CONCERNING THE HOLY ROMAN MARTYRS.
ARTEMIUS AND CANDIDA, SPOUSES, AND PAULINA THE VIRGIN, THEIR DAUGHTER.
UNDER DIOCLETIAN.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Artemius, husband, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Candida, wife, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Paulina, daughter, Martyr at Rome
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
§. I. Concerning their passion and Relics in Italy.
These illustrious Roman Martyrs, brought to the faith of Christ by SS. Marcellinus and Peter, seem to have been crowned with martyrdom together with them on the second day of June, although they obtain a special cult on this 6th of June. [These are treated of on the 2nd of June in the Passion of SS. Marcellinus and Peter.] The Acts of their conversion and passion are more fully contained in the Acts of the aforesaid Martyrs: from which various compendia, taken on this 6th of June, are had in print. We give one unpublished, from a very ancient manuscript of Utrecht of the Church of S. Salvator, which is of this kind.
[2] Blessed Artemius, when he was a keeper of the prison, and held Blessed Peter the Exorcist shut up in custody, A Compendium from a manuscript Codex. and had an only daughter vexed by a demon, by name Paulina; as soon as she was healed by the prayers of B. Peter, believing in Christ together with his wife Candida and the same daughter, he was baptized by B. Marcellinus the Presbyter, and all his house, and many others with him: so that, apart from the women, there came to be a number of three hundred men. And the Judge Serenus, hearing this, ordered B. Artemius, who would not sacrifice to the idols, with his wife and daughter, to be overwhelmed with an immense weight of stones. And when they were being led to the place of passion, in the same place so many Christians met the executioners, that, terrified, they fled: but the younger of the people of God, running after them, held them and guarded them: until S. Marcellinus in the crypt, in which the Saints were to be punished, had celebrated Mass. After which S. Marcellinus said to them, Behold, it has been in our power to harm you, and to take away from you Artemius with his wife and daughter; which we have not done. What say you to these things? But they, trembling against the men of God, struck Artemius with the sword; but holy Candida his wife, and Paulina his daughter and a virgin, casting them down through the steep of the crypt, overwhelmed them with stones.
[3] These things from the said manuscript. Which, a few things being omitted toward the end, are contained almost the same in the Martyrologies of Ado and Notker. Memory on the 6th of June. In Usuard these things are read: At Rome, of the Saints Artemius, with his wife Candida and his daughter Paulina: which Artemius was struck with the sword, but his wife and daughter were overwhelmed with stones. In the present Roman Martyrology these things are thus more fully set forth: At Rome, of S. Artemius, with his wife Candida and his daughter Paulina: which Artemius, at the preaching and miracles of S. Peter the Exorcist believing in Christ, and with all his house baptized by S. Marcellinus the Presbyter, by the order of the Judge Serenus was beaten with leaded scourges, and struck with the sword. But his wife and daughter, thrust into the crypt, were overwhelmed with stones and rubble. Similar things are read in other Martyrologies written by hand and struck in type, of which it is not pleasing to weave a Catalogue. In the Notes Baronius explains what it is to be beaten with leaded scourges. It was, he says, a kind of torment, like a scourge of little cords, on the tips of which leaden balls were fixed: with these the back and neck of the condemned man were beaten. He then declares the use of the same leaded scourges, from Prudentius, the Theodosian Code, Ambrose, Ammianus, and Horace: which may there be read. Furthermore, the Commemoration of S. Artemius is prescribed in the Breviary of Tours of the year 1636.
