Martyrs Codratus Or Quadratus

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS CODRATUS OR QUADRATUS, SATURNINUS, RUFINUS AND COMPANIONS

AT NICOMEDIA AND IN NEARBY PLACES.

UNDER VALERIAN

Codratus or Quadratus, Martyr at Nicomedia (S.)

Saturninus, Martyr in nearby places (S.)

Rufinus, Martyr in nearby places (S.)

Companions, Martyrs at Nicomedia and in nearby places

G. H.

[1] The memory of this holy Martyr Codratus or

Quadratus and his companions is celebrated on this IX

of May, to whom in the Menology of Basil Porphyrogenitus

the Emperor, Elogium from the Menology of Emperor Basil. this kind of elogium is woven:

Codratus was a Martyr of Christ under the Empire of Decius and

Valerian in the city of Nicomedia. But because he professed the faith

of Christ, he was seized by the heathen together with his companions,

and bound was handed over to the Proconsul of the city:

by whom when he was interrogated about the faith, Christ

he professed with great confidence. Therefore cast down

to the ground, he was beaten with dry oxen sinews: and when

he had watered the ground with his blood, he was thrown into prison.

Then led to Nicaea, by the Proconsul again

he was subjected to torments. But when some feared the torments,

and were preparing to sacrifice to the idols,

inculcating in them the fear of God, he confirmed them in the faith of Christ:

whom the Proconsul ordered to be cast into the fire and burned.

But after Codratus had been led around from city

to city, and had consecrated all of them with his blood,

at length he came to Hermopolis, and there

was beheaded. These things in the said Menology of Emperor Basil.

MS. Synaxary, Which on the same day IX of May, are more fully explained

in a MS. Greek Synaxary of the Church of Constantinople,

preserved in the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus at Paris,

in these words.

[2] The contest of the holy Martyr Codratus and his companions.

He with his companions was in the times of Decius and

Valerian the Emperors in the city of Nicomedia. But

on account of the faith of Christ he was brought to Perinius

the Proconsul: and being interrogated, he confessed Christ.

Then stretched out, he was beaten with oxen sinews so much,

that with his blood he filled the ground: and so naked thrown into prison

upon potsherds, and his breast weighed down with a stone.

Then led to the city of Nicaea, and with atrocious torments

was tormented: meanwhile he made many there believe

in Christ, of whom some were beheaded, others cast

into the fire. But the Saint dragged by force, having entered the temple

of idols, broke in pieces all the images in it:

therefore suspended on the rack and lacerated

he was, and thus tortured with scourges from city to city, came

to Apamea, where enclosed in a sack he was atrociously beaten.

Then because the Proconsul was making the journey to Caesarea,

he too was led there, and again struck with oxen sinews:

where Saturnillus and Rufinus having confessed Christ, after

atrocious torments were beheaded. Then the impious Proconsul having set out

for Apolloniades, also St. Codratus bound

was led there: where he experienced him as very severe;

who ordered brine and vinegar mixed together to be poured

into his wounds, and his stripes rubbed with hair-shirts, and his sides

burned with red-hot iron. And when from there the Proconsul

transferred himself to Rhyndacus and Hermopolis, and could not

induce Codratus to sacrifice, on a burning

gridiron stretched out, he ordered pitch and oil to be poured upon him from above.

But the wicked Proconsul seeing him not burned

by the fire, brought a decree that he should perish by the sword: by which

cut down he received the crown of martyrdom. The festive solemnity

of him is celebrated near Xerocircus. Thus far the Synaxary.

Brought to Perrhinius the Proconsul,

each was interrogated as to country, family, and name.

St. Codratus answered: We are named Christians: for this

name to us is full of admiration. But if

you wish to know our dwellings and actions, we are servants

of Christ, and we have for fatherland the heavenly city

Jerusalem. But when the Proconsul saw that this Saint could be moved

neither by threats nor

by promises, but to struggle out by the force of words, and to revile the idols; filled with anger

he ordered him to be stretched out, and beaten with rods etc. But this

diversity of elogia found in the Synaxaria, and others supplying

mutual defects to a certain extent, altogether persuades that there formerly existed,

what perhaps even now lie hidden somewhere, more prolix

Acts of the Martyrdom, from which the individual authors of the Synaxaria

selected from that elogium, some some, others others, but in no way

mutually conflicting, describing them: except that in the MSS. of Milan

of the Ambrosian library and of Turin of the Duke of Savoy

the aforesaid torments are reported as inflicted on all at Nicomedia.

In the printed Menaea also on the day IX of May, is indicated

the memory of the holy Martyr Codratus and his companions.

But some elogium is reported on the day VII of May: and 7 May in the printed Menaea and the Roman Martyrology. on which day Sirletus

in his Menology indicates the name of Quadratus, and joins him

to St. Acacius, whose Acts we gave on VII of May. On the same VII

of May, Galesinus celebrates St. Codratus the Martyr,

with some elogium from the Greeks added. Finally on the same day these things

are had in today's Roman Martyrology: In the same place

Nicomedia of St. Quadratus the Martyr, who in the persecution

of Decius repeatedly recalled to torments, at last was

beheaded.

[4] The places ennobled by the torments of St. Codratus are first named

Nicomedia and Nicaea, famous and most well-known Metropolises of Bithynia;

places of the passion then Apamea, Caesarea and Apollonias,

Episcopal cities in the same Bithynia. Then he was led to Rhyndacus

and Hermopolis, as these places are called in the Synaxary,

or Hermopolis in the Menology of Basil, or Eremopolis

in the MS. Chifletian, or finally in the printed Menaea

ῤύνδακριν (in Maximus the Cytharean ὀρύνδακον) and Hermopolis.

Which we judge to have been there in Bithynia or its vicinity;

lest we be compelled to assign Hermopolis in Isauria under the Patriarchate

of Antioch as an Episcopal city, because the Consular

province of Pontica in the Notitia of the Empire alone contained

Galatia and Bithynia: outside which dominions the Proconsul Perinius

does not seem to have exercised any jurisdiction. and cult.

But that he has his own festivity at Constantinople,

provides an argument for thinking that the body of St. Codratus or some

relics of the body were brought there: but in what part of the city

Xerocircus was up to now I have not discovered, but well by the same reasoning

the said places of Xerolophus, Xerocepia and Xeroceramum

are there in Codinus in the Origins, from the Greek Ξῆρος dry, arid:

I seem to myself in the same Clermont Synaxary

also to have read Xerocercus: nevertheless I doubt whether perhaps

the name is not so corruptly written for Xylocercus, which is one of the gates

of the city, so called, because on account of the abundance of waters and

frequent inundation of the sea it had to be founded upon

oak palings, by the testimony of Codinus.

[5] Time of martyrdom. The time of the martyrdom is assigned under the Empire of Decius and

Valerian, that is, in the persecution begun by Decius, and continued

to the times of Valerian, in which these Martyrs were slain.

Of his Martyr companions expressed by their own names, are Saturninus

and Rufinus, who suffered at Caesarea. In the printed Menaea Caesarea

and the other cities are omitted, and they are said at Nicaea

to have been struck with the axe, and are called Saturninus and Rufus. and companions. In the Menaea

Chifletian separately on the day IX of May are reported the holy

Martyrs Rufinus and Satorninus struck with the sword, which

is also indicated by this distich.

Δυοῖν

συνάθλων

πρὸς

τομὴν

τολμῶν

ξίφος

Ἰσοῤῥοπεῖ

σοι

τῷ

ζυγοστάτῃ,

Λόγε

The sword daring upon the slaying of two fellow-combatants,

Makes them, O Christ, weighed equal by you the balance-keeper.