CONCERNING SAINTS CAIUS AND ALEXANDER, MARTYRS AT APAMEA IN PHRYGIA, AFTER THE YEAR 171.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Caius, Martyr, at Apamea in Phrygia (Saint) Alexander, Martyr, at Apamea in Phrygia (Saint)
[1] Ptolemy, in book 5 of his Geography, chapter 2, while arranging the cities of Greater Phrygia each in its own location, joins Apamea Cibotos and Hierapolis. Concerning the latter we treated at greater length on February 7 in connection with the Life of Saint Claudius Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis, who governed that Church in the second century of Christ, Near Apamea is Hierapolis, whose Bishop was Saint Apollinaris a man distinguished for learning, writings, and zeal against the Cataphrygian heretics: whose writings and contest against these Cataphrygians we published in the same place, section 3, from book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, chapter 15, where at number 20, Saint Apollinaris reports the following concerning Saints Caius and Alexander:
[2] As soon as truly Ecclesiastical and Catholic men in the times of persecution had been called by chance to bear witness to the faith which is from the truth, together with certain persons blinded by the Cataphrygian heresy (whom those heretics regarded as Martyrs), teach: that they turned far away from the heresy of the Cataphrygians they plainly dissented from them very much: and lest they should seem to agree in any part with the Spirit of Montanus and those women, they absolutely refused to communicate with them to their very last breath. And that this is true, and that it was done in our times at Apamea, which is situated near the Maeander, Caius and Alexander, natives of Eumenia, Saints Caius and Alexander, Martyrs who were then undergoing martyrdom, declared sufficiently clearly.
[3] Thus Saint Apollinaris, to whom we vindicated those writings in section 4 of his Life, where in section 2, number 8, we said that the Cataphrygian heresy arose, according to Saint Epiphanius, around the nineteenth year of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, which is the year of Christ 156, or certainly in the consulship of Severus II and Herennius, the eleventh year of Marcus Aurelius, in the second century of Christ the heresy was begun by Montanus the year of Christ 171, to which year Eusebius in his Chronicle notes: The pseudo-prophecy which is called that of the Cataphrygians took its beginning, and two harlots with Montanus as its author, and the insane prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla. Concerning their errors and fatal mysteries we treated in the same place, and we rejected the sanctity attributed to them by certain persons before their secession at numbers 29 and 30, and we showed by the words of Saint Apollinaris that Montanus, when he had been most recently or first converted to the faith, suddenly, as Rufinus explains, falling into a certain ecstasy of mind, and as if driven by the Spirit, began to utter things new and different from those which had been transmitted by the succession of the Elders of the Church, as if producing them in the guise of prophecy: so that he drove two harlots (whom we reported in the words of Saint Apollinaris at number 15) to the same crime, and filled them with an adulterous spirit, by which, no differently from Montanus himself, they would babble madly, foolishly, and in a new and outlandish manner: that deceitful spirit sometimes declaring blessed those who delighted in it and gloried immoderately, and inflating them with the magnitude of its promises; sometimes adroitly and with arguments aptly arranged for persuasion, openly reproving their sins to their faces, so that it might be thought to be the corrector of their vices... Where the faithful who inhabited Asia had very frequently and in many places of Asia assembled together, condemned by the Church and had examined the aforesaid doctrine, and had shown it to be profane and detestable, and had condemned it as heresy; these persons were both expelled from the Church and entirely driven from communion.
[4] The two aforesaid Martyrs, Caius and Alexander, shunning the communion of these persons, natives of Eumenia, which is a city of the same Phrygia toward the river Hermus, were slain for the faith of Christ at Apamea near the Maeander (to which river Hierapolis also is adjacent). Saints Caius and Alexander suffered at Apamea in Phrygia There are other cities called Apamea in Pisidia and Bithynia, provinces of Asia. There is also an Apamea which is the metropolis of Syria II, as well as another in the kingdom of Gaul and the county of Foix. But so that the arena of these Martyrs might be distinguished especially from the former, it is called by Saint Apollinaris Apamea near the Maeander, and is surnamed Cibotos by Ptolemy. These Martyrs are inscribed in almost all the sacred calendars for March 10, on which day the Vallicellian manuscript reads: At Apamea, the birthday of Saints Alexander and Caius. But Florus in the manuscript supplement to Bede, together with the Martyrology of Rosweid: At Apamea, of Alexander and Caius of Eumenia. Ado, Notker, and others have this with the printed edition of Bede: The birthday of the holy Martyrs Alexander and Caius of Eumenia, inscribed in the martyrologies for March 10 who at Apamea in the persecution of Antoninus Verus were crowned with martyrdom, as Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis, writes in his book against the Cataphrygians. Other Martyrologies, both handwritten and printed, of Usuard, Bellini, Maurolycus, Galesinius, and others generally agree, and the persecution of Antoninus Verus is assigned. In today's Martyrology the persecution is explained somewhat differently: At Apamea in Phrygia, the birthday of the holy Martyrs Caius and Alexander, who (as Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis, writes in his book against the Cataphrygian heretics) in the persecution of Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus were crowned with glorious martyrdom. After the Emperor Antoninus Pius died on the Nones of March in the year of Christ 161, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Verus succeeded, his son-in-law, by whom his likewise son-in-law Lucius Aelius Verus was assumed as partner of the empire, who was carried off by apoplexy around the year 169: from whose death, according to Eusebius, we said the Cataphrygian heresy arose, and thus the martyrdom of Saints Caius and Alexander is attributed to the persecution of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Verus alone in some year near after 171. Concerning these Martyrs, they are treated on March 11 in the Vatican manuscript of Saint Peter in these words: The birthday of the holy Martyrs Alexander and Caius of Eumenia, and March 11 who at Apamea in the persecution of Antoninus Verus were crowned with martyrdom.