ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF NICOMEDIA: DIONYSIUS, JANUARIUS, NONNA, CYRIACA, VICTORINA OR VICTORINUS, AND MARIA.
CommentaryDionysius, Martyr at Nicomedia (S.)
Januarius, Martyr at Nicomedia (S.)
Nonna, Martyr at Nicomedia (S.)
Cyriaca, Martyr at Nicomedia (S.)
Victorina or Victorinus, Martyr at Nicomedia (S.)
Maria, Martyr at Nicomedia (S.)
The seventeenth day of March in the Martyrology of S. Jerome opens with the Martyrs of Nicomedia, of whom some, or at least persons called by the same names, were listed on the preceding day. Concerning these, the following is recorded in our copy, written nearly a thousand years ago: The sixteenth day before the Kalends of April. At Nicomedia: Dionysius, Januarius, Nonna, Cyriaca, Victorinus, Maria. In the copies of Blume and Paris, one reads Victorina: in the Lucca copy, Diunisius, Januaria, and Victorina; the rest agree. In the Reichenau manuscript, four are listed thus: At Nicomedia: Dionysius, Januarius, Maria, Victorinus; Nonna and Cyriaca are absent. In the Corbie manuscript, the first two are read: At Nicomedia: Dionysius, Januarius. In the manuscripts of Augsburg (S. Ulrich), Paris (Labbé), and Aachen, Dionysius and Maria are celebrated. The same are listed by Greven in the Supplement to Usuard. In the manuscripts of Monte Cassino and Altemps, Victorina alone is found, just as Dionysius alone appears in the Trier manuscript of S. Maximin, in which the following is read for the 16th of March: At Nicomedia: Dionysius, Victorinus. And these are the things we have found in the most ancient Martyrologies concerning these Martyrs of Nicomedia, whom we have mentioned with some scruple because some of them are also listed on the preceding day among the Martyrs of Nicomedia: for Dionysius, who here is leader and standard-bearer of the rest, is placed there in the second position; where Januarius is absent, though found here in seven calendars, for whom Januaria is read once. Those who are called Nonna and Cyriaca here in the Martyrology of S. Jerome are, on the preceding day, Nonnus and Quiriacus, although Quiriaca or Cyriaca is also found: on which day Victorina, as it is read five times, or Victorinus, as three copies of S. Jerome's Martyrology have it, and Maria, who is celebrated in nine calendars, are absent. With this warning prefaced, we retain all of them, since all, though in altered order, are thus inscribed in the Martyrology of Tamlacht: Maria, Victorina, Cyriaca, Nonna, Dionysius, Januarius, Victorinus, as though a different Victorinus should be distinguished here from Victorina.