ON THE HOLY MARTYRS JOVINUS AND BASILEUS, AT ROME ON THE VIA LATINA,
AROUND THE YEAR 258.
Historical Synopsis.
Jovinus, Martyr, at Rome on the Via Latina (Saint)
Basileus, Martyr, at Rome on the Via Latina (Saint)
[1] That the Via Latina was most celebrated among the early Christians is shown by the Acts of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, who on it, near the gate of the city also called the Latin Gate, from a cauldron of boiling oil into which he had been thrown by order of the Emperor Domitian, At Rome on the Via Latina by divine power
emerged unharmed. On this road, at the second milestone from the city, is situated the ancient cemetery of Saint Tertullinus, concerning which one should consult the Roma subterranea of Aringhi, book 4, chapter 5. Concerning Saint Tertullinus, the ancient Acts of Saint Stephen I, Pope, contain the following, with notable mention of Saints Jovinus and Basileus: "It happened that Valerian and Gallienus, most abominable persecutors, with the utmost zeal to destroy the religion of the Christians, sought out Blessed Stephen, Bishop of the city of Rome, in order to seize him or detain his clerics and afflict them with various punishments and hand them over to the destruction of death … Whence it came about that they found twelve clerics … whom he immediately had beheaded without a hearing. The bodies laid beside Saints Jovinus and Basileus They were beheaded on the Via Latina next to the aqueduct. Their bodies Tertullinus collected, though still a pagan, and placed them beside the bodies of Saints Jovinus and Basileus on the Via Latina, on the same Kalends of August." But the seventh day before the Kalends of August had already been assigned to the martyrdom of Saints Symphronius, Olympius, Theodulus, and Exuperia, who were burned by fire on the same Via Latina and are recorded in the ancient ecclesiastical calendars under that day, just as under the Kalends of August the twelve clerics of Saint Stephen are recorded, and then this Pontiff, slain on the day after the Kalends, who had previously baptized Tertullinus and then had him beheaded on this same Via Latina at the second milestone from the city and buried in that place in a sand catacomb on the second day before the Kalends of August. These matters must be treated more accurately under the feast days of these Saints, and perhaps we shall establish the opinion found in the ancient manuscript Martyrology of the Church of Saint Mary at Utrecht, once written in England, in which the 27th of July begins thus: "On the Via Latina, of the holy Martyrs Bonus the Presbyter, Faustus, and Maurus with seven others (or rather nine), who are described in the Acts of Saint Stephen the Pope." Thus on the same day Hermann Greven in his additions to Usuard, and Canisius in the German Martyrology, have: "Also according to some, the Passion of Bonus the Presbyter, Faustus, and ten others from the clergy of Blessed Stephen the Pope." And so the Acts cohere perfectly if one reads the sixth day before the Kalends of the same August.
[2] Let these remarks, occasioned by the Acts of Saint Stephen the Pope, suffice, since mention is made in them of the Martyrs Saints Jovinus and Basileus, to whom this second day of March is sacred. Venerated on March 2 The old Martyrology published by Rosweyde has the following: "On the 6th day before the Nones of March, at Rome, of Jovinus and Basileus." These Martyrs are named in the manuscript Martyrology of Saint Martin at Trier, and the former is written as Lobinus, who elsewhere is also called Bovinus and Jobinus; Jovinianus in the manuscript of Florus as a supplement to Bede. The manuscripts of Liège, the Vallicellanum, the Vatican archive of Saint Peter, and Trier ascribe the same pair to the Via Latina. The Dacherian manuscript adds others who suffered under Alexander. But the printed Bede, Usuard, and Ado in printed and most manuscript codices, Notker, Bellinus, Maurolycus, and others present the same short notice in the same words, which is also read in the present Roman Martyrology thus:
"At Rome on the Via Latina, of the holy Martyrs Jovinus Having suffered under Gallienus and Valerian and Basileus, who suffered under the Emperors Gallienus and Valerian," around the year of Christ 258, as is established from what has been said elsewhere.