[4] It is disputed concerning their Relics, in which places chiefly they are kept. Baronius, in the cited Notes, Whether the bodies are at Rome says, The bodies of Artemius and Paulina are found to have been translated by Sergius the Younger, into the title of Equitius, as an old inscription placed there, cut in marble, testifies. That church is dedicated to SS. Silvester and Martin in the Mountains: to S. Martin in the Mountains, which Antonius Philippinus, Prior of the Carmelite Convent of the said Church, illustrated by his Commentary, and on page 77 published the inscription cited by Baronius, which learned men think to be scarcely more ancient than two hundred years: and they will at some time show that it was taken from Anastasius the librarian in the Life of Sergius the second Pontiff, who sat from the year 847, and restored the said basilica, and placed there very many bodies of Saints; where, fourteen others being enumerated, it is subjoined: likewise to Artemius, Nicander, Crescentianus, Martyrs, with whom Blessed Sotere and Paulina, and also Memmia, Juliana and Quirilla, Theopiste, Sophia, Virgins and Martyrs. But whence shall we know that there it treats of Artemius the Judge, and Paulina his daughter? since very many of those names could have been Martyrs. Among the first fourteen is Asterius the Martyr, with his most sacred daughter. Why should not here too Artemius and Paulina his daughter have been joined; if Sergius and Anastasius had believed them to be those same. Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza in the Roman Sanctuary, on the 6th of June, says, S. Artemius the Martyr: whose feast is at S. Martin in the Mountains, where is a part of his body together with SS. Paulina his daughter and Candida his wife, crowned with martyrdom along with him. But of Candida, no mention is made in the said inscription. And he said "a part of the body," because he adds that the feast is also at S. Pancratius, where a great part of those bodies is kept. Octavio Pancirolio, or in the church of S. Pancratius in the Hidden Treasure of the City, region 8, church 6, asserts that in the church of S. Pancratius rest the bodies of SS. Artemius, Candida his wife, and Paulina their daughter. He affirms moreover that some Relics of S. Paulina are in the churches of the Holy Spirit in Saxia, of the Four Crowned, and of S. Cecilia in the Trasteverine region. But that all are of the same holy Virgin, and indeed the daughter of S. Artemius, will be proved with difficulty.
[5] Most well known is Piacenza, an Episcopal city of Italy, for which city and diocese we have proper Offices, approved by the sacred Congregation of Rites on the 23rd of March in the year 1602, and afterward often reprinted: in which on this 6th of June an Office is prescribed under a double rite concerning SS. Artemius, Candida and Paulina the Martyrs, whose bodies rest in the Cathedral Church. The two Lessons of the second Nocturn are taken from the Acts of the Martyrdom, and toward the end these things are recited: Whose bodies, on the Aurelian way, where together with SS. Marcellinus and Peter they endured martyrdom, religiously deposited by the Christians, afterward carried to Piacenza, are piously preserved in the Cathedral church. Pietro Maria Campi, in part 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of Piacenza, book 12, at the year 1120, sets forth the translation of these Martyrs; and, citing the manuscript Annals of Piacenza of Paolo Leone, asserts that those bodies, by the intercession of Cardinal Guido, obtained from the Supreme Pontiff Paschal II, or his successor Gelasius II, and with great solemnity deposited by Aldus Bishop of Piacenza within the altar of S. Justina, with this inscription: ✠ HERE REST THE BODIES OF THE HOLY MARTYRS ARTHEMIUS, CANDIDA, AND PAULINA, DEPOSITED 1120. Which indeed indicate a quite ancient possession; and, because bodies buried together were also more probably found and translated together; and neither at Rome, nor much less elsewhere in places to be mentioned below, are they thus held joined together; they confirm a more just presumption in favor of the people of Piacenza. Nay, it could even be presumed that the Relics of the three, which are shown at Bologna among the Servites, if they are from one and the same place, were brought from Piacenza.
[6] Masini too, in his Bologna Surveyed, writes on this 6th of June, Various Relics at Bologna: that in the church of S. Mary of the Servites are venerated S. Artemius the husband, Candida the wife, and Paulina the daughter; and that there are kept the arm of S. Artemius, part of the skull of S. Candida, and a finger of S. Paulina. Moreover that a rib of S. Candida the Martyr is kept among the Nuns of the names of Jesus and Mary, in the street commonly called Galliera. Likewise that some Relics of S. Candida the Martyr are in the Church of S. Gabriel di Ravegnana, and in the church of All Saints. likewise the body of some S. Paulina. But whence shall we prove that she is the wife of S. Artemius? Finally some sacred body of S. Paulina, Virgin and Martyr, is kept in the church of S. Francis, which was received as a gift from Gregory XV in the year 1622. And this Paulina is venerated also on this 6th of June, and thus occasion is given for confusing one with another. Likewise then the same Saint is venerated at Prague, on account of a part of the Head brought to the Metropolitan church, in the year 1370, as the Dean of that Church, Pezzina, writes in its Phosphorus.
