But when none of the beasts had touched the bodies of the Saints, having tormented them with all the punishments of blows and the other penalties; at last he orders them to be slain in the sight of the people, in the middle of the arena; Blessed Alexander, in all the penalties which he endured, not uttering so much as one single word; but from the beginning to the end always speaking within himself with God, and remaining in his praises and prayers. But Attalus, when he was being roasted on an iron chair with coals laid beneath, and when the reek of his flesh was carried to the nostrils and mouths of the watching people, after the most bitter things were bravely endured. cried out with a loud voice to the crowd: "Behold, this is to eat men, which you do. Why do you inquire from us, as a hidden crime, what you commit in open light? For we neither eat men, nor have we done any other evil." And when he was asked what name God had, he answered: "Those who are many are distinguished by names: he who is one does not need a name."

NOTES BY G. H.

α The following is explained in Eusebius in this way, not of St. Blandina, but of Biblis, who among the Martyrs is the twenty-first: Furthermore Biblis, one of the number of those who had utterly denied the confession of the faith, when the devil now thought her wholly swallowed up by himself, desiring also to increase her condemnation through blasphemy against God, took care that she be led to punishment; and impelled her, as one broken and cowardly, to speak impious and shameful reproaches against us. She, however, under the torment returned to herself, and (so to speak) was roused from a deep sleep, being in a way warned by the present punishment to think seriously of the eternal penalty of Gehenna: and contrary to what the devil expected, she thus replies to the malevolent detractors of the Christians from the opposite side: "How can such men bring it into their minds to devour their own children, who are not even permitted to eat the blood of irrational animals?" And from that time she ingenuously confessed herself a Christian, and was joined to the lot and number of the Martyrs. So far there. But Bede, related above, agrees with Rufinus, where we have left these things to the judgment of the reader.

CHAPTER III. The martyrdom of SS. Ponticus and Blandina. The bodies thrown to dogs, scorched by fire, and submerged. The virtues of the Martyrs.

[15] After these, on the last day now of the games, Blandina is again brought in with Ponticus, a boy of about fifteen years; SS. Blandina and the boy Ponticus are tortured with various penalties, who had also been ordered always to stand by during the tortures of the first ones; that they might the more be terrified at seeing the punishments of the rest. They are therefore set in the midst, and ordered to swear by the Gods. But they on the contrary said that these were no gods, by whom they were being compelled to swear. And when with very many other words they reproached the Gods of the Gentiles, the multitude of the people began to rage more against them, pitying neither the tender age of the boy nor the sex of the woman: but leading them through all the kinds of torments, as if going around them in a certain circle, in which the boy dies: they allowed nothing to be lacking to the penalties which cruelty had devised. Then Ponticus, receiving the greatest strength of patience from his mother's exhortation, and persevering in the confession of the faith, gave up his unpolluted spirit.

[16] But blessed Blandina, last of all, like the noble mother of them all, she, scorched on gridirons, now secure, hastens to follow her sons sent ahead to the crown of Martyrdom, exulting and rejoicing as if to the bridal chamber of a bridegroom, invited to a wedding banquet. From which it came about that she did not tremble at the blows, and, scorched on gridirons, rejoiced, and seemed so cheerful and glad, as if she were reclining among royal feasts. After this she is handed over to the beasts: but she remains untouched by them. Thence too another kind of cruelty is devised, that bound in a net she should be thrown to a bull fiercely provoked: by whom, when she had been assailed with countless blows, and tossed over the whole circuit of the arena, and unharmed by the beasts, she is slain. she is not in the least injured; but she remained always with a glad countenance, with steadfast mind, by hope itself and the presumption of her spirit now conversing with Christ. At last she is ordered to be slain with the sword, while even the impious themselves were amazed and saying that there never had been a woman who could bear so many and such things.

