ON THE HOLY ROMAN MARTYRS ALEXANDER, BISHOP, AND THEODOLUS, DEACON. LIKEWISE NICANDER, THEODORUS, ARTEMIUS, SISIANUS, POLLIO, AND CRESCENTIANUS.
CommentaryAlexander, Bishop, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Theodolus, Deacon, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Nicander, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Theodorus, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Artemius, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Sisianus, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Pollio, Martyr at Rome (S.)
Crescentianus, Martyr at Rome (S.)
[1] A manifold controversy has arisen in the ordering of these holy Martyrs, in the discussion of which we first set forth the genuine spelling of the names. There is a fourfold copy of the Martyrology of S. Jerome, Roman Martyrs in ancient manuscript Martyrologies: namely ours, written about a thousand years ago in British script; another from an ancient Corbie codex printed at Paris in volume IV of Luc d'Achery's Spicilegium; a third which we found at Lucca in the possession of D. Francesco Maria Fiorentini, who printed it there; a fourth discovered in Germany by the distinguished Heinrich Julius Blume. We add four other older Martyrologies, different from the preceding ones and from each other: one of these is preserved in the monastery of Reichenau, or Augia Dives, in German Swabia near the city of Constance: another we found at Paris transcribed from an ancient Corbie codex; a third, though lacking its beginning, but very notable, is kept in the Barberini Library: a fourth is among the codices of Queen Christina of Sweden, from which the last months are missing. In these eight codices, one and the same reading is as follows: Alexander the Bishop and Theodolus the Deacon: At Rome: Alexander the Bishop and Theodolus the Deacon. Lucas Holstenius proposes this reading as the more certain in his Observations on the Roman Martyrology, chiefly using the last of the indicated codices. Notker in the tenth century of Christ listed the same, with only a single vowel changed: At Rome: Alexander the Bishop and Theodulus the Deacon. In the Martyrology of the monastery of S. Cyriacus, which Baronius used most extensively, they are listed thus: At Rome: Alexander the Bishop and Theodore, with the word "Deacon" omitted, perhaps through the fault of copyists, and Theodore written in place of Theodolus. The bare names of Alexander and Theodolus are also found in the Tamlacht and Labbé manuscripts, and Alexander alone in the Augsburg manuscript; as is customary in those Martyrologies to propose the bare names of Martyrs. Greven in the Supplement to Usuard at March 16 has: At Rome: S. Alexander the Bishop. But the Prague manuscript has S. Theodore the Deacon.
[2] And these things concern the more certain reading of these Roman Martyrs, from which it is established that Alexander is considered a Bishop, and S. Theodolus, otherwise called Theodulus or Theodorus, is called a Deacon in nine codices. Now among the Bishops or Pontiffs of Rome who were Martyrs, there is one S. Alexander, about whom and his companions the following is read in the Roman Martyrology under the 3rd day of May: At Rome on the Via Nomentana, the passion of the holy Martyrs Alexander the Pope, Eventius and Theodulus, Presbyters, etc., where Baronius observes in his Notes that their Acts exist in Surius, but many errors have crept in. Hence, being more anxious, we sought out the Acts of these Martyrs: and first, in the library of the most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden, there is a parchment codex in large folio, marked number 58, in which is contained a Catalogue of the Roman Pontiffs, ascribed to Pope Damasus, but carried beyond his time to John I and Felix III (others say IV), after whose brief eulogy follow the bare names with the duration of the pontificate of twelve others up to Pelagius, the predecessor of S. Gregory the Great. From this catalogue we give the following eulogy: Listed in the Catalogues of the Roman Pontiffs: VII. Alexander, a Roman by nationality, from his father Alexander, of the Caput Tauri district, sat for 10 years, 7 months, and 2 days. He lived in the times of Trajan, up to Helianus and Vetus. He mixed the Passion of the Lord into his preaching to the priests: he was crowned with martyrdom, and with him Eventius the Presbyter and Theodolus the Deacon. He instituted that water of sprinkling with salt be blessed in the dwellings of men.
