Martyrs

CONCERNING THE HOLY MARTYRS,

MARY, MARTHA, AND THREE VIRGINS; EUSEBIA OR AESIA, AND ZENAIS, MATRONS; AND ZENAIS THE WONDER-WORKER,

HAVING A COMMON CULT AT CONSTANTINOPLE:

A CONJECTURAL COMPILATION.

According to the Notices found in the Calendars of the Greeks.

Mary, Virgin Martyr at Constantinople (S.)

Martha, Virgin Martyr at Constantinople (S.)

Three other Virgin Martyrs at Constantinople. Eusebia, or Aesia, a Matron Martyr at Constantinople (S.)

Susanna, a Matron Martyr at Constantinople (S.)

Zenais the Wonder-worker, Martyr at Constantinople (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

In a very ancient manuscript Synaxary of the Church of Constantinople, which belongs to the College of the Society of Jesus at Paris, formerly called the College of Clermont, now called that of Louis the Great, several Martyrs are brought forward consequently, without any eulogies, whom we set before our Readers: and first is indicated. Five Virgin Martyrs among the Greeks Ἄθλησις τῶν ἁγίων πέντε Παρθένων, Μαρίας, Μάρθης καὶ τῆς συνοδίας αὐτῶν. The Contest of the holy five Virgins, Mary, Martha and their companions. The same things, with the word "contest" omitted, are read in the Greek Menaea of Milan in the Ambrosian Library. But Sirletus has only the first two in his Menology, and that on the 4th day. In the printed Menaea the memory of the holy five Virgins is celebrated: and, the names of two being omitted through the carelessness of copyists or typesetters, there is nevertheless added "and their companions," which likewise ought to have been omitted, lest several others should seem to be joined to the five already mentioned. Meanwhile from the word Ἄθλησις, "contest," which the aforepraised Synaxary uses, it is given to be understood that they were Martyrs; although in the Menaea only Μνήμη, "memory," is read: as also in the Arabo-Egyptian Martyrology. Moreover in the Menaea these verses are added. Κόρας φρονίμους πέντ᾽ ἔφη θεῖος λόγος, Προἳστορῶν σοι ταύτας πέντε Παρθένους. The divine Scripture spoke of five prudent maidens, and prefigures these five Virgins to thee.

[2] But what shall I say it is? that in the same Synaxary, after both those, and the contest of SS. Conon and Christopher, of whom we treated on the preceding day; and also after the Dedications of the church of S. Peter, with the memory of S. Eutychius the Patriarch, these words are placed: Καὶ τῶν Μυροφόρων γυναικῶν Μαρίας καὶ Μάρθας; Likewise of the Myrrh-bearing women, Mary and Martha. The same things are read in the manuscript Menaea of Turin of the Duke of Savoy, and on the 4th of June in the Menology of Sirletus. Can, under that title of Myrrh-bearers, most well known to the Greeks when treating of the women dutiful at the sepulchre of the Lord — can, I say, others here be understood than Mary and Martha the Sisters of Lazarus, of whom the one anointed the feet of Jesus in Bethania, John XII; the other likewise ministered to him? of whom two seem compared to the Sisters of Lazarus. To me indeed it seems that others cannot conveniently be understood here; nor yet would I say that these are written here as though they had a special cult at Constantinople on this day: rather I incline to suppose that some confusion underlies it here; occasion being taken from the two verses, alluding to the names of the aforesaid two Martyrs, and comparing them with the Sisters of Lazarus; namely, because with the same affection with which these poured out ointment, those poured out blood for Christ. This suspicion would be still better founded, if the mention of the Myrrh-bearers were subjoined immediately after the memory of those five. Yet a transposition once made through some error in a single copy, could easily be diffused thence to several copies taken from it, in the manner and order in which the words are now read. Would that the Acts of those five, or at least all their names, were had, and a more certain notice of the place of their cult! Now what else can we do but divine? Holy women called Μυροβλύτους, that is, Ointment-flowing, from the oil or liquor miraculously distilling from their bones or sepulchres, of which kind the Greeks have many female Saints; but here it is of Μυροφόροις (Myrrh-bearers) that it treats.