[17] But not even thus could cruelty take any satisfaction. For the savage and barbarous manners, stirred by the venom of the ancient serpent, knew not how to grow mild. For from the very patience of the Saints, a fiercer madness of contention was kindled in them; and they were as it were wearied by a certain shame, that there was greater virtue in the tortured than in the torturers: and from this the Judge together with the people was instigated to abominable hatreds, that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says, "Let him that is unjust do unjustly still, The bodies of the Martyrs are thrown to dogs, and let him that is unrighteous act unrighteously still." Rev. 22. Therefore, by an unheard-of kind of savagery, the bodies of those who were killed in prison were exposed to dogs; with a guard placed at the same time day and night, lest anyone should gather the remains and, out of humanity, hand them over for burial. But if perchance anything was left of the bodies of the Martyrs either by the beasts or by the fire, and the very heads of the punished with their trunks, they were kept unburied by the guard of the soldiers; and they are not permitted to be buried: and it was sought whether human cruelty could do anything further, even against those who had already passed the threshold of life. Yet the Gentiles exulted, magnifying their idols, by whose power they said vengeance had been given upon them: but if anyone among them seemed a little milder or more humane, he would say, "Where now is their God? and what did that religion profit them, for which they even laid down their lives?" Therefore among them was that varied kind of insult, but among us there was immense grief, especially because we could not commit them to the earth; since neither was any opportunity for this afforded us at nighttime, nor was there means to placate the guards with gifts, or with prayers, or by any other way; so attentively and anxiously did they take care that burial should not be given to the last bones.

[18] But after some days, when they had granted no favor of burying, having burned the bones of the Martyrs and reduced them to ashes, The burned bones are thrown into the Rhône. they scattered them with the rest of the dust of the earth into the river Rhône, lest their relics should remain anywhere. As though indeed by doing these things they were conquering God, and, as they said, taking away from them by this the hope of resurrection. "For hoping," they said, "that they will one day rise again from their tombs; therefore, persuaded by I know not what new superstition, they joyfully subject themselves to torments and deaths; They are praised, because, though often tortured, now let us see if they will rise again, and if their God can be present to them; and snatch them from the hands of the gods." These are the things which were done in those times, as declared from the Letter of the Brothers of Lyons: from which, what could also have been done throughout the other provinces, conjecture must be taken.

[19] There are still related in that same Letter certain things also concerning the humanity and meekness of the Blessed Martyrs, they refused to be called Martyrs, which I think worthy, like the rest, to be associated to these in their own words. And they say that, in imitation of Christ (who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God), set in such great glory, and once and again, and more often made Martyrs, after the beasts, after the fires and the plates, neither called themselves Martyrs, nor permitted others who so called them. But if perchance any of us, either in a letter or in conversation, had named them Martyrs, they rebuked him more sharply, saying that this appellation is owed to Christ alone, who alone is the faithful Martyr of the truth, and who is the firstborn from the dead and the author of eternal life; or certainly that this title is fitting only for those who, after a good confession, deserved to depart from this life and to go to God. "But we," they said, they prayed for their persecutors, "humble and needy, desire that at least the confession itself may remain secure in us": for which the Brothers also besought with tears, that they would pray to God for them, that with the seal of confession perfected they might deserve to receive martyrdom: and there was such great humility in them, that although in the very deeds they were Martyrs, yet they fled the boasting of the name. Acts 7 But among the Gentiles they stood with all confidence, demonstrating the nobility of the soul through contempt of injury and patience of punishments. They were therefore among the Brothers, humble; among the persecutors, exalted; gentle to their own, terrible to their adversaries; subject to Christ, raised up against the devil; they brought back the fallen to the faith, they humbled themselves under the most mighty hand of God, by which they have now been more sublimely exalted. They appeased all, accused no one; they loosed all, bound none; they prayed even for their persecutors, using the words of St. Stephen the first Martyr, and saying, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge": against whom the devil stirred up the more vehement battles, because through the excessive charity which they had in Christ Jesus, even those who had fallen, they commended peace to all. and whom that monstrous beast had believed it had already swallowed up, they drew back out of its inner entrails into the mouth; and like mothers toward their little ones, so toward them, poured out with all the bowels of their compassions, they clung to almighty God; pouring out for them fountains and rivers of tears, they sought life for them from God, and it was granted to them: nor did they reckon the journey of going to the Lord pleasing to themselves, or think that the crown of martyrdom would be joyful, if they had permitted a part of their own members, snatched from the Churches, to be detained by the devil as a kind of spoils. But above all, they themselves loved peace, and bade us preserve it: nor did they construct for themselves any way to martyrdom except through peace; taking care lest they should leave behind them dissension among the Brothers, or sorrow to the mother Church: but they admonished that peace must always be had, peace must be kept among the Brothers, and charity especially held, which is the bond of unity and concord. These things have been handed down to memory by us not uselessly (as I think), for the edification of readers: things which descend from the authority of such great men on account of those who are carried, swollen and puffed up, against the Brothers; and who, if perchance any have wavered, think that the bowels of Christ's compassions must be wholly excluded from them.

