ON THE HOLY MARTYRS THEODORE AND LEONTIUS, BISHOPS; GAIUS, CATULINUS, FLORENTIUS, VONECTA.
CommentaryTheodore, Bishop and Martyr (Saint). Leontius, Bishop and Martyr (Saint). Gaius, Martyr (Saint). Catulinus, Martyr (Saint). Florentius, Martyr (Saint). Vonecta, Martyr (Saint).
[1] After the entries for Saint Theodore the Presbyter of Caesarea in Cappadocia and the various African Martyrs, treated above, the following was appended in the Martyrology of Saint Jerome printed at Paris: "Of Theodore the Bishop, Gagus, Gadulinus, and the burial of Saint Leontius the Bishop, Sorentus, Quintus, Quintilus, Quartilla, These Martyrs inscribed in the calendar, Marcus with nine others, Florentius, and Vonocta." The same, but with the name Gagus omitted, is found in the Lucensian codex and another in our possession. In the latter, before Marcus, "Saint Gregory" is interposed, and in both "Catulinus" and "Quartillus" are read, where above we had "Gadulinus" and "Quartilla," just as "Vonecta" in place of "Vonocta." Where these suffered is not entirely clear. The words "In Africa" are not interposed, yet they are placed after the African Martyrs in the said three codices, so that they could be reckoned as having been killed in Africa, but either in other cities or in different persecutions. Did they suffer in Africa? But on the authority of Usuard, Ado, Notker, Bellinus, Maurolycus, and the Roman Martyrology, to which the printed Bede and some manuscripts are added, we have set apart Quintus, Quintillus, Quartillus, and Marcus with nine others, who are reported to have been crowned by martyrdom at Sorrento in Italy and are honored in their own church there. Some of the Sorrento group separated from them. Of these we have already treated, and we inquired whether Saint Leontius could be called Bishop of Sorrento and joined to them -- which we did not dare to do, just as we did not dare to assign the rest to Africa, even though they are placed with the African Martyrs in various Martyrologies, because we also said above that Marcus with nine others is appended to them. In the Tamlacht manuscript, Theodore, Florentius, and Vonecta are referred to this day; on the following day, again Theodore, Gregory, Catalinus, and Leotinus (who is Leontius), as the other Theodore listed above is the Presbyter. Gagus alone, perhaps Gaius, is in a single codex; Gregory in two; Catulinus or Gadulinus and Vonecta or Vonocta in the four mentioned. But Florentius is moreover in the Augsburg, Labbe, and Aachen manuscripts, in which he is written as "Lorentius," whom we said above is numbered among the Sorrento Martyrs by Galesin.
[2] Two Bishops, Theodore and Leontius, are reported and are recorded in very many Martyrologies. Theodore is established in some as Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Are the Bishops Theodore and Leontius African? but through an error, not sufficiently distinguished from Saint Theodore the Presbyter whom we listed above as having been crowned by martyrdom there. Ferrarius in his General Catalogue establishes Saint Theodore as Bishop of Heraclea, citing the Greek Menologion, in which I do not find him. Thomas Dempster in his Scottish Menologion assigns to his own nation Blessed Theodore the Archbishop, relying on the authority of Molanus, who reports only Theodore the Presbyter and Martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia. We believe him rather to have been an African Bishop, along with Gagus and Catulinus as his companions; and thus we said that he and Saint Leontius are joined with the African Apollonius. The Tournai manuscript has: "In Africa, the burial of Saint Leo the Bishop and Confessor, and Saint Quintus. On the same day, the birthday of Theodore the Bishop." In the Cologne Carmelite manuscript, they are thus joined: "On the same day, of the holy Bishops Theodore and Leontius, and Blessed Apollonius the Confessor" -- of which we treated above, where we deemed him to be separated from Leontius, unless he is here with him assigned to Africa, just as the Vatican, Pleschion, Cassinese, and Altempsi manuscripts join this one to the African Lucillus and Bassus; and the Augsburg and Labbe manuscripts to Bassus and Basilia; and the Naples manuscript of the Clerks Regular to Bassus alone -- which was more fully discussed above under the African Martyrs. In the manuscript Florarium, Saint Theodore is called Bishop of Antioch, which we have not read elsewhere.
[3] Peter de Natalibus, book 2 of the Catalogue, chapter 130, number 92, writes thus: "Leontius, Bishop of Apollonia, Leontius assigned to Apollonia: fell asleep in Christ on the same day, the fourteenth before the Calends of April." And Galesin: "At Apollonia, of Saint Leontius the Bishop, a man distinguished both for sanctity and for his teaching of the Gospel." Of the city of Apollonia and its Bishop Saint Nicetas, we shall treat on the following day. But because the old Roman Martyrology is cited by Galesin in his Notes, it is gathered from what was said above that these things were not written with sufficient care. In the manuscript Florarium of the Saints, another See is assigned with these words: "On the same day, of Apollonius and Leoncius, Bishop of the city of Sens. of Sens." Among the Bishops of Sens there flourished Saint Leo, called by some Leonius, who in the sixth century of Christ subscribed to the Third Council of Orleans, assigned to the Roman Martyrology on April 22.
