ON SAINT QUINTUS THE WONDERWORKER, IN AEOLIS.
AROUND THE YEAR 283
CommentaryQuintus the Wonderworker, in Aeolis (Saint)
[1] The Greeks commemorate this holy man frequently in their calendars. For under May 6, in the Menologion published by Canisius, the following is recorded: "On the same day, of Saint Quintus the Wonderworker." Saint Quintus is venerated on May 6 and May 2 This is expressed in the great Menaea as follows: "τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἁγίου Κοΐντου τοῦ Θαυματουργοῦ." But under May 12, in the same Menaea, the following appears: "Καὶ ἄθλησις τοῦ ἁγίου Μάρτυρος Κοΐντου τοῦ Θαυματουργοῦ"—"And the contest of the holy Martyr Quintus the Wonderworker." This is read under that date in the Greek Menologion of the Emperor Basil the Younger. That this holy Martyr was rightly called the Wonderworker is shown by the wondrous miracles performed during his martyrdom, And especially on March 2 which are reported also under this day in the encomium given below. His Acts, described at greater length, appear still to be hidden or perhaps to have perished. We therefore give the following about him from the printed Menaea and the Parisian, Milanese, and Chiffletian manuscripts.
[2] "The Memory of the holy Martyr Quintus the Wonderworker. He was born in Phrygia He mercifully relieves the poor and was trained in piety. He betook himself to the region of Aeolis, where he showed every mercy to the needy. In the time of the Emperor Aurelian, when Rufus the Praetor was pressing him to offer sacrifices to idols, He frees a man possessed by a demon the Praetor was seized by a demon, but was healed when the Saint poured forth his prayers. Wherefore, on account of the benefit conferred upon him, he rewarded the Saint with gifts and dismissed him. Again, those who were in the temple of the idols, when an earthquake arose by which both the temple and the idols in it were overthrown, fled in panic and abandoned the Saint. When forty days had elapsed after the earthquake, He is suddenly healed after his legs are broken Clearchus assumed the praetorship of the place—a man bewitched by the delusions of demons and the superstition of idols—who ordered the Saint's legs to be broken; but these were immediately restored whole and made sound by the power of Christ. After this breaking of his legs, for ten ensuing years he traveled through the entire region, cured every kind of disease and infirmity, He dies, famous for miracles brought various assistance to the poor, and so departed to the Lord."
[3] So the Menaea; and the same is read in Maximus of Cythera, in his Lives of the Saints—except that the place of his contest, corrupted in the printed Menaea as "τὸν νεολίδα κώμην," Maximus has written with a new error as "νεοχίδα," while the Parisian manuscript correctly gives "τὸν αἰολίδα." For Aeolis is indeed a region of Asia Minor, encompassing a very large harbor between Ionia and Mysia, and bordering on Lydia to the east. Because you read "κώμην," beware of thinking it means a single village or farmstead; for, as the author of the Etymologicum says: "οὐχ ἡ πόλις κώμη, ἀλλὰ ἡ μείζων ἀγροικία, ἤτοι τὸ μέγιστον χωρίον"—"κώμη is not a city, but a larger rural district, or rather, the greatest territory." Thus the Latins once used "pagus," and the French today use "pays," in a broader sense. But what if instead of κώμη we should read κύμη, which was the most ancient city of Aeolis—from which the Italian Cumae got their name, having been founded by Aeolians, and most renowned for the cave of the Cumaean Sibyl and her prophetic responses? And so the reading would be "αἰολίδα κύμην."
[4] Moreover, Aurelian, under whom Quintus first became famous both for the profession of the Christian faith and for miracles, held the reins of the Roman Empire from the year 270 to 275. He
and therefore we consider this glorious athlete—since after the various torments endured under Aurelian around the year 272, Around the year 283 when the ninth persecution against Christians was renewed, he survived for ten years—to have finally departed to heaven around the year 282, or rather the following year.
[5] Juan Tamayo de Salazar in his Hispanic Martyrology joined Saint Quintus to fifteen other Martyrs, whom he places at Ebora among the Carpetani in Spain, Not crucified in Spain holding that in the persecution of Maximian, after enduring many punishments and even the cross itself, he departed this life. But since we distinguish those fifteen Martyrs into several classes, of whom some suffered in Africa and others in Cappadocia, we separate Quintus, who died in Aeolis, from them.