Roman Martyrs

ON THE HOLY ROMAN MARTYRS

CALOCERUS AND PARTHENIUS

EUNUCHS OF THE WIFE OF DECIUS THE EMPEROR.

IN THE YEAR CCL.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. The cult from the Martyrologies. The old Acts from MSS. Relics in the Abbey of Moiremont in Lorraine.

Calocerus, Martyr at Rome (S.)

Parthenius, Martyr at Rome (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[1] The memory of these illustrious athletes is inscribed

everywhere in all the sacred Latin calendars, and with it

the ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology

auspicate this day. The most ancient of these,

the Echternach, has thus: At Rome the birthday of Calocerus,

Parthenius, eunuchs of Decius the Emperor and of his wife,

or (as Rabanus, Ado, and Notker write) eunuchs

of the wife of Decius the Emperor. In the Lucca

and Blume copies these things are added: who, since one of

these was Provost of the bedchamber, the other Primicerius, unwilling

to sacrifice to idols were slain by Decius, and rest

in the cemetery near the Appian Way. The same things in almost the same

words are read in Ado, Notker, and others, the burial being omitted

in Florus, Rabanus, Usuard, and several

others with the present Roman Martyrology: at which

in the Notes Baronius treats largely of the dignity of the Primicerius or First

in various offices, whom let the Reader consult. Of the place of burial

in the cemetery at S. Xystus Aringhi treats, in Subterranean Rome

book 3 chapter 15 number 2, and the words, which in the Acts

concerning their burial are had, he alleges. Peter de Natalibus

book 5 chapter 17 treats of the same, and calls the wife of Decius

Tryphonia, who afterward having embraced the faith of Christ and

died holily, is venerated on the XVIII of October, inscribed in the Roman

Martyrology and others. SS. Paternus and Calocerus mentioned

in the Liège MS. of S. Lawrence and in the MS. Florary on the

XXIX day of May are not to be distinguished from these, as neither those whom the genuine

Bede and from him Rabanus, Notker, Wandelbert, and

Galesinius mention on the III of the Ides of February, At Rome of Callocerus

and Parthenius: which perhaps is the day of the Translation into Gaul

of which presently. Finally the same are those whom Notker has suffered at Rome

on the XVIII of April: but only Parthenius

is also to be found on the XVII of April, in a certain enlarged

Usuard in the possession of Christina Queen of Sweden. We have the Acts

copied from ancient codices, the Trier of S. Maximin,

the Paris of James Sirmond, and another of ours: likewise from the Utrecht

of S. Salvator, and they exist in the codices of the monasteries

of S. Hubert among the Ardennes and of Bödeken in the diocese

of Paderborn. Sirmond added this Passion taken

from an ancient and faithful MS. Grave indeed is the writing and

which you could believe almost wholly taken from notarial acts,

so plain and simple is the manner in which the interrogations and answers

proceed: in those things, however, which the author added of his own at

the beginning and end, he was deceived by the name of the Decian persecution;

or rather by the authority of the Acts of S. Lawrence, naming Decius the Emperor

D. P., as if under him that man had suffered together with

S. Sixtus the Pope.

[2] That some Relics of these Martyrs are in the church

of SS. Sixtus and Silvester in the Campus Martius, The Relics translated into Gaul writes Piazza

in the Roman Sanctuary: but the better part was long ago carried away

into Gaul. Since the restoration of the Monastery of Moiremont

gives credence, that the Relics of these in the diocese of Châlons

at Moiremont were venerated before

the year MLXXIV, as William Marlot notes, at his history

of Reims part 2 book 2 chapter 1, producing the charter of Archbishop

Manasses, marked with such a year and Indiction XII on the very

Kalends of November, in which it is thus read. This

Abbey, by Count Nanceius under the number of twelve

Canons, The Abbey of Moiremont endowed by Count Nanceius, assiduously serving God there, copiously

established, and with all its (which was manifold) possession

handed over to the sustenance of the Canons of S. Mary, so

distracted by the hands of the violent and the injury of the possessors

and lost had failed, that it was reduced to the title

of one Priest, who with rare access ministered to the Relics of the holy

Martyrs Calocerus and Parthenius, there negligently

placed. To the negligence of which holy Martyrs

and to the destruction of their Abbey

compassionating with the zeal of piety our son Oldoricus Provost of the Church

of Reims, with the counsel of our Predecessor

Gervasius and the consent of the Canons, it is restored in the 11th century. for that place

sought out and made a reparation, that there he might establish

monks, who continually to God and the holy Martyrs

might serve. To the sustenance of these what lands from the ancient

possessions the Chapter of S. Mary restored, and under

what conditions, the same charter explains. But such things it nothing

concerns here to add more fully; more to the point would it be to know, who was,

and when lived that Count Nanceius; for it is probable

that he himself is the one who brought the aforesaid Relics from Rome,

perhaps having accompanied Charlemagne or some one of his later

Emperors going thither to take the crown:

by whom not ineptly one might suspect Nancy was founded,

afterward the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, noble by the name,

seat, and sepulchers of its Dukes.

[3] Certainly that Abbot-Canons were known in the age of Charlemagne,

is agreed from his first Capitulary chapter 32, its defender from a robber Guido: to which

presently correspond Regular Abbots: so that it is no wonder, if

in the VIII or IX century such an Abbey was erected, in a place

commonly called Moirmont: which Abbey (as the following

charter there has) was committed to a certain Monk by name Galterus

for providing and for augmenting:

who when with all his strength he labored to restore the things destroyed, and

the few little servants scattered around through want of famine

to recall; a certain Soldier from a neighboring castle, which

is called Vienne, Drogo by name, began to impede

his zeal. But by the judgment of the assembly by Odolricus, and

the sentence of Duke Godfrey compelled, after, a pledge being offered,

he had made satisfaction for the damages which he had inflicted on the Saints,

the same Provost pardoned him all, on this condition that

thenceforth he should be held not a plunderer but a guardian of the place.

