Martyrs

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS

GETULIUS, CEREALIS, AMANTIUS, PRIMITIVUS,

AT ROME ON THE SALARIAN WAY.

ABOUT THE YEAR CXXIV.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the antiquity of the Acts, the cult of their Relics, and distinguishing Getulius from Zoticus.

Getulius, Martyr at Rome, on the Salarian Way (S.)

Cerealis, Martyr at Rome, on the Salarian Way (S.)

Amantius, Martyr at Rome, on the Salarian Way (S.)

Primitivus, Martyr at Rome, on the Salarian Way (S.)

D. P.

There flourished under the Emperor Hadrian, among the Tiburtines in Latium, a most noble family in propagating the Christian faith, that of SS. Getulius and Symphorosa, and their seven sons: to whom was joined the brother of Getulius, Amantius. All of them, ten in number, crowned with martyrdom, exchanged this mortal life for eternal and immortal. The ancient Acts of these Martyrs, Of these, S. Symphorosa with the seven sons is venerated with ecclesiastical veneration on July XVIII, while S. Getulius and Amantius, together with Cerealis the Consular who was converted by them, and Primitivus their familiar, honored this June X with their martyrdom. Their Acts are reported in most ancient codices; in which Julius Africanus is indicated as the author, as if he had collected the Acts of the Martyrs who suffered for Christ's faith in the first two centuries, and so also those of SS. Getulius, Amantius, Cerealis, and Primitivus, who before S. Symphorosa and her seven sons contended in an illustrious combat. Whatever may be the case concerning the collection of Julius Africanus, who flourished a hundred years after Hadrian's reign, the Acts of the aforesaid Martyrs are very ancient, and woven together by brief questions and answers, in the manner in which we still have some, taken from the actual Proconsular Acts: yet they themselves are not to be called such, as will appear from our Notes. We give them moreover from our most ancient codex, written several hundreds of years ago or perhaps eight hundred, and we collated it with another ancient codex of Trier of the Imperial monastery of S. Maximinus, and another of Boninus Mombritius printed two hundred years ago, and collected here and there from the best Writers.

[2] Laurentius Surius also had an excellent Ms. codex, as he prefaces, but he changed the style, and here and there contracted it. The same things from Surius with his Notes were edited at Rome in the year 1588 by Fulvius Cardulus of the Society of Jesus. But Surius adds, that credit is given to these Acts by the most ancient Martyrologies. contracted in the Martyrologies. Ado indeed, preserving the words of these Acts, produces a very long elogium, which Notker and the author of pseudo-Bede and other later ones contracted. Usuardus formed this encomium: On the same day X June, on the Salarian Way, the passion of Blessed Getulius, a most renowned and most learned man, and of his companions, Cerealis, Amantius, and Primitivus: who by order of the Emperor Hadrian were first beaten, then shut up in prison, and finally given to the fire. In the Roman Martyrology these things are added: Since they had in no way been injured by the fire, with their heads crushed by cudgels they completed their martyrdom: whose bodies Symphorosa, the wife of B. Getulius, gathered, and honorably buried in the sandpit of her estate. But here several things are attributed to all four of them, which from the Acts most certainly pertain only to one or another.

[3] The time of martyrdom is to be found, when the Emperor Hadrian was at Rome, or in the city of Tibur, Time of martyrdom: where his bedroom is still shown; and when Sixtus I was still in the Roman Pontificate. Therefore the year 124 seems to us most suitable, when Hadrian, having visited the provinces, returned to Rome, departing thence again the following year, and in the year 127 still occupied in Asia, when Sixtus died at Rome on April 3. Baronius's calculation differs enormously from ours: for in the year 138, when he places the Martyrs as suffering, and in whose month of July Hadrian died, not Sixtus, but Hyginus was already Pontiff, according to what we have said on the ancient Catalogues of the Roman Pontiffs before Volume I of April and elsewhere.

