ON SAINT JULIAN OF ANAZARBUS, WHO SUFFERED AT AEGAE AND WAS BURIED AT ANTIOCH.
Preliminary Commentary.
Julian of Anazarbus, Martyr at Aegae and Antioch (S.)
[1] Among the ancient Martyrs, very many Saints occur who are called by the name Julian: among whom, when Acts of martyrdom written by contemporaries are lacking, it is difficult to distinguish. A certain Julian has his veneration on the sixteenth of March among the Nicomedian Martyrs listed above, and another separately both among the Greeks and, following their example, among the Latins, Acts of martyrdom, and in the Roman Martyrology itself. Concerning this one it is commonly affirmed that, enclosed in a sack with serpents, he was plunged into the sea. from S. Chrysostom, Such a Martyr Julian is presented to us by Saint John Chrysostom in homily 47 to the people of Antioch, in volume 3 of his works edited by Fronto Ducaeus. The title prefixed to it is: Encomium of the holy Martyr Julian. Then it begins thus: If such are the honors paid to Martyrs on earth, after their departure from this life, what manner of crowns are woven in heaven for their holy heads? When he had eloquently amplified this theme in his usual manner, he adds the martyrdom of Saint Julian, which we give below excerpted from it: the eager reader may find the rest there. It would have been to our purpose if he had indicated the day of martyrdom, and also the Emperor and the Governor under whom he suffered. He indicates Cilicia as his homeland and the arena of his victory, and that his body was renowned for miracles in the suburb of Antioch called Daphne: but by what occasion it had been brought there, he is silent. We believe that all these things were then known to the Antiochenes from public Acts which existed among them.
[2] The next testimony we draw from the Greek Menologion, collected at the command of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, in which at the sixteenth of March, in the first place, the following is found, Menologion of the Emperor Basil, not yet printed, which we give in Latin: The Contest of Saint Julian the Cilician. Julian, Martyr of Christ, was a native of the city of Anazarbus, the son of a certain pagan Senator, but he had a Christian mother: who also instructed him in the sacred letters. After he had reached the eighteenth year of his age, he was brought to the city of Aegae, and by the idolaters presented to Marcian the Governor, and urged to sacrifice to idols, but he refused to obey. Wherefore the lictors violently opened his mouth and poured in wine and meat and other things offered to idols. He was then cast into prison, and his mother was brought: who, when questioned about him, asked that three days be granted her with her son, during which she might consult with him. When this was done, they were again taken to examination: and when Julian said that he would not deny the faith of Christ, they cut his mother's heels and sent her away. But they cast Saint Julian into a sack full of venomous serpents and sand, and threw him into the sea: from which his sacred relics were cast out and buried at Alexandria by a certain devout widow. Thus far in the Menologion of the Emperor Basil: which if compared with the Encomium of Saint Chrysostom, it seems to follow that the holy body was transported from Alexandria (which is the last city of Cilicia in the Gulf of Issus, near the town at the river Belus, not far from Aegae, where the Martyr was cast down) to Antioch, three times farther distant, and not so close to the sea. The cities already mentioned are well known to the ancients, and Anazarbus indeed is the metropolis of Cilicia Secunda, and under it the episcopal city of Aegae, called by Ptolemy, Stephanus, and in the said Menologion Aigai: to which city we assigned on the fourteenth of February Saints Julian and Marcian. But Marcian is joined with others in the Martyrology of Saint Jerome printed at Paris, and is found separately: In Sicily, Aegias, of Julian. The same is read in the Luccan manuscript: so that from this a suspicion arises that that passage should be corrected in this way: In Cilicia, at Aegae, of Julian, and that he could be the same person about whom we treat here. In the said Menologion the same Julian is again treated on the twenty-first of June.
[3] MS Synaxarion, The third Greek testimony we give from the manuscript Synaxarion of the Parisian College of Clermont of the Society of Jesus, which is thus rendered in Latin: The Contest of Saint Julian the Martyr, the Cilician. He was born at Anazarbus in the second province of Cilicia, the son of a certain Senator and a Christian mother: by whom, taught the true piety that is in Christ, he applied himself to the divine Scriptures. When he was in his eighteenth year, he was captured and presented to Marcian the Governor: by whom, having been urged in vain to sacrifice to idols, he was tortured in various parts of his body. Then placed in prison, and having taken counsel of his mother, having testified that he would live and die in the Christian profession, he was cast into a sack full of sand and venomous reptiles, and submerged in the depths of the sea, and obtained the crown of martyrdom. All of which is repeated in the same words in the said Synaxarion at the twenty-first of June, where at the end is added: The venerable and great John Chrysostom celebrated him with the honor of encomia. The same things are read on both days in the printed Greek Menaea and various manuscripts, and Menaea; and in Maximus Bishop of Cythera, and on the twenty-first of June in the Anthologion of the Greeks, published by the authority of Clement VIII. On the same day Julian the Martyr of Tarsus is inserted in the Calendar of the Greeks in Genebrard. Molanus followed him in the Supplement to Usuard. The occasion was taken because he is called by Saint Chrysostom a fellow-citizen of Paul: which words are to be understood of the region of Cilicia.