§. II. The bodies and Relics of some S. Paulina, confused with the former, in Spain and Moravia.
[7] We treated on the 29th of January of B. Redicundis or Wedigundis, a Virgin of the Premonstratensian Order in Spain, Another in Spain in the monastery of S. Michael of Treviño in the diocese of Burgos: where in number 2 we added these things. Here is kept the body of S. Paulina, Virgin and Martyr, brought from Italy with the relics of other Saints by Antonio de Padilla of the Society of Jesus, and given to these most religious Fathers in the year 1612, on the 23rd of April. We shall treat of her on the 6th of June; namely about to examine whether she could be said to be Paulina the daughter of Artemius: now we plainly judge that the body must be reckoned that of another Paulina. Meanwhile Tamayo Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology seized the occasion of celebrating the memory of S. Paulina, Virgin and Martyr, kept in the convent of S. Michael of Treviño; and, the testimony of Father Jean Bolland being adduced, adds that a translation of this kind is the more true, on account of the recent speculation of the Author: then he composes her Acts, which, he says, we excerpted from those of SS. Marcellinus and Peter the Martyrs described by Eginhart. Those Acts are more ancient: but the history of the Translation was composed by Eginhart alone. These things notwithstanding, as written thence, renowned for miracles, notable is the devotion of all that territory toward the Saint; and many, and those famous, miracles and wonders are done, which the divine Majesty works in those who, commending themselves to the Saint, visit her holy altar and Relics. Wherefore also Father Friar Francisco de Salinas, who at present acts as Abbot of the said convent, this veneration of the people toward the Saint being known, for the greater increase of her glory, placed the body and Relics of S. Paulina in a certain precious image of her, formed to the life. These things in the rescript: to which I add, that also among the Relics of our Professed House at Lisbon, enumerated among the Passed-over on the 25th of January, are had some of some S. Paulina.
[8] Louis Crasius, of our Flandro-Belgic Province
sent into Bohemia, Another at Olomouc in Moravia in a certain epistle to Jean Bolland, from Olomouc on the 17th of December in the year 1634, writes these things: I send to Your Reverence the Life of SS. Cyril and Methodius, from a manuscript Breviary of Olomouc, published on the 9th day of March. No other here in Moravia is celebrated, who is not elsewhere more celebrated, if I except one S. Paulina, Virgin and Martyr, whose body, sent from Rome, we have in our church. the future patroness against the plague, Furthermore concerning this Virgin this one thing occurs to be written, that she has freed this city from the present danger of contagion now thrice. For when the plague had invaded some houses, at the request of the Magistrate a public supplication was instituted from our church through the city, and the Relics of S. Paulina were carried around: which, performed not without pomp and public display, soon all the plague was extinguished, nor has any little rumor of it been heard here since that time. The same Crasius on the Kalends of July in the year 1635 writes these things: We celebrate the feast of S. Paulina on the sixth day of June, on which day some mention of her is made in the Roman Martyrology, and in the Life of S. Marcellinus the Presbyter in Surius. This year, on account of the solemnity of the Body of Christ, we deferred her feast until the 19th of June: honored with great solemnity. on which day all the citizens kept holiday, and the Magistrate instituted a public procession to our church. There proceeded the maidens of the whole city divided into certain classes, and variously adorned: our four lower schools met them, with various display and pomp worthy of the admiration of all. Various stages, like mountains, thrones, gardens, altars, ships, and other things of this kind, were carried about, etc.