This had been done under the Archbishop of Reims Guido, to whom

Gervasius succeeding in the government, to the monastery of the aforesaid

Martyrs assigned a certain Monk, John

by name, as guardian: whom I Manasses

(says he himself writing these things) ordained the first Abbot of that

place, and somewhat diminished its poverty in that place. and the son Raignerus, corrected by his own misfortune. Which Abbot the aforesaid Soldier

Drogo held as a familiar and defender of his Abbey…

After whose decease his sons

Raignerus and Gualterus, the compact of their father not kept,

rose up against the holy place, and afflicted it with many rapines.

Of whom Raignerus, with an inevitable (as he thought)

wound smitten, asked the aforesaid Abbot that he would come to him:

in whose presence by confessing he bewailed the evils which he had done,

promising that he would thenceforth keep the things of the Saints if he survived.

Moreover, his brother

and the rest of his kinsmen consenting, he gave for his soul to the holy

Martyrs Calocerus and Parthenius whatever by right

of inheritance between the rivers Aisne and Bionne he possessed.

[4] That the Abbey is of the Benedictines Marlot indicates,

which although the Sammarthani have not in tome 4 of Gallia Christiana, Whether thence the Relics were brought to Reims?

yet that it still survives in the Deanery of S. Menehould

(where also the Topographic maps express the name of the place,

near Neuville at the bridge of the Aisne) we know from

the General Pouillé of France of the year 1648, and that it is of the Royal jurisdiction:

but whether there those holy Relics still are we know not,

and we should believe them translated to Reims, did not Marlot make this doubtful.

For the words of the Gallican Martyrology being alleged where

it is said, At Reims the birthday of the blessed Martyrs Calocerus

and Parthenius, whose, after the glorious contest in

the cause of faith accomplished, sacred remains, brought to the monastery

of S. Remigius, received fitting cult:

Of this translation our authors are silent, says he:

whereby he seems also tacitly to hint, that neither today in that

monastery is anything of such Relics known.

THE PASSION

From various MS. Codices.

Calocerus, Martyr at Rome (S.)

Parthenius, Martyr at Rome (S.)

BHL Number: 1534

FROM THE MSS.

[1] Therefore among the Roman Emperors, the first Christian

was a Philip. He made his son

Philip a partner of his reign. And so,

when he had founded in Thrace the city Philippopolis, After both Philips the Emperors were slain.

these two reigning the thousandth year of the city

of Rome was completed. At this time b Aemilianus, an illustrious

man, was summoned from the parts of the East: who when

he had come to Rome, exercised the Consulship. This therefore

Aemilianus, before he laid down the fasces, found the office of life. (i.e., died)

Who also left a surviving daughter by name

Calista, whose surname was Anatolia. Philip

therefore the elder is slain at Verona by Decius, and Philip

the younger at Rome, both namely most Christian.

Decius therefore is raised up as Emperor, a sacrilegious man,

who had slain both Princes. in the persecution stirred by Decius, Then on account of

these conceiving hatred against himself of the Christians, the Bishop

of the Roman city, c Sixtus by name, he slew,

and his venerable Lawrence the Archdeacon.

He sent also to Jerusalem, and ordered the Bishop

of that Church d Alexander to be slain: but also the holy

Babylas, the Priest of the Antiochene Church:

hoping, the madman, that if he should remove those, who were the heads

of the Churches, the whole body of the Church would perish. But

the mad man, wounded with the poison of his frenzy, enlarged the glory

of the holy Martyrs and Christians,

and most cruelly slew his own soul. But the Saints,

when they were thought to be conquered by slaying,

being slain conquered better: who despising all temporal things,

to the eternal and perpetual, despising

the momentary, life hastened.

[2] So therefore there are accused before King Decius e Calocerus

and Parthenius, SS. Calocerus and Parthenius offered because to them his own Eunuchs

the dying Consul Aemilianus had commended his daughter.

To whom when the King had sent and made them to be presented

to his sight, he said to them: I hear that you sacrilegious

Christians being made, the whole patrimony of Aemilianus

the Consul are overturning: but also that you have so deceived his daughter, that

she rejoices that you drain the riches left her by her father, and

bestow them on the basest persons. Calocerus said: We

have done that which was commanded us by our carnal lord:

for Aemilianus the Consul was a true Christian-worshipper, and

left his wealth to be bestowed on the poor. Decius

the King said: they despise the threats: Be ready to sacrifice to the immortal gods,

that my censure toward you may be able to be mitigated.

Calocerus said: I fear not thy censure, but

God's: for thy censure is today, and tomorrow will not be;

but the wrath of God punishes with eternal torments those, who

besides

besides God Himself worship another. Decius said:

Since you are young men, elegant and rich, why do you

desire to lose life, and seek a dishonorable death?

Calocerus said: A dishonorable death thou seekest,

who believest thy God a stone or bronze: but I

shall not be able to have a dishonorable death, who

believe that God, who everywhere reigns and rules.

Decius said: By the Gods and by the Goddesses, since

if you shall sacrifice, I will make you my friends: but if

you shall despise to do this, with various torments I will punish you.

Calocerus answered: Let him desire to be thy friend,

who fears not to have God his Lord

an enemy. For as much as thy friendships are bitter

to me, so much the sweeter to me are thy enmities.