[4] Menologion of Sirleto, Finally the Greeks, in the Menologion translated into Latin by Cardinal Sirleto and published by Canisius, record the following on the sixteenth of March: Of the Holy Martyr Julian. He was from the city of Anazarbus in Cilicia, and when he was in his eighteenth year, being presented to Marcian the Governor, refusing to sacrifice to idols, having been tortured in various ways, he was finally enclosed in a sack full of sand and venomous serpents and cast into the middle of the sea, and thus crowned with the palm of martyrdom. By citing this Menologion, he was inscribed in the present Roman Martyrology in these words: At Anazarbus in Cilicia, of Saint Julian the Martyr, who under the Governor Marcian, having been tortured for a very long time, Roman Martyrology, was finally enclosed in a sack together with serpents and plunged into the sea. He was not cast into the sea at Anazarbus, where he was born, since it is an inland city, but at the maritime city of Aegae, as we have reported above from the Menologion of the Emperor Basil. Galesinius published on both days a longer encomium from the Menaea, which was thence transferred to the German Martyrology of the later edition. and others. In the Martyrology of Saint Jerome printed at Paris, after the Martyrs who suffered at Aquileia are recorded, is added: And of Julian the Martyr. Whether these words were said of this Cilician Martyr or of some other, is not clear.
[5] Time of martyrdom. Concerning the time at which Saint Julian was crowned with martyrdom, the authors cited thus far are silent. Ferrarius in his Notes on the twenty-first of June in his General Catalogue asserts that the Greeks in their reformed Breviary refer the contest to the time of Diocletian. But what is that Breviary, unless the New Anthologion published at Rome by the authority of Clement VIII in the year 1597, whose words are the same as those of the Synaxarion and Menaea, without mention of Diocletian? Saints Cosmas and Damian the Arabs suffered at Aegae in Cilicia under the Emperor Diocletian, but under the Governor or Duke Lysias, not Marcian. But Saint Julian, the husband of Saint Basilissa, suffered under the Governor Marcian in the times of Diocletian, with very many companions, but at Antinoe or Antioch in Egypt, as was proved on the ninth of January, their birthday. Then perhaps the name of the Governor Marcian, found in one set of these Acts, was transferred to the other. Thus the Menologion of Sirleto contains a Homily of Saint John Chrysostom, delivered concerning that Egyptian Martyr Julian: whose birthday is referred to in it on the said twenty-first of June.
[6] Another controversy can be raised from the Catalogue of Peter de' Natali, book 5, chapter 141, where a similar narrative concerning Julian the Martyr is presented, whose body was first brought to the island of Proconnesus, situated beyond the Hellespont in the Propontis, and then to the port of the city of Rimini. Many things are drawn from the same Acts of martyrdom, and variously amplified: and first he is said to have suffered in the time of the Emperor Decius under the Governor Marcian in the city of Flavias, The body of another Julian seems to have been brought to Rimini. namely an inland city of Cilicia, in which, since according to the testimony of Saint Chrysostom he was led throughout all Cilicia, he could have undergone various torments. His mother is called Asclepiodora: who could have become known from the fuller Acts along with the time of the Emperor Decius: unless these things are judged to have been recklessly added by later writers. He is said to have suffered on the ninth day before the Kalends of July, that is, the twenty-third of June. But Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on the twenty-second of June, from the records of the Church of Rimini, asserts he was born in Istria, struck at Flavias in Cilicia and cast into chains, thrown into the sea at Anazarbus on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of April, under the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus. His body, carried by the waves to the island of Proconnesus in the Propontis, was there placed in a marble chest by the Christians, and later under the Emperor Otto I miraculously arrived at Rimini in the same chest upon the waves, and was there honorably deposited. or Spanish? So much for that. We judge that Julian to appear to be different from the one whom we have presented along with Saint Chrysostom and the Greeks, although the Acts of the latter, as we have already said, are applied to the former. The transportation of the body from the Cilician sea all the way to the Propontis seemed wonderful and full of miracles, but a much more astounding account is put forward by Tamayo Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology at the twenty-third of June, where he is said to be a citizen of Flaviobriga among the Autrigones of Hither Spain, and there sewn up in a sack with serpents and cast into the sea, and his body carried by the waves to the island of Proconnesus, that is, through the Cantabrian and Atlantic Oceans, through the Strait of Cadiz, the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, and finally through the Hellespont into the Propontis to the island of Proconnesus. The testimony of this discovery is adduced from the Chronicle published under the name of Flavius Dexter, and the testimonies of the Greeks and Latins cited above are rejected. These matters can be examined more fully at the twenty-second or twenty-third of June.
