Dorotheus

ON S. DOROTHEUS, BISHOP OF TYRE,

MARTYRED AT ODYSSUPOLIS IN THRACE.

IN THE YEAR 362.

A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Dorotheus, Martyr, Bishop of Tyre in Phoenicia (S.)

BY THE AUTHORS G. H. AND D. P.

§. I. On two men named Dorotheus, one Bishop of Tyre, the other Presbyter of Antioch.

That we may more conveniently be able to explain those controversies which at this time are stirred up concerning S. Dorotheus; we have resolved to set forth the more ancient testimonies concerning him, beginning with S. Theophanes, a most learned man. He, when he had treated of the first Oecumenical Council held at Nicaea, toward the end of that year writes these things: He is held to be Bishop of Tyre by Theophanes in his first eulogy of him, In his times also Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, flourished, having drained many evils under Diocletian, and having endured even exile and torments: who, as a man most skilled in both tongues, Greek alike and Latin, and having acquired varied erudition both through felicity of genius and through the experience of affairs, left us illustrious monuments in writing in each. He diligently discoursed concerning the Bishops of Byzantium and of very many other places. The same, returned from exile, was present at the Synod; and restored to his own Church, remained alive to the times of the transgressor Julian. But when that wicked man raged against the Christians, not by open, but by hidden force through the Magistrates, B. Dorotheus, having again set out for Odyssupolis, and being there seized by the Magistrates of Julian, bruised with various injuries, in extreme old age for the confession of Christ, numbering a hundred and seven years of life, died in torments. Thus far Theophanes, who, again treating of the transgression of Julian the Apostate, and in a second eulogy, thus speaks: Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, illustrious for many contests, writer of various histories of the Church, excelling in skill of speech, he, I say, who had obtained the name of Confessor under Diocletian, and again in the times of Licinius; at length in the second year of the Empire of the transgressor; when the Magistrates sent by him had found him leading a private life at Odyssupolis, advanced to a hundred and seven years, overwhelmed with stripes and contumelies for the faith of Christ, they put to death.

[2] These things Theophanes, from whom the rest afterwards took their own: among whom may be reckoned Anastasius the librarian, who, when he had treated of the Council of Nicaea, subjoins these things: likewise by Anastasius the Librarian, Then also Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, who, having endured many evils under Diocletian, had borne exiles and torments, was strong, composing numerous writings Latin and Greek alike, having indeed obtained no little experience of each form of speech, and become knowing of many things through his genius. He diligently also wove a history concerning the Bishops of Byzantium and of many other places: who was both found at the Synod, and, returning to his own parish, endured until the renegade Julian. And since, not manifestly, but secretly through the judges, the execrable man raged against the Christians, B. Dorotheus again goes to Odyssupolis: where, seized by the judges of Julian, and afflicted with many stripes, in supreme old age for the confession of Christ he dies by torments, when he was now a hundred and seven years old. These things Anastasius, who in his Preface asserts that he thought it worth his labor to cull summarily certain things from George, and more, but succinctly, from the Chronography of Theophanes; and among those things concerning Dorotheus he judged these the truer.

[3] Of the same judgment with Anastasius were the Greeks. And first in the Typicon of S. Sabas the Abbot, Dorotheus is called Bishop of Tyre. the Typicon of Sabas, With the Typicon agree the authors of the manuscript Synaxarium of the Church of Constantinople, whose very ancient copy of our Paris College was for some time in our keeping: for there on the 6th day of June these things are found.

The Greek reads: The Contest of the Holy Hieromartyr Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre. He was in the times of Licinius and Constantine. For while Diocletian and Maximian were reigning, on account of the impending persecution, his own diocese being left, he departed to Odyssupolis, and there was preserved. Manuscript Synaxarium of Constantinople. But after the destruction of those men and the change of affairs, he resumed his own city of Tyre, and governed its Church until the times of Julian the Apostate: when he again returned to Odyssupolis. And there, seized by the Governors of Julian, and having suffered many torments, in extreme old age he received the crown of martyrdom. Who, while he suffered, commended his soul to God, when he was now a hundred and seven years old. And he left various writings, both ecclesiastical and historical, written in Latin and Greek letters: for he was skilled in both tongues, prevailing greatly by intent zeal, and by the aptitude of nature.

