CONCERNING SAINTS PHILETUS, LYDIA, MACEDO, THEOPREPIUS, CRONIDES, AND AMPHILOCHIUS, MARTYRS IN ILLYRICUM
UNDER HADRIAN
CommentaryPhiletus, Senator and Martyr, in Illyricum (Saint)
Lydia, his wife, Martyr, in Illyricum (Saint)
Macedo, his son, Martyr, in Illyricum (Saint)
Theoprepius, his son, Martyr, in Illyricum (Saint)
Cronides, Keeper of the Prison Records, Martyr, in Illyricum (Saint)
Amphilochius, Military Commander, Martyr, in Illyricum (Saint)
[1] Hadrian, who succeeded Trajan in the administration of the Roman Empire, following the same course in persecuting Christians, and accustomed by continual journeys to travel through the provinces subject to his rule, Entered in the Greek calendars on the 27th as we learn from Spartian, scattered everywhere examples of his cruelty and made many Martyrs for Christ: among whom were those we have just listed, who are named in all the Greek calendars, both printed and manuscript: and indeed in the printed Menaia and in the Menologion, both the one which Sirletus rendered into Latin and the one which Basil Porphyrogenitus ordered to be compiled, which we received from the manuscript of Grottaferrata, and likewise in the Chifflet manuscript Synaxarion, on this twenty-seventh of March; but on the following day in the twofold Milan manuscript of the Ambrosian Library and the Turin manuscript of the Duke of Savoy; and March 28: on which day also the printed Menaia insert the eulogy, omitted the day before, among the eulogies of other Saints. Finally, the manuscript of our Paris College refers their memory to the twenty-ninth day. We shall follow the Roman Martyrology and keep the twenty-seventh day: in which this commemoration is made of them. "On the same day, of the Saints Philetus the Senator, Lydia his wife, and their sons Macedo and Theoprepides, and likewise Amphilochius the Commander and Cronides the Keeper of the Prison Records, who were slain for the confession of Christ": for which on the following day only this is read (omitted in the most recent editions of the Martyrology revised in 1613, as a superfluous repetition of the same): "Likewise of Saints Philetus and his Companions, who under the Emperor Hadrian underwent Martyrdom."
[2] They are wrongly augmented with 55 companions Baronius found the occasion to write thus from the Menologion of the Greeks, as I said, where on the twenty-eighth day the following is recited: "St. Philetus and the Christians who were with him, serving God daily under the Emperor Hadrian, were seized and crowned with martyrdom." Tamayo believed this sufficient to place beyond suspicion of fiction the Pseudo-Dexter, who, according to his old habit of attributing to Spain the place of martyrdom of whomever the Roman Martyrology did not specify, did not hesitate to write thus for the year 138: "At Barcelona in Spain, St. Philaetus the Senator, and Laeda his wife and his sons and fifty-five other Martyrs." and attributed to Spain, A certain divergence from the text of the Martyrology was purposely sought by changing the wife's name and suppressing those of the sons, as usually happens: yet the spurious author betrays himself sufficiently, led by whom we believe no more in those 55 companions than we would believe they suffered at Barcelona: those potters of this chronicle would have known they pertained to Illyria, if they had been able to read and understand the Greek Menaia. Meanwhile we can scarcely grasp how men, even by the very fact that those who are imagined to have suffered in Spain were venerated by the Greeks, did not at least fall under suspicion of fraud.
The history of their passion is recited by the Greek Church under this summary. Under the Emperor Hadrian "St. Philetus and the Christians who had suffered with him, under the Emperor Hadrian, served God daily: and the Blessed man himself, having been seized, was brought before the Emperor, who, unable to resist the unconquered wisdom of the Martyr, handed him and his companions in confession over to the Commander Amphilochius: who immediately ordered them to be stretched upon wooden frames and their bodies to be ceaselessly cut, and then to be cast into prison, together with the Keeper of the Prison Records, Cronides, who had believed. But on that night, when they were chanting psalms and praying, the presence of Angels was offered to all, cast into a cauldron of boiling oil encouraging them to their contests. After which, when morning had come, the tyrant, having brought the Saints before him, said: 'Many torments are stored up for you.' And immediately they were cast into a cauldron, fiercely heated and mixed with oil and resin. But the Commander, observing that the cauldron had suddenly been cooled and marveling, himself also entered it, saying: 'Lord God of the Christians, help me.' And a voice came to him thus: 'Your prayer has been heard: come up here.' When these things were reported to the Emperor, he departed from Rome and came to Illyricum, In Illyricum: full of fury and wrath; and he ordered the cauldron mixed with oil to be heated for seven days, and all of them to be cast into it together. Nevertheless, even on this occasion the Saints remained unharmed: and the Emperor, suffused with shame, returned by the way he had come: meanwhile the Martyrs, praying and giving thanks to God, delivered their spirits to the Lord and were adorned with the crown of confession."
So reads the Chifflet manuscript, somewhat more full in the last words than the printed and other manuscript versions. These accounts we have as far more certain than the eulogy which Tamayo confesses he himself composed, and which is therefore unworthy of being reported in this place: with which we also do not wish
to dispute whether the title of Commentariensis, commonly taken for Prefect of the prison, thus the Menaia and manuscripts. signifies in this place the one who recorded the watches or vigils of each day in the registers (as Wolfgang Lazius writes in book 4, chapter 11, on the Roman military) -- we would call him the Prefect of the Watches: for what would this be other than to conjecture? The only thing we can add to these is that to these three pairs of Martyrs there correspond three distichs in the printed Menaia and the Chifflet manuscript, which read as follows: distichs about the same.
"As Philetus and Lydia are one flesh, so one end in peace befell them."
"Theoprepius dies together with Macedo, singing hymns worthy of God, as is fitting."
"The Commander dies together with the Keeper of Records, the one exercising authority, the other subjected to the inquisition."