ON S. PONTIUS THE ROMAN
MARTYR OF CIMIEZ IN THE MARITIME ALPS.
ABOUT CCLVII.
PrefacePontius the Roman, Martyr of Cimiez in the Maritime Alps (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
[1] The fatherland and chief arena of almost his whole life for S. Pontius was the city of Rome, from which, on account of a monstrous persecution, fleeing to Cimiez, he there obtained the crown of martyrdom, under the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus about the year CCLVII. There flourished afterward, in the fifth century of Christ, Valerian Bishop of Cimiez, whose XX Homilies James Sirmond published in the year MDCXII, and in the Preface he thus describes this city: There was Cemelenum, or, as a later age has spoken, The arena of the martyrdom, Cimiez Cemelium or Cemela, a town of the Vediantii in the Maritime Alps, on this side of the highest Alp at the ninth; at the sixth, as the old Itinerary teaches, milestone beyond the river Var. Of which even today the ancient traces of ruins and the name remain not far from Nice on a hill, which they call Cemela. But Pliny in book 3 chapter 5 and Ptolemy place Cemelium in Italy, because they draw the beginning of Italy from the Var. The Itinerary, because it extends Gaul by its just boundaries up to the highest Alp, assigns it to Gaul. And indeed that it pertained to Gaul, makes faith without controversy the old Notitia of the cities of Gaul, which among the cities of the Maritime Alps, which are reckoned under the metropolis of Embrun, numbers in the sixth place the city of the Cemelenses. Thus Sirmond: to which from Ughelli, volume 4 of Italia Sacra, in the Bishops of Nice, we add these things: They say Nice was founded by the Massilians near Cimiez, devastated by the Lombards: a very ancient city, the seat of a Praetor. This, removed from the sea and devastated by the Lombards, its citizens migrating to Nice, situated on the shore of the sea and in a most safe place, constituted one city out of two, since before, by S. Leo the first Pope, the Church of Cimiez had been united to that of Nice: whence the reader will not wonder, if some things are said of Nice which properly seem to pertain to Cimiez: whose name indeed was not otherwise retained, than from the denomination of the church of the blessed Mother of God; and scarcely any remains of its most noble buildings are discerned among the ruins, except for a certain ample amphitheater and an ancient aqueduct… S. Nazarius, as the people of Nice narrate, taught the faith by S. Nazarius when in the very first century of Salvation he had come to Cimiez, and had disseminated the faith of Christ in it; a certain noble matron, approaching him, and placing her three-year-old son in his very arms, brought forth these words: This infant, O Nazarius, wherever you go, will follow you, until before the throne of God he sets himself with you. And these words being said, leaving the boy she withdrew. This one, indeed, as his own Acts testify, the boy was S. Celsus, his companion and a helper in the promulgation of the Gospel: whom the people of Nice, successors of the people of Cimiez, adore and venerate as their own citizen. and S. Pontius: By S. Nazarius therefore the faith disseminated at Cimiez and Nice grew so well, that about the year of Salvation CCXXX, if not before, the people of Nice had their own Bishop S. Bassus, the people of Cimiez S. Pontius, who baptized Philip the Emperor with the sacred baptism. Amantius Bishop of Nice was among the Bishops of Gaul sent as Legates to the Council of Aquileia in the year CCCLXXXI. Valerian was Bishop of Cimiez, and subscribed the Council of Riez in the year CCCCXXXIX: and afterward their Episcopal Sees were united: and Magnus is called Bishop of both in the subscriptions of the fifth Council of Orleans in the year DLXVIII. Thus Ughelli. at last it was united to that of Nice. But of the said Saints there are venerated Nazarius and Celsus on the XXVIII of July, Bassus on the V of December, and Pontius on this XIV of May.
[2] The Acts of the life and martyrdom of S. Pontius, The Acts of S. Pontius written by his companion Valerius, as the Author confesses in the Prologue, were written by one who was nourished and studied with him, and saw with his own eyes, and drank in with his ears, and a great part of it endured with him, indeed, as is added at the end, buried his body, and redeemed the Deeds of the Martyrdom from the recorders with money. His name was Valerius, which is expressed in number 3 and 17. They are indeed (as far as we can judge) as to phrase somewhat amplified by later men; they are given from MSS. yet that they are sincere is persuaded by the accurate knowledge of Pontiffs and Emperors, such as is everywhere found wanting in all those which, falsely supposed to be by contemporary authors, we note in this work; and therefore we judge that they, as to the substance of the history, can without doubt be received, even though in number 9 and elsewhere some grander amplification is found, where mention is made of the destruction of temples and the conversion of the Roman people under the Philips, the Christian Emperors. We give them from the most ancient MSS. of Claude Dupuy, and the Trier one of S. Maximinus, and a third, I know not whence transmitted to us. The same we found in the library of the Queen of Sweden: and we have, but without the Prologue, in our illustrious MS. Legendary, in which manner also it is extant in the Ardennian MS. of the monastery of S. Hubert. The same, but very much contracted, from these others, contracted, make him a Bishop. we described from the MS. codex of the Carthusian house of Utrecht, and they are extant in the Legend, printed at Cologne in the year MCCCCLXXXIII, and two years after at Louvain: of which a part, beginning from the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus, is read also in Mombritius. The same Acts finally, thus contracted, Lawrence Surius had, and with the phrase changed published: but in their original style they are extant in Vincent, book 11 of the Speculum Historiale, partly in chapter 34 and 35, partly in chapter 78 and 79. Some compendium also of the same Acts edited Ferrarius, another is extant in Peter de Natalibus, book 4 of the Catalogue, chapter 169, but not without various faults: by whom it is said that, a fire being kindled around him, the top of the amphitheater was burned: but when he had been led to the temple of Jupiter to sacrifice, the temple with the idol was reduced into dust. The same he calls Bishop and Martyr, as though, the Senatorial dignity being left, he had gone from Rome to preach in Gaul, and in the city of Cumella had been made Bishop. Peter de Natalibus follow the above-cited Ughelli and the Sammarthani in the Bishops of Nice, and call him Bishop of Cimiez. Which the same, with the other faults reported before, Galesinius brought into his Martyrology. Saussay says that, the Episcopal honor being received from the Vicar of Christ, he set out into Gaul for the cause of disseminating the Gospel, and erected many trophies there for Christ.
