ON THE HOLY MARTYRS PHOTINA, JOSEPH AND VICTOR HER SONS; SEBASTIAN THE COMMANDER, ANATOLIUS, PHOTIUS OR PHOTOO, PHOTIS, PARASCEVE, AND CYRIACA, SISTERS OF PHOTINA.
UNDER TRAJAN.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Photina, Martyr (Saint)
Joseph, Son, Martyr (Saint)
Victor, Son, Martyr (Saint)
Sebastian the Commander, Martyr (Saint)
Anatolius, Martyr (Saint)
Photius or Photoo, Martyr (Saint)
Photis, Martyr (Saint)
Parasceve, Martyr (Saint)
Cyriaca, Martyr (Saint)
[1] Various things are read concerning these Saints among the Greeks, many of which are difficult to render universally credible. From these, selections have been made which are recorded in the Roman Martyrology under the entry for March 20 in these words: "On the same day, the Saints Photina the Samaritan woman, Joseph and Victor her sons, likewise Sebastian the Commander, Sacred veneration in the Roman Martyrology Anatolius, Photius, Photis, Parasceve, and Cyriaca, her sisters, who all, having confessed Christ, attained martyrdom." Concerning Photina, Baronius notes that the Greeks also treat of her in the Menologion, and that she is held to have been the same Samaritan woman of whom the Gospel of John speaks in chapter 4. Likewise, that she is also treated of in the ancient Cassinese Martyrology, the Cassinese and is affirmed to have been the same woman. The words of the Menologion as translated by Sirletus are these: "On the same day, the contest of the holy Martyr Photina the Samaritan woman (with whom Christ the Lord spoke at the well) and of Joseph and Victor her sons, the Greek Menologion of Sirletus as well as Sebastian the Commander, Anatolius, Photius, Photis, Parasceve, and Cyriaca, her sisters -- who all, having confessed the faith of Christ, attained the palm of martyrdom."
[2] There is another manuscript Menologion of the Greeks, composed by order of the Emperor Basil the Younger of Constantinople before the year 984, of the Emperor Basil in which these things are found: "And the contest of Saint Photina the Samaritan woman and her companions. Saint Photina the Samaritan woman, whom the Lord addressed at the well, lived in the times of Nero. After the martyrdom of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, she was in Carthage, a city of Africa, with her son Joses, preaching Christ. But her son Victor, having fought valiantly against the Avars, was made Prefect of the military, and received a mandate to kill all the Christians in Galilee. When he did not kill them but rather taught all of them the things pertaining to the Christian law, and persuaded Sebastian to believe in Christ, he was arrested and led away in chains with others and brought before the Emperor. The Emperor gouged out the eyes of some, cast others into prison, and hung others upon a wooden frame; he either flayed the skin of some or amputated their genitals. Photis he bound to two trees bent down, and releasing them tore her apart through the middle. The rest were finally beheaded; but Photina ended her life in prison."
[3] Another eulogy of these Martyrs is found in the manuscript Greek Synaxarion of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus at Paris, and in a manuscript Synaxarion which it is fitting to add to other encomia given from the Menologia. It reads thus: "On the same day, the contest of Saint Photina the Samaritan woman (with whom the Lord spoke at the well) and her companions -- Joses and Victor her sons, Sebastian the Commander, and Anatolius, and her sisters Photoo, Photis, Parasceve, and Cyriaca. She lived in the times of Nero, and after the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul was preaching Christ with her son Joses in Carthage, a city of Africa. But her son Victor, having fought valiantly against the Avars, was made Prefect of the military and received a mandate to kill all the Christians in Gaul. When he did not kill them but rather taught them to come to Christ, and thus brought many to the faith, and among these also brought the Commander Sebastian to embrace the faith of Christ, he was arrested and led away in chains with the rest and brought before the Emperor. The Emperor afflicted them with various torments, extracted the eyes of some, cast others into a prison full of venomous serpents -- to whom Christ the Lord appeared with Saints Peter and Paul and greatly comforted them. After three years, he brought them out, hung them head downward upon a frame, and burned them; then the executioners flayed the skin of all and amputated the men's genitals and cast them to the dogs. Holy Photis they flayed and bound to two trees bent down, which, when released, tore her into two parts. All the rest, however, were slain by the sword. But Saint Photina, having remained a long time in prison, gave thanks to God and fell asleep in peace."