[4] Another eulogy almost like these has the Menologium,

written by order of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, the Menologium of the Emperor Basil, from which, reported on the 9th day of October, we render these things into Latin: Dorotheus was a man of great renown of fame, Bishop of Tyre, who held in memory all the historical writings. He, when, for the sake of avoiding the persecution stirred up against the Christians by Diocletian and Licinius, he had fled, and after their death had returned to Tyre, presided over the holy Church of God to the times of Julian the Prevaricator. But when he had learned that Julian first secretly through his Prefects effected the slaughters of Christians, and on that account had betaken himself into Thrace; yet he could not escape the hands of the idolaters. For, seized by the Prefects of Julian, and subjected to questioning, in the very torments, a hundred and seven years old, dead for the confession of Christ, he rendered his blessed soul to God, and left many writings of no slight usefulness. Thus far there. We omit other eulogies, which we found at Dijon and Paris, in various manuscripts, or which are extant in the printed editions, and in the Menologium of Sirletus: and other Greek ones, because they do not differ, except in the phrase of the words, from the already-reported more ancient monuments of the greatest authority. A like account of Dorotheus, as Bishop of Tyre, with the title of Hieromartyr, the Muscovites received in their manuscript Synaxaria in our keeping. Hence at the 5th of June Genebrardus in his Greek Calendar says, Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, Martyr: and Molanus, in the second and third edition of the Supplement to Usuard, and various Latin ones. On the fifth day, of holy Hieromartyr Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre. Galesinius in the Martyrology says, At Tyre, of S. Dorotheus, Bishop and Martyr, who, under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, often tortured in manifold ways for the Christian religion, at length, his age growing heavy, is crowned with martyrdom. Behold, how among all, everywhere, without hesitation, and as it were most certainly, the Saint is called Bishop of Tyre: who, as Bishop, is inscribed also in the Arabo-Egyptian Martyrology, translated for us by Gratia Simonius.

[5] Another Dorotheus, distinct from him, Presbyter of Antioch, Baronius nonetheless, in the Notes to the 5th day of June of the Martyrology, judging that Eusebius treats of this Dorotheus, in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 32, will have him to have been only a Presbyter of Tyre. The words of Eusebius, rendered into Latin, are these: We knew Dorotheus, a most learned man, then Presbyter of the Church of Antioch; who, since he was most studious of the sacred Scriptures, learned also the Hebrew tongue, so that he read even the very Hebrew codices most expertly. He was of a quite liberal disposition, and exceedingly erudite in the humaner disciplines; moreover from his mother's very womb a eunuch. Whence the Emperor too, as if astonished by a miracle, admitted him into his familiarity, and appointed him Procurator of the dyeing workshop, which is at Tyre. Him we heard, expounding the sacred Scriptures in the Church not unskillfully. These things Eusebius: which Nicephorus also expressed in book 6, chapter 35, saying that the same was set over the dyeing of purple at Tyre. and from both, S. Dorotheus the chamberlain of Diocletian. Now let the Acts of each be compared, and (unless I am mistaken) they will be found plainly diverse. This one was a Presbyter of Antioch; that Saint is held to be Bishop of Tyre in Phoenicia. This one added Hebrew to the Greek tongue; that one, Latin. This one, before the sacred Orders, pleasing to the Emperor Diocletian, was promoted by him to the purple Prefecture; that one, having drained many evils under Diocletian, endured exile and torments. This one is nowhere called Saint; that one is called so. This one finally seems to have died in the Church of Antioch, which he served; that one suffered at Odyssupolis in Thrace. From both is also distinct S. Dorotheus the chamberlain of Diocletian, who suffered martyrdom with S. Gorgonius, of whom Eusebius makes mention in book 8, chapters 1 and 6, and both are venerated on the 9th of September.

§. II. The Episcopate of Tyre, asserted to S. Dorotheus the Martyr.