[20] St. Asclibiades, feeding on bread, salt, and water, There is still related in the same writing another narrative also, which for the sake of knowledge I have thought worthy to insert here. A certain Asclibiades was in the number of those who were held bound for Christ. He led a rather hard and austere life, willing to take no food, but used only salt and bread with water. And when he wished to keep the rigor of this life even in prison; it is revealed to Attalus, after his first confession, which he confessed in the amphitheater, that Asclibiades was not acting rightly, himself not using the creatures of God, and leaving to others a form of scandal. When these things were known, blessed Asclibiades began to take all things with thanksgiving; he is admonished from heaven to use other foods. because the same Spirit which revealed to that one that he should teach it, persuaded this one too that he should follow it; with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

NOTES BY G. H.

APPENDIX D. P. On the church of St. Blandina.

Pothinus or Photinus, Bishop, Martyr at Lyons in Gaul (St.)

[1] Bernuinus, Archbishop of Vienne. Just as the often-repeated contests, and those the more atrocious, made St. Blandina celebrated above the rest; so they also won her a peculiar veneration among our ancestors, so that Churches too were named after her by name. A notable testimony of this thing was brought to light by D. Louvet, Doctor of Medicine and Councilor of the Most Serene Lady of Dombes; and he gave it to be inserted into Volume 12 of the Acherian Spicilegium, page 136, in the year 1674, where it is now read under this title: Bernuinus, Archbishop of Vienne, gives faculty to Ratbertus to restore the church of St. Blandina. Bernuinus was present at the Synod of Chalon in the year 887, and is found subscribed to the privilege of Confirmation granted to Ingelarius, Abbot of Carilocum, by that same Synod; the text of it is as follows:

[2] That the care of ecclesiastical matters rests upon the Episcopal judgment and vigilance, the church having collapsed around the year 890, no one who knows the ecclesiastical laws can doubt; so that he should attend with all zeal, in what way things ruined, or scattered by age or negligence, ought to be repaired. Wherefore I, Bernuinus, Archbishop of the holy See of Vienne, when in the name and love of God I was conducting a study of this kind; there came to our presence a certain venerable Presbyter and Abbot, Ratbertus by name, on behalf of a certain church, which is dedicated in honor of St. Blandina the Martyr, and situated on Mount Quiriacum; that we should give him license to rebuild it most diligently from his own property, both for the love of God and for the recompense of eternal reward: since indeed, almost destroyed and annihilated, both by age and by the siege of the city, it had lost the beauty and honor of the house of God. Praising his benevolence and zeal of piety, we not only kindly assented, but also exhorted with the greatest joy that he should complete it most fully and in every way, to be repaired by Abbot Ratbertus,. And that the will of so great goodness might increase the more, we moreover granted to him with most willing mind, that both he himself and his nephew, named Straderius, as long as he should live, if the matter came to effect, on account of the toil of so great labor, should have power both over the church itself and over those things which he has and can acquire, of building and of working with usufruct.

[3] Therefore let it be known to all the rectors of this holy Church of God and our successors, the zeal of so great piety of this most religious man, and our assenting aid in this matter; and he grants it to be held with usufruct by himself and his nephew, that henceforth no one may take from them, if they survive the course of our life, what they accomplished, laboring with such great zeal; and thus we canonically confirm to them what their ready will most willingly expended in the rebuilding of this house of God, and our favoring assent granted. But if anyone with rash audacity should disturb it, let him incur the wrath of almighty God, and lie subject perpetually to the bond of anathema (unless he repent): since, as canonical authority commands, that the ecclesiastical laws, established by the holy and ancient Fathers, the younger ought to observe inviolably; so it is necessary that all future Prelates of the Churches hold unshaken the edicts of their elders and predecessors: with their successors bound under anathema to hold the same. but if they do otherwise, no one doubts that they lie subject to the excommunication of the holy Canons. Therefore, that no one may dare to despise the testament of our authority, confirming it with our own hands and writings, with the consent of our suffragans, we have ratified it.

[4] I should indeed believe that Mount-Cyriacum is to be sought not far from the city of Vienne; in what year it was besieged around the times of Bishop Bernuinus, I have not yet found; nor does it occur to me whence I may discern of which monastery, out of the several which the diocese has, Ratbertus was Abbot: wherefore I leave all these things to be explained by those zealous for the affairs of Vienne, who may perhaps suggest more things pertaining to this matter.