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 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.
CommentaryPaternus, 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.