CONCERNING ST. DONATUS, MARTYR, AT CARTHAGE IN AFRICA.
Commentary.
St. Donatus, Martyr at Carthage.
We have given three classes of Martyrs chiefly from the Martyrology of St. Jerome; in the first of which Donatus is mixed with others, from whom after a long discussion we judge he should be separated. Concerning him Usuard reports the following: On the same day, of St. Donatus the Martyr, The name of St. Donatus inscribed by Usuard and others, who suffered at Carthage under the commander Ursacius and the tribune Marcellinus. Very many manuscripts agree, not only of the said Usuard, but also those that bear the name of Ado or Bede prefixed, or that are collected from them: in the variants of these, the commander Ursacius is written Ursatius, Urfatius, Versatius, Versanus, Versus, and sometimes he is called not commander but judge. Likewise, for Marcellinus, Marcellius is also read, and in place of St. Donatus there is in the manuscript of Marchiennes the name Dona, and in the manuscripts of Abbot Ughelli and the Charterhouse of Brussels, sometimes Dona and Clona, likewise the manuscript Florarium and in Hermann Greven's Appendix to Usuard, the name Clona. Concerning this Martyr, Wandelbert in his metrical Martyrology sang thus:
Donatus holds the Kalends of March, and Albinus.
Among the Saints published by us for the months of January and February, fifteen Donatuses are found, and four of them suffered in Africa, and one at Carthage, to whom the Saints Secundus and Papias are joined as companions. Did he suffer under the Vandals? Galesinius notes that this Martyr Donatus endured martyrdom in the Vandal persecution around the year 430, and that Victor the Bishop writes about him in books 2 and 3. But no mention is made there of the St. Donatus who suffered at Carthage under Ursacius and Marcellinus.