D. P.
[9] George Crugerius, likewise of ours, had collected by the study of many years a notable work of the Sacred (as he calls them) Dusts of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia; which he began to put to the press at Litomyšl in the year 1669, those being punished who had remitted something of the cult: and which, divided by months and continued at Prague, we have down to November; which alone, with December, perhaps remained to be printed and composed, when that most laborious and most religious man, seized in the year 1671 by paralysis, on the 9th of March most piously died. He, on the 6th of June, thus writes: The feast of S. Paulina, Virgin and Martyr of Rome: whose body, by the benefit of Pope Gregory XV, was brought to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Olomouc in the year of the Lord 1623, in which seven thousand men were consumed by the plague. By whom, when the Relics were carried around the city, immediately the pestilence lost all its force: and this power, as often as a like evil prevailed, appeared by a palpable miracle. Yet in one year Paulina the Preserver interrupted that beneficence: there perished, laid low by the plague, about ten of that number of men, who are wont to attend most greatly to the honor of this holy Patroness. (The Author seems to indicate some pious Confraternity, instituted at Olomouc for that cause) because namely, from time to time, when her feast day was kept, they exhibited nothing peculiar in particular, nay rather omitted under no great pretexts certain things hitherto employed.
[10] an elegant reliquary made for her, Philip Breiner, not so long ago the Prelate of Vienna, formerly Bishop of Joppe, and so Suffragan of the most Eminent Bishop of Olomouc, Cardinal Francis Dietrichstein, showed how highly he esteemed the benefits of this most holy Virgin, certain and indeed most certain; when he honored her Relics, in a chest made of ebony, and interspersed in fitting places with silver and even gold (which I saw and surveyed), at great expense and indeed wonderfully. He added also a lamp, conspicuous in the same metals, that by the splendor of the eternal oil (so then report bore, no one contradicting), the most prudent Virgin might be enticed and impelled to a fatal mercy, or to bearing it under death for her people of Olomouc, with a perpetual lamp. especially when the pestilence raged. And she will keep the tenor of granting the benefit hereafter; if indeed the people of Olomouc bestow something of land, by which an honorable chapel may be extended, in which the sacred Relics may be set forth for fuller veneration. Thus far Crugerius, to whom would that someone add the two last months which are lacking, with the Indexes necessary for all the months together! Meanwhile, the Rector of our College there now, the Reverend Father Emmanuel de Boge, being asked whether such a chapel, such as he indicates was designed, was already held completed; not only answered the question; but, reweaving all the aforesaid from the beginning, satisfied as fully as he could in this manner.
[11] Obediently I communicate as much notice as I have been able to gather, The author of invoking Paulina, the Archdeacon, from the Archive of the College of Olomouc, concerning the graces which the divine goodness has deigned to work, through the Virgin-Martyr the Lady Paulina, chosen by the acclamation of the whole People and Nobles as the Patroness of this Royal city and Metropolis of the renowned Marquisate. The matter is thus. In the year 1623, by the benefit of Our Most Holy Lord Gregory XV, the Body of S. Paulina V. and M. was brought from Rome to the College of Olomouc, at a truly opportune time; when, namely, the contagion began to creep in the city. The treasure was hidden, and indicated only to certain friends. When therefore the plague grew worse, the Senate, anxious, resolved to placate God by some special vow in the name of the whole City. In which deliberation the Most Reverend Lord Giulio Cesare Gimanus, Archdeacon and Custos of the cathedral church, suggested this counsel to those asking, that they exhibit some singular honor to S. Paulina V. M., whose sacred Relics, very recently brought from Rome, he knew to be kept among the Fathers of the Society. The counsel pleased, and soon by decree of the senate and the gracious consent of the Rector of the college, it was publicly proclaimed, that from the college into the church the sacred Relics be borne for veneration, with the greatest pomp they could; that the Senate be present there at the sermon and the rest of the divine Offices, accompanying the procession with lighted tapers; that all and each, their consciences first purified, approach the divine Banquet; and if it should seem good to God to have mercy on the City, from the patronage of the holy Virgin-Martyr, a chapel be erected to her honor in the church of the Society by vow.
[12] she institutes a procession, These things being decreed, on the eighth day of October (it was a Sunday) the Priests of the College, who were free from receiving the Confessions of the people, in sacred vestments, the Clergy in linen, went forth in public (the Most Reverend Archdeacon administering the whole business) to the courtyard of the College, in which an Oratory, constructed of precious tapestries, kept the sacred pledge: which, adored after the custom, and the Collect prescribed at the elevation of sacred Relics being recited by the Most Reverend Prelate, four Priests took up the sacred body on their shoulders under a canopy, which the Chiefs of the Senate carried, with torches and lights shining around on every side, and the choir singing beforehand the hymn whose beginning is, Jesu the crown of Virgins. And throughout the whole time of the Office, twelve chosen from the whole number of the citizens held up very great tapers before the altar itself of the Wonder-worker. under whom the city was relieved: And the solemnity was protracted through the whole Octave, the Consuls being present daily at the sacred solemnities. The eighth day being completed, for which also most of the citizens had appointed a voluntary fast, immediately it was noted that the contagion was abating: so that the apothecary, a man alien from the orthodox faith, openly declared, that he had not had so much labor in preparing medicines, from the time that supplication had been performed among the Jesuits.