ACTS OF MARTYRDOM
by Saint John Chrysostom,
excerpted from homily 47 to the people of Antioch.
Julian of Anazarbus, Martyr at Aegae and Antioch (S.)
FROM S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM.
[1] Born in Cilicia with S. Paul, This Saint, then, was produced by the Cilician nation, which also produced Paul. For he was a citizen of that land, and both came forth from there as ministers of the Church for us. After the stadium of piety was opened, and the time itself called him to the contests, he fell into the hands of a savage beast, steadfast in the faith of Christ, who was then exercising judgment. And see the scheme: for when he saw him endowed with a brave spirit, and that the severity of punishment could not break that rigid strength of soul, he cast him into delays and postponements, bringing him out and leading him back again and again. For he did not, upon hearing him on one day, cut off his head, lest the brevity of the punishment should make the course easier for him: but day by day he brought him in, led him out, long detained under torturers: applied interrogations, threatened a thousand torments, enticed with flattering words, applied every device, and strove to shake that immovable foundation.
[2] For a whole year he led him around throughout all of Cilicia, and disgraced him: or rather, what he least expected, he made him more illustrious; for a whole year he is led around throughout Cilicia: and the Martyr himself also cried out with Paul: But thanks be to God, who triumphs over us in Christ, and manifests the odor of His knowledge through us in every place. 2 Cor. 2:14 For just as ointment, as long as it remains in one place, pervades only that air with its fragrance: but when it has been spread to many places, it fills them all with its virtue; so likewise it happened with the Martyr. For he was then being led about to be branded with ignominy, but the opposite occurred; the athlete was made more illustrious by that procession, and he made all the inhabitants of the Cilician region emulators of his virtue. He was led about in every direction, so that they might learn of his contests not from report alone, but might behold the crowned victor as spectators; by his example he rouses the inhabitants: and the more those circuits and courses of the stadium were prolonged for him, the more illustrious all his races became: the more obstacles were set before him, the more admirable his contests became: the more the affliction was extended by length of time, the more proven his patience was rendered. For as gold that has been longer exposed to the nature of fire comes forth purer: so too the soul of the Saint, tested by time, shone more brightly, nor did the tyrant carry the Martyr about as anything other than a trophy against himself and the devil, a proof of the cruelty of the Gentiles, an indication of the piety of the Christians, the greatest sign of the power of Christ, an incitement and counsel to the faithful to persevere with a ready and eager spirit in the same contests, a herald of divine glory, a teacher of the discipline of such contests. For he exhorted all to imitate him, persuading not only by voice, but sending forth by his very deeds a sound clearer than a trumpet.
[3] And just as the heavens, without uttering a voice, declare the glory of God, but by the splendor of their appearance lead the beholder to admiration of the Creator: like the heavens he declares the glory of God: so likewise that Martyr declared the glory of God, since he himself was a heaven far more brilliant than this one which we see. Psalm 18:1 For the stars do not make heaven as splendid as the blood flowing from wounds made the body of the Martyr more splendid. And that you may learn that the wounds of the Martyr are more splendid than the stars fixed in heaven, consider this. At that heaven and its stars both men and demons look: but at the wounds of this one, faithful men indeed look, he puts demons to flight. but demons dare not raise their eyes against them: indeed, if they try to look, they are immediately blinded, nor can they endure the lightning that flashes forth from them. This I will prove not only from things that happened of old, but also from things that happen to this very day. For take someone seized by a demon and raving, and lead him to that holy sepulchre where the relics of the Martyr are contained, and you will see him recoiling and fleeing. as afterwards he freed those possessed by demons who were brought to his relics. For as if he were about to walk upon burning coals, so from the very vestibule he immediately leaps back, and does not dare even to raise his eyes toward the shrine itself. But if now, after so long a time, when he has become dust and ashes, they do not dare to look upon the monument, nor upon the bare bones of the Saint; there can be no doubt that then too, when they saw him empurpled with blood, shining on every side with wounds more than the sun with rays, they were struck with terror and withdrew with blinded eyes. Do you see how the wounds of the Martyrs are more splendid than the stars of heaven and more wonderful, and possess greater power?