[3] Cult on the 4th An illustrious elogium taken from the Acts has, on this XIV of May, Usuard in these words: On the 11 of the Ides of May. In Gaul, in the city of Cimiez, the birthday of Pontius the Martyr, by whose preaching and industry, after the two Philips the Emperors were converted to the faith of Christ, he himself also under Valerian and Gallienus the Princes obtained the palm of martyrdom. Which things almost the same, the place of the martyrdom being omitted, are reported in today's Roman Martyrology, and everywhere others have mentioned him, no mention being made of the Episcopal dignity. We, having followed also all the cited Acts, and these Martyrologies, abstain from the Episcopal title: leaving to others a free faculty of judging. Baronius in the Notes on this XIV of May hands down that S. Pontius on this day was buried, but suffered on the eleventh of the same
month, which he seems to have drawn from Peter de Natalibus, who says the body was buried on the day before the Ides of May. But in the title of our very ancient Legendary these things are read: Here begins the passion of S. Pontius the Martyr, which is on the day before the Ides of May. But the Acts in Mombritius and Vincent close with this phrase: The passion of this Martyr is celebrated on the day before the Ides of May. and on May 11. Meanwhile on the XI day of May in a certain MS. Ado, preserved among the books of the Queen of Sweden, these things are held: In the city of Nice the passion of the most blessed Martyr Pontius. But perhaps these words ought to be understood of the day on which the Relics were translated to Nice. In the MS. Florarium all things are reported from Usuard on this XIV of May, the year of Salvation CCLVI being added, and again on the XI of May these things are indicated: At Rome, of Pontius the Senator and Martyr, in the year of Salvation CCLX. Which things, without sufficient examination, seem there to be thus inserted. We have the proper Offices of the Church and diocese of Agde in Narbonese Gaul, edited in the year MDCXVI: in which is prescribed the annual cult of S. Pontius the Martyr under a semidouble rite, and the Lessons of the second Nocturn from the Acts themselves are contracted, Prayer: and this Prayer is recited: O God, who grant us to venerate the venerable passion of B. Pontius Your Martyr with an annual solemnity; grant, we beseech, that as by constantly contending for the confession of Your name he merited to receive the triumphal course of divine bounty; so we, by the patronage of the same, may merit to come to the triumph of immortality. There is also now a certain Episcopal city in the same Narbonese Gaul, named from this S. Pontius, from which the cult seems to have been brought to the neighboring cities of Agde, Béziers, and others: but concerning that city we shall treat below.
[4] That the solemn veneration of S. Pontius was commemorated by Valerian Bishop of Cimiez, but with the name suppressed, in a threefold Homily, Sirmond testifies in the Preface to the Reader. An annual solemnity in the 5th century: And first in Homily XV he asserts, that the meaning of the contest having been made can lie hidden from no one, because every year the documents of his virtues are renewed, and in the love of the Saints the zeal of the whole world meets together, and everywhere from all sides they run together to the devotion of the annual solemnity, and zealously commend their tears to this Patron, and insinuate themselves with frequent patronages. If we consider how much the ash of the Martyr has bestowed on us, let us imitate in the first place the holy faith of the Martyr in confession, and let us follow his way in virtue. These things there. In Homily XVI these things are contained: Behold before our eyes is he who daily provokes us by salutary examples, and with paternal affection invites us to the fellowship of sanctity, who drenched our places with the gore of his martyrdom. Easily you recognize what special care of the duties owed to the Martyrs remains with us, the running together of pilgrims: when you see hither also foreign nations run together with the love of a devout mind, and demand the solaces of the holy Martyr. We see frequently, in the chastisement of an unclean spirit, human bodies vexed, and, the names of the Saints being invoked, the author of crimes confess his deeds. Finally from Homily XVII these things we excerpt. Among us the Christian name began from virtues, of which not only by the ears but also by the eyes daily under the presence of so great a Martyr the faith of religion is implanted. And of what Martyr at last? Necessarily of him who in this place first exercised the combat of his illustrious virtue, and showed in what order we might obtain the possession of the celestial kingdom: who from day to day teaches by example what is to be done by us, inquires what we profit. It behooves therefore in the first place, his patronage implored: that we insinuate ourselves to this Patron with frequent duties: that for us with the Lord a special Intercessor may keep watch, and commend our life by the favor of his graciousness. Understand with what honor he is to be held by us, who drenched the place of this city in the conflict of the celestial battle with his own victorious gore. The patronage therefore which faith afforded to others, the Lord of majesty has of His own accord exhibited to us. Not therefore far is he to be sought, whom we should follow. Here we have a master of patience, here examples of rewards, here the form of virtues, here the documents of merits. Let us therefore fit our soul to all patience: and mindful of the annual solemnity, let us follow by examples him whom we venerate by his merits. See what are the ornaments of the breast, which with precious silk, as the work of God, you cover, and with tawny gold you load the starry countenance: and learn what is the pomp of wounds, the Relics adorned. what the crown of tears: in what it consists to have sustained the executioner, or at how great a price it stands to have conquered the torturer, or in what exultation victory descends, compared with its sufferings. These and other things the said Valerian Bishop of Cimiez, about the year CCCCXL, concerning S. Pontius the first Martyr of Cimiez, declaimed to his citizens, some of which below at the Acts we annotate.