[4] Ferrarius claims the same Leontius for Vicenza in his Catalogue on this day with these words: "At Vicenza, of Saint Leontius, Bishop and Confessor," at Vicenza, and notes, from the Tables of the Church of Vicenza, which honors him on this day and acknowledges him as its own Bishop, which John de Nigra-valle, Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, also testifies in epilogue 13 of his Chronicle, chapter 18. "He seems to be the same as the Leontius of whom the Roman Martyrology makes mention on this very day together with Apollonius, although Baronius in his Notes on the same Martyrology writes that it is not known of what place he was Bishop." So he says. Ferdinand Ughelli, in volume 5 of his Sacred Italy, with the nobleman and universally learned Aloysius Trissino, Archdeacon of the Cathedral, providing the monuments of this Church, and aided by Vatican documents and other writers, lists among the Bishops of Vicenza Saint Leontius, Bishop and Martyr, in the year 141, whom the Vicentines honor on November 16 and whose body was translated by Saint Theodoric to Metz in Lorraine in the year 963, as we shall say on that day. Afterward, in the same Ughelli, Saint Apollonius is established among the Bishops in the year 389, of whom, he says, the Roman Martyrology speaks on March 19; yet it is not expressed of which city he was Bishop; in the Vicentine tables he is listed as a Bishop of Vicenza. Others after him also list Saint Leontius, of whom the Roman Martyrology speaks on the same day, March 19. Francis Barbaranus, in book 1 of his Ecclesiastical History of Vicenza, treats of these, and in chapter 19, of Saint Leontius, Bishop and Martyr, killed in the year 167 under Marcus Aurelius. Then in chapter 54, he treats briefly of Saint Apollonius the Bishop, whom he asserts died in the year 421, together with Saint Apollonius, and in chapter 55 adds Saint Leontius II, who died in the year 580, and endeavors to prove that the same were inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. But we have sufficiently shown that they themselves are inscribed in the ancient codices of the Martyrology of Saint Jerome and necessarily lived in the first four centuries of Christ. Then Ughelli does not dare to insert Leontius II into the Catalogue, but names Apollonius as the fifth and substitutes Henry as the sixth, merely indicating the conjecture of others about Leontius II. But even granting that the said Leontius II existed, more solid arguments of ancient veneration would need to be adduced, to which we would then most willingly subscribe, as also to the claims of Braga in Portugal; since nothing in this our labor do we seek except to promote the veneration of the Saints, but with due authority.
[5] Because, then, the said Leontius and Apollonius, on account of the quoted words of Baronius, seemed like abandoned goods that could be attributed to any Church, Both are reported as Bishops of Braga in the Chronicles of Julian and Maximus. they have also been inscribed in the Hispanic Martyrology of Tamayo de Salazar (for other Saints were lacking on this day), and proof is adduced from the double Chronicle recently published under the names of Julian Petrus and Marcus Maximus. In the former Chronicle, chapter 151, the following is read: "Saint Leontius, Pontiff of Braga, returning from the Council, dies at Guimaraes in Gallaecia, which was then called Apollonia, on March 19." Why not adduce the said Apollonia of Vicenza, or the city of Sens? Thus they would be safe and secure against all challengers, who had known only Equilinus and Galesin to oppose them for Apollonia. The year of Christ assigned is 326, of the Hispanic Era 364, and in the preceding year he had indicated that Leontius of Braga had attended the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea; and likewise the Roman Synod after the baptism of Constantine the Great, with the year of Christ 323 and the Hispanic Era 361 affixed. But the Acts of Pope Saint Silvester and the Law concerning the Jews in the Theodosian Code, under the Consuls Constantine and Licinius, that is, in the year of Christ 315, date the Roman Synod. But at number 143 it is reported that Leontius, a Constantinopolitan philosopher, succeeded Sinagius as Pontiff of Braga in the year of Christ 306, just as in the See of Toledo Marinus or Camerinus, and in that of Tarragona, Benedict, to whom Saint Melchiades, Roman Pope, wrote in the year 314. That letter is addressed to Marinus, Benedict, and Leontius with the other Bishops of Spain and those established in those parts, with no See of anyone indicated. Again in the same Chronicle, at number 163, it reads: "Apollonius succeeds Leontius in the See of Braga, and also Idatius in the Line," and they are placed between the years of Christ 354 and 359. Of both, in the Chronicle of Maximus, the following is read at the year 460, number 7: "Apollonius and Leontius, most holy Pontiffs, flourish in Spain." These things concerning Saints Apollonius and Leontius, Bishops, who are commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology, are explained by Francis Bivarius and Rodrigo Caro, who assert from the Chronicle of Julian that they were Bishops of Braga. But how could Leontius, who died in 326, be flourishing in 460? George Cardoso inscribes them in his Lusitanian Hagiology on this day and adds that in the reformed Breviary of Braga the feast of Saint Leontius under the rite of a double Office began to be celebrated on March 22 (for the three preceding days were impeded) -- which was not yet done in the year 1617, when we have the printed order for the Offices of the Saints of Braga, arranged by Thomas Alvarez, Royal Chaplain, without any mention of Leontius.