CONCERNING SAINTS AGAPE AND MARIANA, OR MARINA, VIRGINS AND MARTYRS, AT ANTIOCH
Historical Synopsis.
Agape, Virgin and Martyr at Antioch (Saint) Mariana, or Marina, Virgin and Martyr at Antioch (Saint)
[1] We adduce the words of the Martyrologies, so that nothing may be detracted either from the veneration of the Saints or from the authority of the writers. And first the manuscript Martyrologies -- the Cassinese, the Vatican of Saint Peter, the Altempsianum, of Saint Cyriacus, the Augsburg, Parisian, and that of the Queen of Sweden, concerning which we have already treated -- after listing the Martyrs who suffered at Nicaea, Gorgonius and Firmus, immediately add: At Antioch, of Saint Agape the Virgin: [Saint Agape who suffered at Antioch is celebrated separately from the Nicaean Martyrs,] which Galesinius ineptly joined to the said Nicaean Martyrs, taking Antonius in place of the city Antioch, as if he had suffered together with them: but we reject what the consensus of the Martyrologies does not admit: some of which, such as the Liege manuscript of Saint Lambert, the Carmelite manuscript of Cologne, the manuscript Usuard of Cluny and another of the Queen of Sweden, omitting the place, celebrate only Saint Agape the Virgin. Before the said Nicaean Martyrs she is celebrated in the Roman Vatican manuscript number 5949, the Neapolitan of the Clerks Regular, both in Lombard script, in these words: At Antioch, of Saint Agatha the Virgin. At Nicaea, of Saint Gorgonius and Firminus.
[2] In the Martyrology of Jerome published at Lucca and the Blumian copy, after listing the same Nicaean Martyrs, there is appended: At Antioch, of Saint Agape the Virgin and Mariana. But in place of the latter, in our manuscript, which is also of Saint Jerome, we read: and Marcianis. In the one published at Paris, and Mariana, also of Saint Jerome, it reads thus: At Antioch, of Saint Agape the Virgin and Martyr. Mariani. But Marini is read in the Reichenau manuscript. But with the earlier copies, Rabanus and the printed Bede, likewise the Laetium and Tournai manuscripts of Saint Martin, have the following: At Antioch, the birthday of Saint Agape the Virgin and Mariana. But Notker has Marina. The Cologne manuscript of Saint Mary ad Gradus: or Marina: At Antioch, of Agape and Maurina the Virgins. Thus Marina the Virgin is inscribed in the Calendar of an ancient manuscript Breviary which is in our possession. Hermann Greven in the Auctarium of Usuard mentions her under the name of Agapita the Virgin and Marina the Virgin. Finally Saint Agape, but mingled with other holy Martyrs of this day, is venerated in the Trier manuscripts of Saint Martin and Saint Maximin and the Aachen one. Both, Agape and Mariana, were inscribed by our Laherius in the Menologion of sacred Virgins.
[3] On the next following day, that is, March 11, the Centula manuscript, or that of Saint Riquier, celebrates Saint Agape the Virgin at Antioch. The Brussels manuscript of Saint Gudula: also listed on March 11: And at Antioch, of Agape the Virgin and Marina. But in the Anchin manuscript, in which on this day Agape was ascribed to Antioch, on the next, that is, the eleventh day, again, as if about another, mention is made of Saints Agapita and Marina the Virgins. On which day also, after Saints Gorgonius and Firmus, in the manuscript under the name of Saint Jerome and at Notker, the name Agapitus is listed, for which Agapita, or rather Agape, appears to be the correct reading. The memory of Saint Agape was made on January 25 in the Roman Martyrology, to which the companions Saints Donatus and Sabinus are assigned. Another Agape, Virgin and Martyr, is venerated at Interamna in Umbria on February 15; another with twenty-eight companions was listed on February 17. other Saints Agape and Marina: Other Saints of this name will be brought forward later, of whom the more famous is Saint Agape, the companion of Saint Chionia, who suffered at Thessalonica on April 3. We have also hitherto presented two Martyrs named Marina, each in a great company of Martyrs, one on January 27 in Africa, the other on February 22, who suffered at Nicomedia: others will occur to be listed hereafter.