[5] Not far from the city of Nice and Cimiez is seen the monastery of S. Pontius, the monastery of S. Pontius constructed by Charlemagne, which they say was constituted by Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans, that he might thus restore the memory of the famous city of Cimiez, cut down by the Lombards and Saxons; and might honor S. Pontius, famous for miracles: and over that monastery he is said to have set S. Sacrius, his nephew by his brother Carloman, afterward Bishop of Nice, whose birthday is celebrated below on the XXIII of May. That sacred Relics of S. Pontius are preserved there, Relics, asserts Honoré Bouche in book 2 of the History of Provence, chapter 29, and book 5 chapter 3. There is added nevertheless in the former place, that some relics of S. Pontius in the churches of Collobrières and Figanières shine with great miracles, indeed that healings are conferred on very many sick persons, who out of devotion prostrate themselves within his sepulcher. In the very place of ancient Cimiez also the very stone, upon which his head was cut off, they say is until now shown, and from time to time upon it the holy sacrifice of the Mass is offered. There is added finally, from a certain tradition of the inhabitants, Is the head at Marseilles? that the head of S. Pontius, cut off on the hill or rock, thence fell down into the river Paillon, and thence through the neighboring sea was rolled as far as Marseilles not without a miracle, and there illumined with two torches, received by the citizens, until now preserved. Concerning which more certain monuments we require. Baronius in the Notes on this XIV of May asserts, that S. Pontius is chiefly venerated at Nice, where his venerable body is held placed again. Which same things Ferrarius reports in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. We have some annotations of the Brussels Carthusian house to Grevenus: in which on the XIII of May these things are held: At Acquaviva in the parts of Italy the translation of S. Pontius the Martyr. But whether those Relics be of the same Saint, of whom here we treat, is uncertain to us: and this we leave to be further examined by the inhabitants of Acquaviva in the kingdom of Naples, situated not far from the Volturno river.
[6] The monastery of S. Pontius at Tomières in Gaul, Ughelli in the Bishops of Nice asserts that from the now reported Abbey, the sacred relics of Pontius were afterward into Gaul Narbonese to the monastery of Tomières, which Pontius Count of Toulouse in the year DCCCCXXXVI in his honor between Pézenas and Carcassonne had constructed, carried away. William Catel in book I of the History of the Counts of Toulouse, chapter 14, describes the Acts of Pontius I the Count, and sets forth the diplomas of the founded Abbey of S. Pontius, two of the said Count, and a third of Louis the Outremer King of the Franks confirming the foundation; with illustrious mention of S. Pontius the Martyr, not however of the sacred Body or Relics. Papyrius Masson judges that Tomières was called ἀπὸ τοῦ τομεῖθαι from the cutting out of marbles, of which there is a great abundance: but whatever be the origin of the word, Saussay wrongly judged that Tomières itself is the town of Cimiez, and that there S. Pontius, his neck being cut, completed the course of his contest, and that his most sacred remains were there hidden by the faithful beneath a heap of Testimony: but afterward, the peace of the Church being divinely granted, to the monastery of Tomières, which Pontius Count of Toulouse, an eminent venerator of the crown of so great an athlete of Christ, in his honor between Pézenas and Carcassonne had built, with much religion it was carried away, and in a fitting site placed again: where so great shone the lights of this aiding Heaven-dweller, that, clients flowing together to his patronage from all sides, gradually around the monastery a town so populous coalesced, that to John XXII the Supreme Pontiff it seemed worthy erected into a Bishopric, to be raised to the dignity of an Episcopal See. To which, in the venerable memory of so great a Martyr, the title of S. Pontius of Tomières gave the name: by which even now the church and city itself, in which the Blessed rests, which he protects by his merits, greatly glory as in a special honor. Thus Saussay, things not sufficiently coherent among themselves: for he seems to speak as though the peace of the Church were only given in the ninth century. are the Relics of S. Pontius there? The Sammarthani in the Bishops of S. Pontius of Tomières, say from the MS. Chronicle of Sens, that it is narrated the body of S. Pontius rests in the monastery of Tomières. William Catel in book 2 of the History of Occitania, chapter 22, treats of the Bishopric of Tomières of S. Pontius, no mention being made of his Relics. Wherefore this whole controversy concerning the sacred body of S. Pontius we dismiss, to be decided by the people of Nice and of Tomières; perhaps some bones of S. Pontius, obtained from the people of Nice, were brought to Tomières.
THE LIFE
By the Author Valerius, an eyewitness.
From various ancient MS. codices.
Pontius the Roman, Martyr of Cimiez in the Maritime Alps (S.)