[4] Carolus Bartholomaeus Piazza, in the Roman Sanctuary, after reporting the memory of S. Getulius and his fellow Martyrs to this day X June, adds, that the feast of S. Getulius is celebrated in the church of S. Angelo in the Fish-market, where his sacred body rests. In the same way he says that the feast of S. Symphorosa and her sons is celebrated there, and their bodies are preserved there. bodies of SS. Getulius, Symphorosa, and her sons at Rome, Octavius Pancirolius, in the Hidden Treasure of the City, region 10, church 50, asserts that this church of S. Angelo in the Fish-market was restored by Pope Stephen the younger, according to Baronius the Third of this name, but generally better called the Second: who was created in the year 752, after another of the same name, Elect indeed, but never ordained, and therefore not numbered by the ancients. But Pancirolius says that he, in order to enrich that same church with sacred Relics, raised the bodies of the aforesaid, from that which had first been built for them on the Tiburtine Way, under the names of SS. Getulius, Symphorosa, and her seven sons. The same is excellently confirmed by Fulvius Cardulus on p. 175, where he adds these things. Furthermore, these sacred bones, placed under the high altar of his church, were uncovered when by Pope Pius IV that altar was transferred to the middle of the wall of the apse; and were placed in a coffin or windowed casket transparent with glass, so that they might be exposed to the people for pious cult and veneration on set days. and from there the skull of S. Getulius was carried to Tibur. But when an occasion was thus given to take something away, Marianus Perbenedictus, Bishop of Marturanum and Governor of the City, in the year 1587 enclosed them in a marble sepulcher never again to be seen … But even then VIII fragments of the sacred bones were excepted: and before, namely in the year 1584, others had been taken from there by the pious liberality of Gregory XIII, to be carried to Tibur, to adorn the new temple of the Society of Jesus … among which is the Skull of S. Getulius. These things there, to be more amply set forth in the Life of S. Symphorosa, to whom that temple is dedicated. The said Pancirolius indicates that some Relics of S. Getulius are also kept in the church of S. Cecilia across the Tiber, and others in S. Paul's. Finally Masinius in Bologna Surveyed says that the Relics of S. Amantius are in the church of S. Francis, but we do not at once prove that they are of this man whom we now treat of.

[5] Here some difficulty must be untangled. To the day XII January in the Roman Martyrology is inscribed S. Zoticus Martyr at Tibur. Where Baronius in his Notes refers the Reader to this X June, which by his example we have also done. But again on X February are reported SS. Zoticus, Irenaeus, wrongly S. Zoticus held to be one and the same with S. Getulius, Hyacinthus and Amantius Martyrs at Rome; and Baronius in his Notes says, that in his Library are their very ancient Acts, in which they are said to have been crowned with martyrdom under the Emperor Hadrian and Licinius the Consul. Finally in his Notes on this X June he asserted, that Getulius is also found called Zoticus. We, in order to proceed safely, also took care to have the said Acts transcribed from Baronius's Ms.; and we found that the author, not without ignorance, or rather rashness, had changed, augmented, and corrupted the true Acts of S. Getulius. For wherever the name of Getulius was had in the true Acts, that being erased he substituted the name of Zoticus: and because in the Acts S. Getulius alone is said to have escaped from the fire, he asserts that all escaped; and that Zoticus, set in place of Getulius, was crowned not on X June, but on the day before the Ides of January, that is on January XII; about which Fulvius Cardinalis writes on p. 16, that at Tibur this inscription was found: from Acts most unskillfully patched together. Here rests Zoticus Martyr, which in the Supplement to the said January XII will be able to be more exactly examined. More wonderful, indeed entirely incredible things are said about S. Cerealis in those same Acts praised by Baronius, as if he had sailed in the same ship with the Emperor Hadrian, and in the company of SS. Andronicus, and Probus and Taracus to Jerusalem, and there was beheaded next to the walls of Jerusalem on X Kalends of December, and was buried by SS. Andronicus, Probus and Taracus. This ought to have been done in the year 131

or the following one, in which Hadrian was in Syria and restored Jerusalem, henceforth to be called Aelia from his own name: and thus those Saints would have survived for 260 years, having suffered martyrdom on X day of October under Diocletian and Maximian, as is clear from their Acts, which we have double in Greek and Latin, to be elucidated in their own time: meanwhile what is in Surius's editions, will fully suffice to decide this question. More things are rejected below in the Notes, and they show how badly patched together those Acts are, which were wrongly attributed to S. Zoticus, and confounded him with S. Getulius.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM.