He performed three ordinations: six Presbyters, two Deacons, five Bishops for various places, in the month of December: he was buried on the Via Nomentana, where he was beheaded, seven miles from the city of Rome, on the fifth day before the Nones of May, and the episcopate was vacant for 37 days. Nearly the same things are read in Anastasius the Librarian, and, what matters most here, Eventius the Presbyter and Theodorus or Theodulus the Deacon are said to have been crowned with martyrdom together with him. We have other very ancient Acts under this title: And in very ancient manuscript Acts: Here begins the passion of Alexander the Bishop and Theodolus. And the beginning of these is as follows: When the most blessed Bishop Alexander was arrested in the city by the tyrant Aurelian. In these Acts there is no mention of S. Eventius, but when S. Alexander was unharmed in a fiery furnace, a certain young man from the crowd, weeping, named Theodulus, cried out saying: A just and great man, a Bishop and Doctor, dies without cause, because he confesses his God. And after other things: I was made a Christian by him in my homeland... Both were sent into the furnace... A voice came from heaven: Behold the heavens are opened; Alexander and Theodolus, come and receive the rest that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world, and immediately their spirits were received. Finally, near the end, the following is found: The most blessed Bishop Alexander and Theodolus the layman suffered martyrdom at the city of Rome on the fifth day before the Nones of May under the Emperor Aurelian, that is, the Judge or Governor. Other Acts were formerly published by Mombritius, and afterward by Surius but with altered style, which we have from various manuscript codices and with roughly this beginning: In the fifth place from Blessed Peter the Apostle, Alexander received (others say held, or sat in) the Chair (others say the governance) of the Church of the City of Rome, a man of incomparable holiness, young indeed in age but senior in faith. In these Acts mention is made of SS. Eventius and Theodolus: and both are generally called Presbyters, but those Acts were noted by Baronius as being sprinkled with errors. As to what bears on our matter, from the ancient Catalogue of the Roman Pontiffs, afterward transcribed by Anastasius the Librarian, it is established that S. Theodolus was considered a Deacon; and in the very ancient manuscript Acts he is set down as the companion of S. Alexander the Bishop without S. Eventius: which plainly agrees with the Martyrologies cited above. From all of which we seem to have been able to refer these two holy Martyrs to the 3rd of May, To be treated more fully on May 3: on which day in the older manuscript codices his companion is called Theodolus, more rarely Theodulus or Theodorus. However, a Translation of the relics of him and S. Alexander, or some other solemnity, may have been celebrated on this day: all of which will need to be examined more carefully on the said 3rd of May.
[3] With these things established, we proceed to the Roman Martyrology: in which at March 17 the following is recited: At Rome, SS. Alexander and Theodore, Martyrs. Baronius adds in the Notes: Of Alexander, Others from these are Nicander and Theodore, Martyrs: otherwise Nicander and Theodore. These have been restored from the old manuscript copy we mentioned. The bodies of Nicander and Theodore, Martyrs, were translated by Pope Sergius the Younger to the title of Equitius, as an old inscription carved in marble placed there testifies. So says Baronius. And first, the old manuscript, on the occasion of which he restored and listed these Martyrs for this day, is the Martyrology of the monastery of S. Cyriacus, in which we said the following is read, and indeed without mention of any other saint: The sixteenth day before the Kalends of April. At Rome: Alexander the Bishop and Theodore, for which, with one letter changed, eight codices of the best quality have Theodolus the Deacon: and many more at the 3rd of May have Theodulus, on which interim day in the genuine Bede and other manuscripts, Theodorus is read. Since Alexander is also designated Bishop in the codex of S. Cyriacus as in the other eight manuscripts, we do not see how he can be considered to be Nicander, whose body is said to have been translated by Sergius to the title of Equitius. Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, on account of this annotation of Baronius, writes the following: Alexander, or as other codices have it, Nicander and Theodore, earned the palm of martyrdom at Rome (although under which Emperors is unknown), whose bodies, together with others, were translated by Pope Sergius II around the year of salvation 846 and rest in the title of Equitius, as a marble inscription indicates. So says Ferrari, by whom those other codices should have been identified: as we have cited above ten, all venerable in antiquity, in which S. Alexander is designated Bishop. This being established, one who is distinguished from other Bishops in the cited inscription cannot be substituted in his place. Listed with others for this day: Ferrari first lists several of the Martyrs named in that inscription in his General Catalogue with these words: At Rome, SS. Martyrs Crescentianus, Sistanus, Pollio, Anthemus, Theodore, and Nicander; and he cites the registers of the Church of S. Martin in Montibus. The antiquity of this Church of SS. Sylvester and Martin de Montibus was published at Rome in the year 1639 by Giovanni Antonio Filippini, Prior of the Carmelite Convent to which the said church belongs, who on page 77 has the cited inscription: in which these Martyrs are expressed thus: Artemius, Sisianus, Pollio, Theodore, Nicander, Crescentianus. But we add the inscription itself.
