CONCERNING THE HOLY MARTYRS HERMES, ADRIAN, GITTHEUS, FELIX, ENUCULUS, JANUARIUS, AND TWENTY-FOUR OTHERS, AT MARSEILLES IN GAUL.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
St. Hermes, Martyr, at Marseilles in Gaul.
St. Adrian, Martyr, at Marseilles in Gaul.
St. Gittheus, Martyr, at Marseilles in Gaul.
St. Felix, Martyr, at Marseilles in Gaul.
St. Enuculus, Martyr, at Marseilles in Gaul.
St. Januarius, Martyr, at Marseilles in Gaul.
Twenty-four others, Martyrs, at Marseilles in Gaul.
[1] Marseilles, an ancient city of Gaul situated between the Rhône and the Alps on the Mediterranean Sea, was considered most faithful and most friendly to the Romans; and having embraced the faith of Christ along with them, was irrigated with the blood of various Martyrs. Martyrs of Marseilles. The proper offices of St. Lazarus, Bishop and Martyr, and of other Saints customarily recited in the Church of Marseilles, printed by order of Bishop François de Loménie in the year 1633, Saints Hermes, Adrian, have this for this day: On March 1, of Adrian and Hermes, Martyrs; everything is said from the Common of Martyrs. The lessons to be recited at the individual Nocturns of Matins are indicated in the Supplement of the Proper of Saints according to the use of the Church of St. Victor of Marseilles; and this proper prayer is added: O God, who has consecrated this day with the martyrdom of your blessed Martyrs Adrian and Hermes and their companions; grant, we beseech you, and companions, that we may experience in heaven the intercession of those whose solemnities we here venerate with pious love on earth. Through our Lord, etc. Thus also in the title mention is made of companions. When we once inquired through a learned man among the Marseillais about the Acts of these Saints, we were told that nothing was available. The aforesaid two Martyrs, with no mention made of companions, are attributed to Marseilles by Equilinus in his Catalogue, book 11, chapter 130, number 81; Usuard, Bellinus, Maurolycus; the manuscript Martyrologies of Brussels, Utrecht, Trier, the Carmel of Cologne, and that of Ado from the monastery of St. Lawrence at Liège, everywhere with the same words: In the city of Marseilles, the Saints Hermes and Adrian. The current Roman Martyrology agrees: At Marseilles, of the holy Martyrs Hermes and Hadrian.
[2] The ancient Martyrology of St. Jerome which we possess, written in Anglo-British script, as well as the one printed at Paris and the third preserved at Lucca in Italy, reckons Adrian among the African Martyrs, and joins other Marseilles companions to St. Hermes with these words: In Africa, Adrian, Victurus, Secundilla. At Marseilles, Hermes, Gittheus, Felix, Enuculus, Januarius, and twenty-four others. But the one printed at Paris, with thirty-four others. Gittheus, Felix, Enuculus, Januarius, In the ancient manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of St. Maximin near Trier these are read thus: In Africa, Adrian, Victurus, Secundilla. At Marseilles (written "Marsilli," but meaning Marseilles), Hermes, Felix, Januarius, with twenty-seven others: which number is completed by the omitted Adrian, Gittheus, and Enuculus, if added to the twenty-four others. In the Prague manuscript everything is confused by the negligence of the copyists: In Africa, in the city of Marseilles, the Saints Hermes and Adrian, Victurus, Secundilla, Masillus: Januarius, Felix, with twenty-two others. In the ancient manuscript of Reichenau near Constance, with the African Martyrs omitted, only these are set forth: At Marseilles, Hermes, Getheus, with twenty-four others. So much for the more ancient Martyrologies, from which, substituting the name of the city of Marseilles for "Marsilli" or "Masilli," as is gathered from the consistent reading of the others, we judge that the rest prefixed in the title should be retained. Hermes is read in all Martyrologies; Adrian is joined in the offices of Marseilles and other calendars, from whom the African Adrian seems to be distinguished as a separate person. Gittheus, or Getheus, is given from the Martyrologies of St. Jerome and Reichenau; from the first of St. Jerome and the manuscripts of St. Maximin and Prague, Felix and Januarius are added. Only Enuculus, or Eunuculus, is found in the cited tables of St. Jerome. St. Eunuculus the Martyr was recorded from the same Martyrology under February 28, but joined with other companions.
[3] Peter Galesinius assigns another companion and the time of martyrdom with these words: Whether St. Leo should be numbered among them: At Marseilles, the Saints Hermes, Leo, and Adrian, Martyrs. They were crowned under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. And in his Notes he observes this: Concerning them the tradition is found in a very old manuscript codex of the Martyrology, but so briefly that nothing at all is narrated about the tortures with which they were afflicted. Their martyrdom falls in about the year of the Lord 290. Usuard mentions Hermes and Leo; Adrian not at all: but in the manuscript volume mention is made of him. So much for that, but written with great carelessness. For all copies of Usuard, both handwritten and printed, mention Hermes and Adrian as having suffered at Marseilles, with Leo omitted: who is joined with these words after the proper punctuation in the Usuard printed at Lübeck in the year 1475: In the city of Marseilles, of the consecrated Hermes and Adrian. Likewise, the Passion of St. Leo the Martyr. The same things are appended at the end in the manuscript of Anchin. These are to be understood of St. Leo, identified above as the leader of other Martyrs.
[4] That Galesinius reports them killed under Diocletian and Maximian around the year 290, when no new persecution had yet been launched by them, At what time did they suffer? we do not read elsewhere. Following Galesinius, Andrew Saussay thus begins the Gallic calendar of March: At Marseilles, the birthday of the holy Martyrs Hermes, Leo, and Hadrian, who under the Emperor Maximinus, most bitterly tortured for the confession of the Christian faith, when they utterly refused to be drawn away from evangelical piety to the impious rites of demons, bravely giving their necks for Christ, winning the praise of immortal victory, they soared to the triumphs above. So much for that. Saussay seems not to have read the year 290 in Galesinius, but 310, when Maximinus was emperor, though chiefly in the East. Peter Canisius in the German Martyrology printed in the year 1573, following Usuard, celebrates Saints Hermes and Adrian, to whom Leo was added in the edition of 1599, augmented after his death from Galesinius.