ON STS. ANTONIUS, AFRA, CANTIONELLA,
MARTYRS IN SPEZIA.
CommentaryAntonius, Martyr in Spezia (St.)
Afra, Martyr in Spezia (St.)
Cantionella, Martyr in Spezia (St.)
G. H.
Again we proceed with the most ancient copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology of the monastery of Echternach, in which these are set forth: "In Spezia, of Antonius, Afra, Cantionella." But the arena being omitted, three scattered Martyrs are related in the Lucca and Blume copies. In the Corbie one are the names of Antigonus, Memory in the sacred calendars. Afer, Cantionilla, and Cantianus. But the last is referred to the following day in several. The memory of Afra and Cantionilla or Quintianilla is celebrated in the Florentine manuscripts of the Grand Duke, of Senator Strozzi, and of the Conventual Fathers; and separately the name of Afer or Affrius; whose name is also in the Augsburg manuscript of St. Udalric, the Paris of Labbe, the Brussels of St. Gudula, and the Aachen, in which "and of Onatus" is added. Thus the name of St. Antoninus is in the manuscript Calendar before the works of St. Isidore, kept in the Vallicellian library of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory at Rome, where perhaps both Onotus and Antoninus seem to be put in place of Antonius.
[2] But where the arena of martyrdom, Spezia, is situated, we do not sufficiently attain. Francesco Maria Florentini, in his Observations on this day, confesses that this city of Spezia is unknown to him, unless perhaps it be Sphecia, a city of Euboea. But to Filippo Ferrari, in his Geographical Lexicon, The arena Spezia. Sphecia is a town of Illyricum on the border of Dalmatia and Macedonia, in the region of Albania. There is indeed also a small but fortified Spezia, on the shore of the Ligurian sea, of the Genoese dominion: but it can be doubted whether it has sufficient age that it can be reckoned to have then existed. Sperchia too, a city of Thessaly, with the river Sperchius, is mentioned by Virgil in book 2 of the Georgics. But in vain do we inquire after such things, since not all places are mentioned by the ancients, but only the more celebrated: yet it is helpful to note even such things in aid of ancient Geography.