[13] From that time, in other diseases too, the present help of S. Paulina the same year was attested by the wife of a Consular, a Consul is healed of a bruised head, whose husband, from a grievous fall, had so shaken his Head, that he could no longer speak words sufficiently articulate, nor sufficiently coherent; and the Physicians availing nothing, the good Matron procured the patronage of S. Paulina in this manner. She distributed a hundred florins among poor scholars, who at their times should pour forth prayers before the altar of the Saint, and at the same time a taper of vast bulk being lighted, she immediately obtained that her husband could do both, and speak perfectly, both without impediment of the tongue, and with sound sense. The same year and day a Priest of the Society, emaciated for a sufficiently long time by a double fever, when he had drunk from the lamp of S. Paulina; fevers are driven off by the oil of the lamp. on the first day indeed suffered nothing feverish any longer: he drank also on the second, with no less devotion of his mind, and most happily overcame the double fever. And now it has passed into custom, that as often as any person of the natives is seized by fevers, they flock to this lamp, as to a drop continually flowing. Nor is it a year, that six thousand seven hundred were counted, who through the course of the year 1692, drank health from this lamp: of whom five hundred and thirty are singularly to be praised, who, returning, gave glory to God and to the Saint, attesting the benefit.
[14] The Bishop of Vienna is preserved among robbers: In the year 1639 Philip Friedrich Breuner, Dean and Suffragan of the aforesaid Chapter, and after an interval Prince and Bishop of Vienna, offered for adornment a new Reliquary Case in the likeness of a Mausoleum, of precious wood, rich silver, and several statues of the same value, and shining with most pure crystal, valued at more than nine hundred florins, yet at his own greatest profit and advantage. For when the now-named Bishop was returning from Vienna to Olomouc, a most audacious, wicked band of brigands attacks the Prince: the carriage in which he was carried is assailed from front and rear by repeated shots of muskets, no one being hurt: of the raging ones, one, while he aims a hand-musket at the very breast of the Prince, opportunely struck down by a faithful servant running up, is laid low on the ground, the life of the Prince being saved. He was moreover carrying furniture both rich and precious, and already the harpies had cast their foul claws upon it, but with the least damage. He attested that S. Paulina was his chief preserver in so grave a peril. For as soon as he came to Olomouc, the thanks which he owed, he is punished who dared to disturb the building, humbly prostrate before the altar and sacred Relics, he laid down. Many benefits of the same kind are recounted in the same year. But while the place was being prepared for a new Chapel, to be joined to the church of the Society, because perhaps those had not been greeted whom it behooved to know the matter beforehand, the trenches, which the workmen had already opened for laying the foundations, the neighbors by agreement, all together through their men, by night again fill with earth. Meanwhile it happened that that very man who had been appointed as deputy for others to hinder this holy labor, in the same year, and on the very feast of S. Paulina, was laid in the trench.
[15] The supplication is renewed in the year 1634. It was fitting to set forth an event most worthy of observation. For when in the year 1634 again a hostile plague raged widely through Moravia; it did not indeed touch the inner city, yet into the suburb, which by common speech they call the Old City, where both the cathedral church and the residences of the Canons are, it had crept secretly: and indeed it was observed, that especially those streets and squares, through which that solemn supplication eleven years before had not proceeded. Lest they should pay the penalty of this negligence, the Prelates by a nod turn their prayers to the Rector of the College; by which they ask that the supplication be renewed, with no less pomp, and at their own expense. And indeed they performed it in a most solemn order, the whole nobility being convened; and the plague is driven off: whom the Prelates, in their adornment, with the rest of the Canons and Vicars, following, with a loud voice invoking the patronage of S. Paulina, the accustomed
formula, S. Paulina pray for us. By which humble joint prayer they so purged the air from all appearance of the plague, that at once both the danger and the fear vanished. They attested the benefit by a silver tablet hung up and a lamp to burn perpetually. And indeed, as often as thereafter the wretched country was struck by the scourge of contagion, the Royal city of Olomouc always had a present remedy in the patronage of S. Paulina.
