ON SAINTS MARY, APRILIS, SERVULUS, AND TWENTY-THREE COMPANIONS, MARTYRS AT NICOMEDIA.
CommentaryMary, Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saint)
Aprilis, Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saint)
Servulus, Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saint)
Twenty-Three Companions, Martyrs at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saints)
The second band of Martyrs in the Martyrology of Saint Jerome is as follows in our manuscript codex: At Nicomedia, of Mary, Aprilis, Servulus, and twenty-three soldiers. In the Corbie manuscript printed at Paris, after the Alexandrian Martyrs, as we noted there, was added: Of Mary with her companions. At Nicomedia, of Aprilis, Servulus. In the Blumian manuscript: Of Mary. At Nicomedia, of Aprilis, Selvolus. In the same manner, but without mention of Mary, it is read in the Lucca codex: In the Tamlaght manuscript, the name of Mary is mixed in with the others: but the names Aprilis, Servulus, and twenty soldiers are joined together. Rabanus and Notker have this: At Nicomedia, of Aprilis and Servulus. In the printed Bede one reads Cervulus: the rest is the same. But on March 17 these things are found in the manuscript codex of the Carmelites of Cologne and in the Martyrology printed at Cologne in 1490, likewise in Grevenus in his Additions to Usuard: At Nicomedia, of the holy Martyrs Apurilis, or Aprilis, and Servulus. In Maurolycus and Felicius the last is called Servilius. The Trier manuscript of Saint Martin has this concerning the companions: At Nicomedia, of twenty-three Soldier-Martyrs. The Labbé manuscript: Of Sebiolus with twenty-four others, where Sebiolus is read for Servulus, who is the only one in the Reichenau Martyrology. The Utrecht manuscript has this: At Nicomedia, twenty-three thousand Martyrs, where perhaps it should be read "of twenty-three soldiers" as Martyrs: as everything similar in the Martyrologies is commonly read in the genitive case. Galesinius combines several with these words: At Nicomedia, of the Blessed Martyrs Aprilis, Cervulus (who pertain to this entry), Trophimus, Eucarpion, who endured ten thousand deaths for the faith of Christ: concerning whom we have treated above from the Greek Menaea.