CONCERNING SAINT JUSTUS,
THE FIFTH BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA AFTER S. MARK.
A notice of his cult from the metrical manuscript Hagiology of the Abyssinians, and of the time from the Patriarchal History, written in the thirteenth century.
IN THE YEAR 134.
CommentaryJustus, Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
The Apostolate of Mark the Evangelist in Egypt, and the Alexandrian Church founded there by him, as well as the admirable discipline of the first Christians under him, and certain rudiments of the monastic life designated by the same, are more commonly known his memory preserved in the calendars of the Abyssinians, than that they ought to be explained here in many words; since Philo the Jew is in our hands, having attempted to turn these very things to the praise of his own people. But of all the many whom the Evangelist held as most holy and left as disciples, no one hitherto in the sacred calendars of the Greeks and Latins, nor even in the Heortologia of the Copts in Selden, has revealed himself to us, except the two immediate successors in that See, S. Anianus, related together with S. Mark himself on the 23rd of April; and Abilius, on the 22nd of February. Perhaps more will be given by the Metrical Hagiology of the Abyssinians, for the greater part composed from the proper Synaxaries of the Alexandrian Church, which are richer and have hitherto lain hidden from us; where, on the 12th of the month Buna, corresponding to this 6th of June, a certain S. Justus is thus invoked by the anonymous Poet of that people: who flourished not long after the year 1205, when the last of the Patriarchs praised by him died.
[2] as baptized by S. Mark, and renowned for chastity. I say a greeting, says that Poet, to Justus, whom together with his father and mother Mark baptized. He, growing old in chastity, and growing up in sanctity, on this day undoubtedly completed his course, and satisfied his desire, namely of eternal beatitude. From such a eulogy we can understand nothing other than that his chastity was more than common, and probably bound by a special vow from his youth; but that he died in peace; yet in such a way that what S. Bernard said in general in the shorter sentences, Chastity in youth is a martyrdom without blood, may also be employed to extol his glory.
[3] Justus is said to have governed the Alexandrian Church fifth from S. Mark. To S. Nicephorus, Justinus. That he was the 6th Bishop of Alexandria His ten-year Patriarchate is so combined with the reign of Hadrian and the Pontificate of S. Telesphorus by George Syncellus in his Chronology, that, reckoning from the year 68, in which S. Mark is believed to have died, he began to sit about the year of Christ 127. But since this man, of whom we treat, seems to have reached a great old age, nothing would greatly conflict with the reckoning of times for one who should believe that he was one of the Clerics whom the Evangelist ordained at Alexandria before his death, who afterward deserved also to obtain his See after Cerdo and Primus, the third and fourth from S. Mark.
[4] But this would be a slight conjecture, unless the day of cult made it almost certain to us, the same is proved by the day of death, marked by the Copts, the same in the aforepraised Hagiology, on which Justus the Bishop is said to have died, in the History of the Coptic Patriarchs of Alexandria, woven through down to the year 1234, and published in Latin by Abraham Ecchellensis the Maronite, where it is read thus: Justus died on the day of the Sabbath, the twelfth of Buna; and he was pleasing to God. This concurrence of the 5th day of June, corresponding to the 12th of Buna, with the Sabbath, occurs in the year 134; and bringing us to the year 134, in which he died, and thus from the death of Primus, or Ephrim, his predecessor, which we shall show can most aptly be referred to the 2nd of January
123, we can find the ten years assigned to him in the margin of the Patriarchal History: yet not, in addition, 315 days, but only 154; according to the style of him who added the marginal numbers of this kind; who was accustomed for the most part to define the times of Episcopates from the death of one to the death of another, except when perchance he names the interpontificate of a vacant See.
[5] But since a method of reckoning of this kind is rather the editor's than the Author's; and has no foundation in antiquity; perhaps Ordained 6 June 123. I should prefer to be silent about the number of days, which according to correct Chronology is to be taken from the day of Ordination, which is for the most part unknown. If, however, the Lord's-day nearest after the death of the predecessor can by conjecture be ascribed to the Ordination of the successor, since Ephrim is supposed to have died on the 4th Feria, in that year, by the course of the letter F, falling on the 2nd of January, Justus could be reckoned ordained on the 6th day of January, provided no impediment of an election, to be made soon after the death of the former, intervened: and thus there would be ascribed to his Pontificate 10 years 5 months, or (as the Egyptians prefer to reckon) 151 days.