[4] I have referred here the controversy raised by the Spaniards after the publication of the Fragments, or Adversaria under the name of Luitprand, or Eutrand: in whose Madrid edition at number 67 and the Antwerp edition at number 75, the following is found: [the slaughter of Saints Agape, Gorgonius, Firmus, and Antonius is attributed to Spain.] In the Asturias of Spain, in the city of Britonia, of the holy Martyrs Gorgonius, Firmus, Antonius, and Agape the Virgin, born in Nicaea of Bithynia, carried by chance to Spain, in the persecution of the most cruel Decius, who on the tenth of March through various and terrible torments finally obtained the palm of martyrdom. So there. The occasion for this assertion, not to say invention, was taken partly from Bellinus, Maurolycus, Molanus, who report on March 11 with the Roman Martyrology Saints Gorgonius and Firmus the Martyrs, with no added place of martyrdom; partly from Galesinius, who adds to them Antonius and Agape the Virgin and ascribes them to Nicaea. But against one Galesinius, more than twenty ancient Martyrologies, both handwritten and printed, cited above, persuade that Saint Agape the Virgin is to be separated and ascribed to Antioch where she suffered: in various of which her companion in martyrdom is assigned as Saint Mariana or Marina the Virgin. But nowhere does even a shadow of any Antonius appear, a name that crept into the place of the city Antioch through the fault and negligence of copyists. Notwithstanding these things, Tamayo Salazar with some correction of the text of Luitprand inscribed in his Spanish Martyrology for March 10 the following: At Britonia in the Asturias of Spain, Saints Gorgonius, Firmus, Antonius, and Agape the Virgin, who, having been brought from Nicaea of Bithynia, are crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of the Emperor Decius for the glory of Christ. He then criticizes an error of Luitprand in the edition of Ramirez, but which is also found in the edition of Tamayo de Vargas, and asserts that the passage should be restored so that only the sacred bodies are said to have been brought to Britonia, and the Martyrs themselves were crowned at Nicaea. On March 2 Saints Lucius the Bishop and other Martyrs killed at Caesarea in Cappadocia are venerated, and on March 20 Saint Martin, Bishop of Dumium, who in the same Fragments or Adversaria are called Bishops of Britonia, where Tamayo Salazar asserts that Luitprand errs, or that a gloss was inserted to deceive, cited above at the Acts of Saint Lucius on March 2. Which things, on account of what has already been adduced by us, could be said about the entire assertion attributed to Luitprand. Higuera asserts other things in Tamayo's Spanish Martyrology in these words: At Noegla in Baetica, or as some believe, at Noega Useca in the Asturias, the bodies brought from Nicaea of Bithynia of the holy Martyrs Gorgonius, Firmus, Antonius, and Agape the Virgin rest in peace. But Tamayo adds that Higuera erred.
[5] Arthur du Monstier inscribed in his Sacred Gynaeceum Saint Agape, Virgin and Martyr, as having suffered at Nicaea, with this annotation: and wrongly set forth in the Sacred Gynaeceum The Greek Menology, Galesinius in his Martyrology, and Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of Saints mention her. She suffered with the holy Martyrs Antonius, Gorgonius, and Firmus, concerning whom in the Roman Martyrology on the following day, in the year 253. Whose bodies are written by John Tamayo in his Spanish Martyrology on this day to have been translated to Britonia in the Asturias of Spain. All these things Arthur set down without discrimination, but not without errors: and first for these he cites the Greek Menology, perhaps led astray by a hasty reading of Ferrarius, who noted that Galesinius took this from the Greeks: but Galesinius himself should have been consulted, who cites ancient handwritten Martyrologies. Second, he brings forward Galesinius, whom he could have admitted as the guide of his errors. Why did he not rather follow Rabanus, Notker, the printed copies of Bede, Hermann Greven, with whom very many ancient manuscript Martyrologies agree, and having acquired with Agape another woman to insert in his Gynaeceum, namely Mariana or Marina, and having learned that they suffered at Antioch, not at Nicaea? Furthermore, only Gorgonius and Firmus are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, not Antonius, whom he places before them, inserted by Galesinius in place of the city Antioch. Concerning the translation of bodies to Spain, we consider it a gloss of John Tamayo. What is said about the year of martyrdom is nothing but the invention of the commentator on the Adversaria of Luitprand.
CONCERNING SAINT MARCIAN THE MARTYR
CommentaryMarcian, Martyr among the Greeks (Saint)
The calendars of the Latins and
Greeks celebrate many Marcians on various days: but to whom the same kind of death gave the crown of Martyrdom, absolutely none: and so we present him here as unique on the authority of the Greek Menaea, whence also Maximus Cytheraeus took him, whom we also found in the manuscript Synaxarion of our Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius in the very same words: On the same day, the holy Marcian was crushed by wood or clubs and was consummated. The time and place of his contest remain in obscurity.