ON ST. HYPOLISTUS THE PRESBYTER,
MARTYR AT ATRIPALDA IN THE NEAPOLITAN KINGDOM.
A.D. 303
PrefaceHypolistus Martyr, at Atripalda in the Neapolitan kingdom (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Abellinum is an Episcopal city, once of the Hirpini, now of the Further Principate (as that province in the Neapolitan kingdom is called) on the river Sabatus, The city Abellinum, also called Avellia, or Velia. situated at the roots of Monte Vergine, but it is distant from Benevento the Metropolis about 16 M. P., from Naples 30. The beginning and name of this city some believe taken from the ruins of the neighboring city Velia, Vellia, or Avellia. We have a letter sent to us by the Canons of Atripalda and subscribed with the names of each, in which they assert, that of the said city near Atripalda there are still beheld ancient vestiges, capable of an entire mile. That St. Hypolistus, of whom we here treat, having entered this city, converted eight thousand men, whom the present Abellinum, although not so long ago begun to be enlarged, could not contain. Moreover that in the present Abellinum there is no Capitoline mount, from which the Acts indicate St. Hypolistus was cast headlong; but there is one near Atripalda, among the ruins of the said Velia, commonly now called Toppolo, and overhanging the river Sabato, which things agree more with the Acts. But because St. Hypolistus under Diocletian was visited with martyrdom, and the memory of Abellinum is extant much more ancient, Ἀβέλλινον in Ptolemy, and in Pliny book 3 chapter 11 the Abellinates townsmen of the Hirpini, and in Frontinus on the Colonies Abellinum, a colony led by the Sempronian law; we judge the name of Velia, Vellia, or Avellia rather given to those very ruins, by some contempt, and that its proper and entire name was once Abellinum, and remained with the city built from the ruins.
[2] Bishops of Abellinum scarcely any are reckoned before the twelfth century. Some one under Pope Symmachus is referred to, Timothy by name; another, but with no name indicated, in the Chronicle of Fulco of Benevento; in this diocese Atripalda. and a third John, referred to the year 1124, with his successors in Ughellus volume 8 of Sacred Italy, who among other things premises this: The diocese of Abellinum, sufficiently ample, contains nineteen towns: among which Atripalda, illustrious for the frequency of men and the cemetery of the holy Martyrs. Here under the Confession or Crypt for above a thousand and three hundred years the bodies of the Saints Hypolistus or Hippolytus and his Companions, then also of Sabinus the Bishop and Confessor, and Romulus the Levite lay hidden: where the body of St. Hypolistus but in recent years found they were translated into a more becoming place. The history of their finding and translation the learned Bollandus narrates in volume 2 of February on the day XIV. Nay on the IX, where is treated of SS. Sabinus and Romulus, whence the things which pertain to St. Hypolistus we shall repeat below.
[3] The people of Atripalda venerate St. Hypolistus as their chief Patron, and with them the Church of Abellinum, his sacred cult May 1. at these Kalends of May: on which day in the very ancient MS. Roman Martyrology of the Duke of Altemps these things are read, Of St. Hypolistus the Martyr. In the Vatican MS. thus: In the city of Avellinum of St. Ypolistus the Martyr, the aspiration being neglected. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue begins these Kalends thus: At Abellinum St. Hippolytus the Presbyter and Martyr under Diocletian. In the Breviary of the Order of Monte Vergine, founded by St. William (of whom is to be treated on June XXV), printed at Venice in the year 1555, April 30. is celebrated the feast of St. Hypolistus the day before the Kalends of May, because this day is impeded by the solemnity of SS. Philip and James. Again Ferrarius in the said General Catalogue refers the same to the day February XI in these words: February 11, and 17. At Abellinum in Samnium St. Hippolytus the Presbyter and Martyr, and in the notes observes that he is also called Hippolystrus, and so it is found always written in the Acts which we shall give. John Vincentius Ciarlantus, in the historical memory of Samnium book 3 chapter 5, thinks that on account of some finding or translation of the body he is referred to the said February XI. David Romaeus, in the Index of the Saints of the Neapolitan kingdom, joins him with SS. Sabinus and Romulus of Atripalda, and adds the day February XVII; but these separately, as has been said, are referred to February XIV. Finally an image of St. Hippolytus is seen in mosaic at St. Priscus of Capua, which Michael Monachus in the Sanctuary of Capua page 570 thinks to be of this Hypolistus.