[6] There were Bishops of Tyre, Baronius in the aforecited Notes to the 5th day of June, tries to show that S. Dorotheus could not have administered the Episcopate of Tyre, because others sat there as Bishops. Among these the first held is Methodius, concerning whom there occurs no less difficulty, which we explain below at the 20th day of June, when S. Methodius the Martyr, Bishop of Patara, is venerated: but from him S. Methodius, Bishop of Olympus, seems to us diverse, S. Methodius, known under that title only to Socrates and Maximus, as we said in the same place; but on account of the persecution he seems to have fled thence driven out, and to have administered the Episcopate of Tyre; but since neither there could he abide, to have departed into Greece, and there in the city of Euboea, Chalcis, to have died a Martyr: this indeed we admit to have happened under Diocletian. Then under the same Diocletian, as is established from Theophanes, then S. Dorotheus, S. Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, having drained many evils, and having endured even exile and torments, had as successor Paulinus, intruded; to whom Eusebius dedicated the tenth book of the Ecclesiastical History, then Paulinus the Arian, as also the onomasticon of the places of sacred Scripture published by Bonfrerius; and him as an Arian Eusebius praises in book 1 against Marcellus of Ancyra, toward the beginning of the fourth chapter, in these words: He, namely Marcellus, inveighs against Paulinus, a man of God and altogether most blessed, who was adorned indeed with the dignity of Presbyter at Antioch; but administered the Episcopate of Tyre with so great praise, that the Church of Antioch claimed him for itself as its own proper good. So there, if the Greek be well explained. The same Philostorgius confirms, in book 3 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 15, asserting that Aëtius was a hearer of Paulinus, who had been translated from the Episcopate of Tyre to the See of Antioch … and died after the sixth month of his Episcopate, and Eulalius was substituted in his place, with five other successors named by Nicephorus, an Arian himself also. Suidas, under the word "Aëtius," asserts that he attached himself to Paulinus, just arrived at Antioch from Tyre. And Theodore of Mopsuestia, in Nicetas Choniates, published in book 5 of the Thesaurus of the Orthodox faith, chapter 7, asserts that Paulinus, Bishop of Tyre, at the time of the Council of Nicaea, with Eusebius and seven others in the Synod of Nicaea, was unwilling at the beginning to admit the decrees of the Synod, but afterwards feigned that he agreed with the Catholics. Meanwhile S. Dorotheus, returned from exile, and again S. Dorotheus. was present at the Synod of Nicaea, and then, restored to his own Church, seems to have given occasion that Paulinus should be called by the men of Antioch, and there, after the deposition of S. Eustathius the orthodox Bishop, be taken up.

[7] It is objected in the Notes of the Martyrology, that Zeno, Bishop of Tyre, was present at and subscribed the Council of Nicaea, and that he reached by long age even to the times of Theodosius, and was present at the oecumenical Council of Constantinople, as appears from the subscription of the Bishops. But, as regards the Council of Nicaea, Binius prefaces that the proper names of places and persons are exposed to errors; but, since they are everywhere extant, they cannot be omitted: Surius too and others judge that the collector should be forgiven if errors were committed, for there was agreement of none of them with another: and in Selden, in the Notes to the fragment of the history of Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria, printed at London in the year 1642, other and other Bishops are reckoned, so that no argument contrary to us can be formed thence: especially because that Latin collector sets forth from Phoenicia only ten Bishops, although twenty-eight Episcopal Sees are numbered in that province. Besides, if Zeno had been in the Synod of Nicaea, another from him ought to be reckoned in Labbe in the Index, Zeno of Tyre in the Roman Council in the year 369, and in the Constantinopolitan in the year 381. We judge therefore, with the whole Eastern Church, that S. Dorotheus ought to be called Bishop of Tyre; who in the time of Julian the Apostate again fled to Odyssupolis, and in his second year, of Christ 362, was crowned with martyrdom: whom then, or after some years, Zeno succeeded, wrongly transferred from the Roman and Constantinopolitan Council to the Nicene.

[8] The last arena of the martyrdom is called above Odyssupolis, in the Menologium of the Emperor Basil, Thrace. The most ancient geographer among the Greeks, Scylax, The arena Odyssupolis or Odessus. in his Periplus treating of Thrace, says, On the Pontus, the Greek cities in Thrace are these: Apollonia, Mesembria, Odessopolis, in Greek Odēsopolis, Callatis, and the river Ister. Pomponius Mela, in book 2, chapter 2, describing Thrace, says, There is the port Crunos, the cities Dionysopolis, Odessos, Mesembria, Anchialos; and in the inmost gulf, where the Pontus ends another of its windings with a great angle, Apollonia. Pliny in book 4, chapter 11, which is on Thrace, says, On the shore, from Dionysopolis is Odessus of the Milesians, the river Pamisus. So also by Strabo in book 7, Odessus is called a Colony of the Milesians. By Ptolemy in book 3, chapter 20, it is called Odyssus, and is assigned to Lower Moesia on the borders of Thrace. Ovid makes mention of the same in book 1 of the Tristia, Elegy 9:

Thence let him pass the Mesembrian ports, and Odessos, and Arcos, called by thy name, O Bacchus.