[3] After the five Virgins, the same Synaxary sets forth two Matrons in this manner: With them two female disciples of S. Pancratius, Καὶ ἄθλησις τῶν ἁγίων Μαρτύρων γυναικῶν, Εὐσεβίας καὶ Σωσάννης, μαθητριῶν τοῦ ἁγίου Παγκρατίου, Ἐπισκόπου Ταυρομενίου. And the contest of the holy Matron Martyrs, Eusebia and Susanna, female disciples of S. Pancratius, Bishop of Tauromenium. The same things are read in two Paris manuscripts, one Mazarinian, the other Combefisian, and also in the Chiffletian on this day; but on the following day in the great printed Menaea, but everywhere for Eusebia, Αἰσία, Aesia, is written. S. Pancratius is venerated, with a most celebrated cult diffused throughout Sicily and thence throughout the Patriarchate of Constantinople, on the 3rd day of April: but the manuscript Acts which are had of him, under the name of Evagrius his disciple, because they are no less fabulous than prolix, on that account Octavius Cajetanus was unwilling to insert them into the Acts of the Sicilian Saints, although he had them rendered into Latin by Sirmond; nor did we judge the Greek ones, found among the Vatican Codices, worthy that money should be spent on their transcription. Yet there will perhaps be a time, when I shall judge it no less useful that such things too be brought to light, than I judged concerning the Acts of SS. Alpheus, Philadelphus and Cyrinus, on the 10th day; on account of the many Martyrs, probably not fictitious (just as their relics which are exhibited prove that they themselves are not fictitious), yet doubtful, not named in his fabulous Acts. because not known from elsewhere, and at the least fabulously contracted into one, to fit together a series of concatenated martyrdoms. Meanwhile I learn from Cajetanus that in those Acts there is contained no mention of the aforesaid two; but the contest of the Virgins Mary and Scea; and that you may be more secure that the former rather than the latter had a cult; the Greeks still even now celebrating their feast, probably on account of their Relics placed together. For the rest, whoever remembers from the 5th of February how, when the Saracens were overrunning Sicily, the Body of S. Agatha was carried off to Constantinople (which will also be said of the body of S. Lucy on the 13th of December), will not find it hard to believe that the same was done with the Relics of those holy Matrons.

[4] To these last is added, and perhaps the chief of all, S. Zenais, There is added to them S. Zenais the Wonder-worker: who obtained her surname from the multitude and magnitude of the miracles, which either were done at the prayer of one living, or rather were continually wrought at the invocation of one slain for Christ, and resting within her own coffin. And she is added in these words: Καὶ τῆς ἁγίας Μάρτυρος καὶ θαυματουργοῦ Ζηναΐδος, And of the holy Martyr and Wonder-worker Zenais: She is deferred together with the first two to the following day in the great Menaea, and is named before them in the first place. Cajetanus inserted all three into his Sicilian Martyrology, as if it were a consequence that this one too is Sicilian, who is venerated jointly with two Sicilian women. Sirletus indeed referred the same one to his Menology, but joined with three women martyred at Caesarea; and thus together four passed into the present Roman one, which I can by no means approve or follow, on account of the common opinion of all the manuscripts, which combine Zenais with the preceding ones under this clause; and all together have at C.P. their own oratory. Τελειοῦται δὲ ἡ αὐτῶν σύναξις ἐν τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ αὐτῶν οἴκῳ (in the Menaea, μαρτυρίῳ) τῷ ὄντι ἐν τοῖς Βασιλίσκου. And their festivity is celebrated in their most holy Chapel, which is in the buildings of Basiliscus. George Codinus, On the Origins of Constantinople, page 50, asserts that Justin and Sophia founded another temple of S. Tryphon, εἰς τὰ Βασιλίσκου, in the place or building called of Basiliscus: and there we suppose that there was some martyrium or shrine for these Martyrs, from wheresoever the Relics may have been brought thither, or wheresoever they themselves may have suffered: yet we suppose the Sicilian women suffered in Sicily: concerning Zenais we are altogether unwilling to divine without warrant.

[5] Octavius Cajetanus, reading ἐν τοῖς Βασιλίσκου, and being little versed in the knowledge of the places of the city of Constantinople, translated it "in the field of Basiliscus," the Sicilians' inventions about them and laments that by the enormous calamities of Sicily the name of the field, the traces of the temple, and the divine honors of the most illustrious Martyrs are extinct; but he congratulates himself that their names, long unknown to their fatherland, have been dug out of the darkness. And he supposes that they are Martyrs of Tauromenium, namely because two of them, Aesia and Susanna, are named disciples of S. Pancratius; nor does he think S. Zenais is to be separated from that same discipleship, lest there be doubt about their common fatherland: and that they had a temple in the territory of Tauromenium Cajetanus himself does not at all doubt.