[4] Double Acts of St. Hypolistus are extant in the archive of the cited monastery of Monte Vergine, The Acts in MSS. threefold written on parchment paper and in the Lombardic character: which thence faithfully extracted, and signed by the hand of Carolus Antonius Tascenna the public Notary,
and approved by John James Jordan a Castello Abbot General of the Congregation of Monte Vergine, Hyacinthus Rugerius of Atripalda of the Order of Preachers, Professor of Sacred Theology in the royal Convent of St. Louis of Aversa, had: from whom the same illustrated with some annotations Silvester Aiossa received, and transmitted to us from Capua. Neither are very ancient: yet the more ancient those which we give, and perhaps written before the X century. only the first are here given. The other, in substance the same, more diffuse in words (so that perhaps for the Lessons of the whole Octave at Matins they might be of use) are not had entire, but only the first three Lessons: therefore it did not seem worth the trouble to give them. But neither did a certain third one, found at Rome and transcribed from Vatican Codex 5334, seem to be brought to light (although they could have supplied the defect of the second Acts, inasmuch as under almost the same series of words taken from them) for this reason that in substance they contain nothing diverse from the first: written when Monte Vergine was now held illustrious for the new religious order, as is gathered from this, that they explain the distance of the place from that mountain at the beginning. But these begin from a notable parachronism, by which the coming of St. Hypolistus into Italy they thus note: In the reign of Diocletian and Maximian the Emperors, Decius and Gratus being Consuls, in the year of salvation two hundred and seventy-seventh. Diocletian the Emperor began a full 34 years after the Consulate of Gratus and Decius, which marks the year 250 of the vulgar Era: but he chose Maximian as the partner of his Empire, only in the year 282 of the same Era, but in the third of his own reign: which it is enough to have indicated, that it may appear, how ill in the alleged beginning of the last Acts the particulars cohere.
[5] The Life written in Italian Paul Regius Bishop of Vico set forth in five chapters in the first part on the Saints of the Neapolitan kingdom from page 555 to page 574. The Italian printed and Compendia are indicated. A compendium is extant in the Breviary of the said monastery of Monte Vergine, written on parchment in the year 1403, which likewise we received thence: another Ferrarius has in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on the day February XI.
THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM
From an old MS. of the monastery of Monte Vergine.
Hypolistus Martyr, at Atripalda in the Neapolitan kingdom (S.)
BHL Number: 4054
FROM MSS.
[1] Hypolistus the Priest from Antioch, by the divine nod came to a Avellinum a city of the Samnites: where he wonderfully preached the Gospel. When he could not bear the sacrifice, which is owed to one God, to be made to the images of demons; Eight thousand by preaching and miracles he converts to the faith: having endeavored to remove a great multitude of the nations, sacrificing in the temple of Diana, from that impiety, he exhorted them to the Christian religion. His sanctity God willed to be made known by miracles: for he put demons to flight, opened the eyes of the blind, cured various and incurable diseases, the name of Jesus Christ alone being invoked. By which miracles indeed b nearly eight thousand men received the faith of Christ. And so by these the temple of Diana was leveled, together with its image broken, and one to Christ was raised. Which heard an innumerable multitude of peoples flowed together to hear him; who his words being heard were converted to the Christian religion. Afterward besought by prayers, he went to Samnium (which Benevento is called the head of the Samnites), where both by words and by example he exhorted the faithful of Christ to the palm of martyrdom; who very well instructed in the precepts of the divine law, rendered honors to the one God of heaven and earth.
[2] Returned to Avellinum, he built himself a little chapel near the temple of Jupiter, amid torments encompassed with heavenly light, where assiduously he preached, day and night intent on prayers. But when in the statue of Jupiter the demon refused to give responses, while there the servant of Jesus Christ tarried; Hypolistus being sought out was found, and struck with blows, is dragged to the senators Firmius, Fortunatus and Faustinus; and to him a capital penalty being proposed, unless he sacrificed to the idol, he freely denied that he wished to attribute to demons that honor which is owed to the God of heaven. By which words the Pontiffs of Jupiter being moved, beaten with spittle and rods they wounded him with some wounds: who afterward with hands bound behind his back, and led to the c Capitoline mount, is cast down in the forum. There the constancy of his faith was variously tried. And when the idolaters surrounded him praying, an Angel of the Lord encompassed with a most clear light appeared, comforting him; who afterward vanished. Which the Pontiffs of the temple attributing to magic arts, moved by envy persuaded the crowds, that they should take Hypolistus out of the midst as a magician. Meanwhile a certain Pontiff of those, Batillus by name, his hands being loosed, held out to him a censer, that he might apply incense to the image of Jupiter. But he, the censer being cast down and their depraved impiety spurned, gravely rebuked them.