From very ancient Mss. and Mombritius.

Getulius, Martyr at Rome, on the Salarian Way (S.)

Cerealis, Martyr at Rome, on the Salarian Way (S.)

Amantius, Martyr at Rome, on the Salarian Way (S.)

Primitivus, Martyr at Rome, on the Salarian Way (S.)

BHL Number: 3524

FROM MSS.

[1] Under the Emperor Hadrian, In those times, a tempest as it were having been removed, the following was declared in his mandates by the Prince Hadrian, that in all cities, as great as small a, the order of his Senate or Curia should be promulgated in writing: And while the imperial precept was being made, with such cruelty was Hadrian inflamed, by diabolical suggestion instigating, that he ordered that the Christians, wherever they should be found, should at once be brought before him. But at the same time there was a certain man most learned in every divine law, by name Getulius, a most Christian man, in the territory b of the Sabines, in the city c of Gabii, not far from the city of Rome. to Getulius, herald of Christ, He daily gathering at his place a multitude of Christians, provided food and sustenance to all of them; and explaining to them the divine law, he had instructed a very great multitude as much from Greece d as from the Italian region. While the universal people e all around perceived this, and the preaching was heard, and the fame of B. Getulius spread.

[2] Cerealis the Vicar sent to apprehend him, Which when the Emperor Hadrian had heard, sending Cerealis the Vicar into the aforesaid place of the Sabines, he ordered him to be held. To whom when Cerealis had come into Gabii, the city of the aforesaid place, and had found him sitting in his own house, and teaching the Christians, who had flocked to him, as was his custom: f and they on account of his preaching were more and more strengthened in the faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ; Cerealis said to him: Have you heard what the g Princes have commanded, and which has been declared to all? To whom blessed Getulius: Then ought one to obey the imperial command? Cerealis said: Say with your own mouth, whether it is not just. S. Getulius said: Then let a conference h take place. Cerealis said: Give your hands, he disputes with him on the mysteries of the faith; and sacrifice to the gods. S. Getulius said: It behooves us to adore God, the Son of God, who is Prince of Princes, and to obey him; not a man, mortal and full of worms. Cerealis said: And has God a Son? S. Getulius said: He has plainly, and was, and is; because He himself is the beginning. Cerealis answered: By what doctrine or sign shall I recognize the things that you say to me? Make it so that I may know that He is the Son of God and God, as you promise. S. Getulius said: Know this, that the Word of God, God, who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the seed of man, but of God the Lord was born, the Evangelist testifying, who says: In the latest times He deigned to come, that He might raise the dead, illumine the blind, cleanse lepers, walk on the sea with His feet, command the winds and tempests. Cerealis the Vicar answered: And how can I know this to be done? tell me.

[3] But Saint Getulius called to himself his brother, named Amantius, a Tribune, who was hidden for fear of the Emperor Hadrian; and narrated to him all things concerning Cerealis the Vicar: then having summoned also Amantius because before the sight of Hadrian Cerealis and Amantius had always been acceptable. Then S. Getulius declared to Cerealis Amantius his own brother: who when he had seen him, rejoiced with great joy. Then S. Getulius said to Cerealis: Brother i, lay aside diabolical arts; and put on the patience of Our Lord Jesus Christ: for I, whom you see, left k wife and sons, and the possessions of the present world in the Tiburtine city, and sought the true and eternal possession. Cerealis the Vicar said: is instructed and asks to be made a Christian, But I have neither wife nor sons, whom I might leave. For if anything is eternal, do not hide it from me; and I cast away the men, full of a death-bearing l mind. S. Getulius said: This is eternal, that you believe Christ the Son of the living God, and cast away idols made with hands. Cerealis answered: In what order may I be able to believe, that nothing feigned may remain in me? His friend Amantius the Tribune says to him: That you receive baptism in confession of Christ, and you will have eternal life: and if you leave all things, which you see yourself temporally to have, you will receive a hundredfold, and will possess eternal life.