There therefore, as he suffered, so also we believe Dorotheus was buried, and especially venerated; and therefore, inserted in the Constantinopolitan Ephemerides, which are wont to commemorate almost a single Saint daily, before others by this hexameter:

The Greek reads: On the fifth, the body of Dorotheus is subdued with scourges.

On the fifth the limbs of Dorotheus are subdued with scourges.

With this verse accords the Distich of the Chiffletian Synaxarium, which is prefixed to the Eulogy:

The Greek reads: "Dorotheus," he says, "even though I am scourged, the sufferings of my Christ much exceed mine."

"Though I be cut with scourges," says Dorotheus, "There is much difference between Christ's passion and mine."

§. III. On the Synopsis of the Apostles and Disciples of Christ, and of the Byzantine Bishops, ascribed to S. Dorotheus.

[9] Some things remain to be said about the doctrine of S. Dorotheus, and about his skill in the Greek tongue alike and the Latin, Some things usefully written by him. which the eulogies indicate; and according to which by Theophanes and Anastasius he is said to have discoursed about the Bishops of Byzantium and of other places; and in the manuscript Synaxarium, to have left various Ecclesiastical writings, and histories written in Latin and Greek letters: but in the Menologium of the Emperor Basil, to have left many writings of no slight usefulness. But because those writings are not extant, I can say nothing about them, except that S. Nicephorus, Archbishop of Constantinople, took thence his Chronography concerning the first Bishops of Byzantium and of other places, and then supplied from others down to his own times, and certain others did the same. Afterwards under the name of the same Dorotheus there was published a certain Synopsis on the Prophets, Apostles, and the 72 disciples of Christ; which, crammed with various fables, already long ago Baronius, A Synopsis wrongly ascribed to him, Possevinus, Bellarmine, Rainaudus, Labbe, and others marked with a black obelus, which we too intimated in the Life of B. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, no. 139, and in the Synaxarium of the month of April, published in Greek after the first volume of this work, on the 11th day, where there is treatment of SS. Aristarchus, Pudens, and Trophimus, Martyrs, and held among the seventy disciples of Christ; and it is said that, when he was at Rome, or, born at Rome, Dorotheus, "having been at Rome," wrote in the Latin tongue the deeds concerning these Saints, and the rest of the Apostles and the holy Prophets. But this man, whom one might call a Roman Abbot, is of a Roman Abbot: from S. Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre and Martyr, in the same Menologium of the Emperor Basil reported above,

was plainly another. Baronius in the Notes to this 5th of June asserts that in the Vatican library he found the same Dorotheus (namely the Author of the Synopsis) inscribed as Abbot, and that Petrus was not ignorant of this in his Catalogue, who, while he cites him, calls him Abbot. Joannes Maria Brasichellensis, Master of the sacred Apostolic Palace, in the Index of books to be expurgated, page 230, judges that there are many things in this little book which waver from historical faith, altogether unworthy of that ancient holy Martyr Dorotheus: and which are everywhere convicted of error by those who draw out the purity of history from ancient histories. These things he, who, as also others, sets forth various inept and dissonant things inserted in that Synopsis; by which it comes about that very many things, perhaps good and true, cannot be held such, unless they be confirmed from elsewhere.

[10] Thus far Henschenius; prudently not daring to praise his writings on the Bishops of Byzantium and of other places; which most recently our Janning, in the Commentary on S. Metrophanes, on the preceding day, as also the series of Bishops of Constantinople, demonstrated to be of no credit, and that from his very writings, more fully published lately by the most learned Du Cange after the Paschal Chronicle (as he himself thinks it should be called), before called the Alexandrian: where the same Du Cange in the Notes to page 212 explains what was the author's design in composing those things which concern Byzantium, and how bad his faith. For in them, he says, almost everything is unfounded, and false things are mingled with true, where he is nowhere consistent with himself, no account being had of the anachronisms with which it teems; as, when Carus and Carinus are said to have succeeded the tyrants Diocletian and Licinius, teeming with anachronisms and unfounded statements, and that S. Adrianus the Martyr, husband of Natalia, is feigned to have been the son of the Emperor Probus, suffering under Maximinus, and other like things. Nay, even the author's name is fictitious, says Du Cange, in which I easily assent to him; not so, that that Dorotheus, Martyr of Tyre, who is prefixed as title, never existed in the nature of things: for that he existed, Henschenius makes at least likely. But that those things, which are circulated under his name, whatever Dorotheus wrote them, not at Rome, as is asserted, Du Cange establishes from this, that he judges them contrived by idle and bad-faith Greeklings, who, bearing with an unjust mind the primacy of Old Rome, always strove by any reason to assert the prerogative of the New.