[4] Inscription of the translation made under Pope Sergius II: In the times of the Lord Sergius the Younger, Pope, there were placed in this holy altar the bodies of Blessed Sylvester and Martin, Pontiffs: likewise the bodies of the most blessed Fabian, Stephen, and Sotheris, Martyrs and Prelates. There are also present the bodies of Asterius and his most holy daughter, as well as the bodies of Saints Cyriacus, Papias, Maurus, Largus, Smaragdus, and their companions: likewise the bodies of Sisinius, Anastasius, and Innocentius, Pontiffs, together with the holy Bishops Quirinus and Leo, and likewise the Martyrs Artemius, Sisianus, Pollio, Theodore, Nicander, and Crescentianus: with whom there were also deposited the bodies of the Blessed Virgins and Martyrs Sotheris, Paulina, Memia, Juliana, Quirilla, Theopistis, and Sophia, as well as the Blessed widow Quiriaca, and the Blessed Justa, with many others of both sexes whose names are known to God alone: whose bodies he placed in the holy altar, dedicating it to them. These bodies of the Saints were translated from the Cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria, and the said Pontiff granted to all who come devoutly to this church of Saints Sylvester and Martin on the feast days of these saints, three years and three quarantines of true indulgence. So it reads there; and if Filippini had added the feast days themselves, that is, the days on which these saints were formerly accustomed to receive their veneration, he would have shed light on our inquiry. We ourselves venerated those relics at Rome in the year 1661 and read the said inscription there, which some consider not very ancient: however, from it one cannot infer that S. Nicander there mentioned is S. Alexander, the Bishop or Pope and Martyr, or that S. Theodore joined with him is Theodolus his Deacon. They also differ in place of burial, because SS. Alexander the Pope and Theodolus had their cemetery on the Via Nomentana, and these bodies are said to have been translated from the Cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria.
[5] Tamayo Salazar brings the final controversy when in his Spanish Martyrology at March 17 he writes the following: At Rome, S. Alexander, Martyr, A body of S. Alexander brought from Rome to Madrid: who completed his struggle with Theodore, and whose body was translated by Pope Sergius the Younger, and afterward brought to Madrid, where it is preserved with due honor in the Convent of S. Bernardino of the Discalced Friars of S. Francis, in the chapel of D. Martin de Cordoba. In the Notes he says that monastery was built in a solitary place by Francisco de Gornica, a counselor in the royal accounts to the Catholic King Philip II, in the year 1572, and that in a corner of this convent D. Martin de Cordoba, General Commissary of the Crusade, Lord and Prior of Junquera, erected a distinguished chapel: in which he placed with honor several bodies of saints brought from Rome. Ægidius Gonzalez Davila in the Theatre of Madrid, book 1, chapter 8, asserts that there are three sacred bodies of SS. Alexander, William, and Eustace, sent by Pope Paul V with various other relics. Hieronymo Quintana, book 3 of the History of Madrid, chapter 113, says that S. Alexander is venerated on March 17, William on February 10, He is venerated there on March 17: Eustace on September 20, and Jocundus on January 9, whose body he also adds is there. It appears that the Discalced Friars of the said convent, without further reflection, adopted the days for their veneration from the Roman Martyrology, as if all saints were enumerated in it. Hence, because Jocundus and William, who suffered at Rome, were missing from it, they took the former as an African Martyr, and the latter as a hermit and founder of their own Order, whose body we have shown at length on the said February 10 to be preserved at Castiglione della Pescaia in Sienese territory, and his head at Antwerp in the church of the Society of Jesus. But Tamayo, fearing greater difficulty regarding S. Eustace, having cited Quintana's History of Madrid at September 20, adds that by the authority of this author he considers himself free from further proof, which he could also have done for this day, Another must be established distinct from S. Alexander and Nicander: omitting the old inscription, in which, since there was no mention of any Alexander, he thrust in the name of Alexander or Nicander. But the sacred relics of the latter are detained there, and were not extracted thence and brought to Madrid, as he writes.
[6] In the same way, the Theatine Fathers of Bologna, in their church dedicated to the Apostle Bartholomew, have the body of S. Theodore the Martyr, received from Pope Paul V, for whose veneration they also chose March 17, Body and relics of S. Theodore the Martyr at Bologna: because on this day S. Theodore the Martyr is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. In the church of S. Gabriel at the Ravenna Gate of the same city, some relics of S. Theodore the Martyr can also be seen: about all of which Anthony Paul Masini treats on this day in his survey of Bologna.
ON THE MARTYRS OF ALEXANDRIA IN THE TEMPLE OF SERAPIS.
YEAR 390.
CommentaryThe Alexandrian Martyrs (SS.)
