ON SS. HONORIUS, EVODIUS, PETER,
MARTYRS AT ROME.
AND ELSEWHERE OF MARCELLUS THE MARTYR.
19 JUNE.
The cult in the Hieronymian Martyrology, the burial in the cemetery of St. Hippolytus.
Honorius, Martyr, at Rome (St.) Enodius, Martyr, at Rome (St.) Peter, Martyr, at Rome (St.) Marcellus, Martyr, perhaps at Ravenna (St.)
G. H.
The most ancient copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology of the monastery of Epternach thus sets forth these Martyrs: Where the Cemetery was situated. "At Rome, of Honorius, Evodius, Peter." The ancient manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, published by Holstenius in his Animadversions on the Roman Martyrology, assigns the place of burial in these words: "At Rome, in the cemetery of Hippolytus, the birthday of SS. Honorius, Evodius, Peter." Now the said cemetery of St. Hippolytus, where namely his body had been buried, was in the Veranian field on the Tiburtine way, near the cemetery of Blessed Cyriaca, if it ought not to be reckoned the same. Of it Anastasius the Librarian, in the deeds of Pope Hadrian I, writes thus: "At the same time too the cemetery of Blessed Hippolytus, next to St. Lawrence, which had decayed from ancient times, he renewed anew. In like manner he likewise restored the church of the Blessed Martyr of Christ Stephen, situated next to the aforesaid cemetery of St. Hippolytus." The names in various manuscripts. So there. St. Hippolytus was crowned with martyrdom under the Emperor Valerian on the 13th of August, who is joined to these other Martyrs in the Corbie, Lucca, and Blume copies in these words: "At Rome, of Hippolytus, Honorius, Evodius, Peter." And in the same manner they are commemorated in the Gellone manuscript, the Augsburg one of St. Udalric, the Paris one of Labbe, the Prague one, and the Florentine ones both of the Grand Duke and of the Senator Strozzi, and the Brussels one of St. Gudula. And, Evodius being omitted, in the Barberini manuscript, the Liège ones of SS. Lambert and Lawrence, and also the Trier one of St. Maximin. But the Reichenau manuscript has only this: "At Rome, of Evodius, Peter."
[2] In the Epternach copy these words were subjoined: "Elsewhere, of Marcellus, Vitalis, Ursicinus." In the Reichenau manuscript they were read thus: several added to them from elsewhere. "Elsewhere, of Valeria, Marcellus, Vitalis, Ursicinus." But these four names, the particle "Elsewhere" being omitted, were attached to the Martyrs who suffered at Rome in the Lucca, Corbie, Blume copies, the Florentine manuscripts, and others. But we judge altogether that these suffered Elsewhere, and indeed in different places: SS. Vitalis and Valeria too are repeated with the holy Gervase and Protase crowned on this day. Of these, Valeria is believed to have expired at Milan, Vitalis completed his Martyrdom at Ravenna: whose Acts, as of the spouses and parents of the two aforesaid brothers, we attempted to illustrate on the 28th of April, intending to correct them in a Supplement, First, Marcellus as having suffered elsewhere. if, things being now more thoroughly examined, certain things of what was said there seem to need retracting. Ursicinus, the famous Ravennate Martyr, is venerated on this day, of whom we have already treated separately above. Marcellus, here too referred as having suffered elsewhere than at Rome, seems able to be assigned with the two last-named at Ravenna, until a better conjecture occurs: meanwhile he is here set forth separately from the others. The same is named Marcellinus in the Barberini manuscript.