Decius said: Parthenius, what sayest thou? Parthenius answered:

What Calocerus said, I also say: for one

is to us the will and the faith. Decius said: Therefore

does this please you, that despising my precepts

you should die the death? Parthenius answered: The death, which

thou threatenest to bring upon us, is our life, and therefore we do not

fear thy wrath, because from it is born to us life

perpetual, and a crown with the eternal palm.

[3] Then Decius angry said to his Prefect Libanius:

Tomorrow morning in thy secretarium let them be tortured with various

torments, if they shall despise to sacrifice: but if they shall consent,

both join them to thy love, by command of Libanius the Prefect, Calocerus being variously tortured, and present them to my friendships.

Libanius therefore the Prefect of the City, sitting

on the Tellus, ordered them to be brought in one by one to the secretarium.

And when Calocerus had entered, Libanius said

to him: I ordered thee to enter for friendship's sake: if it please thee, to be

Calocerus answered: Whoever shall wish to have thy friendships,

incurs the divine enmities: and therefore of thy

enmities I care not, because thou conciliatest to me as much love of my

God, as I shall be aggravated by the enmities of thy hatred.

Libanius said: Our Lord the Emperor

Decius commanded, that whoever shall not have sacrificed to the gods, with various

torments should perish. Calocerus answered: Our Lord

Jesus Christ, the eternal King and true

God, said: Everyone who shall have sacrificed to idols, shall be rooted out.

Libanius said: Let him be hung on the rack. And when

he had been hung and was being burned with torches, and was being scraped

with claws, Calocerus said: Did I not tell thee, Libanius,

that thy enmities exalt me, and make me

acquire a fuller grace in the sight of my King?

Do thou meanwhile devise harder torments: for the flesh

thou canst tear, but the soul wrestling for faith and truth

thou art not able to conquer. The Prefect Libanius said:

Since I see this man with a rebellious mind to choose blows and torments

rather than to fear them, remove this man,

and bring in his colleague.

[4] Parthenius therefore being brought in, Libanius said:

Tell me, Parthenius, what is the cause of the hardness of thy brother,

that with so many blows and the rack drained, and with flames

burned, and with claws dug, he in no way would consent

to do the precepts of the most sacred Emperor?

Parthenius said: Parthenius expounds the mystery of the Incarnation and the life of Christ, Because these torments have an end,

but those which for those sacrificing to idols are prepared,

have no end at all. Libanius said: Whence

knowest thou this? Parthenius answered: Christ the Son

of God, that He might succor men, assumed a man,

whom a virgin conceived, a virgin bore, a virgin after the birth

remained. Him first of all born, and laid

in the cradle, Angels descending from heaven, praising

and adoring, showed to the shepherds of the sheep.

Likewise the shepherds adoring Him, what had been done

about them they had seen and heard, among their acquaintances simply

preached. Likewise the Magi, by the indication of a great star

coming from the head of the East, offering gold, frankincense, and myrrh

in their gifts, adored Him.

Him while King Herod sought among the infants that

he might slay Him, and found Him not, all the infants from two years old,

who were in the city of Bethlehem, he caused to be slain. Him

His father God, who reigns in the heavens, opening the heavens

made manifest saying: This is my beloved Son, in

whom I am well pleased, do you all obey Him. He

therefore overcoming all the temptations of the devil ascended

eternal to them to show, and through what works

they might be able to obtain glory and life perpetual. After

these things He began to preach to the people of the Jews, and to say,

that the souls going out of the bodies, if

they shall have been defiled with idolatries or fornications, or

polluted with human blood, are delivered to eternal fires:

but those which from these crimes or other iniquities

shall have been clean, free from eternal punishments,

shall enjoy eternal delights. Then the Jews said: Whence

canst thou prove it? The Lord says to them: Bring to

me the blind and the lame, and as many as you have sick.

And when there had been brought the blind who there were, He illumined them,

to the deaf hearing, to the lame walking, to the paralytics health

He restored, He healed all infirmities, and demons

He cast out from the possessed, so that even the unclean spirits themselves

cried out; We know, that Thou art the Son of God, send not

us into the abyss. He commanded also the winds, the tempests

by His command He restrained, upon the waves of the sea with dry feet

He walked, but the dead He so raised, that even one who had four days

in the sepulcher He recalled to life.

Who when He did these things, likewise of the passion, resurrection, and ascension: and gave this power even to His disciples,

He said to the Jews: If you believe not the words,

at least believe the works. But they not only did not believe,

but even their God, to them often promised

through the Prophets, they crucified. Who being crucified

and dead, on the third day rose again, and through forty

days eating with the disciples, He bade even Himself to be touched,

lest they should doubt of Him, but strong and firm in His

faith should persist. But also all things which He had spoken to them

before the passion, the same He repeated after the resurrection;

and commanded them that His faith into all nations

they should preach, and baptize them all in the name

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. But after the fortieth

day of His resurrection, all His disciples

seeing, He ascended into the heavens in great power.

To which disciples astonished when after Him they

gazed, His Angels appeared saying, Why

astonished do you gaze into heaven? This Lord, the Lord

of us all, as you saw Him going into heaven,

so will He return at the end to judge the whole age.

This therefore is our faith in Christ, which by torments

is not conquered, by flames, by swords is not overcome.

[5] Libanius the Prefect said: As I see, my God

Jove, is the true God: for thy God, and he despises Jove: as thou

thyself hast asserted, was crucified: but Jove never

laid down his omnipotence, nay rather with empires

enlarged it. Then smiling Parthenius said: Thy Jove

lived in a barbarous manner, an adulterer of wives, a defiler

of boys, a parricide also and a fratricide, but

also his own sister he usurped as a wife. Him if thou

believest thy God, with him thou shalt be burned with perpetual

fires. Then the Assessor of the Prefect rending his tunic

cried out: The gods will be angry at us, if these

shall not have been burned up with fires.

