ON THE 260 HOLY MARTYRS AT ROME ON THE SALARIAN WAY, IN THE YEAR 269
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
260 Martyrs, at Rome on the Salarian Way (Saints)
[1] The memory of these holy Martyrs has been illustriously preserved in various and very ancient Martyrologies, and above all in the Acts of the martyrdom of Saints Marius and Martha, husband and wife, and of their sons Saints Audifax and Abachum, which we published from five old manuscript codices at their natal day, the 19th of January, Epitome of the martyrdom from the Acts of Saints Marius and Martha. and which Acts we then declared most worthy of belief, and so judge them still. Their beginning is: "In the times of Claudius there came a certain man from the regions of Persia, named Marius, with his wife Martha and his sons Audifax and Abbacuc, most Christian men, to pray at the shrine of the Apostles. And coming to Rome, they began to seek out the bodies of the Saints throughout the prisons and burial-places." And after an account of the ministry which the same Saints rendered to St. Cyrinus or Quirinus, shut up in prison, as will be repeated on the 25th of March at his natal day, the following is related of the 260 holy Martyrs:
[2] "At the same time Claudius also commanded that, if any Christians were found, 260 Saints suffered under Claudius II whether among the people or in custody, they should be punished without examination. Accordingly, when the order had been published, he seized two hundred and sixty Christians on the Salarian Way, who had been condemned to dig sand for the name of Christ; he had them shut up in a potters' yard outside the walls of the Salarian Gate, and commanded them to be killed with arrows in the amphitheatre of the city. When this had been done, Marius and his wife Martha, greatly saddened, came with their sons Audifax and Abbacuc to the place where the bodies of the Saints had been slain, They are buried by Saints Marius and Martha and St. John the Presbyter together with blessed John the Presbyter, and they found fire laid upon the holy bodies; and taking them up, they began to draw the bodies of the Saints out of the fire and to bury them in linen cloths at their own expense, for they were exceedingly rich and wealthy; and as many as they could, they buried in a crypt on the Salarian Way beside the Clivus Cucumeris. Then they buried with them also a certain Tribune of Claudius, named Blastus; and in the same place they kept vigils and fasts with prayers for many days with blessed John. Hearing this, Claudius began to search carefully for Marius and his wife Martha, and did not find them, because they were doing this secretly."
[3] The Martyrologies agree with the Acts: the manuscript one of the Vatican, of the archive of St. Peter, the Vallicellian, and the Cassinese have these words: "The natal day of the two hundred and sixty holy Martyrs." Inscribed in the ancient Martyrologies. And that they suffered at Rome is added in the d'Achery manuscript. The day is blank in Bede. But Florus in his supplement to it writes thus: "Of the two hundred and sixty Saints; they suffered in the times of Claudius." More was transcribed from the Acts already cited by Usuard, Ado, the authors of the Martyrology published by Rosweyde, and the printed Bede, Bellinus, Notker, Maurolico, Galesini, Canisius, and others. In the present Roman Martyrology these words are read: "At Rome, of the two hundred and sixty holy Martyrs, whom Claudius first ordered, condemned for the name of Christ, to dig sand outside the Salarian Gate, and afterwards to be killed in the amphitheatre with the arrows of the soldiers." Of these same Martyrs Pietro de' Natali also treats in his Catalogue, book 3, chapter 162, and Ferrari in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, Were they converted by St. Valentine the Presbyter? who adds that they were accused after the passion of St. Valentine, by whom they had been converted to Christ. This we have not read elsewhere. We have treated of St. Valentine on the 14th of February, and in the Life of Saints Marius and Martha, who are reported to have been shut up in prison before the passion of St. Valentine; and therefore they could not have buried these holy Martyrs if these had first been accused after his death.
[4] In the manuscript Florarium of the Saints these words are added concerning the time at which these athletes suffered martyrdom: "At Rome, of the two hundred and sixty holy Martyrs under Claudius, in the year of salvation 271, the thirteenth of the eighth persecution." Killed in the year 269, in the 8th persecution. The eighth persecution began under Valerian and Gallienus in the year of Christ 257, whose thirteenth year falls in the year of Christ 269, in which these Saints underwent martyrdom under Claudius II, who began to reign in the year 268 about the 9th day before the Kalends of April and reigned until the beginning of the year 270, so that the martyrdom must necessarily be assigned to the year 269, the only year in which he reigned through the month of March. The Blastus, Tribune of the Emperor Claudius, who is reported above to have been buried together with these Martyrs, is venerated with other companions on the 15th day before the Kalends of July, a day of veneration which in some codices, appended to
That is frigid, as are a great many things in the same Menaea. The author plays on the words καρτερῶν and ἐκαρτέρεις. In the manuscript Menaea preserved at Dijon in the keeping of our Chifflet, the manner of death is also indicated.
Not enduring, Silvester, to labor for superstition, You endured, with Sophronius, the cutting-off of your head.
the manuscript Acts of Saints Marius and Martha, we noted that it had been added there. Saint John the Presbyter, who buried them, is venerated together with Saint Crispus on August 18.