[4] Cerealis the Vicar said: And what hinders, that I should pour out my blood for Christ the Son of God? yet do not delay your gift. S. Getulius said: They fast together and pray for three days. Therefore receive what is good, and fast, and do penance, as I also do. And they enjoined upon him a three-day fast, until he should receive an answer from God: and all night in vigils and prayers they persevered. But the whole vigil of the night being completed, they all the Saints together, who were present with B. Getulius, and Amantius with Cerealis, heard a voice saying to them: Call to you m Xystus, Bishop of the city of Rome, who shall give baptism. So they sent n to the city of Rome, and blessed Xystus the Bishop having been summoned, Cerealis baptized by S. Xystus: they came into the place of the aforesaid territory of the Sabines, into the city of Gabii, into a certain crypt: and he did according to the order of Christians, and catechized him, and baptized him in the crypt of the aforesaid town. At the same hour Cerealis saw the Holy Spirit descending upon him, the Holy Spirit and at once cried out with a great voice saying: Behold I see a light above the splendor of the sun, descending upon me. and he receives the Eucharist. Therefore the most blessed Xystus offered the holy oblations for each one, and all partook of the most sacred body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and were strengthened: and he confirmed them in faith and constancy, and giving thanks to God, withdrew from them.

[5] Cerealis is sought: At the same time the Officials began to seek Cerealis, and to seethe in observations of him. But a certain man, by name Vincentius, Treasurer o of the Numeri, came to the city of Gabii, to receive the exaction of gold in the name of the public. Who when he had come to them, Cerealis having looked at him said to him: Know, that we have lost the temporal cause, that we may enjoy the eternal, because we have recognized temporal things along with their lovers, Kings and Emperors, meeting Vincentius he signifies that he is a Christian: Principalities and Powers of the present world, to be nothing and vain. Then Vincentius cried out with a great voice, saying: O Princes of the world, and governors of the republic, that the Vicar, supported by his dignity, has been seduced, and has abandoned the gods, seeking phantasms. And being very angry he ran more quickly, and announced these things to Hadrian, in what manner Cerealis the Vicar, not caring for the moneys of the republic, was confessing himself to have been made a Christian.

[6] Which Hadrian having heard, at the same hour sent a certain Licinius p the Consular, to present Cerealis the Vicar to him. He is apprehended, with three companions: Who when he had come into the aforesaid place of the Sabines, held Cerealis together with B. Getulius and Amantius, also Primitivus: and soon directed a writing, what Hadrian should command to be done concerning them. These things having been heard Hadrian commanded these things, saying, either he should sacrifice to the gods, or certainly be burned in fire. For on the sixth q day of the Ides of March, on which was read the order of the epistle of the Emperor Hadrian, Licinius ordered a tribunal to be prepared for him in the city of Tibur; he is set before the judge: and the aforesaid Saints bound to be presented to him. And when they had been presented, with such words he accosted them, saying: Cerealis, have you so despaired of your life, that you seem to despise the precepts of the Princes, who rule in the whole world? Cerealis answered: The treasure, which I had, I have completely handed over to the poor and to my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I promise to serve, and I believe I shall enjoy eternal life. Licinius said: If you desire to live, he answers nobly. or to die, tell me. To whom Cerealis answered: If I did not desire to live, I would not confess Christ; for your sacrifice is nothing. Then enraged Licinius said to B. Getulius: Sacrifice to the god Jupiter and Mars; otherwise I shall command you forthwith to breathe out your life. S. Getulius said: I will not breathe out my life; for if I do not do it, I shall rejoice more and more: and smiling he exulted in the Lord.

