ON SAINTS FORTUNATUS AND JOHN, MARTYRS IN AFRICA.
21 MARCH.
CommentaryFortunatus, Martyr in Africa (S.)
John, Martyr in Africa (S.)
[1] Among the illustrious and very ancient Martyrologies which we transcribed at Rome in the year 1661, we found two in the library of the Most Eminent Cardinal Francis Barberini. The first of these, headless, begins from the Ides of March, written in the monastery of Agaunum, as we gather from the day of September 22. To this another was prefixed, which extends from the month of January to the Nones of May. In this Martyrology, compiled for use by the Cluniac or Jouarre monastery, where the relics of Saint Paul the First Hermit are honored, at the day of the twelfth before the Kalends of April the following is read: On Mount Cassino, of Saint Benedict the Abbot. In Africa, of Saints Fortunatus and John. We suspect that their bodies were translated from Africa to Gaul, and perhaps to that monastery to which the Martyrology belonged. We have given on the twelfth of March a John with forty-four unnamed companions: whom we said were ascribed to Africa in the more ancient Martyrologies. We have also given Fortunatus Martyrs in Africa on the ninth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and twenty-seventh of January. But nowhere joined to John: therefore we present these to the reader as we found them.