[11] And that this indeed was the design, says Du Cange, he sufficiently lays open by whom it was contrived, and who betrays his own age, that supposititious Dorotheus; while, [and these things were contrived, that the Byzantine Episcopate might be believed established before the Roman:] after reckoning up the 70 disciples of Christ (with that confidence of inventing which we shall show at the 30th of June) he contends that the Christian faith was preached to the Byzantines long before it was preached to the Romans, and thence contrives that the chief parts are due to the Bishop of Constantinople; the occasion being seized thence of weaving together, or perhaps even fabricating, a Catalogue of the Byzantine Bishops, from their first, Stachys, even to Metrophanes. Which Catalogue indeed, though it be of an altogether futile author, as we said; among the Greeklings prevailed with such great authority, that it was held for true and genuine: so much that Nicephorus himself, Patriarch of Constantinople, reported it into his Chronology in altogether the same series. against the opinion of the more sincere Greeks, For he repeats the Catalogue of the Bishops of Byzantium from S. Andrew himself, or certainly from Stachys, whom he says was made Bishop by him; and to him he attaches a continuous series of successors; against which, with a somewhat more sincere faith, George Cedrenus in his account of Severus, page 256, and Symeon Logotheta in the manuscript Chronicle, where, while he was reigning, they write that Philadelphus was first appointed Bishop (whom that Dorotheus does not mention) and presided three years, when before, a certain Presbyter had presided over that Church for eight years. To him they ascribe as successor Eugenius under Gordian, and will have him to have sat twenty-five years. The third, I know not whether they handed down. Certainly Metrophanes, created the fourth Bishop of Byzantium, in the 9th year of Constantine the Great, says the same Cedrenus, which Theophanes throws back to the 6th year, received by posterity: but to the 8th the writer of the Paschal Chronicle; by whom the same Metrophanes is named the first Bishop of Byzantium; so that Alexander, his successor, is the second, about the 18th year of the same Augustus, as if before Metrophanes there had been previously no Bishops of Byzantium; unless these things be understood, from the time the city was restored by Constantine. This series of Byzantine Bishops contrived by Pseudo-Dorotheus not only Nicephorus embraced, but also the Author of the Catalogue of the same published by Leunclavius; and a certain George the Monk, distinct from him whom they call Hamartolus, who wove a Chronicle from Adam even to Alexius Comnenus, copying out word for word from other writers, some part of which Combefis published, among the writers of Byzantine history after Theophanes, though in these he writes nothing at all new.

[12] Our aforesaid colleague Janning, in the Corollary of this day, besides the holy Bishop of Tyre, and distinct from him the Presbyter of Antioch, three other holy men named Dorotheus. and Pseudo-Dorotheus the author of the Synopsis, found three others of the same name, holy men named Dorotheus; surnamed one the Theban, another the Archimandrite, the third the Younger; where the Reader will find accurately arranged what concerns the acts, times, and sees of each: which it suffices to have indicated here.

ON THE HOLY CONFESSORS,

JAVINUS AND HERACLIUS,

From the old manuscript Martyrology of the Archmonastery of Monte Cassino.

Javinus, Confessor (S.)

Heraclius, Confessor (S.)

G. H.

We copied out in the year 1661, in the illustrious Library of the monastery of Monte Cassino, an ancient Martyrology, written in Lombardic character, in which at the Nones of June these things are read: The natal day of S. Bonifacius the Martyr, and of the Holy Confessors Javinus and Heraclius. There is venerated on this 5th of June, reported in several Martyrologies, S. Bonifacius the Martyr of Tarsus in Cilicia: whose Acts, following the Roman Martyrology, we gave on the 14th of May. But the holy Confessors Javinus and Heraclius who are added, as joined together, are hitherto indeed unknown to us, yet on account of the antiquity of the said Martyrology they were to be reported in this place, under the title of Confessors; so perhaps called, because somewhere in Campania they died as exiles, and obtained a cult: which if anyone shall yet know to flourish, and shall be able to track down more, we ask him that he deign to suggest it for the Supplement.