[4] The Saint therefore was brought into the midst, and bitter torments stood on every side, fear of things to come, toil of present things, pain of those pressing in, dread of those that were expected. For as if they were monstrous engines of war, the executioners surrounding his body, he is dreadfully tortured: dug into his sides; scraped away his flesh; laid bare his bones; penetrated even to his inner organs. And yet, though they searched everything, they were utterly unable to plunder the treasure of faith. Indeed, in the treasuries of Kings, where gold and other abundant riches are stored, if you have only pierced the walls, if you have opened the doors, you immediately see the treasure lying before you: but here in the Saint himself, the temple containing Christ, the opposite happened. The executioners pierced the walls and tore open the breast, and neither saw nor could seize the hidden riches: but what happened to the Sodomites, that they stood at the very door of Lot's house but could not find the entrance; so likewise these men, though they searched the body of the Martyr on every side, could not discover the treasure nor exhaust the riches of faith... They applied fire to him, and iron and instruments of torture; they applied punishments, torments, scourges; they pierced his sides on every side: he only spoke and uttered a simple voice, and his word conquered their works. A holy voice leapt forth from the Martyr's mouth; and together with it a light more splendid than a sunbeam was drawn forth. and speaks of heavenly things: The light of this voice is as great as the distance between heaven and earth. Indeed, not even this whole space can it pervade, if at any time a roof or wall or cloud or some other body should intervene, but it is blocked and shut off by such barriers from being carried further: but the voice of the Martyr, springing from that holy tongue, leapt up into heaven. It passed beyond the heaven of heavens; the Angels saw it and gave way; the Archangels also yielded the path; the Cherubim and the other powers led it upward, nor did they withdraw until they had brought it to the very royal throne.
[5] But after this voice, when he who then exercised judgment saw that he had contrived all things rashly and in vain, and was kicking against the goads and striking adamant, what does he do? He proceeds thenceforth in such a way that he seems to give up in defeat, and removes the Martyr from this life. For the death of Martyrs is an open calamity for those who kill them: but for those who are taken away, a glorious victory. But consider for me in what manner he devised a cruel and bitter kind of death for him: which could demonstrate both the cruelty of the tyrant and the fortitude of the Martyr. enclosed in a sack with serpents and scorpions, he is cast into the sea, What then is that kind of punishment? A sack was brought and filled with sand, and when he had cast into it scorpions, vipers, and serpents, he cast the Saint in with them and lowered him into the sea. So the Martyr was with beasts, and again the just man was enclosed with beasts. But I said "again" so as to recall to your memory the ancient narrative about Daniel. They shut Daniel in a pit, but they cast this one into a sack: on Daniel they placed a stone, but here the tyrant sewed up the sack and made the prison narrower for the just man. But everywhere the beasts reverence the bodies of the Saints, to the shame and condemnation of those who, though endowed with reason and deemed worthy of human nature, he is compared with Daniel surpass the ferocity of beasts by their own supreme savagery: such as we may conjecture this tyrant also was. There was to be seen an astonishing miracle, no less than what happened in the case of Daniel. For just as, when they had seen Daniel ascending from the pit of lions after many days, the Babylonians marveled; so too when the Angels saw the soul of Julian ascending from the sack and the waves into heaven, they marveled. Daniel subdued and conquered two lions, but ones perceptible to the senses: this man subdued and conquered one lion, but a spiritual one. For our enemy the devil, he says, goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; but he was overcome by the fortitude of the Martyr; for the Martyr had laid aside the venom of sin; therefore the devil did not devour him, and for that reason he feared neither the lion nor the rage of the beasts. 1 Pet. 5:8 and Noah Do you wish me to relate also another ancient narrative, in which there are both a just man and beasts? Remember the flood, Noah, and the ark: for then too a just man and beasts were together. But Noah entered as a man and came out as a man: but Julian entered as a man but came out as an Angel: Noah entered from the earth and returned again to the earth: but this one entered from the earth into a sack, and from the sack proceeded to heaven.