[6] unharmed by fire, Then Libanius the Prefect ordered them with fires

to be burned up. Sent therefore into the fire, when they remained

unhurt, the minister angry, snatching up a burning club

bruised their heads: but they praising God,

gave up the spirit. Whom when the striker saw to have expired, slain with clubs,

that he might indicate their end he proceeded: and at once

the bodies of the Saints by the Christians were carried off.

But Libanius commanding, that they should be cast unburied

into the wood, those who had slain them returning, reported that they had found

no indication at all of their bodies.

Then holy Anatolia, she buries them, St. Anatolia, whose servants the bodies

of the Saints had snatched away, she herself by herself laid them

in a crypt, in which had been placed f the body of S. Sixtus the Pope

venerable, whom Decius the Emperor had slain, and

there with all diligence buried, so that even with porphyry

columns g she adorned their sepulchers: in

which place the benefits of their martyrdom abound unto

the present day. These were from the Province of Armenia,

sons of one father and mother, Calocerus the elder,

Parthenius the younger in age. They suffered on the XIIII day

of the Kalends of June, Decius h Augustus and Gratus

being Consuls, Christ God and Lord being propitious, to whom

is honor and glory through all ages of ages.

Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

August. But these suffered in the year 258, under Valerian and Gallienus, whose

persecution continued after the Decian is everywhere attributed to Decius, even in

their Acts, which the author of this Life imitated.

of Antioch on the 24th of January; but these by Eusebius book 6 of Eccles. Hist. chapter

23 are said under Decius together with S. Fabian to have suffered, as at their Acts

it is more fully deduced.

g After

the death of Aurelian in the year 275 (for up to here lasted the persecution begun by Decius)

the Christians enjoying full peace everywhere began to adorn martyria,

to raise churches, to hold assemblies almost publicly, until the

times of Diocletian and Maximian. In this decade of Ecclesiastical peace

therefore can be believed even this deed.

ON S. JOHN THE MARTYR,

TRANSLATED FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO VENICE,

UNDER MAXIMIAN.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the apocryphal Acts of S. Procopius wrongly applied to him; and on the Time and acts of the Translation, from an Italian print.

John Martyr at Constantinople, translated to Venice (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

According to the custom of the Patriarchal

Church of Venice, and also

by the indult of the Apostolic See, to celebrate

the Office of those Saints,

whose bodies rest in the churches of the diocese

of Venice, is prescribed

in the Order of reciting the divine office according to the rite

of the Church and diocese of that place: to this one now celebrated at Venice, which Order we have

printed by the authority of John Francis Morosini for the year

MDCLVII: and in this on this XIX of May, unless

it be transferred, is prescribed the feast of S. John Duke of Alexandria

the Martyr to be celebrated under the semidouble rite; because

his sacred body is preserved in the church of S. Daniel,

and all things are recited from the Common of a Martyr not a Pontiff.

The Mass Laetabitur, the Gospel If anyone will, the Oration, Grant

we beseech that by the intercession.

[2] Peter de Natalibus in his Catalogue of Saints (which

he composed about the year MCCCLXX, the Acts of S. Procopius applied, then Parish-priest of the Holy

Apostles in the city of Venice, then Bishop of Equilio

near Venice) on this XIX of May applies to the same S. John

which in Surius from the Greeks are had on the VIII of July at length

deduced, and presenting more the appearance of a pious tragedy than of true

history. In this epitome the still

Gentile name of the Martyr Neanias, the maternal lineage from the Chiefs

of Aelia, and the extermination of the Christians with the Prefecture of the city of

Alexandria committed by Maximian, the Victory gained

over the Saracens after Christ recognized from an apparition,

the idols of his mother Theodosia destroyed, the various tortures borne

under two successive Presidents, of whom the last was called Flavian;

then of very many soldiers converted by his example,

and the martyrdom of his mother and of twelve women companions,

are described in altogether the same manner and order,

as in the Acts of S. Procopius; this only changed, that the first

President in Equilinus is called Ultio, but in others Justus;

and for Alexandria of Syria, Alexandria

of Egypt seems to be taken; but the name of Caesarea

Philippi is passed over in silence, in which Procopius is said to have consummated his

contest, and Leontius to have held the Episcopate, named in the epitome fabricated under

the name of John, as if he had been Bishop

of Alexandria. Finally for that which is said of S. Procopius, that by

the sentence of the judge his head was cut off with the sword; of John

it is asserted, that by command of Flavian, with the sword in the throat

and a lance in the breast transfixed he consummated his martyrdom

on the XIV of the Kalends of June: and thus the entire Legend,

of which that is a compendium, we found under the note of the day

XIII of March (where perhaps it should have been written of May) in a certain

MS. Passional of the Camaldolese Hermitage; but the supposition being

then already noticed we would not copy it, more usefully occupied.

[3] From Equilinus shorter eulogies of the same S. John on

this day received, first Grevenus, and hence the eulogies taken. in the Additions

to Usuard printed at Cologne in the years MDXV and XXI; then

Witford, in the Anglican Martyrology of the London edition

of the year MDXXVI. Galesinius, whom Ferrarius follows in the general

Catalogue, has thus: At Alexandria in Egypt

S. John the Martyr, who under Maximian the Emperor,

bitter torments being exhausted, with a notable testimony of piety, He seems to be the Egyptian who is celebrated at C.P. on the 20th of September.

bore the crown. He adds in the Annotations that he

took these things from Greek tables. But those on this day

have no John, or another who could be drawn hither:

but well on the XX of September, in the Menaea printed and manuscript

various, they bid be commemorated the Contest of the greatest among

the Confessors John the Egyptian, whose liberty and

confidence of speaking not able to bear the impious * Maximian,

ordered him with forty others to be slain.