[16] an unknown wasting disease is healed, In the year 1636 a certain person, by a wasting disease utterly unknown to the physicians, not only was flowing away in a foul manner, but moreover was driven by a convulsion so vehement, that it was believed to be the lodging of a besieging demon. But a vow being made to the Lady Paulina, and cold water tasted from her lamp, she so was quieted, that she suffered thereafter nothing either from the flowing wasting, or from the convulsing onset. But when toward the end of the year 1679 and through the following one, 1680, almost all the cities and towns of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and of the Provinces joined to that Crown, were again depopulated with miserable slaughter by the common plague; Olomouc, the Royal Tribunal having been transferred from Brünn as to an asylum, with the chief nobility, the city is preserved from the widespread plague. venerated S. Paulina indeed with a special cult, but at the same time with a special felicity; for that city remained altogether untouched under the Virgin's patronage, by a privilege which scarcely any other of cities enjoyed. Therefore also in each year supplications were renewed, with an increase always both of solemnity and of devotion.
[17] The City, now laden with so many benefits, that it might in some part discharge its faith, offered five hundred florins to the Rector of the College, to be invested at interest, for building at some time a fuller Chapel. Which was done. The feast on the 4th Sunday after Pentecost. Meanwhile, however, another chapel was furnished for her honor, with a new altar, and tapestries, or little curtains, hung all around through all the sides. The day of this Saint, by the determination of the Most Reverend and Most Exalted Prince Bishop of Olomouc, is most solemnly celebrated on the fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Early in the morning a solemn supplication is led from the first Parochial church of the city, accompanied by the Magistrate with the Chief men of the People, to the church of the Society, always with a most dense retinue, all the lower schools proceeding. In the afternoon of the same day a General Catechism is held, and the Indulgences are published, which the Pope of holy memory Gregory XV most kindly conferred on that Catechism. Thus far the Epistle, given at Olomouc on the 21st of November 1693.
§. III. The body of another S. Artemius at Ypres in Flanders, Relics elsewhere.
[18] Just as our people of Olomouc took the body of some S. Paulina brought to them from Rome to be venerated on this day, on which they found that name in the Roman Martyrology, deciding meanwhile nothing about the daughter of S. Artemius, At Ypres in Flanders is the body of some S. Artemius: whose alone this day is proper; so also our people of Ypres in Flanders judged it should be done by them, when, concerning another Martyr of the same name similarly received from the Roman crypts, they had proposed their doubt to Father Bolland through Father Charles de Breuil, a man among us renowned for prudence and erudition, writing in this manner. Father Marcus Vanden Tympel, when in the year 1623 he was at Rome, obtained various Relics of Saints, which he afterward carried into Belgium, and distributed through various Colleges of the Province. To the one at Ypres he gave the body of S. Artemius the Martyr, whose celebration was deferred for several years, that it might be performed with greater solemnity in the new church. Now when we consider this, certain things occur in which we ask that light be given us by Your Reverence. It is asked, therefore, who is that S. Artemius? Is it he of whom mention is made in the Roman Martyrology on the 6th of June? In the first place the place favors it, in which he suffered: for the other who is celebrated on the 20th of October, underwent martyrdom at Antioch. Moreover, the casket in which the body is enclosed was brought from Rome by Father Marcus, as is evident from the open letters of the Vicariate of Ypres in these words: The Reverend Father M. Vanden Tempel … exhibiting to us a certain little chest of the length of a foot and a half and the breadth of one palm, concerning which Bolland being consulted, whether of the father of S. Paulina, in which were contained in the first place the front part of the head, with twenty-four notable parts … of S. Artemius etc.: all which agree with our little chest. To it, moreover, was fixed inside a parchment slip in these words, Of S. Artemius the sixth of June. And it is probable that this inscription was brought from Rome with the casket, or added by Father Marcus, who, present at Rome, understood on what day this Martyr suffered. Nor does this inscription seem to have been rashly affixed by anyone, since the casket from the year 1628, when it was at Ypres, has been kept shut in the chamber of the Rector: nor is it probable that it was placed by any Rector without certain indications.