[4] So much for that passage, which seems to us much more probable than what is found in the Greek Menaia and in the Martyrology of Tamayo Salazar, Saint Photius is for others Photoo, a woman as we shall presently say. Meanwhile, one controversy arises concerning Photius the man, who is celebrated in the Menologion of Sirletus and thence in the Roman Martyrology, in whose place Saint Photina's sister Photoo appears in the Synaxarion cited, or Photo in the Menaia and in Tamayo's narrative. Another controversy concerns the military prefecture entrusted by Nero to Saint Victor. He had been a vigorous soldier against the Avars, who are indicated to have been peoples of Scythia in Tamayo. Certainly, it is read in Theophanes's Chronography, page 81, that the Avars lived beyond the Danube, in these words: "At that time the Goths and very many numerous peoples were dwelling beyond the Danube in the Hyperborean regions, among whom the principal ones are four in all: Saint Victor fought against the Avars the Goths, Visigoths, Gepids, and Vandals ... These, during the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, having crossed the Danube, established their seat in the territory of Roman power. The Gepids indeed, from whom the Lombards and Avars were eventually divided, occupied the places around Singidunum and --"
Sirmium, they occupied the places situated there. After the victory obtained over these enemies, that Saint Victor was appointed Prefect of the military in Galilee prefect of the military in Galilee is clearly indicated in the Menologion of the Emperor Basil -- a province which Vespasian, sent by Nero, then completely subjugated when it was in rebellion. But in place of Galilee, "in Gaul" is substituted through a certain contraction of letters in the cited Greek Synaxarion. The Menaia dissent more, in which Italy is read repeatedly: "He is sent by the Emperor as Prefect of the military to Italy"; then "Victor, the Prefect of the military of Italy, and Sebastian, the Commander of the city, or, according to others, Italy proclaim the preaching of Peter the Apostle." Afterwards Nero is said to have sent soldiers through Italy (in Greek, "en Italia" or, as Maximus Cytheraeus prints, "eis ten Italian") to capture them; which being done, the attendants told the Emperor that they had arrived "from Italy." These same readings are found everywhere in Cytheraeus, and indeed under February 26, on which day the commemoration of these Martyrs is inscribed in those Menaia.
[5] This same history, as it is read in the Menaia with various changes here and there, was received at Constantinople from Jeremiah, Patriarch of that city, or Italica by the Ambassador of the Emperor Rudolf in the year 1580, and sent to Adam von Dietrichstein, Prefect of the Imperial household, who, having had it translated from Greek into Latin, presented it to John de Borgia, brother of the Duke of Gandia, Philip II's Ambassador to the Emperor. From him Melchior de Castro received it, translated it into the Spanish tongue, and published it at Alcala in the year 1607 together with a history of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and her excellences. But the Latin history itself was inserted by Tamayo Salazar into his Spanish Martyrology under this March 20, in which Saint Victor is said to have been appointed by the Emperor as Prefect of the military "at the city of Italica" -- which in the Spanish version is read without mention of the city. Then in chapter 2, Victor is again called Prefect of the city of Italica, and Sebastian the Commander of the same city, where again the first name of the city is suppressed in the Spanish. The Emperor then decreed that the Prefect, the Commander, and all the inhabitants of the city of Italica be brought to Rome -- where the Spanish reads that the Emperor sent soldiers to Italica. The soldiers afterwards inform the Emperor how Sebastian, the Commander of Italica, and Victor its Prefect were now in custody, who in the Spanish are said to have come from Italica. Behold four places in which the Menaia have "Italy," while Castro in his Spanish translation has "Italica." Tamayo has "the city of Italica" three times, as also at the end of the first chapter, where the citizens of the city of Italica are said to have given their names to Christ; in the Menaia only "the crowds" appear, and in the Spanish they are rightly called "some of the people," with no mention made of Italy or Italica. Whence we conclude that many things have been interpolated into Tamayo's Latin account, and that far more faithful than his is the translation cited by Francis Bivarius in his Commentary on the Chronicle of Dexter, page 117, where Victor is sent to Italica and is called Commander of the army of Italica, and the pagan inhabitants of Italica are baptized.