But where? When thou readest John the Egyptian, easily

wilt thou believe him to have suffered also in Egypt, perhaps thence brought from Alexandria on the 13th of March. and the body at Alexandria

to have been in honor, until thence it was translated to Constantinople.

But that this same one be believed who to Venice

afterward was carried, it is necessary not only that on the XX day of September

his memory there was celebrated, but also on the XIII day

of March: since from the History presently to be given it is clear,

that for our John of whom we treat an annual festivity on such a day

was wont to be held. But what afterward moved the Venetians, that even

that day being passed over, and likewise the III day of July, on which among them

in the year MCCXV was made the placing of the sacred body, to Venice 1215, the 3rd of July. in that place where

now it is venerated, they should assume the XIX of May I could not easily say.

I suspect nevertheless that by reason of a certain building

to be constructed in honor of the Saint, as is said below number 8

the Body being brought to the monastery in the past XVI century, on such

seemed more opportune for the annual cult of the Saint, than the XIII

of March, wont to be occupied by the Lenten mourning.

[4] Further desiring to be informed more certainly of all things, I wrote

to Venice to him whose faithful service I had used in S. Anastasius,

R. F. Daniel Simonetti; and asked, not that the history

of the passion from the monastery of S. Daniel he should seek (for this none

there to be had genuine, it was already sufficiently agreed) but the history

of the Translation he should investigate, and at the same time of the present cult and state

of the sacred body should make me more certain. He did at length

what he had been asked, the excellent Father, through a noble man, in that

monastery a familiar, and to whom anything could be entrusted; and the desired

narration, and this besides from his hand

of the Divine John, at Venice in the church dedicated to S. Daniel the Prophet,

lies supine, in all its members whole

on the altar; with the head indeed toward the rising sun

turned to the Gospel horn of the same altar, but the feet

to the Epistle horn. There is a stone ark above the altar,

which holds another wooden ark, with vermilion on the outside

colored, in which lies the body. No door to either

ark: for their fronts not by a turning hinge

in the manner of little doors are closed and opened, but

through two channels on either side they are raised whole and

depressed. The front of the ark is of ebony, with precious little stones

inset; the front of the wooden ark of crystals.

The holy Head with a Venetian Ducal horn-cap is covered:

the breast with a band woven of gold with the needle, the whole body

with a silken cloth, and woven of gold in the Indian manner. The feet

bare, but covered only with a translucent veil, as also the face.

The teeth white with none lacking; and the flesh soft

to the touch. Further on the twentieth day of July, when of S. Daniel

the vigils are kept, and famous for miracles. the holy body is washed with odorous water

by a Presbyter, in the presence of another Priest, the Confessor of the Nuns:

which water then for pious uses, especially

for taking away the sicknesses of bodies, is distributed.

But in lapsed times the flesh diluted by the water was blackened,

and seemed to contract spots of a certain corruption:

therefore now only with soft cotton the flesh

is touched, which then put into water

renders the same venerable, as if it had immediately itself

washed the holy body. Very many through His saint

the omnipotent God wrought miracles, which to describe

would be long: in the history of the translation some are narrated,

and are confirmed by new ones, as the votive tablets, and other signs

hung at his altar testify. Wherefore in the greatest

veneration he is, and especially among those Nuns,

who say (which also in the history is narrated) that they are admonished

of imminent death by a noise emitted from the ark, in which

the holy body laid away lies. Thus he: now let us exhibit

the history of the translation itself rendered into Latin

from an old print, without the name of the printer prepared about the year

1516.

* yr. Maximinus?

THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY

From an Italian print of about the year 1520 for the use of the Monastery of S. Daniel at Venice.

John Martyr at Constantinople, translated to Venice (S.)

FROM THE MSS.

[1] It is manifest and to the whole world most known, how

the Lord our God subjected the city of Constantinople

to the Latins: On account of the sins of the Greeks nor less

clear is it that that revolution is to be imputed to the wickedness

of the Greeks; who spurning the unleavened bread of truth,

presumed to confect the sacrifice in leavened bread,

saying that the Holy Spirit the Paraclete proceeds from the Father alone;

and to the holy Roman Church they denied

the due reverence and subjection, although

it represents Peter the Prince of the Apostles on

earth, asserting that it was not set over the Constantinopolitan:

in great contempt also they held

their Emperors, and against them repeatedly rebelled,

most cruel deeds and most wicked sins

from the lust of ruling committing. But the Lord, Constantinople taken by the Latins,

the supreme and supercelestial Judge, subverted the iniquities

of the infidels, slew most powerful Kings, the kingdom

of Canaan destroyed, and a stupendous and unheard-of Victory

gave to the Latins; subjecting to a small army

an infinite multitude of peoples, and to the generous

poverty of ours yielding their cowardly opulence:

so that it can be said, in the captivity of that city

was fulfilled the vision a of Daniel the Prophet, when

the city, adorned with the sanctuaries collected of almost all Greece,

and enriched with gold and most precious treasures,

was made into the plunder and prey of the Latins. b

[2] The Venetians, who had given the beginning c of so great a victory,

divided the empire of the city with the Franks, and the churches, To certain Venetians fell the monastery of Psychosostra.