[19] This therefore being supposed, that the inscription was added at Rome, or here by Father Marcus from the report of the Romans, it is not ill gathered that it is the body of S. Artemius, of whom the Roman Martyrology makes mention. But on the contrary, that our Artemius is not he who is treated of in this place, but perhaps another unknown one; this seems to make for it, that Baronius says that his body was translated into the title of Equitius, or rather should he judge it to be of another? as an old inscription placed there testifies: but of ours Fabricius Vallatus, a Roman Notary, asserts: that in the year 1606, with the other Relics of Saints whom he names, with him seeing and present, it was extracted from the cemeteries of the City and from their tombs. Which words seem to be more clearly explained by Father Marcus, when he says in his attestation; The body of S. Artemius the Martyr, from the cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian Way. Does Your Reverence see a way of combining together the cemetery of Priscilla, and the Title of Equitius? I commend to Your Reverence that you be willing to give us light in this matter, and write out your judgment about it. But if you come to this opinion, that it is the body of S. Artemius about whom we ask, take care that there be described for us whatever you have about him: for we could, to excite the piety of the people, put forth some brief writing. I ask in addition that you be willing to answer as quickly as can be done. For if we receive light, so that we may believe him to be that Artemius whom we should wish him to be, we shall celebrate him on his feast next month. Bolland responded that he seemed to be another's: and to his judgment we think our people of Ypres acquiesced, since indeed we have not received that they published anything of those things which they otherwise meditated. Yet because it had not then occurred to us to advise what we afterward advised others in a like case, he wrote back that he seemed to be another's. and always henceforth shall advise, that for the anniversary cult of Saints of this kind a day be assumed, on which no Saint of his name is found ascribed to the Roman Martyrology, to avoid confusion, otherwise almost inevitable; it came to pass that the day of the 6th of June was assumed; whence in the Catalogue of Relics, kept at Ypres in the College of the Society of Jesus, of S. Artemius it is thus read: In a chest clothed with red silk-velvet the body of S. Artemius the Martyr; whose feast is celebrated on the sixth of June, given by the most Reverend Father Mutius Vitellescus, in the year 1638, which Father Marcus Vanden Tempel brought from Rome. Thus there, with which was sent to us the Approbation given by the Episcopal Vicars during the vacancy of the See, in this tenor.
[20] The Vicars general of the Bishopric of Ypres, the See being vacant: from the approbation of the Vicars of Ypres to all who shall see these, greeting in the Lord. We make known and attest, that on the day of the date of the present, before us in the Episcopal Palace, there being present in the same place the Reverend and Venerable Lords Francis Fentin, Licentiate in both Laws, Penitentiary; John Cervius, Licentiate in Sacred Theology, Antonius Hantsamus, Bachelor formed in Sacred Theology; Jacobus Heldewijck, Licentiate in both Laws; Philip Savate and Antonius Sander, Licentiates in Sacred Theology, Canons of the Cathedral Church of Ypres; there appeared the Reverend Father Marcus Tempelius, otherwise Vanden Tempel, Priest of the Society of Jesus, formerly superior of the Holland Mission, who now about four years ago returned from Rome; exhibiting a certain little chest, of the length of a foot and a half, and the breadth of one palm; in which were contained in the first place, the front part of the head, with twenty-four notable parts, and very many smaller ones; with letters of the following tenor: On the 19th of April 1623 at Rome I, the undersigned public Apostolic Notary, make faith, how that in the year 1606, by the Lord Antonius Corbius, from several cemeteries of the city were extracted many Relics of Saints, male and female, by virtue of the Apostolic faculties, granted by Pope Paul V of happy memory to the distinguished Lord Juan Fernandez Pacheco, Marquis of Villena, adducing the Roman letters concerning these, then for the royal Catholic Majesty Orator with the same Pontiff etc., under the date at Rome at S. Peter's on the fifth day of September 1606: which faculties were