[3] Galesini, Canisius, and Ferrarius on the Saints of Italy add that they were struck with the axe and bore the palm of martyrdom. Galesini cites in his Annotations Bede, Usuard, and Ado, Whether struck with the axe or the sword in whom these details are not found; he also cites a manuscript, but does not specify which. Peter de Natali should have been cited, who in book 3, chapter 169 of his Catalogue reports: "The Martyrs Jovinus and Basileus suffered at Rome on the Via Latina under the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus; they received the palm of martyrdom by the sword on the 6th day before the Nones of March, as Ado says." But as we have said, in the various codices of the latter, whether manuscript or printed, no mention is made of a sword or an axe or any other instrument by which their glorious death was inflicted.
[4] Aringhi, at the place cited above, asserts that from the cemetery of Saint Tertullinus, the body of this most holy man, together with the bodies of some of those same Martyrs, was translated by Pope Paschal I to the church of Blessed Praxedes; some of these were then, together with the body of Blessed Eugenia, brought to the Church of All Saints by Pope Stephen VI; and some were also deposited in the sacred church of Blessed Lawrence, called "in Damaso," for the continual veneration of the faithful. Each of these particulars is confirmed by Ottavio Panciroli in his Hidden Treasures of the City of Rome, and in region 2, church 42, he lists the twelve Martyr clerics of Saint Stephen, parts of whose bodies are preserved in the church of Saint Praxedes, while parts of some are deposited in two other temples; and in region 3, church 5, which is the Church of the Holy Apostles, he writes that very many relics of Saints are there, either enclosed in altars or preserved under iron railings in the middle of the church, and that the names of each can be read on a tablet hung there, and that among them are Saints Jovinus and Basileus, who suffered martyrdom under the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus and are venerated on March 2. Their relics are in the Church of the Holy Apostles Again, in region 12, church 3, which is called Saint Lawrence in Damaso, he reports that a large portion of the relics of Saints Faustus and Jovinus is preserved under the high altar; while under the altar of Saints Michael and Andrew, other parts of the relics of Saints Bonus and Maurus are kept. And of Saint Jovinus also in Saint Lawrence in Damaso Now these two, together with Saint Faustus, are among the above-mentioned clerics of Saint Stephen the Pope, whose bodies were buried next to Saints Jovinus and Basileus; and Panciroli had noted above, in region 3, church 5, that it is Saint Jovinus, the companion of Saint Basileus, who is meant here. Ferrarius, cited above, also notes that the body of Saint Jovinus is preserved in the basilica of Saint Lawrence in Damaso: so the inscriptions and tablets indicate, which, as is clear from Panciroli, must be understood as referring to a part of the body.
[5] Masini, in his Bologna Surveyed, under this second of March mentions Saint Basileus the Martyr twice: The head of Saint Basileus at Bologna that his sacred head is preserved in the church of Saint Francis, and that the body of Saint Basileus, obtained as a gift of Pope Gregory XV, And the body, but perhaps of another Saint Basileus was brought to the church of Saint Joseph, so named from the principal confraternity of the Market, and has been preserved there with sacred veneration since the year 1623. But the papal diploma of Gregory's donation would need to be inspected; and as far as one may conjecture about a matter not fully investigated, we suspect that a different Martyr Basileus from this companion of Saint Jovinus will be found. But if the Franciscan Fathers have long possessed the sacred head of Saint Basileus, it appears much more likely that they could have obtained it from the Roman Franciscan Fathers, who likewise—being Conventuals, as at Bologna—have had the basilica of the Holy Apostles, in which we said the relics of Saints Jovinus and Basileus are preserved, as a gift of Pope Pius II since the year 1462. As also at Genoa In precisely the same manner, the nuns of Genoa of the monastery of Saint Andrew hold this day as consecrated in honor of Saint Basileus the Martyr, whose body they also possess—but necessarily that of a different Basileus. And in the monastery of Saint Anthony In the archmonastery of Saint Anthony in the diocese of Vienne in Gaul, the feast of Saint Basileus the Martyr is celebrated on this day with a double office, on account of the sacred relics of his body, which we ourselves venerated among other bodies of Saints there.