[3] Hence the nations are kindled with wrath, and by them with spittle, mud, and various contumelies he is afflicted, the temple of the idolaters divinely collapsed and with clubs inhumanly struck. While he exhorted them to serve Christ, the temple struck by lightning from heaven fell, and the statue of Jupiter is broken, and many of them are crushed. Which done kindled with greater anger, they sharply stoned him: afterward with his feet bound they caused him to be cruelly dragged even to the river Sabatus through the valley: who with his whole body lacerated, and his sacred head cut off, migrated to the Lord. His blood, which dyed the edge of the river, he is given over to death: rendered the water in that place salutary and the fish d tame. He suffered after the birth of Christ about the e three hundred and third year, on the Kalends of May, Diocletian and Maximian being Emperors, Marcellinus the supreme Pontiff.
[4] When this had been perpetrated, the Senators decreed that no one should bury the Body of the Martyr, the body cast to the beasts, but buried by the faithful, left to be devoured by dogs and beasts. But God, who guards the bones of his Saints, disposed the minds of two women, that they should bury his body by whom they had been baptized. Who at the dead of night, the edict of the Senators spurned, gathered the lacerated body from every side; and wrapped in linen, in that place by the space of a thousand paces, where now Atripalda the noble town is built, in a pit, which with mattocks they had made, they buried it. Returned afterward to Avellinum, they disclosed it to some Christians: who betook themselves there to carry away the body of the Martyr: it sweats manna. but by a sudden earthquake and an inward fear it was not permitted. Wherefore there they built a temple after the persecution of Diocletian the Emperor, and placed the body in a secret Oratory below the pavement of the temple in a marble f urn: which about the three days of his festivity sweats Manna g, which confers health to innumerable faithful.
[5] h In which oratory or chapel, in the progress afterward of time, the bodies of the Saints Sabinus the Bishop and Confessor, and Romulus his Levite were buried. In the year of the Lord 1604 the old Temple, dedicated to St. Hypolistus i, at the expense of the whole community of Atripalda was thoroughly restored, and most magnificently constructed.
ANNOTATA.
THE ACTS OF THE TRANSLATION
From an Abellinum MS.
Hypolistus Martyr, at Atripalda in the Neapolitan kingdom (S.)
FROM MSS.
[1] In the year 1629, in the general visitation of the Most Illustrious Lord Bartholomew Justinian, Bishop of Avellinum and Frequentum, The finding of the body on account of the firm tradition of the citizens and the inscription sculpted on the tomb of St. Romulus, by which is said Before the Cave of the Martyrs, the Magnificent of the Government and the Reverend College of Canons supplicating, the same Most Illustrious Justinian granted license of digging in the aforesaid crypt, that the bodies of the Martyrs themselves might be found; and the Most Illustrious himself being present, and other persons selected for this, there was found of mosaic a pavement, which at the beginning was mentioned; and over it a certain very small one, raised to four palms with walls, here and there a vault, and sepulchres; and in the sepulchres the bodies of the Martyrs: which then appeared not but in number five, placed on the right of the same pavement. Which being found the citizens then would not proceed further: but, their Most Illustrious Prelate consulting and decreeing, they resolved to enlarge the crypt, adding to it two other which they call aisles, toward the North, besides that which by the piety and expense of Prince Camillus toward the South had been first added.