registered in the office of the Lord Fulnius Passarini, then Notary of the tribunal of the most Illustrious Lord Cardinal Vicar etc., of which Relics extracted by the said Antonius some were given by the same to the most Reverend Father Marcus Tempelius; namely the bodies of SS. Agapitus the Deacon, Magnus the Subdeacon, Artemius and Agapius, Martyrs, besides certain little fragments of SS. Pontianus, Paulinus, Quirinus, Herculanus, Servilianus, Venustus, Peregrinus, Innocentius the Subdeacon, Cyrinus, Fortunatus, Symphorianus, Tertullinus the Presbyter, Maximus, Firmus, Felicissimus, Vincentius, Martyrs, and S. Priscilla, Virgin and Martyr. Which Relics of saints, with the aforesaid faculty, were extracted from the cemeteries of the City from their tombs, with me the Notary present and looking on etc., and for faith, being requested, I made the present testimony, subscribed, and signed it with my sign. Below was:
[21] And because I, Matthaeus Sarcius, a Roman, was requested; and to other Relics, given to Father Marcus Tempelius at Rome. therefore I have subscribed this faith, and signed it with my sign for faith etc., and it was signed in this manner more or less: M. SR., and in the margin was a certain manual sign. Below was still thus: We the Conservators of the Holy city etc. testify that the above-written Lord Matthaeus Sorcius is a public and faithful Notary, and that faith is always and everywhere to be given to his writings; and therefore we have ordered the present to be made, fortified with our seal. Given on the 22nd day of April 1623 etc., and it was signed Fabritius Vallatus, Secretary. Which little chest the same Reverend Father Marcus declared on the faith of a Priest that he had brought from Rome, and asserted that he had received the enclosed Relics with the others, contained in the aforesaid letters, according to the same letters, as a gift from Antonius Corbus; who extracted them from various cemeteries, as is evident from the aforesaid letters; declaring that he had given and gives the same Relics, contained in the said little chest (which are of S. Artemius the Martyr), according to the faculty made to him by his Superiors, as a gift to the college of the Society of Jesus at Ypres. And on the same day there appeared also the Reverend Father Nicolaus Romaeus, Rector of the same College, asking that the aforesaid Relics be reviewed and approved, according to the faculty made to him by his Superior. We therefore the aforesaid Vicars General, deliberation being had, with the consent of the aforesaid Lords Canons, declared
that the above-written Relics, of the body of S. Artemius the Martyr, are to be held for genuine and true, and that they are to be approved; as we declare and approve by the present; permitting that in the diocese of Ypres they be exposed to public cult. In faith of which matter we have caused these to be undersigned and fortified with our seal. Done at Ypres, on the seventh day of August in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-eight. Below is had, by Mandate of the aforesaid Lords, C. Cocx Rythovius in place of the Secretary, and it was sealed with a seal hanging of red wax.
[22] A part of the skull of some S. Artemius at Antwerp. The counsel which Bolland gave to the people of Ypres, we ourselves should take at Antwerp, if the Relic of some S. Artemius which we have, received from Rome as that of a Roman Martyr, were so notable, that on its account an Office could be celebrated. It is placed, with several others of the same kind, on one of the white Reliquaries, most beautifully adorned with gold and silver and Phrygian (embroidered) work, on which is inscribed the title, "Of Martyrs not Pontiffs." Concerning it the testimonial letters of the year 1640, given under the seal of the Cardinal of S. Onuphrius, assert that it is of the Skull of S. Artemius the Martyr, with several others extracted from the cemetery of S. Callistus, and, among the other parts of other Martyrs extracted from the same place, given by the most Illustrious and most Reverend Giovanni Battista Altieri, Vicegerent of the Cardinal Vicar in the holy City, to the Reverend Father Ignatius Rochettus of our Society; who consigned it, and the thirteen added little particles, each under its own name, to Father Guilielmus du Loroy: and he sent it to the Reverend Father Andreas Iudocus, then Rector of the College of Louvain, through whom finally they came to the sacristy of this Professed House, and are reverently kept in the manner which we said above.