despoiled and stripped of inestimable riches, left

to their own Priests and Ministers: who of these

the principal, equally as the palaces and public places of the city,

divided among themselves. And thus it happened, that a monastery

situated in the square which is called Pulchra, and

in Greek named d Psychosostra, as it were Saviour

of souls, fell to the part of two noble

Venetians, Marcus and Martinus the Gorzi brothers;

who gave it to John Prior of S. Daniel at Venice,

to be held in the name of the monastery of S. Daniel. Further

in the place of John there was constituted at Venice Prior a certain Roboaldus,

to inspect in person. There was on the opposite side of the said

square not far thence another church, in Greek

Theotocou, that is e of the Mother of God, named. When therefore

on a certain day, namely the thirteenth of March, the same

Roboaldus stood in the door of his monastery; he saw

approaching the church Theotocou and questioning the people,

what was there; he heard, that, From the church of the Mother of God near to this the body of S. John when

the Constantinopolitan state flourished, not only from the whole

city, but even from the surrounding cities and towns

the faithful were wont on such a day yearly, with singular

affection of religion, to run to visit

the body of S. John the Martyr. As the Prior Roboaldus

heard these things at once a thought came upon him,

by what means he might be able to obtain that holy body,

and translate it to Venice.

[3] Desolate was the monastery, of which had been the aforesaid

church, nor any one there, for the custody of that sacred

pledge, abode: the Prior of S. Daniel carries it off secretly. but its care had been committed

to a certain old man, who every evening closed the building

and betook himself to his own house placed far thence,

so that without the knowledge of this doorkeeper no one

could enter there. The Prior nevertheless, with zeal and desire

of obtaining his vow burning, taking with him

he entered, opened the most adorned chest of the holy

body, and wrapping it in a silken cloth

secretly transferred it to the monastery of Psychosostra, the chest

itself so composed leaving, and translates it in the year 1215 that the doorkeeper returning in the morning

in no wise observed that it had been moved.

Then at an opportune time he transferred into a ship the acquired

treasure, with the highest devotion and singular gladness

anointed in affection; yet so, that what the matter

was, he concealed from the sailors: and landing at Venice the

most holy body he placed in f the monastery of S. Daniel,

in the year of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ the thousandth

two hundredth fifteenth, on the third day of July.

In which monastery, through the merits and intercession

of the glorious Martyr John, the Lord God deigned

and deigns unto this day many and as it were

infinite miracles to work, of which some more select

we will recount.

[4] Let the first and the same the greatest be, that since

this most holy athlete of God was slain in the year of Christ

two hundred and eightieth g and ninth, for extolling

the merits of His most glorious Martyr and the instruction of our faith,

God willed to preserve whole

his most blessed body, still incorrupt, with an altogether admirable

fragrance of odor, the vicissitudes of celestial influences and planets,

by which human bodies are oftener

altered, Christ restraining lest they be able to corrupt

it. But the venerable nuns of this place,

through the merits of their and our mother the glorious Virgin

Mary, and of the divine champion and Martyr John, from the same

Saint received a very exceptional privilege,

and as I think h without example, that whenever

of any of them the extreme term of life is at hand, this to them

the Soldier of Christ signifies some months or days

before, and was wont to give a sign of imminent death to someone. as it shall have pleased. For his body in the church

is kept in a gilded chest, before which is stretched a grating,

furnished with votive offerings of silver, in testimony

of the miracles wrought by the intervention of the Saint.

When therefore one is about to die and to render her soul to the Father

eternal, this glorious Saint anticipates the appointed term,

with a certain sweet motion running through

the said offerings at the grating, and rousing a sound by no means

ungrateful: which hearing one announces to the other Sisters,

saying: Be ye ready: S. John has struck

the grating.

[5] Incredible perhaps will seem to hearers a thing so

rare: A Novice unwilling to believe it in the year 1516 yet it is most true: which by a more recent

example we can confirm. In the sixteenth

year above the thousandth five hundredth, when a certain

girl received into the Order had entered the monastery,

and heard of S. John the Martyr from the Sisters,

how by a given sign he admonished them that some one

there was about to die; she smiled within herself, nor would she believe

those affirming. Then six years passed

without the death of any one; and when now a nun on a certain

night had risen to Matins, and these according to custom

being chanted she had remained in the church (for free

it is there for the Nuns whether they wish after the office to

return to rest or not) she found herself alone in the choir beyond

custom, the sixth year having elapsed she experiences it through herself. and for some time prayed. At length

the dawn coming and she wishing to depart, and making

before she rose the due reverence to the most holy Sacrament,

she heard a certain noise, sweetly

sounding to the ears. She paused, nothing of the Saint

thinking, and soon again perceived a similar sign: nor

did she leave the place before she had a third time heard struck

the coffin, in which lay the holy Martyr. Then truly

the truth being manifestly recognized, she was terrified; nor without

sake that sign had been given: wherefore commending herself to God,

she asked pardon of her past incredulity. Nor

long after it appeared that that sign had been by no means fallacious,

and one of the Sisters died; which seen she gave thanks to God,

who had given her with eyes and ears herself to apprehend

the truth, yet revealed nothing to anyone

before all had been fulfilled. In the same error

was a certain Religious of the Convent of S. Mary

of Charity, who on a certain day sacrificing at the altar, above

which the body of S. John rests, as also a Religious Priest. perceived the grating

struck; and wholly stupefied believed from that hour that

of which before he had doubted; and with the greatest devotion

finishing the Mass, to God and the holy Martyr thanks

he rendered for the consolation granted him, and from that

time he was most piously affected toward the athlete of Christ.