BHL Number: 6896
BY VALERIUS HIS SERVANT, FROM MSS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] The Author hands down things seen by himself and accomplished together with him. Who can believe, unless God grants it? Who can undergo combats, unless the Lord aids? Who can receive the crown, unless Christ bestows it? And therefore I, unworthy of so great grace, who with Pontius the Martyr of God was both nourished and studied, did not merit to receive the fellowship of his Martyrdom; yet by his confession and labor I believe I shall receive a reward from the Lord: because all things which I am about to say of him, I testify before Christ and His Angels, and with my own eyes I saw, and with my ears I drank in, and a great part, as I said, with him I endured. And therefore you also, that which you faithfully hear, faithfully believe: that your faith may receive a remuneration with the holy Man in the resurrection of the just.
CHAPTER I.
S. Pontius's race, birth, studies, his conversion and his father's to Christ.
[2] There was a certain Senator of the city of Rome, by name Marcus, and his wife, by name Julia: The pregnant mother terrified by a profane oracle and when they had continued in one wedlock for very many years, and had no offspring, they were afflicted with excessive weariness, so that they believed they would fail without children: but after twenty-two years, since they were joined, when they had received a son, they began together to exult and rejoice.
But after five months, when the pregnant mother with her husband went round the temples of her idols, carrying gifts and presents; she came to the temple of Jupiter, which they called the Great. When they entered it, by chance a Priest with veiled head and fillets stood at the altars. He, seized by a demon, and grasping the veil together with the fillet, began to rend it bit by bit, and wailing with a miserable voice, to fill the whole temple with his clamors: This
woman, he said, bears in her womb him who this great temple will utterly overthrow, and its gods will crush to pieces. And when again and again he repeated these words, Marcus and Julia, hearing these things, bloodless flee into a house placed nearby. And Julia, seizing a stone, beating her belly and sides, said: wishing to destroy the fetus, she is prevented by the father. Would that I might not conceive him, through whom the great temple and its deities are to be overthrown! It is better that I myself with this one perish. And when the day of giving birth had come, she brought forth an honorable boy without any blemish, whom they believed, macerated with such great sufferings, to be brought forth lifeless. But the mother of the boy, Julia, strove to slay the little one; to whom Marcus his father said: Let be, do not slay him, a if Jupiter shall will it, let him avenge himself on his enemy: but let us not lay our hands upon him. And thus the little one was preserved, Thus born he is imbued with letters whom according to their race they called Pontius: whence it happened that he was never led into the temples of the idols; but when he had come to boyhood age, imbued by great teachers, he so excelled in the letters of almost all the Philosophers and of the various arts, that, transfusing into his small little body the abundance of volumes and books which the libraries could not carry, he retained all things by memory.
[3] But it came to pass, when on a certain day, rising at dawn, he was going to his teacher, he heard at the morning Vigil the Christians, over whom presided the holy Pope b Pontianus, a Priest of the Church of God, singing psalms and saying: Our God in heaven above is, and the psalm of the Christians being heard, in heaven and on earth, all things, whatsoever He willed, He has done: the idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men; they have a mouth, and shall not speak; they have eyes, and shall not see; they have ears, and shall not hear; they have nostrils, and shall not smell; they have hands, and shall not handle; they have feet, and shall not walk, they shall not cry out in their throat, neither indeed is there breath in their mouth; let those become like them who make them, and all who trust in them. Psalm 113 When the venerable boy had heard this, he stopped, and drawing a sigh from his deepest breast, and within himself asking for a very long time what that melody was, compunct by the Holy Spirit, and bursting into tears, he began to weep: and straightway raising his palms to heaven, he said: O God, whose praise these men chant, show me knowledge of You. And approaching the door, with frequent blows he beat it. admitted to S. Pontianus And when they looked at him from above through a window, they say to S. Pontianus the Bishop: Behold a certain little one beats the gate. But Pope Pontianus, the Holy Spirit revealing to him, said: Open, and let him come to us, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. The venerable Pontius also, leaving his pedagogues in the street, and taking with him one young lad, who studied with him, by name Valerius, they entered. And when they had ascended into the upper room, and had seen them celebrating the holy mysteries, they turned aside into a place, until they had consummated the Lord's office. Then the venerable Pontius, approaching the feet of S. Pontianus the Bishop, kissed them with tears, saying: I beg you, most holy Father, that you show me the song which a little before you who sang psalms were saying: Our God in heaven is, but the idols of the nations are mute, and blind, and deaf; they smell not, neither do they feel with their hands: And what to us is more, I heard you saying: Let all become like them, and being instructed who trust in them. Then S. Pontianus the Bishop says to him: I know, son, that God has illumined your heart, that you should inquire after Him. Do not therefore all the figments made from metals seem to you, whether they be golden, or silver, or of bronze, taken from earth? Who would not understand that the stone statues, cut from rocks, and placed on carts, and drawn by oxen, are thus at last set in the forum? These are not gods, but they have arisen from earth, and a little after will return into earth. But God, in whom we hope, in heaven is, who is seen not with carnal eyes, but with the gazes of the heart. For what one sees, what does he hope for? Then B. Pontius answering said: My lord Father, who knows not that all these are without soul, and without motion? For through all the streets or squares, not to say in the forum, in the temples, in the Capitol, so great a multitude is known to be in them, that it cannot at all be numbered; and they are instituted in such diverse ways, as the wisdom of the craftsmen finds. But who would not see them set on bases, he recognizes the vanity of the idols: fixed with iron and lead, lest, overturned by the wind, they be broken? For often we have known them stolen by men, and seized by robbers: and how can they guard men from evil, who are both guarded and stolen by men?
