ON SAINT MAGDALETES,
MARTYR AT TRIPOLI.
A discussion of the place and the name, from the Hieronymian Martyrology.
Magdaletes, Martyr at Tripoli (S.)
G. H.
Tripolis, the city set forth here, can only with difficulty be distinguished among the various cities of that name. For among the ancient episcopal cities there was Tripolis in Phoenicia Prima, under Tyre as metropolis. There was also a Tripolis in Lydia, under Sardis as metropolis, whose Bishop Agogius signed the First Council of Nicaea. Tripolis in Phoenicia. There is also, though perhaps not episcopal, the city of Tripolis on the African coast, known to the ancients.
Since no distinguishing mark is added in the Martyrologies, the one situated in Phoenicia, being first of all and the most famous, seems able to be understood: the more so because below, in the Annotation on SS. Tripus and Mandalis (whether he ought to be distinguished at all from the Magdaletes here treated may justly be doubted), associated with Basilides at nn. 2 and 3, these Saints are read in the Augsburg Manuscript to have set out from a city of the Easterners beyond the sea, in order to make their parents come with them into the holy city Jerusalem; Magdaletes is said to have suffered; to which Tripolis of Syria is nearer.
The most ancient copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, from the monastery of Echternach, opens this twelfth day of June from that city, wherever it is situated, with these words: On the day before the Ides of June, at Tripoli of Magdaletes: and then it adds seven Martyrs who suffered at Rome, of whom we shall presently treat. The Manuscripts of Reichenau in Swabia and of Rheinau in Switzerland likewise begin this day thus: At Tripoli of Magdaletes. The Aachen Manuscript: At Triplon, the birthday of S. Magdalicis at Tripoli. Perhaps the author wished to write: At Tripoli or Triplon. We confess nevertheless that the word Tripoli is found taken by others also as the Martyr's name. Hence in the copies of the said Hieronymian Martyrology, the Corbie and Lucca ones, among the Roman Martyrs of this day these words are read: Tripoli, in others, Tripolis is set down as the name of a companion; Macidaletis. Which words are more fittingly placed above in the first position.
In the two Vatican manuscripts of S. Peter the names are distinguished thus, Tripolis and Magdalis, and in the two of Monte Cassino, Triponis and Magdali. Indeed in others, separated from one another, the names Tripoli, or in its place Crispoli, and Magdaletis are mixed in among other Martyrs. Hence too we find the name Magdalena formed, as also Malchus, Daletis, in the Florentine Manuscripts, which will presently be produced.