[7] Getulius beaten, But Licinius, kindled with anger, ordered them to be stripped and beaten, saying: Do not despise the precepts of the Princes, and obey the great gods. And when B. Getulius was being beaten for a long time, magnifying the Lord, with clear voice he said; Thanks to God the Father Almighty and to the Lord Jesus Christ, because I offer Him a pure sacrifice. Licinius said: What is a pure sacrifice? B. Getulius answered: the others are shut up in prison, An afflicted spirit, a contrite and humbled heart God does not spurn. Ps. 50, V. 19. Licinius said: Raise them from the ground, and give them into public custody r. In the above-mentioned town they were in prison for twenty-seven days. But Licinius coming s to the city of Rome announced all things, and are cast into the fire, which had been done to Hadrian. Then Hadrian, filled with fury, having sent soldiers ordered them to be given to the fire. And they were led out on the estate Capreolis on the Salarian Way, more or less at the thirtieth milestone t from the city of Rome, above the river Tiber, toward the side of the Sabines: and these with hands and feet bound, and wood placed beneath, they delivered to the fire u.

[8] from which S. Getulius unharmed is killed by cudgels, But the fire by no means prevailed to burn up B. Getulius; but he was more strengthened in the Lord; and the bonds being loosed, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, he walked into the midst of the bystanders. And the soldiers indeed, seeing their own industry to prevail not at all, that the fire could in no way consume him; with vine cudgels rooted up x striking him, crushed his head y: who invoking the name of the Lord gave up his spirit. he is buried by S. Symphorosa. His sacred body his wife, by name Symphorosa, gathered, and buried him with glory and honor in her praetorium of the Sabines, in the place called Capris, in the town aforesaid across the upper river, in the sandpit of her estate z, reigning Our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

Princes and the commands of Princes, from the frequent use of his time, Julius Africanus could have written, when it had already often happened, that several at once, either as Caesars, or as Emperors should reign: not so could any Proconsular Actuary do at the time of Hadrian, who so much did not himself wish to choose a consort of power, that he deliberated about leaving to the Senate the liberty of electing a successor, even when he felt himself dying, as Aelius Spartianus testifies in his Life: but also some other things will occur here, which you may easily see were written from the Author's own genius.

p Perhaps L. Licinius Sura, who in 102 and 107 was Consul II and III: but when I? The fasti are silent; a sign that being a substitute for another he did not give his name to the fasti: yet I would prefer to understand another junior, who similarly being a substitute had no name in the fasti. But since we are dealing with Consuls, let it be permitted here to add L. Furius Curealis, Consul in the year 106, perhaps the father or paternal uncle of our Cerealis.

q Baronius's Ms. on the eighth Ides.

r The same Ms. adds in the town of Lavica, but these are intruded, as also the following, and pertain to a certain Zoticus, whence the cemetery of B. Zoticus on the Lavican Way restored by S. Pope Leo III.

s The same Ms. from the city of Rome: but contrary to all sense.

t The same Ms. on the Lavican Way at the tenth milestone, and omitted the river Tiber. Ado at the thirteenth milestone.

u The same Ms. adds: But in no way did the fire touch them: by which they were the more strengthened and comforted. Then they were loosed. The soldiers seeing this, with cudgels of vines uprooted, striking their heads, killed Zoticus and Amantius: holding Primitivus, they led him on the Praenestine Way, to the envy of the Christians, next to the city of Gavis, that in the same place they might strike off his head. Who was beheaded and his body cast into the lake of Gavis. Whose body the blessed Exuperantius the Presbyter gathered from the water, and buried in the sandpit, on the sixth day of the Kalends of May. Thus there. That day is April 26, when from the Martyrologies of S. Hieronymus and others we have given SS. Primitivus and Aurelius Martyrs at Rome. But whether that is the one who is here joined to the other three, we cannot judge. He who is here referred to as Zoticus, we have said above to be S. Getulius. But for Gavis is to be read Gabii, of which we have treated above.

x This little word Vitium I take from the aforesaid Ms. Our copies had again: Mombritius wrote neither.

y The same Mss. add, with an axe, which is better absent in Mombritius.

z The same Ms. adds, the day before the Ides of January, where she frequently with her sons celebrated vigils and prayers, with the blessed Exuperantius the Presbyter. S. Zoticus Martyr is venerated at Tibur the day before the Ides of January, as we have said above, where we have established him as another from S. Getulius.