[4] Hearing these things, S. Pontianus the Bishop, marveled that such reasoning should proceed from a boy, and holding his hand, wished him to sit with him. Then the most blessed Pontius said: If with vain-talkers and those teaching empty things we dare not sit; how with a man who shows me the way of truth for a journey of error, light for darkness, shall I sit? S. Pontianus the Bishop said: Our Master and Teacher Jesus Christ has given us such a doctrine, that we may all be one in Him, and each may give to the other what for himself he desires. And again he said to him: Have you a father, or a mother? The venerable Pontius said: My mother, it is almost two years since she died. But my father survives, elderly and aged, and or a Gentile? The most blessed Pontius said and confesses himself born of a Gentile father. that he was most wicked and perverse in the worship of his demons, beyond all men. S. Pontianus the Bishop said: God, who illumined the eyes of your heart, no man compelling, is also able to correct the perversity of your father, that through you he may learn the immortal life, through whom you came into this mortal life. And again he added: But you, my son, acquiesce to me, and believe in Christ, and receive the baptism of regeneration, through which you may be able to extinguish the ardor of eternal fire. With these and very many other words exhorting him for the space of three hours, he showed him the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then he catechized him, and his boy, and permitted them to depart. But they, having gone out, and made a Catechumen went like lambs full of pasture, exulting and rejoicing, because they had found salvation for their souls. And thus d daily they came to the man of God, hearing from him the doctrine of salvation. But blessed Pontius, still a Catechumen, so eagerly approached the divine precepts, that justly in him was fulfilled what by the Apostle was said, that where iniquity abounded, grace superabounded. Rom. 5, 20
[5] And when the hour of returning came, taking leave honorably of S. Pontianus the Bishop, and all the holy ones who were there present, he went to his father. And when he had come to his father, with his idolatrous father he treats of the faith his father said to him: Have you perceived anything from your teachers, my son? Blessed Pontius said: Never have I heard better from my masters than yesterday or today, in all the days in which I have been in study. But the father hearing these things rejoiced, hoping he had heard the vain sect of the Philosophers. But blessed Pontius, seeking opportunity, that he might make his father also believe with him in Christ the Lord, on a certain day said to his father: My lord Father, I hear from many men, that the gods whom we worship are empty, so that they possess in themselves, as they hold, no majesty, as we ourselves also in part perceive: and indeed all the lineaments of members they have, but apt for no uses. For whenever anyone wishes, a craftsman being brought in by him, according as he has substance, makes gods for himself; one of gold, another of silver, or bronze, or of any metals whatsoever. I beg you, tell me, if you have ever heard, that these, who are in our house, have shown any power, from the time they were made. Marcus his father answered: Never. B. Pontius said: Then why with sacrifices and incense do you honor them? But his father, indignant against him with great wrath, so that with a sword he wished to strike him, said: Do you do injury to my gods? After a little, his fury being calmed, he said to his son: Then, son, without gods and without sacrifice in the whole city shall we alone be? B. Pontius said to his father: Many are in this city who offer true sacrifice to the true God. Marcus his father said: And where shall we find them? B. Pontius said: Command that I go, and I will bring you a man who will show you all things more lucidly. His father says to him: Go, my son. Then B. Pontius, turned to Valerius the young man, said to him: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High: and straightway he went to S. Pontianus the Bishop, and introduced him to his father, who showed him all the sacraments of truth. But by the mercy of God Marcus believed, and is baptized: the father of B. Pontius: and together with S. Pontianus the Bishop and his son, breaking the idols with his own hands, he received the grace of baptism with the same son and all his house.
[6] and, the father being dead, he is made a Senator, But not after much time, the father of B. Pontius, Marcus, died. And then the venerable boy, having received liberty, for he was twenty years old, came to the man of God, and narrated to him all things that had been done, and concerning his father. After six months, B. Pontius, apprehended by soldiers, and led into the curia, they designate to him, unwilling and resisting, the place of his father. But this was done by divine providence, because through B. Pontius not only diverse common people, but also the very Princes were to believe in Christ. But such grace the Lord conferred on S. Pontius, that in every curia or palace by all he was especially loved. In those very days holy Pope Pontianus by a glorious death e departed to the Lord. After whom Antherus f presided over the Church, not more than one month. Then Fabian succeeding into the Pontificate, so loved B. Pontius, as a true father a true son. But holy Pontius, now perfected in the Lord, taking all his faculties, delivered them to B. Fabian g the Bishop, and distributed them to the poor, he distributes his goods among the poor. chiefly to the household of the faith. But now in what manner he first of all made the Emperors Christian, or how with the devil he contended being victorious, or how he took the palm of Martyrdom, I shall not be silent.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The conversion of the Philip Emperors to Christ and their slaughter.
[7] In the times of a Philip the Emperor, who with his son Philip was ruling the Roman Empire, there was a friend of these Philips, B. Pontius the most Christian, Invited by the Philip Emperors to the sacrifices: and most learned in all divine letters; and when there was an undivided favor among them, in the third year of their Empire (it is the b thousandth year from the founding of Rome), when they wished to go to sacrifice to their gods, they say to B. Pontius: Let us go, and propitiate again for ourselves the great Gods, who have led us into the circle of this thousandth year of the birth of Rome. Whom B. Pontius with diverse excuses strove to decline. But the Emperors, as a friend, compelled him to sacrifice. But blessed Pontius, recognizing the occasion given to him by the Lord, said: O most pious Emperors, since you have been ordained Princes of men by God, why do you not bend your necks to Him who bestowed this honor on you, and to Him alone offer a sacrifice of praise? Philip the Emperor said: Therefore I also desire to offer a sacrifice to the great God Jupiter, who granted me this power.