[6] A certain noble Matron; when she lay paralytic,

so that she could not even move a foot, caused

to be brought to her the coverlet, with which the holy body is covered;

and covering herself wholly with the same with most devout

tears, and supplicating the Saint, a paralytic woman is healed by the touch of his coverlet, she (which thou mayest wonder)

at that hour with a little help began to raise herself from the bed,

but on the following day by herself most freely

walked, whence both to God and to S. John she professed the gratitude

due. Another woman of equal nobility

lay at the extremity, swollen all over; whose infirmity

the physicians themselves confessed to be unknown to them.

A certain kinswoman of hers heard this, another cured by him through a kinswoman invoked a Religious of the said monastery,

and commended her to the holy Martyr,

vowing certain vows for the sick woman. Immediately

she began to be healed, and from day to day stronger

she shortly recovered. It was then said to her, what for

her that nun had done, and how by a vow

made to S. John she had recovered health. But

receiving such an announcement with laughter, and the Saint

despising, the unbeliever suffers a relapse. at once she felt her former

infirmity with the swelling return to her; and shortly into

such a state was she reduced, that she no longer bore the human form

any more, nor amid most acute pains and most grievous

torments hoped that she could live. Considering herself

such, she began to ask indulgence

of her incredulity, and to entreat God and His Saint

for the recovery of health, the vow which before

she had hooted at being confirmed: and forthwith she felt herself much confirmed,

and within a few days free from every ill,

through the merits and intercession of this glorious Martyr:

wherefore to God and to him thanks are to be rendered.

[7] A certain man no less noble by birth and office,

than illustrious in morals and works, likewise laboring with a pestilential fever, was afflicted

by a continual fever, whose malignity

livid spots scattered over the whole body indicated: and beyond the hope of cure seemed to be the offending humor,

because his most weak i stomach received no

medicines, but at once vomited them up again: whence

destitute of all strength, and blackening all over, and vehemently

inflated he was, when it pleased God His creature,

by the merits of the holy Martyr intervening,

to free. For turning a little to the rail k of the bed,

he merited to behold S. John himself altogether most beautiful

and most splendid as present:

and comforted by that sight, with much devotion

and faith to him he commended himself, a vow added if he should recover:

and at once nature began to be lightened, the depraved humors

being cast out which seemed to suffocate him:

and then by little and little he advanced to entire health,

to the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of His most glorious Martyr,

ever and by all to be glorified.

[8] There was brought to the monastery, where he rests,

which also afterward was done. But the time of probation

being finished, when the Mother of the monastery together with

her Chapter wished, that the same girl by the bond of sacred

Profession should bind herself; there invaded her at once a most cruel and

most bitter infirmity, namely a perpetual fever, then

paralysis, at the last finally a most fetid wound and

horrible to see appeared on the back of the poor little one: who not even

ceased not with a terrible wailing to attest the vehemence

of the torments by which she was tortured; nor could she

either by another be moved by a light touch, or be to herself

within the cloister, by reason of a certain building

to be constructed in his honor, because not yet was it

in a sufficiently decent place. But when in such a state remaining

the girl, unexpectedly heard the procession

and the chants of the nuns, piously bearing the sacred body;

from those few, who had remained with her, she asked

for a singular favor, partly in the translation of the body that they should carry her to the door of the place where

she lay, so that more conveniently she might hear the sweetness

of that chant; or rather from devotion toward

the Saint, so that health being obtained from him she might be able

to make her Profession. And so the most holy

body passing thither, she supplicated as devoutly as she could,

that he would free her from so great a calamity. Nor much after

she began to walk a little, but very imperfectly,

in the manner of infants forming steps step by step,

and sustaining herself by a staff. On a certain day therefore,

when the poor little one not yet well healed remained in her little cell;

she understood, that at that hour was opened the chest

of S. John, partly in the showing of him. and therefore the whole college of the Nuns

hastened to the choir, that those most holy

members they might behold, she alone remaining in the cell.

But at length the same desire of seeing increasing more vehemently,

she took the staff, the accustomed support of her weak

members; and began also thither

to make her way, whither the others had gone before, not without confidence

of obtaining entire health. But when she came

to the entrance of the choir, she saw conspicuously the Martyr

standing in Ducal habit, and with a face above the rays of the sun

splendid: whence wholly trembling from awe, and inflamed

with love, no word at all could she

utter as she desired; but when for some

time she had so stood, she began to move herself and

to walk toward the sacred deposit. But when she

came hither, the holy Martyr disappeared; and she remained

full of joy; and dissolved into most devout tears,

ardently she asked full health. A wondrous thing! The Sisters rising

from that place, there rose also that girl;

and casting away far the staff, erect she walked

and free, feeling no pain at all. All present were astonished,

so great a miracle being seen;

and the mind being raised to heaven they rendered immense thanks to the eternal God

and to His most devout servant, so great

gifts bestowing on those invoking his patronage. But

lest miracles of this kind be multiplied to infinity

(for innumerable could be told but with weariness of the hearers)

one more I will narrate and will finish.

[9] It happened to a certain nobleman that for certain causes he had to set out

into the kingdom l of Cyprus; where when he was he took a wife,

and some time being passed cheerfully

with her and all his fortune he returned into his country. Another at last a paralytic now dying is preserved,

After a longer course of time happily spent,

since nothing is stable in the world, changed

also was the joy; because before they had reached

the senile years, the woman seized by paralysis, was fixed to her bed;

and the ill advancing for the worse, nor the medicines

helping anything, at length to the extremities reduced. There was

to them in the monastery, where the holy body rests,

commanding that with faith they should place it over the sick woman.

Which when it had been done, a little after the aforesaid

sick woman saw come to her two most splendid young men:

whom as best she could she asked who they were.

