ON S. BEATA OR BENEDICTA,
VIRGIN OF THE DIOCESE OF SENS IN GAUL.
Sylloge from the Martyrology of Usuard, and more recent.
Beata or Benedicta, Virgin, in the territory of Sens (S.)
D. P.
As Beata, known to Usuard; The genuine Martyrology of Usuard, in the Monastery of S. Germain des Prés, where he was a Monk, is preserved, with which four other apographs agree. Our exemplar, transcribed from the autograph, after the holy Apostles, and saints Marcellus and Anastasius, has no other on this day than this: In the territory of Sens, Beata, the Virgin. Which same, nor any other name to be found, Claudius Castellanus, Canon of the Parisian Cathedral, writes in all the ancient Ms. Litanies, Breviaries, Missals, with absolutely nothing (namely in Gaul) discrepant. But he adds, that under the same name of S. Beata, is had at Sens in the suburb a very ancient church with a crypt, by some called sister of S. Sancianus; where the feast, on account of the concurrence of the Birthday of the Apostles, is held VI September, on the day of S. Sancianus, whom Saussay judges to have been her brother. We have from the Sens Legendary some passion of S. Sancianus and companions, where his sister is called Beata Columba Virgin, and before him under the tyrant Aurelian is said to have been beheaded; but she is venerated XXXI December: but in her Acts described on that day, no mention at all is made of Sancianus; so that that brotherhood seems gratuitously fabricated. Although however that were true, it would do nothing for this, of whom we treat, by proper name Beata: for Saussay however makes Clarius, an ancient writer of the same convent in the XII century, when he says, that in the subsequent time the body of S. Beata the Virgin was translated near her brother B. Sancianus.
[2] The Carthusians of Cologne, and with them Molanus, and the Ms. author of the Florarium, as Benedicta, by Belgian Mss. and Galesinius, for Beata name Benedicta, and into this writing agree several Belgian Ms. exemplars of Usuard, which on account of the authority of Molanus
Baronius also followed. The praised Claudius, to reconcile these things, suspects the name of the Virgin to have been Bene acta; which the common people of Sens pronounced Beatte, commonly S. Beatte, and so it was made Beata; but foreigners read Benedicta.
[3] However it is, one and the same Saint to be noted in both exemplars, I hold as certain: in some places as companion of S. Mustiola, but I do not grasp whence to Maurolycus it was suggested, that he should write, In the territory of Sens. Of S. Benedicta the Virgin, hung on the cross; when this is read of no one, there known; and in such a case Martyr she would have to be called. Maurolycus adds: And in the same place of SS. Mustiola and Beata the Virgins. Something similar we find in the Ms. of S. Victor at Paris, and another which was of the Queen of Sweden; but at XXXI May, as there among the Passed Over has been said. While however no notice of Mustiola appears at Sens, I would not dare to augment the number of Saints in that name, from testimonies so recent or uncertain.
[4] and in Saussay as diverse from Benedicta. Saussay, imitating Maurolycus, first places Benedicta, then Mustiola, and Beata, the zeal of chastity, common to all the Virgins of Christ, with a prolix ambage of words in these praising, as if for the ostentation of eloquence. More miserably also Tamayo plumes himself in Benedicta; by which name finding one, in the Life of S. Fructuosus of Braga, num. 15 and 16 of XVI April, much praised for constancy in repudiating her spouse; and on the faith of a certain more recent poetaster, Tamayo makes her Spanish. hiding himself under the name of Aulus Halus; he asserts, that of Nona among the Gaditans she was Abbess; and for the Senonensian territory in Usuard, the monastery of Nona he wishes to be read: with no one meanwhile found, who Nona among the Gaditans before him had named; and ignorant how far the genuine Usuard is, from the name of Benedicta. The dreams of Tamayo taking up the Author of Illustrated Cadis, makes about her Chapter 15 of book 4, which it is enough to have here indicated.