The reign of the Emperor Theodosius was distinguished by many other things, and especially by the remarkable advances of the Christian religion, with the superstition of profane idols being completely overthrown and eradicated throughout the entire Empire: Under Theodosius idolatry is eradicated: the followers of which in Egypt, devoted to madness by the abominable rites of their ancestral gods, undertook the most desperate measures in a deranged fury on account of Theophilus: who in the ninth year of Theodosius, the year 387 of the Christian Era, had been appointed as successor to Timothy of Alexandria, and, driven by zeal for religion, had dragged the profane mysteries of paganism into public view to be ridiculed, in the third year after his consecration. For they finally broke out into open sedition, seizing arms and perpetrating great slaughter: then, withdrawing into the temple of Serapis, But at Alexandria not without the blood of Christians: from among the Christians they had taken captive and could not drag into communion with their impious rites, they sent many, crowned with glorious martyrdom, to heaven. God, the faithful rewarder of the brave,
has in the book of life the number and names of their combats inscribed: but so that at least their confused memory might be annually recalled, the Roman Church brought this about when she gave them this place in the Roman Martyrology revised by Baronius. Sozomen, a writer close to those times, set forth the matter as it occurred in the following manner, in his Ecclesiastical History, book 7, chapter 15.
The mob, first incited to sedition, killed them: During this time the Bishop of Alexandria transformed the temple of Bacchus which was among them into a church: for he had received it as a gift, having requested it from the Emperor. While the images were being cleaned out, while the inner chambers were being opened, as he eagerly sought to ridicule the mysteries of the Pagans, he was exposing these very things: and Priapi, and whatever else was ridiculous or seemed so in the secret sanctuaries, he brought publicly into view. Then the Pagans, dismayed both by the truth and by the novelty of what had been done, could not endure to remain quiet, but forming a conspiracy among themselves, they attacked the Christians, and killing some and wounding others, they occupied the temple of Serapis. This temple was most illustrious both in beauty and in size, situated on a small hill. From there, therefore, as from a kind of citadel, making sudden raids, they seized many of the Christians, and having applied torments, compelled them to sacrifice: Then they variously killed captives in the temple of Serapis: those who refused to do this, some they crucified, others they dispatched by breaking their legs, and others by other methods. When this sedition had lasted a long time, the authorities came to them, reminded them of the laws, and ordered them to cease from war and to leave the temple of Serapis. At that time Romanus was in command of the military cohorts in Egypt, while Evagrius was Prefect of Alexandria: who indeed, when they accomplished nothing, reported what had happened to the Emperor... The Emperor, They are to be numbered among the martyrs: when these things that had been done were announced to him, declared those Christians who had been killed to be Blessed, as having attained the reward of martyrdom, having risked their lives for their faith: but he ordered that pardon be granted to the killers, so that out of gratitude for the benefit received they might more readily be converted to Christ: and the temples that were in Alexandria, since they were kindling for seditions among the people, he wished to be destroyed. Socrates relates nearly the same things in book 5, chapter 16, and from both of them Nicephorus Callistus in book 12, chapter 25, in whose accounts the title of Martyrdom for those who were killed before the occupation of the temple of Serapis is more doubtful: In comparison with those who were killed first: because these were not voluntary victims for Christ, but were killed while repelling force with force. For when the Gentiles began to rage with indiscriminate slaughter without warning, the Christians also girded themselves for defense: and the fight grew to such an extent that the tumult subsided only when they had had their fill of killing. And in that battle, few of the Gentiles perished, very many of the Christians, and from both sides the wounded were almost innumerable. Repelling force with force: There is no doubt, however, that among those many, the greater part was of unarmed people whom sudden violence overwhelmed; many also, divinely strengthened and illuminated, laid down their lives even joyfully and willingly, and glory in heaven with the true titles of Martyrs. These therefore, joined to those whom not the impulse of boiling wrath removed from their midst, but the deliberate fury of impiety, not yet sated with so much blood, extinguished, the Church commemorates on this day.
About the mysteries of Serapis and the temple that rivaled the Roman Capitol, and its overthrow, whoever wishes to see more things collected from various sources may consult the Annals of Caesar Baronius at the year 389, number 84 and following. We have assigned these events to the following year, Acts more briefly from Theophanes: following the more accurate chronography of Theophanes, who narrated the same events more briefly in these words under the twelfth year of Theodosius: Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, having obtained permission from the Emperor Theodosius, exposed to public ridicule the phallic images of the gentile shrine, and whatever was more profane and obscene; whence the populace of the Gentiles, covered with shame, perpetrated very many murders. When Theodosius heard of these things and was informed of such great slaughters, he decreed that the Christians who had been put to death should be reckoned among the number of the Blessed Martyrs: to the Gentiles, however, if they would transfer themselves to the Christian religion, he offered pardon: and he commanded that the temples be destroyed and the idols melted down and the proceeds distributed to the needs of the poor.