CONCERNING THE HOLY TWENTY
MARTYRS AT TARSUS IN CILICIA.
A notice from the Martyrologies, and the Acts of S. Boniface the Martyr.
IN THE YEAR 290.
CommentaryTwenty Martyrs, at Tarsus in Cilicia (SS.)
G. H.
The memory of these Martyrs is celebrated on this 6th of June in the Ecclesiastical calendars: concerning whom in Usuard these things are read: At Tarsus of Cilicia, Memory in the calendars. of the holy Martyrs twenty, in the times of Diocletian and Maximian, who through various punishments glorified God in their bodies. Ado interposes, "under the Judge Simplicius"; which the spurious Beda follows, but on the 8th day of June. Notker adds, "as has been said above in the passion of B. Boniface." Similar things are read in several manuscripts, and in Bellinus, Greven, Maurolycus, Galesinius, and others, with the present Roman Martyrology. We have obtained various Acts of the martyrdom of S. Boniface, and we illustrated them on the 14th day of May, in which the chief ones are brought forth in the first place from Latin manuscripts: where toward the very beginning it is said that by the Emperors, with their divine summits, The martyrdom under the Judge Simplicius, a Judge most atrocious in mind, and too cunning, by name Simplicius, was sent into the parts of the East, into the city of Tarsus, which is the metropolis of the province of Cilicia. Then in number 5: When S. Boniface went to the stadium, where the holy Martyrs were contending, he saw them placed amid torments; and one of them, hung head downward, and a fire spread beneath him; related from the Latin Acts of S. Boniface, another, stretched on four pieces of wood, and very long tortured; another, lacerated with claws; another, having his hands cut off; another, with a stake fixed in his neck, and raised up into the ground; another, bent over from the opposite side, that is, having his hands and feet behind, and thus beaten with cudgels by the ministers … For they were all men twenty in number. Thus there. Which thence, but somewhat abridged, are read in Ado and Notker, on the fifth day of June.
[2] Metaphrastes, in the Acts of the martyrdom of the same S. Boniface, sets forth the same things somewhat more fully. and the Greek ones of Simon Metaphrastes, And he saw the Saints afflicted with various torments; and one crime indeed objected to all, namely piety and true religion; but they did not undergo the same torments, but so many, that scarcely any was condemned to the same punishment, although they were joined in spirit, and with their mouth nevertheless spoke the same things. For one indeed hung by the head, but beneath a fire was spread; another was stretched on four pieces of wood; another was cut with a saw, another was crushed by the hands of those tearing him: and of one indeed the eyes were dug out, but of another the hands were amputated: and to this one a stake driven through the neck was fixed to the earth; but of that one the hands were almost twisted around, but the feet on the contrary were wickedly broken, and to both thus bound the bones were likewise crushed. Another (O the great madness of the impious!) one might see mutilated of hands and feet, and rolled on the ground like a ball. But although men generous and brave suffered these things, as though they were not undergoing anything violent and troublesome, but just as if their bodies were being renewed, and were sustaining a certain change for the better, as it was in very truth, they rejoiced, the divine power bringing them help, and strengthening them for the contest. For it could not otherwise come to pass, that this human nature should suffer such things, and that with joy; unless a heavenly hand touched them … The Martyrs were all twenty. Again in number 8, when S. Boniface was tortured with sharp reeds under the claws of his hands, and with melted lead poured into his mouth; he cried out to the holy Martyrs, saying: I beseech you, servants of Christ, pray for me your servant. And the holy Martyrs, as if from one mouth, said: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself send his Angel, and snatch you from this most profane Judge, and complete your course swiftly, and inscribe your name with the firstborn. Amen.
[3] Baronius, in his Notes on these twenty Martyrs, subjoins these things: But when there the bodies of the Martyrs were sold for a price, the same bodies of the aforesaid twenty Martyrs, bought up, Memory at Hippo, were translated into Africa … At Hippo Regius was a celebrated memory of these Martyrs, and there was wrought that famous miracle, described by S. Augustine, On the City of God, book 22, chapter 8. There was indeed an old man Florentius, of our Hippo, a religious and poor man, who fed himself by the tailor's art: he had lost his cloak, and had not the means to buy himself one. To the twenty Martyrs, with a notable miracle, whose memory is most celebrated among us, with a clear voice he prayed that he might be clothed. Some young men, who happened to be present, scoffers, heard him; and as he departed they pursued him, harassing him, as if he had asked from the Martyrs fifty folles, with which he might buy a garment. But he, walking in silence, saw a great fish cast up and flapping on the shore, and seized it with their favoring and helping, and to a certain cook, Carchosus by name, a good Christian, indicating what had been done, sold it for three hundred folles, intending to procure wool therewith, that his wife might in whatever way she could make him something to wear. But the cook, cutting the fish, found a golden ring in its little belly; and soon, bent by compassion and terrified by religion, returned it to the man, saying: Behold how the twenty Martyrs have clothed you. Thus S. Augustine, and from him Peter de Natalibus in book 5, chapter 93, where he applies it also to these twenty Martyrs of Tarsus; and Maurolycus, Galesinius, and others followed him.
D. P.
[4] But among the innumerable African Martyrs, perhaps there were twenty, whose memory could have been celebrated there. Indeed the most ancient Calendar of the Church of Carthage, which Mabillon published in volume 3 of the Analecta, but probably of Africans. notes for us on various days of the year the Passion or memory of the holy ones of Timida, of Scili, of Maxula, of Tuburbo, of Volita, of Vaga, of Capita, of Erona, of Rubra, of Tertulla, of Ficaria, of Cartenna, and finally of Petra, no number being expressed, and doubtless infinitely many others being omitted, of whom there was not so special a memory at Carthage. But we, from various Latin Martyrologies, with the present Roman one on the 23rd of March, set forth: In Africa the natal day
of S. Fidelis and twenty others, of whom no account could be had in the aforesaid Carthaginian Calendar, inasmuch as it names no Saints from the 13th day before the Kalends of May down to the 14th day before the Kalends of March; for it had been written for some one of those years in which, Easter being to be celebrated about the middle of April, the whole of March and a good part of February had been occupied by the Lenten observance, the Africans meanwhile commemorating no Saints, which the Church of Milan even today holds.