[8] B. Pontius, smiling, answered: Do not err, Emperor: there is a God in the heavens, who established all things by His one word, and animated them by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Philip the son of Philip the Emperor, together with his father, said: With what intention of mind you report these things, he teaches them the idols are vain we know not. B. Pontius said: Was Jupiter from the beginning? The Emperor said: No, because Saturn his father is more ancient than he, who governed the peoples of Italy with tranquil moderation. B. Pontius said: And when Saturn was reigning in Crete, before he was driven from the kingdom by Jupiter his son, did not Italy have peoples? Was he not, as soon as he was expelled, as your letters declare, and that there is one God only: received in hospitality? And again he added. Most pious Emperors, be not seduced in the vain figments of the poets, one is the God in the heavens, the father of all, who with His Son and the Holy Spirit contains all things that He made by His power. The Emperor said: If there is one God, whom you assert to be in the heavens, why do you also commemorate Him to have had a son! The most blessed Pontius said: There is one God, whom I have often testified, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things which are in them, lastly made man immortal to His image and likeness, and all things that are on earth and that above earth or below dwell in the waters, subjected to the power of man. But the devil, cast out of heaven, seeing man placed in so great honor, led by envy persuaded man to become ungrateful and disobedient to Him who subjected all things to him: and on account of the sins of men which being done, despoiled of the immortality with which he had been clothed, he inflicted death through disobedience upon himself with all his offspring: for to the devil it seemed too little once to have struck man down; but the idols, which now you call gods, he himself invented, that he might wholly separate the human race from its Creator. But the pious Lord, the Word incarnate, unwilling that the fabric of His image perish, His only Word, through whom all things that are in the heavens and that are on earth were created, deigned to send to earth from the celestial thrones: who, taking immaculate flesh for our salvation from a Virgin, came as a man that He might reform fallen man, and consign the devil with his ministers to perpetual fire. For when He showed many marvels on earth, such as never were seen, namely, that He illumined those blind from their nativity; the paralytics, who through the spaces of many times, their members withered, were destitute of bodily strength, He restored to former health; to the most putrid lepers, their flesh eaten and stinking, after many miracles the brightness of skin He marvelously restored; the dead and Lazarus of four days, all the people being present, He raised; and many other marvels, of which there is no number, He did (for what would He not reform, who had formed all things?) the Jews, not believing, but rather envying, delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the Governor, and Him who had come for their salvation they affixed to the cross: whom God raised on the third day from the dead, to have risen from death. and through many days after His resurrection conversed with men; but death, which the devil brought upon men, by dying He slew; and life by His resurrection He gave to us; that just as He Himself, rising again after that very death, dies no more, so we also, after this little and miserable life rising again, may live forever with Him. For ascending into heaven He showed the way to the faithful: whence if anyone neglects this salvation, with the devil he shall be damned forever; but if anyone believes, with Christ in the celestial kingdoms he shall remain.
[9] To the Emperors converted by him And when with these and many other words for their salvation he disputed, by the will of God the Emperors believed, and they besought him, that the mystery of this salvation, on the coming day, he would more fully open to them, in what manner they might escape the perpetual fire, and enjoy immortality with the Saints without end. And indeed from that day and thereafter, c declining the sacrifices of the idols, they commanded only spectacles to be made for the conclusion of the thousandth year, in which they celebrated the birthday of the City. Then the most blessed Pontius to the Bishop of the city of Rome, by name Fabian, who presided over the Church of God, flew; and disclosed all things to him in order. Then the holy Pope Fabian, he brings S. Fabian falling with him into prayer, said: Lord Jesus Christ, I give thanks to Your name, who through Your servant Pontius the Emperors of the Roman people to the knowledge of You have deigned to lead. But on another day, when together they had come to the Princes, and had shown the divine Sacraments, they obtained the grace of baptism. What joy then was for that city, or what sudden exultation came upon it, who could narrate? But in the beginning the temple, which they called the great, and destroys the idols with the temple: by the command of the Emperors, S. Fabian and the most blessed Pontius, seizing and breaking it, overthrew all its graven images together with the d temple from the foundations, so that all the people to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ran together with alacrity and joy, and, drenched with the wave of baptism, blessed the Lord: for where the temples of the demons were destroyed, there immediately churches arose. Behold how great things the Lord bestowed on Pontius His servant, that before all men he should acquire for Christ the Princes of the whole world: and he himself, who according to the dignity of the world was awaited as Consul by the votes of the people, spiritually consulting for men, showed them the light of truth. But this was done through four years, in which the Philips, the Christian Emperors, restrained the Roman people. Furthermore both Emperors, in diverse places, by the fraud of their successor Decius e were circumvented and slain. Our Lord, willing to test His Church as the purest gold, but to burn the chaff and stubble with fire, after the death of the Philips permitted, that also Gallus and Volusian his son should take up the Empire. Who, when in the worship of demons they had reigned two years and four months, there succeed them the cruel and persecutors of the Church of God, Valerian and Gallienus: who soon, the empire being seized, with pestiferous edicts set forth through the whole world decreed, that if anyone detained Christians with himself, and did not straightway betray them, he should pay the same penalties which were prepared for those. For all the sons of the Church, after a tranquil quiet, were shaken by the most savage tempests.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
The captivity, the preservation from the rack, the bears, and the fire: the Martyrdom, the burial.
