ON THE HOLY THIEF CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST AT JERUSALEM.
CommentaryThe Thief crucified with Christ at Jerusalem (S.)
The Tables of today's Roman Martyrology relate the following: "At Jerusalem, the commemoration of the Holy Thief, Memorial in the sacred fasti who, confessing Christ on the cross, merited to hear from him: 'Today you shall be with me in Paradise.'" In the manuscript Florarium the memorial of the good thief is also recalled: and the poem about Christ crucified and various figures prefiguring him concludes thus:
"The Thief receives a sweet 'Amen' through Christ."
To this poem, related in the manuscript Martyrology of Usuard which once belonged to Nicolaus Scheich of Hagenau, these words are added: "The thief who is crucified with Christ, where he confesses Christ as true God and asks for and obtains pardon, and with his legs broken, gave up his spirit on the cross to the Savior." Baronius in his Notes adds that most call him Dismas, chapels erected, and that under the name of Saint Dismas the thief, some chapels have been dedicated and memorials erected, but because this comes from apocryphal sources, for this reason the proper name has here been deliberately omitted. Peter de Natalibus, book 3 of his Catalogue, chapter 228, citing the Gospel of Nicodemus concerning Saint Dismas the Confessor, compiles many things which we also omit as fabulous, although in the ancient Breviary of Quimper all of them had formerly been distributed into nine Lessons to be recited on March 26, on which day the memorial of Dismas the thief, to whom the Savior on the cross promised Paradise, is inserted in the Martyrology of Maurolycus. The Greeks in their Menaia celebrate on March 23 the memorial of the pious thief crucified with Christ. In the additions
of Greuen to Usuard, reprinted in the year 1521, among the Greeks venerated on March 23. these words are inserted at May 5: "On that day in most Churches the Office is observed of the good thief, who, crucified with Christ, entered Paradise with him." Molanus in the first edition of his Supplement to Usuard asserts that at Bruges the Office is observed of the good Thief crucified with Christ. elsewhere on May 5. Hence Molanus says that at Bruges and in most Churches this Office is observed, as Canisius relates in his German Martyrology: of which, however, no trace is found at the said May 5 in the Breviary of Bruges, Saint Donatian's, which we have, printed in the year 1520. Masini, in his survey of Bologna, asserts that Saint Dismas the good thief is held in veneration in the church of Saints Vitalis and Agricola, relics at Bologna. where some portion of his cross is preserved, and in the church of Saint Stephen other relics of his are believed to exist. Saint Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza, as is read in his Life illustrated on February 26, number 7, the miracle of Saint Porphyry healed. was freed from a grave illness by Christ appearing to him in ecstasy, crucified with the good thief, to whom he said: "Descend from the cross, and save this one who lies ill, as you yourself were saved." The thief, descending from the cross, embraced him and kissed him, and extending his right hand made him rise, saying, "Come to the Savior," and having done this, he was healed. These things are narrated at greater length there by Mark, the disciple of Saint Porphyry.