CONCERNING THE HOLY MARTYRS OF NICOMEDIA: PASTOR, VICTORINUS OR VICTOR, SATURNINUS, DOLA, JULIANA OR JULIAN, AND FOUR COMPANIONS.
CommentaryPastor, Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saint)
Victorinus or Victor, Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saint)
Saturninus, Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saint)
Dola, Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saint)
Juliana, or Julian, Martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saint)
Four companions, Martyrs at Nicomedia in Bithynia (Saints)
Two groups of Martyrs are presented on this day in the more ancient Martyrologies: of these, one group suffered at Nicomedia in Bithynia, nine Martyrs the other at Antioch in Syria. The first group consists of nine athletes, concerning whom in the manuscript of Trier, St. Martin's, we have the following: Pastor "At Nicomedia, St. Pastor the Martyr and eight others." Of these, another is named in the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, cited by Holstenius: Victorinus "At Nicomedia, the birthday of SS. Pastor, Victorinus, and seven others." The same two are named in Usuard without companions, but without the number specified they are added in today's Roman Martyrology. or Victor In the Liege manuscript of St. Lambert they are called Pastor and Victor and are attributed to Nicaea; in the Laetian one, only Victor is read and he suffered at Nicomedia. To these a third is added in the Tournai, St. Martin's, and Arras manuscripts: Saturninus "At Nicomedia, the birthday of SS. Pastor, Victor, and St. Saturninus." The same are thus recorded in the Calendar prefixed to a manuscript book of St. Isidore's On Ecclesiastical Offices, preserved at Rome in the Vallicellian library: "At Nicomedia, Pastor, Victor, Saturnus." But more correctly Saturninus is read in the Vatican manuscripts of St. Peter's, the Corbie one, and the St. Cyriacus one; but in the last these are attributed to Antioch, which was the arena of the other group omitted there. But with Saturninus not indicated, another is substituted in the Cassino manuscripts, Julian the Pleschen one, and the Vatican one: "Nicomedia, Pastor, Victorinus, Julian." Notker names the aforesaid four: "At Nicomedia, Pastor, Victorinus, Saturninus, Julian." In the Barberini and Prague manuscripts "and three others" is added. In the Augsburg manuscript of St. Ulrich, four names are given: Pastor, Victor, Dolus, Juliana. or Juliana In the Parisian Dola manuscript of Labbe and the Aachen one: Pastor, Victorinus, Dola, Juliana. In our Hieronymian manuscript and the Reichenau one the following are found: "At Nicomedia, Pastor, Victorinus, Saturninus, Dola, Juliana, and four others." For these, seven are read in the Rhinovian manuscript; and four anonymous but only four are reported
in other copies of St. Jerome -- the Luccan, Blumian, and the Corbie one printed at Paris -- but in these three the name Dola is absent; which is found in the Tamlacht and six other indicated manuscripts. With this name also omitted, the rest are found in the Martyrologies printed at Cologne and Luebeck in the year 1490, likewise in Molanus, Galesinnius, and Canisius. In the Brussels manuscript, Victor and Victorinus are expressed as distinct persons, a relic of St. Pastor at Bologna just as Julian and Juliana appear as distinct in Grevenus. At Bologna, three quite notable parts of the bones of St. Pastor the Martyr are preserved in the church of St. Francis, as Masini notes for this day in his Bologna Perlustrata, but whether this refers to the Nicomedian Pastor is not clear. Some of these Martyrs have been transferred to other days. Thus the Brussels manuscript of St. Gudula, at the 12th of January: veneration on the 12th of January "In the city of Nicomedia, the passion of SS. Pastor and Victor." But the Martyrs Pastor and Victorinus of Nicomedia are recorded on the 27th of March in the manuscripts of Arras, Tournai, the 27th, 28th, and 30th of March Laetian, Anchin, and others. And again on the 28th of the same March, Pastor and Victor with four companions, and Pastor and Victorinus, are recorded in the Marchiennes manuscript and the Florarium. Finally, on the 30th of March the deposition of Pastor and Victor -- others say Victorinus -- and four others is celebrated in the Trier manuscript of St. Martin's, by Grevenus, and by Canisius. On the same day Saussay writes that St. Pastor the Martyr is held in some veneration at Liege. In place of the four anonymous ones, Liberius, Teucrus, Medicius, and Julia are intermixed in the Tamlacht manuscript, but whether they are to be placed in their stead is not sufficiently clear from the names alone, [and for the four anonymous ones, others to be substituted from the Tamlacht manuscript] all of which we shall report in the following group. Perhaps with greater reason the following should be substituted, recorded thus in the ancient manuscript of St. Maximin: "Nicomedia, Castor, Eusebius, Eunuculus, Saturninus," where in place of Castor it seems Pastor should be read. The Virgin Juliana is recorded in a Calendar prefixed to a manuscript Breviary, the use of which was around the regions of the Rhine, or from the Maximin manuscript which we judge should be referred here.