[10] Under Valerian and Gallienus, a persecution being set in motion When B. Pontius had learned this, for a little while he hid himself in the City: but when he had by no means found a most safe place for fostering the hiding-places of his refuge, especially because the priests of the idols, who saw their temples overthrown from the foundations, were pursuing him; at last, having gone out of the City, not doing so without the Lord's precept, who said: And if they shall persecute you in one city, flee into another. And again: The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak; Matt. 10, 23, & 26, 41 he flees to Cimiez: crossing the borders of Italy, he sought a city situated far off under the yoke of the Alps, by name Cimiez. But when perseveringly the cruel precepts of the most impious tyrants pressed on, that they wished radically to exterminate the name of the Christians, and had set ministers of Satan with soldiers over all the provinces, Claudius the Governor with Anabius the Assessor are appointed Princes of the parts of Gaul. But in the beginning of their journey, having entered the aforesaid city of Cimiez, they rendered a sacrifice to the demons. And soon, in the forum preparing for themselves a tribunal, they ordered, he is set before Claudius the Governor: that whatever worshippers of Christ they had found be presented to their sight. And when B. Pontius had been led before the tribunal, Claudius, sitting on the tribunal with Anabius, with a horrid-sounding voice said: Let Pontius be brought. By the office it was said, He is at hand. Then Claudius the Governor said: Are you Pontius, who the city of Rome through I know not what seduction have disturbed; and moreover have alienated the minds of the pious Princes from the gods? B. Pontius answered: I have disturbed no one, nor subverted, but from the error of demons to the Word of the Lord I have converted them. The Governor said: My Lords the Princes, Valerian and Gallienus, hearing of you, because you are sprung from a noble family, have commanded, that you sacrifice to the gods: but if not, with persons of disgrace and vile, you shall be afflicted with diverse penalties. B. Pontius answering said: My Consoler is Christ. If I shall lose an earthly patrimony for Christ, an eternal one I shall acquire; where not earthly wealth, but brightness with the holy Angels I shall merit. Claudius
the Governor said: Why do you run about with circumlocutions of words? Either sacrifice to the gods, or your flesh with diverse penalties I will cause to be dissipated. Pontius the most blessed Martyr said: I have already told you, that I am a Christian, never will I sacrifice to demons.
[11] Then the Governor ordered him, bound with chains, into prison to be thrust, and shut in prison, until to the Emperors he had sent a report, saying: To the most pious Lords and most invincible triumphators ever Augusti, Valerian and Gallienus the Princes, your servants. Entering the beginning of Gaul, we found Pontius, who lately disturbed the city of Rome, and many temples of the gods subverted, fleeing and disobedient to your precepts. And because he is among the foremost Senators in the Palace, we caused him to be shut up in prison, until by your deliberation you should decide what concerning him it behooves us to do. after the answer of the Emperors, Then Valerian and Gallienus commanded, saying: This our Piety commands, that if he be unwilling to sacrifice, you have license with whatsoever torment you wish to slay him. Then Claudius the Governor ordered him to be brought forth from prison. To whom also he said: Hear the salutary precepts of your Lords, in which they have commanded you, either to perform ceremonies to the gods, or among the condemned to suffer diverse torments. The most blessed Pontius answered: I have no Lord except my one Lord Jesus Christ, who is powerful to free me from these torments with which you threaten me. Claudius the Governor said: I wonder at you, a man powerful, to incline yourself to such great humility, that you call your Lord a poor man and without honor, again confessing the faith whom Pilate the Governor of our Order and office, for I know not what accusation, is said to have slain; and that you do not rather call these Lords, who hold moderately the highest summit of the Commonwealth. Holy Pontius said: And I wonder at you, a man made rational, to have come to such great madness, that you do not recognize, that He, who is the possessor of heaven and of earth, for your salvation did not disdain to be poor; and Him, who in the heavens is honored by the Angels, you dare to call without honor. For that He was accused by the Jews, and crucified by Pilate the Governor, this He did voluntarily for our salvation, not by necessity, as you yourself assert. Oh! if you would to such a God humble yourself, straightway your mind to heaven you would raise, and you would recognize that you with your gods (whom it is manifest to be demons) in the depth of darkness lie. For your Princes, whom you say to govern the Commonwealth, not only themselves shall go into perdition, adoring wood and stones; but moreover the people who are subject to them, they shall draw with them. Whence know, that if in this perfidy you shall remain, out of this world most reproachfully you shall depart, and on the day of judgment, with the gods whom you speak of, in eternal damnation you shall be.
[12] Then the Governor, filled with fury, crying out to the lictors, said: Prepare all a the torments, the rack, the claw, he is hung on the rack, the firebrands, the lard, the sinew, and if there are any others, that his folly may be made manifest to all. The ministers said: All things are prepared. Claudius the Governor said: Let him be fitted to the rack and stretched, that all the torments may run through his members, and then let us see, if his God will rescue him from my hand. And when he was being fitted to the rack, B. Pontius said: Although your incredulity has called our Lord impossible; yet I, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, believe, that your penalties, reduced to nothing, will inflict no pain on my body. which being divinely shattered, And when on the rack he was being stretched, and the ministers, the levers being applied, were turning back the pulley, with a great sound the rack was shattered, so that, reduced to dust, it did not appear, and lifeless by the sudden crash were rendered those who were there present. But holy Pontius, glad and without any terror, said: Even now, unbeliever, learn, that our Lord is powerful to rescue the pious from temptation; but you, the wicked, on the day of judgment to consign to perpetual fire.
