ON SAINTS THOMUS, PAULUS, CYRIACUS,
MARTYRS PERHAPS AT ROME.
HISTORICAL INQUIRY. On the number and place of the Martyrdom, from the more ancient Martyrologies.
Thomas, Martyr, perhaps at Rome (Saint) Paulus, Martyr, perhaps at Rome (Saint) Cyriacus, Martyr, perhaps at Rome (Saint)
G. H.
A grave difficulty arises concerning these Saints, about their number and their place of contest. In the ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, after the Martyrs who suffered at Rome, Marcus and Marcellianus, have been recorded, in the third place these are added: of Thomus, Paulus, Cyriacus. Whether three Martyrs, So the Epternach, Lucca, and Blume copies. But Luc d'Achery in the printed Corbie edition placed dots in the place of Thomus, and recorded only the names of Paulus and Cyriacus. In the same manner these two names are recorded among others in the Reichenau manuscript. But with the order changed, three are placed in the Monte Cassino and Altemps manuscripts: of Cyriacus, Thomus, Paulus; in which order they also are in the manuscript of Saint Cyriaca; but it is written Thomas: and "Apostle" is added in the Vatican manuscript. Meanwhile the reading Thomus prevails: about which word we have doubted, whether Tomi, a city of Lower Moesia, in the present region of Bulgaria and the shore of the Euxine Sea, famous for the exile of the poet Ovid, is to be understood, where formerly several Martyrs fell. The Florentine manuscript of the monastery of the Holy Cross of the Conventual Fathers of Saint Francis favors this city, in which, after the African Martyrs recorded above, these are found: and that they suffered at Rome? At Tomi, of the holy Martyrs Paulus and Cyriacus: and these are commemorated in this manner
on the 20th of June in Usuard and others together with the Roman Martyrology. But in the ancient copies of the said Hieronymian Martyrology five other companions are joined, and from these those are brought forward as distinct. Francesco Maria Florentini, in the Index to these Martyrologies, took the name Thomus for a holy Martyr: and the transposition of the others favors this, by which the name Thomus is placed in the middle between the names of Cyriacus and Paulus. Moreover the city Thomi is everywhere written without the aspiration, the contrary of which is observed here. But, you will say, if Thomus be set down as a Saint, what place of contest will have to be assigned to him and his companions? Why not the city of Rome itself? For they are annexed to Saints Marcus and Marcellianus, although perhaps they suffered in another place, or on another road, or in another year, or under other Emperors. Lastly, we judge them to be other than Saints Cyriacus and Paula the Virgin, who suffered in the Spanish city of Malaga, of whom we shall treat shortly.