[2] and of the head In the year 1633, on the fifteenth day of the month of March, the aforesaid aisles being added, the Most Illustrious Justinian himself, and his General Vicar John Baptist Griphus (there being present especially the Most Illustrious Archbishop of Taranto D. Thomas Caracciolo, then Prelate of Cyrene) at the body of St. Hypolistus, which in the place, according to the ancient and firm tradition before indicated or shown with the fingers, met at the entrance of the holy crypt on the right part to those entering, had been found, together with those other bodies of Martyrs near his little coffin, which with the body of St. Hypolistus seemed to be in number five, causing them to dig, other eight bodies of Saints were found. And the head of St. Hypolistus, of which his body was believed by some to be deprived, on account of certain reporting it cut off at the time of his martyrdom to have been cast into the river Sabatus, was found wrapped in much chalk and gypsum: and not long after beneath it, likewise wholly wrapped in gypsum and clay, that part of the rope, sprinkled with the sacrosanct gore, by which from the Capitoline hill even to the aforesaid river, the infidels more ferocious had dragged the holy man of God at the tail of a ferocious bull. And now that part of the rope in a crystal phial, of crystal namely commonly called di Rocca, by the Most Illustrious Lord Thomas Caracciolo Archbishop of Taranto (as also at the same time a gold ring, found in one of the two tombs of the Martyr children) with great devotion is preserved: and for preserving in it the head of the holy Martyr, that meanwhile a silver reliquary be made, it was concluded and decreed.
[3] In the year of salvation 1634, on the first day of the month of May, the exaltation of the same. at the first entrance which the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Prince Francis Marinus Caracciolus, Duke of Atripalda, made of possession to the town; the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Bishop of Cyrene D. Thomas Caracciolus, now Archbishop of Taranto, came to Atripalda: and by the will and express consent of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend D. Bartholomew Justinian, when he had made the Sacred rite, the head of the holy Martyr Hypolistus he duly and solemnly placed in the silver reliquary; and ordered it to be carried processionally through the town, which also was committed to execution.
[5] But the body of the glorious Martyr, and the other twelve bodies of Saints, found near his little coffin, toward the North to the head of the last aisle were carried; and in wooden boxes, in place of deposit, placed upon an altar: in which there is now an image of the same St. Hypolistus and his companions, until, God granting, they may be able to be preserved in more becoming monuments.
ON SS. COLUMBA AND HER SISTER,
MARTYRS AT TURAGIUM IN LUSITANIA.
A.D. 303
CommentaryColumba Martyr at Tugurium in Lusitania (S.)
Her Sister, Martyr at Tugurium in Lusitania. (S.)
G. H.
[1] From Évora a temple of the Mother of God is distant by the space of a league, they call it Turagium: not far off are seen old ruined walls and an aqueduct, in which place the report is, that many for the faith of Christ shed their blood: among whom a Bishop with two sisters happily breathed forth their souls; of whom one was called Columba. But where the other steeped the ground with her gore, a fountain at once leaped forth, by our countrymen called the Holy Fountain: wherefore many tried with adverse health are washed in it. Thus Antonius Vasconcellius in the Description of the kingdom of Lusitania num. 14, and from him Ludovicus dos Anios in the Lusitanian Garden chapter 17, and Tamayus Salazar on the day August XX, at the Acts of St. Columba Virgin and Martyr of Coimbra. The day of veneration of St. Columba and her Sister commonly called Anominata, as if called Anonyma, assigns George Cardoso in the Lusitanian Hagiology this first of May: but the brother Bishop he calls Jordan and asserts that he is wont to be venerated on the day August VI, and the time of martyrdom he adds to have been the year 303 in the reign of Diocletian.
[2] There is extant, the same George Cardoso attesting, an ancient Lectionary with Antonius Mendez Prior of the Church of Turagium, in which these words concerning them are read: Through the preaching of Vincent, in the three days of his arrest, he acquired many souls for God. Wherefore it seems certain that many others at that time under Dacian at Évora suffered martyrdom, among whom Columba and the Bishop her brother &c. especially where was called the Cave of the Martyrs. Hence therefore is to be sought the reckoning of the time, indicated above: which if it is true, the name of Jordan is rendered vehemently suspect to me, lest gratuitously by it the brother of St. Columba be feigned called a Bishop. For this I find no one ever named, except one who was of the Teutonic nation and tongue: it certainly is either Teutonic by origin, or formed from the Latin name Gordian by Teutonic contraction. But such would not have penetrated into Lusitania except some centuries after heathenism was extinguished. Which we propose to the Lusitanians to be examined, that something certain may be brought forth on the day August VI. Finally Cardoso adds that a brief Relation of the martyrdom of these was printed at Lisbon, in the year 1644, which we have not seen. The aforerelated St. Vincent Martyr of Évora is venerated on October XXVII.
ON SS. ACIUS AND ACHEOLUS,
MARTYRS AT AMIENS IN GAUL.
CommentaryAcius, Martyr at Amiens in Gaul (S.)