[13] in vain he is cast to bears, But Claudius the Governor, indignant beyond the usual terror, is troubled. Then Anabius the Assessor said to the Governor: Wisest of men, at our coming two bears have been brought from the mountains of Dalmatia, of marvelous size: command an amphitheater to be prepared, that, devoured by them, he may have no burial. By the command of the Governor an amphitheater is prepared, and B. Pontius is set down in the arena: straightway, having gone forth, two hunters, with whips and sinews according to custom, when they had stood in the middle of the arena, and had provoked the bears against the Holy one of God, they, coming out of their cages, each seized both hunters, and so tore them, that, who they had been, did not at all appear. Then, coming to S. Pontius, they did not dare to approach nearer, nor the feet of the Martyr to kiss, on account of the gore of the pagans; but prostrating themselves a little farther off, they were permitted to inflict nothing of injury on the holy Martyr. Then the clamor of the people is raised to heaven, all the Gentiles cry out: One is the God of the Christians, whom Pontius worships.
[14] Then at last the Governor, made savage with pride, and crackling with rabid voices, began to cry out and say: Now, now bring an abundance of wood, and all that can afford increase to the tinder of the fire, and if with I know not what incantations, with which b the art of the Marsi is wont to mitigate the anger of serpents, and he is placed on the pyre: this man has been practiced; now I will see if he can command the fire. The most blessed Pontius answering said: Have you found an objected crime in me, that with these flames you slay me? but may the eternal inextinguishable fire slay you. My God is able, who rescued three boys from the furnace of fire unharmed; also to free me. But, a multitude of wood being gathered, the tyrant ordered the Holy one of God to be bound c hand and foot with chains, and in the middle of the arena to be set; but a multitude of wood around him to be built up, and fire to be set under. And when it was done, the fire, whirling with flames on high, and twisting the sand, eluded more than the summit of the amphitheater: and all things being consumed, which for the food of the fire had been prepared, so the servant of God appeared unharmed by all the d burning, that not even the fringe of his garment did it injure.
[15] And at last the Governor, conquered and confounded, said; Have you overcome all kinds of torments, and therefore do you now glory that you may escape the remaining torments? Behold the nearby venerable temple of Apollo, approach, and sacrifice. B. Pontius said: I sacrifice my body to the Lord Jesus Christ, which until now from the pollution of idols I have kept immaculate. For upon you, and your Princes, he laughs at the power of the Princes: swiftly shall come the divine vengeance, because unjustly you persecute the servants of Christ: although the Lord has not permitted you to inflict a stain on my body, yet apply whatsoever torments you wish. Then the Governor, seeing his constancy, craftily said to him: And indeed we ought to have been judged by you, but according to your Clemency you are judged by us: and since you are the first of the Senators, trusting in I know not what vain hope, both power and riches you lose. Holy Pontius said: The power of this world or riches are like the morning mist, which in the eyes of men seems to cover the lands and mountains or the seas: which if the wind blows through, straightway in a moment of time, as if it had not been, it utterly vanishes: for the glory and honor, which I desire, remain forever. Then the Jews, sought for death by the Jews who had gathered to the spectacle of the Amphitheater, began to cry out and say: Slay, slay the sorcerer. But blessed Pontius, raising his hand to the heavens, said: I give thanks to You, Lord, because, just as their Fathers cried out about Christ, Crucify, Crucify; so these also against me have used the same words. Then the Governor, inflamed by the devil, cried out, and said: For not only to me alone, but also to my princes he has done many injuries. Then he gave a decree, saying: Lead him, and on the rock which overhangs the brook, behead him: and his body downward cast. And when it was done, the Holy and Venerable Pontius consummated his Martyrdom to the Lord, he is beheaded. and with the palm of victory his soul sought the heavens.
[16] Not much time after passing, fulfilled was the word which S. Pontius had foretold. Valerian, namely the Emperor, led into captivity e by Sapor King of the Persians, not by the sword, but by mockery all the days of his life, received his deserts for his deeds; so that, as often as King Sapor wished to mount his horse, not by his hands, but with bent back, and with foot placed on his neck, he set his limbs on the horse. But Gallienus, when he wished to enter Milan, apprehended by his soldiers, a little after the tyrants also perish. with swords was f pierced through. But Claudius the Governor, and Anabius the Assessor, at the same hour in which holy Pontius was beheaded, seized by demons, were suffocated. For Claudius cut his tongue bit by bit with his bites; but the eyes of Anabius, torn out of their sockets by the force of pain, hung by the thinnest skins along his face: and so it came to pass, that in a moment of time both expired.
[17] On account of this there was made a great fear among the Jews and the Gentiles, and all that city; and the sepulcher of S. Pontius the Martyr they venerated with admirable honor. The young man Valerius, who had been nourished with him, fearing to carry away his body for fear of the Gentiles, by night buried it in the place in which it lay. But the Deeds of the Martyr, redeeming them from the recorders with money, taking them with himself, a little boat being found, to the parts of Libya, because of the persecution, he turned aside. But the Lord received His Martyr in peace: to whom is honor, glory, empire, and power forever and ever. Amen.