CONCERNING THE HOLY MARTYRS QUADRATUS THE BISHOP, THEODOSIUS, EMMANUEL, SABINUS, AND FORTY OTHERS, IN THE EAST.
CommentaryQuadratus, Bishop, Martyr in the East (St.)
Theodosius, Martyr in the East (St.)
Emmanuel, Martyr in the East (St.)
Sabinus, Martyr in the East (St.)
Forty Others, Martyrs in the East (SS.)
[1] By the name of the East, Syria often comes to mind among the Greeks, and whatever regions beyond it are subject to the Bishopric of Antioch to the furthest Scythians and Indians: They seem to have suffered in Asia Minor but there is also another usage of this word more familiar to the Church of Constantinople, by which Asia Minor is understood, and this continues to the present day, when they say Natolia as if Anatolia by aphesis of the first vowel ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνατολῆς: just as conversely they call Achaia and the Peloponnese τὰ ἑσπερία, the western parts: as we observed in the Life of St. Luke the Younger on February 7. This is established from the Life of St. Nicholas the Studite given on February 4, where in number 45 a certain Achillas is said to have been made Archbishop of Nacolia in the parts of the East ἐν τοῖς τῆς ἀνατολῆς μέρεσιν: and when we read that these Martyrs were ἐκ τῆς τῶν ανατολικῶν χώρὰς, from the region of the Easterns, we are the more inclined to ascribe them to Asia Minor, where the Bishopric of Nacolia is known to have been subject to the Metropolitan of Synnada; because Latin names, such as Quadratus and Sabinus, were more frequent around Romania than in greater Asia and regions more remote from the imperial city.
[2] The Greek Menaia printed at Venice, which present this sacred choir of Martyrs augmented to the number of forty, Quadratus the Bishop, as well as the Greek Menologium from the Sirleti translation published by Canisius and cited by Cardinal Baronius in his notes to the Roman Martyrology, make Quadratus or Codratus the leader of the whole company, and sing this couplet to him:
Κοδράτε θαυμάζω σε τῆς ἐυανδρίας, Πῶς ὑπτιάζων ἀνδρικῶς σφάττῃ μάλα.
I admire the courage of your soul, Quadratus; How valiantly you are slain while lying on your back.
whose eulogy is given from a manuscript. We give him the title of Bishop from the Menologium of the Emperor Basil, which we found in the monastery of Grottaferrata with this eulogy: The holy Martyr Codratus, being a Bishop, was driven from the city to which he had been ordained by the idol-worshippers, and ordered no longer to teach in the name of Christ, if he wished to keep his life safe; he not only did not desist from doing so, but going around the whole city, he baptized as many catechumens as he found; and those held in prisons, both pagans and Christians, he visited: encouraging the latter to persevere in the faith of Christ, but inducing the former to abandon the worship of idols. For thus he spoke to them: Since you are to die through those who have shut you up in this prison: come, endure death for Christ, that you may become sharers of his blessings. When these things became known to the idol-worshippers, and he had been seized by them, after many punishments and vexations he was struck with the sword, and thus having completed his course, he departed to Christ.
[3] Theodosius, To two others also their own individual couplets are fitted, both in the printed Menaia and in the Chifflet manuscript, agreeing with the printed versions in everything, except in the title, in which there is no mention of the forty companions. Of Theodosius therefore it is thus sung:
Θεοδόσιος ἑνὶ τῷ θεῷ ζῶν καὶ μόνῳ, Ζωὴν δι᾽αυτὸν ἐκ ξίφους καταςρέφει.
Theodosius, as he had lived for one and only God, So for his sake he ends his life by the sword.
And to Emmanuel, who in the Chifflet and all other manuscripts presently to be cited is Manuel, these verses are fitted: and Emmanuel, slain by the sword
Ξιφει χεθήτω κἄνγε κοτύλυ, φησί μοι, Εμμανουὴλ πέφυκεν ἅιματος μία.
To the first verse, to complete it, we added the particle γε missing in the printed editions: and the voice of the generous Martyr, whose blood was perhaps exhausted by preceding torments, offering even the last drop, we have expressed in Latin verses thus:
Let him be slain by the sword: though I have, he says, Only one cup of blood remaining, Emmanuel declares.
[4] But who says these things? All the remaining forty companions of the glorious contest, of course, with forty others about whom together all the codices, both printed and manuscript, of our Paris Claromontani College and another of the Dominican Fathers of strict observance in the same place, as well as the Milan codex marked T, 1364, and the Turin and Chifflet codices, and the one cited above in the monastery of Grottaferrata, but at March 27, which all the others concordantly assign to this day, the 26th, have these words: for whom there is a common eulogy These were from the region of the Easterns; and seeing Christians slaughtered daily by the idol-worshippers, having made a compact among themselves, they resolved to act boldly and die for Christ. And so of their own accord they go to the Governor of the province, and present themselves to him, who was at that time conducting investigations against Christians and putting many of them to the ultimate punishment, boldly preaching Christ and confessing themselves to be Christians. By their fortitude of soul they not only brought all the bystanders into great amazement, but also struck the Governor himself with no small consternation. Nevertheless he ordered them to be seized and given into custody, and bringing them out after some days, he urged them to renounce Christ and sacrifice to idols. But when they would not allow themselves to be persuaded to anything of the sort, he tortured them with many torments, and hanging them naked from a beam, and ordering their sides to be scraped, and then commanding them to be stretched out on sharp thorns, at the last he ordered them to be beheaded.
[5] Thus far the Menologium of Basil Porphyrogennitus, consonant with the printed editions and other manuscripts, in three manuscripts Sabinus is added. except in the day, and also in this, that it relates these things only of Manuel and Theodosius: which in the printed Menaia and the Chifflet manuscript are commonly found also about Quadratus: but in the Claromontani, Dominican, and Milan manuscripts, Sabinus is added in the title to both, and they are expressed in this order: The contest of the holy Manuel, Sabinus, Quadratus, and Theodosius, except that in the last, in the manuscript of the aforesaid Dominican Fathers, Theodosia is read instead. The remaining matters concerning the time, author, and place of martyrdom lie hidden in obscurity.
[6] In the Menologium published among the ancient readings of Canisius, these are found: Also of the Holy Martyrs Quadratus, Theodosius, Emmanuel, and forty others, who suffered in the East. memorial in the Menologium The same words, omitting the final phrase, Baronius transcribed into the Roman Martyrology. Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, on this day ἐν βίοις ἁγίων has the same with a eulogy taken from the Menaia, and translated into the modern
Greek language. That this St. Quadratus praised here is different from the one whose relics in his church of St. Paul the Barnabite Fathers at Bologna today expose for public veneration of the faithful, as Antonio Paolo Masini reports, no one will doubt who believes those relics were recently brought from Rome.