[6] and that a city of Baetica? Meanwhile, Bivarius contends that Italica, a city of Baetica not far from Seville, is meant here. To gain more certain credence, in the Adversaria published in the year 1628 under the name of Julian Peter, these words are found inserted at number 188: "Sebastian, whom Victor converted, became a Christian at Italica in Baetica, and after his martyrdom suffered with others on February 8." And at number 391: "Victor, surnamed Photinus, Commander of Italica, a city of Hispanic Baetica, son of the Samaritan woman called Photina ... near Bracara destroyed rebellious peoples against the Emperor Claudius: there he converted a young soldier named Victor to the faith, who not long after the death of Victor Photinus, while still a catechumen, suffered for the faith of Christ on April 12." So far that text. But since Victor the Catechumen is said by the Spaniards themselves to have suffered in the persecution of Diocletian, two hundred and forty years after the times of Nero, these things have been wrongly conjoined by an unskilled person. Perhaps excusable to some in that, having expunged Nero, he substituted the Emperor Claudius -- and understood the second of that name, who perished by plague in the year 270. But on such grounds anything can be invented. Again, in all the Acts, Victor is said to have fought valiantly against the Avars, whom Pseudo-Julian places as peoples near Bracara, perhaps prompted by the fact that Ptolemy, book 2, chapter 6, locates the Promontory of the Avars in that same region. But the Avars were peoples of Scythia, as the Acts themselves state in Bivarius, Castro, and Tamayo: Saints Victor and Sebastian inscribed in the Spanish Martyrology who meanwhile adorns these Saints Victor and Sebastian with this eulogy in his Spanish Martyrology: "At Rome, the holy Martyrs Victor, Commander of the city of Italica in Spain, and Sebastian, a citizen and soldier of that city: who, when from the same city where they gave their names to Christ they were brought to Rome in iron chains on account of their confession of him, were crowned there with martyrdom and received the eternal laurel of combat." So Tamayo; before whom Anthony de Quintaduenas, in his book on the Saints of the city and diocese of Seville, ascribed the said Victor and Sebastian to the city of Italica and from page 220 describes the Acts of their martyrdom at length.
[7] The foundation of the entire assertion is taken from Acts that are plainly corrupt Are the Greek Acts corrupt? and received from a schismatic Patriarch at Constantinople -- over which the Menologion of the Emperor Basil plainly prevails, in which the prefecture is said to have been entrusted to Saint Victor by Nero not in Italy or Italica but in Galilee, whence by contraction "in Gaul" is read in the manuscript Synaxarion, also an ancient one. We had determined to publish the fuller Acts from the Greek Menaia, but we judged them to be omitted as we examined each detail, suspecting that they were thrust in by later Greeks in place of the ordinary abridgment, such as the one we have given from the said Menologion of Basil or certainly from the Parisian Synaxarion -- chiefly because the rest of the ecclesiastical Office in the Odes and Canticles celebrates among the Greeks on that February 26 Saint Procopius, Bishop of Gaza, not Saint Photina and her remaining companions. If anything in that history, as it is found in the Menaia, could be pleasing, it would be the silence -- that Saint Photina is not called the woman with whom Christ spoke at the well; indeed she is not even surnamed "the Samaritan," although this is done in the prefixed couplet. And certainly the Samaritan woman of the Gospel had had five husbands and was already at that time of somewhat mature age; meanwhile, from Christ's conversation with her until the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul, thirty-six years had elapsed, so that it does not seem that she, by then an old woman, would have been so well suited to announcing the faith of Christ to the Carthaginians far from her homeland. But how did the Emperor Nero, supremely angered against Christians and indeed against these very Martyrs, order the old woman Photina with her five sisters (as the Menaia report) to be led into his golden chamber, and seven golden chairs with a table to be set out, and his daughter Domnina with a hundred handmaids to enter with them and converse and dwell with them, and also a great quantity of gold to be brought, was the daughter of Trajan converted with 100 handmaids? golden ornaments, and golden feminine adornments? These are embellished with other circumstances in Tamayo. Both versions of the Acts agree in this, that Domnina with her handmaids was soon converted to the faith of Christ, baptized by Saint Photina, and called Anthusa. We have examined the various Acts and memorials of both Domnina and Anthusa in the sacred calendars, but nowhere have we found any trace of this daughter of Nero. Of those who are here given as five sisters of Photina, only three are established in the Menologion of Sirletus and the Roman Martyrology, for Anatolius, Anatolia is also read and four, as we have said, in the manuscript Synaxarion, in all of which Anatolius appears, who in the Menaia is called Anatole, and in Tamayo, Anatolia -- whose memory is not honored in the Menaia with any couplet.
[8] Among the sacred relics which the above-mentioned John Borgia received from the Emperor Rudolf II Relics of Saint Photina at Lisbon and transferred in the year 1587 to Lisbon and donated to the Professed House of the Society of Jesus, there were some of Saint Photina, which were carried in solemn procession in the sixth and eighth biers, as we have indicated under January 25 among those passed over and deferred to other days. The venerable head of Saint Photina is also said to be preserved at Rome at Saint Paul's by the Cassinese monks, as Baronius states in his notes to the Roman Martyrology, and Octavius Pancirolus in his Hidden Treasure of the City, region 2, church 14. and at Rome At Bologna, however, particles of the well at which Christ conversed with the Samaritan woman of the well, at Bologna are preserved with some veneration in the churches of Saint John on the Mount and of Saint Isaiah, as Masini observes for this day in his survey of Bologna.