[6] The sea received him not to kill him but to crown him, and after the crown it returned to us this holy ark, the body of the Martyr: which we hold to this day, The body left for the encouragement of men: a treasury of six hundred blessings. For God has divided the Martyrs between us and Himself: and having taken their souls for Himself, He has in a manner bestowed their bodies upon us, that we might possess the holy bones of these saints as a memorial of perpetual virtue. For if someone seeing the bloodied arms of a warrior, his shield, spear, and breastplate, though he be the most cowardly of all, immediately leaps up, burns with ardor, and springs forth ready for battle, and from the sight of the arms takes courage to undertake the same deeds: shall not we who behold not the arms but the very body of the Saint, which was deemed worthy to be bloodied for the confession of Christ, though we be the most timid of all, be unable not to burn with the utmost readiness of spirit, when this sight falls like a fire upon our mind and invites us to the same contest? For this reason God has commended the bodies of the Saints to us until the time of the resurrection, that we might have the matter and occasion of the greatest wisdom. But truly, lest the praises of the Martyr be diminished by the weakness of our tongue, let them await God the judge of the contest: He who crowns them will also praise them. For their praise is not from men but from God, for even these things which we have said, we have said not to make the Martyr more illustrious, but to make you more ready.
[7] And a little further on, in a comparison of Daphne and the place where his Relics were preserved:
Why, I ask, do you hasten to the suburb of the city? Behold the suburb of that Jerusalem which is above: behold the spiritual Daphne. There are fountains of waters, here are fountains of Martyrs: there are cypress trees, barren of fruit, here are the Relics of saints, and roots which, planted in the earth, thrust their branches into heaven. Do you wish
also to behold the fruit of these branches? Open for us the eyes of faith, and I will immediately show you the nature of these wonderful fruits. For the fruit of these branches is not of apples or nuts, nor of anything else that is corrupted and perishes: but the healing of mutilated bodies and the remission of sins, the abolition of vice, he is illustrious for miracles: the cure of the soul's diseases, continual prayer, confidence before God, and all spiritual things overflowing with heavenly goods. These fruits, always plucked, always sprout again, and never fail those who cultivate them. And trees that grow in the earth bear fruit once a year: and if you have not plucked it, when winter comes, the fruit being corrupted and falling apart, they lose their proper beauty. But these know neither winter nor summer, they are not subject to the necessity of seasons, nor can they be seen stripped of their fruits, but they retain the same beauty perpetually: neither corruption nor change of seasons ever touches them. For how many, since this body was planted in the earth, have plucked six hundred healings from this holy shrine, and the fruit has not failed? They have reaped the harvest, and the ears of grain are not consumed? They have drawn from the fountains, and the streams are not exhausted? It is a certain perennial spring, never failing, but always flowing forth with a miracle more abundant than what has been drawn. And omitting a few things he indicates the situation of the temple in these words: And if it should please you now also to be suffused with pleasure, what is more delightful than this assembly? What is more pleasing than this spiritual theater, for your members, in the meeting of your brethren? But do you also wish to share in a bodily meal? Here, when the assembly has ended, it is permitted, resting near the Martyrion under a fig tree or a vine, to indulge the body also with refreshment, and he represses vices. and to free one's conscience from condemnation. For the Martyr, observed from close at hand, and since he is nearby and stands at the very table, does not allow pleasure to overflow into sin: but like a teacher or the best of fathers, beheld with the eyes of faith, he restrains laughter, cuts away unseemly pleasures: he removes all wanton assaults of the flesh, which it is not possible to escape there. So far Saint John Chrysostom.
ON THE TEN HOLY MARTYRS IN PHOENICIA.
CommentaryTen Martyrs in Phoenicia (SS.)
The Greeks in the printed Menaea and in Maximus Bishop of Cythera celebrate on the sixteenth of March ten anonymous holy Martyrs, whom they commemorate as having completed their lives by the sword in Phoenicia. In the Menaea these two verses are added:
A tenfold band of Martyrs by the sword The slayers of men and martyrs slay.
The region of Phoenicia between Syria and Palestine is well known, but on what occasion or at what time these ten athletes were crowned there is not clear. We gave on the twenty-fifth of February the Acts of Saints Ananias the Priest and Peter the doorkeeper, during whose torments seven soldiers were converted, baptized, and drowned in the sea. But on the twentieth of February are venerated the holy Martyrs of Tyre: Tyrannio the Bishop and very many others, whose number, as Usuard testifies, only the knowledge of God can calculate, who were killed by various torments. The eminent martyrdom of these or similar persons seems to have fallen on the sixteenth of March, on which day Galesinius celebrates them in these words: In Phoenicia, of the holy Martyrs ten, who, struck with the axe, received the palm of the contest undertaken for the faith.