But one of them answered; SS. John and Daniel appearing. I am John, and

this my companion Daniel, and we have come to help thee.

Then she thanks being given commended herself to them,

and within her mind conceived certain vows, and amid

these the vision disappeared. But she daily more confirmed,

at length came to the monastery, narrated what

had happened, fulfilled the vows, to the praise of the eternal God,

and of His most sweet and our mother Mary the Virgin,

and our advocate S. John the Martyr, and patron

and defender S. Daniel the Prophet, whom we pray

that they protect this city and the whole Christian

people from every ill, and intercede for the infidels,

that these also may know the truth, which

is Christ. Amen. m

a I know not

what vision the author indicates, unless perhaps he looks to Chapter 5, where

to Balthasar King of Babylon is foretold his kingdom to be divided, and

to be given to the Medes and Persians.

m There was added:

Here ends the Legend of the holy Martyr the Lord John, with his Translation from Constantinople to Venice, and a few some of his miracles, to the praise and glory of himself. Amen.

ON THE HOLY ROMAN MARTYRS

PATERNUS, GALLICOLUS, URBANA, INDICUS, SELEUCUS, FELIX, CLONICUS, CRESCENTIUS, CALONICA, JULIA, URBANA, INGENUA, SATURNUS. ON THE APPIAN WAY, IN THE CEMETERY OF CALLISTUS.

From the Martyrologies.

Paternus, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Gallicolus, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Urbana, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Indicus, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Seleucus, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Felix, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Clenicus, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Crescentius, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Calonica, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Julia, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Urbana II, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Ingenua, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

Saturnus, Roman Martyr on the Appian Way (S.)

G. H.

In the second place these Martyrs are celebrated in the ancient

copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology and in the MS.

codex of the Queen of Sweden which Holstenius praises:

where, after the cited Calocerus and Parthenius,

it is thus read: Likewise in the cemetery of Callistus on the

Appian Way the birthday of SS. Paternus, Gallicolus, with nine others.

Which eleven by their names the said Martyrologies

of S. Jerome explain: and the Blume MS. indicates them thus: In the cemetery

of Calestus on the Appian Way the birthday of Paternus, Galicorus,

Orbana, Indicus, Seleucus, Felix, Clonicus, Crescentius,

Calonica, Julia, likewise Orbana. Who in the same number and

order are indicated in the Lucca; but the names of three, of those

Paternus, Galigorus, and Incidus are written. In the Echternach MS.,

the palaestra of martyrdom being omitted, in the place of Paternus and Gallicorus

are the names of Prennus, and Gallus, Curus, as if there were two

distinct Martyrs, then of Urbanus the Confessor mention is made:

but because near the end is repeated likewise Urbana, the reading of others

seems to prevail: besides in the place of Clonicus and Julia are named Donicus and Julica. In the Corbie MS. printed at Paris

is wanting in the first place the name of Orbana or Urbana,

and afterward Urbanus is written: likewise in the place of Clonicus and

Crescentius, is the name of Aelonicus and Christus, near the end are added

the names of Ingenua and Saturnus, which in others are wanting.

In the Tamlacht MS. are the names, Paternus, Gallus,

Curius, Urbana, Judicius, Seleucus, Felix, Clorinus,

Crescentius, Colonia, Julia, Urbana. Who as Leader and

Standard-bearer of the others is Paternus, the palaestra being omitted, is indicated

in the MSS. Aachen, Augsburg of S. Udalric, and

Paris of Labbe; but wrongly is joined the name of the Martyr

Caestus, since the cemetery of Callistus is indicated. The same Paternus

is called Bishop in the MSS. Trier, the double Liège

of S. Lambert and S. Lawrence, likewise in the MS. Florary; and

under the name of Parthenus in the Prague MS. In the MSS. Reichenau

and Rheinau is celebrated the memory of Urbanus and Seleucus,

and in the Aachen MS., and in Grevenus and Canisius

Urbanus Pope and Confessor is called. But by others

Urbana rather, or Orbana, and to these Martyrs is joined.

Of the famous cemetery of Callistus treats Aringhi

book 3 of Subterranean Rome chapter 11; of the same we have often

had to treat. The body of some Martyr Paternus, from Gregory

XV received, is preserved at Bologna in the temple of S. Francis,

of which consult Masinus in Bologna surveyed.

ON S. ARENUS THE DEACON,

MARTYR AT ALEXANDRIA.

From the Martyrology of S. Jerome and others.

Arenus the Deacon, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)

G. H.

This glorious Martyr many Martyrologies indicate,

even the ancient ones ascribed to S. Jerome:

but in the most ancient Echternach codex

the palaestra is omitted, which is indicated in the copies

Corbie, Lucca, and Blume, likewise in the MSS.

Roman of Cardinal Barberini, Rheinau in Helvetia,

Reichenau in Suevia, Trier of S. Maximin, the Ado

of Liège of S. Lawrence and in the MS. Florary, in the same words everywhere:

At Alexandria the birthday of S. Arenus the Deacon. Notker thus

writes: At Alexandria of S. Irenaeus the Deacon, who

in the Prague MS. Herenus the Deacon is called. In the

Tamlacht MS. in Hibernia twice the name of Arenus is inserted. The name

of Irenaeus, being Greek, in an Alexandrian Martyr pleases more,

than the name of Arenus, and nothing could more easily have happened,

than that to the Latins, first pronouncing the name with aspiration,

in writing in the place of H an A should creep in: yet to the greater

number of copies, concordantly writing Arenus, after our

manner we defer the reverence of the more powerful suffrage.