Acheolus, Martyr at Amiens in Gaul (S.)
G. H.
[1] Amiens, an ancient city of Belgic Gaul, Episcopal, and the head of present-day Picardy on the river Somme, venerates these holy Martyrs: whose memory was inscribed in the ancient Corbie transcript of the Hieronymian Martyrology, Sacred cult. printed at Paris, May 1 in these words: In the city of Amiens the birthday of SS. Agius and Aciolus the Martyrs. From the ancient Martyrology of the Cathedral Church of Amiens these things were wont to be thus announced. In the city of Amiens the deposition of the holy Martyrs Acius and Acheolus. Which also in a similar manner are related in other Martyrologies MS. and printed. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology adorns them with this eulogy: At Amiens of the blessed Martyrs Acius and Aciolus, who after the noble contest of faith, there shine with the glory of many helpings.
[2] We have old Breviaries of the Church of Amiens, printed in the year 1550 and 1554: in which on the Kalends of May the whole Office is of the holy Apostles Philip and James, but on the morrow of the same Kalends is celebrated the Commemoration of Achius and Acheolus the Martyrs, May 2 under the Semidouble rite with nine Lessons: in which is explained this sentence, If God be for us who is against us; as if this were the only voice of the Martyrs, amid false opprobria and crimes objected, amid iron chains and prisons, amid claws and lacerations of members: and for the confirmation of the saying is adduced that of the Apostle: that God spared not his own son, but for us all delivered him up. These things there. That feast we have learned to be now translated to the day May IV from the Schedules of D. Mauritius du Pres, and May 4. of the Premonstratensian Order, thence transmitted.
[3] We gave the Life of St. Salvius Bishop of Amiens, on the day January XI: The bodies buried by St. Salvius: where in number XI these things are read: But also the Saints of God Firminus the Bishop and Confessor, and Aceus also and Aceolus Martyrs of Christ, in the eastern crypt he reverently buried, and becomingly adorned. St. Salvius flourished about the beginning of the seventh century: Firminus is venerated on the Kalends of September, and by him is said once to have been built a temple of the Virgin Mother of God outside the city, to which afterward the body of St. Acheolus translated from the church of St. Peter, is reported to have shone with so many miracles, the temple of St. Acheolus that the temple was thereafter called of St. Acheolus. Rorico Bishop of Amiens constituted there Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the year 1085. The successor of Rorico, Gervinus, confirmed all things, with the Abbey which that one had granted in favor of St. Acheolus, and added besides a prebend of the Cathedral Church of Blessed Mary, yet so that the Clerics of St. Acheolus and the Prior himself, for their turns, should be bound to fill a week in the Church of the Blessed Virgin.
[4] Concerning these things can be consulted the Sammarthani in Christian Gaul, both in the Bishops of Amiens, and in the Abbey of St. Acheolus, where a copy of the constitution of Bishop Rorico, drawn from the old archive, is extant: printed also by Lucas d'Achery in volume 2 of the Spicilegium of the old Writers page 601. The first Abbot of this monastery was Deodatus, as is established from a charter of Theodoric Bishop of Amiens, who raised the said Priory in the year 1145 into an Abbey. That the rest of the Acts of these Martyrs perished the aforementioned Mauritius du Pres indicated to us. Relics at St. Quentin, The arrival of the relics of SS. Acius and Aciolus, in the basilica of St. Quentin on the day May XIX, is commemorated in the MS. Martyrology of Laetia. That some of their relics are preserved in the church of the Carthusians of Abbeville hands down Ignatius Josephus de Jesu Maria book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of Abbeville chapter 54. and at Abbeville.
[5] Andreas Saussay, besides the things related above, again in the Supplement hands down these things: At Carpentras the birthday of the holy Martyrs Acius and Aciolus, Whether slain at Carpentras. whose venerable remains translated to Amiens, raised a notable temple and monastery, which is seen almost at the walls of the city, under their appellation. These things there. But we much fear, lest the name Carpentras was in some MS. wrongly transferred hither from the Acts of St. Andeolus, which we gave above, and that Saussay without any examination transferred it hither. Carpentras is an Episcopal city and the head of the County of Venaissin, in the Pontifical dominion under the Metropolis of Avignon, distant from Amiens by a great part of the kingdom of France: and so much the less probable is rendered, what without the testimony of any old writer Saussay is found to have first asserted.