ON ST. PHOCAS, MARTYR AT ANTIOCH IN SYRIA.
CommentaryPhocas, Martyr at Antioch in Syria (St.)
[1] Almost all the Latin Martyrologies mention this Martyr, and the more ancient ones generally with the same words: At Antioch, the passion of St. Phocas, sometimes Phoces, or Phocatis the Martyr; in the Parisian Hieronymian text, of St. Phoca, with the addition in the Tournai manuscript of "Virgin," an error arising from the ending of the word in the genitive case. St. Phocas inscribed in Latin calendars on March 5, Among the two classes of African Martyrs he is recorded in three Martyrologies under the name of St. Jerome, hence mingled with them without distinction in the Reichenau manuscript: In Africa, of Eobolus, Peter, Phocas, Maturius, Victor, Eusebius. Instead of the attached Maturius, in Labbé's manuscript is read Phocas the Martyr, which agrees with other codices. We treat of the appended Martyrs in both classes of African Martyrs; because of which conjunction the passion of St. Phocas was erroneously ascribed to Africa in the manuscript of Queen Christina of Sweden; in another codex of the same Queen it is thus read: At Antioch, the passion of St. Phocas, Bishop and Martyr. In the Centula manuscript is added, under the Judge Africanus. In the manuscript Martyrology of Cardinal Barberini, the same eulogy that Usuard has is read, with the title of Bishop also added.
[2] The words of Usuard are: At Antioch, the birthday of Bl. Phocas the Martyr, who, after the many injuries he suffered for the name of the Redeemer, how he triumphed over that ancient serpent is declared to the peoples even to this day. Ado adds: invoked against snakebite. Finally, if in those regions a serpent has struck anyone with a bite and spread its venom, immediately the one who has been bitten, if he has touched the door of the Martyr's basilica with faith, is saved, the power of the venom having been dispelled. All of which is also read in today's Roman Martyrology, taken word for word from the treatise of St. Gregory of Tours On the Glory of the Martyrs, book 1, chapter 99, where he also relates that this Martyr rested in Syria in his time; and further confirming the said miracles, he says: Some, as is widely celebrated, already swollen from the strike of the evil beast, already with the venom spreading throughout the whole body, puffed up so as to exhale their spirit, carried in men's hands and placed in the atrium, have been healed; nor is it ever permitted that a man die from this poison, if he has touched the sacred threshold full of faith.
Wandelbert alluded to these things in this couplet: Phocas claims the third of March by the title of his merits: He who conquered death by his blood, and the serpent by his virtue.
[3] Galesinius adds that St. Phocas the Martyr received the crown of glory under the Emperor Trajan, and indeed, as he observes in his Notes, did he suffer under Trajan? in the year of Christ our Lord 119, under the Consuls Niger and Apronianus, the year in which Trajan made Armenia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia into provinces; and in support of his assertion he adds: Concerning Bl. Phocas, Usuard, Bede, Ado, St. Antoninus, Gregory of Tours in chapter 99 On the Glory of the Martyrs, and others have written. Why does he not add Vincent of Beauvais, commonly transcribed by St. Antoninus, who in book 10 of the Mirror of History, chapter 62, treats at length of St. Phocas and his disputation with Africanus? But these pertain to St. Phocas, Bishop of Sinope; whom Galesinius on July 10 asserts was killed for Christ under the Emperor Trajan, and notes that a sermon by Asterius, Bishop of Amasia, concerning him exists in Metaphrastes.
[4] But, as that sermon is about Phocas the Gardener, beheaded near the city of Sinope, not about the Bishop suffocated in the baths, otherwise distinguished from the Gardener and Bishop of the same name in Pontus. so the persecution of Trajan, in which all agree the Bishop suffered, perhaps applies to him alone. But from both of these the one who suffered at Antioch and is venerated on this day is entirely different, and had a celebrated temple in Syria, as Gregory of Tours attests. But did he also have one at Rome? I believe so indeed, although Asterius attributes it to his own Phocas with these words: In the ruling city, the head of Italy, the queen of the world, an illustrious edifice has been erected and splendidly adorned in his honor, in which honor is given him by all the people, and a devout offering of gifts is brought; for the Romans venerate Phocas no less than the Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, since (as we have heard by report) they religiously possess the very head of the Martyr. We therefore consider these things to apply to the Antiochene Phocas rather than to either of the Sinopeans, because it seems more probable that the Antiochenes, who had received from Rome the relics of their Bishop St. Ignatius, would not have been reluctant to return this favor to the Romans when asked.
[5] Baronius in his notes on July 14 observes that the Greeks distinguish two Phocases: one the Gardener, the other the Bishop, of whom the latter is venerated on this day. They do indeed distinguish them, but, is he known in the Greek calendars? as we shall see on that day and on September 22, they make both of them natives of Sinope; they nowhere mention Antioch. Nor does Asterius, who seems to attribute to the Gardener some things pertaining to the Bishop and mentions the head honorably placed at Rome, make any mention of Syria or Antioch; so that the Antiochene, about whom we treat today, seems to be entirely unknown to the Greek Menologia, unless he is the one about whom we read a commemoration on August 2 in the printed and manuscript Menaea of Turin and Clermont, with no other indication added from which it might be gathered whose commemoration it is.