[6] Charles Morabitus, the founder of the Annals of Messina published twenty years ago, treats of the same ones in the year of Christ 99, as pertaining to the people of Messina, they are referred. whose territory he asserts it to be ascertained by all to extend as far as Tauromenium, and to contain within it the field Basiliscus, now called Basilicus, midway between Messina and Tauromenium, near the land commonly called Casale-vetus. "Nor is it without reason that I thus build up the argument," he says, "since that field could be so called from the most noble family of the Basilici, which Tully in the oration against Verres notes to have been once at Messina; where he names the most wealthy and ample house of C. Pompeius Basiliscus." Let those who are not Sicilians, and so are free from that passion with which everyone treats the affairs of his own fatherland, look to it, how much they can and will attribute to these new inventions; for me it is enough to have related them, lest I should seem to have attributed nothing to friends, who desire that some account be had of their opinion concerning those Saints.

CONCERNING THE HOLY MARTYRS

LUCIUS AND AMANTIUS

AT CORNELIO IN THE DISTRICT OF PARMA.

Concerning their finding and cult.

Lucius, Martyr at Cornelio, in the district of Parma (S.)

Amantius, Martyr at Cornelio in the district of Parma (S.)

G. H.

Cornelio, a fortress with a little town, within the roots of the Apennine mountain, near the source of the river Parma, distant from the city of Parma itself 25 miles, Sacred cult among the people of Cornelio, celebrates on this day the feast of SS. Lucius and Amantius the Martyrs, as Ranucius Picus in the Theatre of the Saints and Blessed of the city and diocese of Parma, and Philip Ferrarius, deduce from the Tables of the Church of Parma and its Sanctuary; Ferrarius, who in the general Catalogue has these things: At Cornelio, in the diocese of Parma, of the holy Martyrs Lucius and Amantius, and observes in the Notes that this day is that of the Finding of the bodies, not of their natal day, which is unknown; if, however, it is at least that of the finding, and not assumed only for this reason, because the Martyrologies celebrate today Martyrs of this name (who suffered, as we have already seen, at Nividunum). The same Ferrarius, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, published a eulogy taken from the Sanctuary of Parma, which is of this kind.

[2] moved by a miracle, to found a church there, Lucius and Amantius, Martyrs, at what time they suffered, is unknown. Yet their bodies were found at Cornelio, a town of the district of Parma near the river Parma. For when the people of Cornelio disagreed about the place for building a church, at last it seemed good to them that it should be built there, where two untamed bullocks yoked together should halt. And they halted on the nearby mountain, where the bodies of the Saints lay hidden. But also birds, vying with one another flying thither, indicated as it were that there it must be dug up. And so where they began to dig, where they were to find the bodies. a little coffin with an inscription of the hidden bodies is found. Which, a sacred shrine having been built for them, were deposited in a more fitting place. And the holy Martyrs, as they grew more famous from day to day by miracles, received as Patrons by the people of Cornelio, began to be held in the greatest honor on the sixth of June, on which day their bodies were found. Thus Ferrarius, but in the text, instead of the sixth of June, to which he everywhere referred it, by some lapse of memory he had written "on the Nones of June."

[3] In the Annotation it is added, that they are thought, from the ancient tradition of the people of Cornelio, to have been crowned with Martyrdom near the said town. For the place, in which the holy Martyrs crossed the river, is still pointed out. Ranucius Picus wove a similar history of the Finding, asserting that the mountain is called Cocarellus, and the peoples Terrazzani. Others say that from Cornelio the territory of Pontremoli is reached through the wood Cossa. Picus raises a doubt, Whether these can be reckoned the Martyrs of Nivedunum whether these can be reckoned Amantius and Lucius, Martyrs of Nivedunum with the other Companions, whose memory is celebrated today: but he does not dare to assert it, because very many Martyrs of those names are found. But I have already said what seems to me about this; being taught by experience how, for many, the day of cult was determined from the identity of the name alone, without any other regard. Bonaventura Angelus, in book 8 of the History of Parma, page 759, relates the same things about the Finding of the sacred bodies, adding that the fortress of Cornelio, rendered more illustrious by the preservation of the bodies of SS. Lucius and Amantius the Martyrs, They are renowned for miracles. and that there healings are conferred on the sick, and light on the blind. But when a certain woman did not observe their solemn feast, and had taken up her accustomed handiwork; her hand was withered by a certain paralysis: on account of which infirmity she had recourse to the altar dedicated to the Saints; and having confessed her error, she was freed from the evil.