Martyrs

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS,

SENTIANA, VINCENTIUS, SANCTIA, JULIANA,

AT BLERA IN SUBURBICARIAN TUSCIA.

from the Martyrology of St. Jerome.

Sentiana, Martyr at Blera in Suburbicarian Tuscia (S.)

Vincentius, Martyr at Blera in Suburbicarian Tuscia (S.)

Sanctia, Martyr at Blera in Suburbicarian Tuscia (S.)

Juliana, Martyr at Blera in Suburbicarian Tuscia (S.)

G. H.

Blera, a midland city of the Tuscans in Ptolemy, whose inhabitants are called Blerani by Pliny, Blerates by Strabo, the fatherland of Sabinianus the Pontiff, substituted for St. Gregory the Great, is now a small town in Suburbicarian Tuscia or the Patrimony of St. Peter, between Viterbo and the Tyrrhenian sea. To this city at the XXV of May the Epternach Transcript of the Hieronymian Martyrology assigns several Martyrs in these words: In the city Blera of Sencianus, Vincentius, and Scanta, Policrates and four others. The Lucca Transcript of the same Martyrology thus opens this day: VIII Kalends of June, the Island of Tuscia, in the city Lera, the birthday of SS. Sentianus, Vincentius and Sancta. Where the Blume Ms. instead of Sentianus has Sentiana. The rest are explained in the Corbie Ms. printed at Paris, in which these things are read: In the soil (that is in the domain) of Tuscia, in the city Blera, the birthday of SS. Sententiata, Vincentius and Sancta Juliana: and St. Dionysius being interposed, of Polegratus and four others crowned, as also in the Lucca and Blume, but Polecratus is written. That the name of the Crowned pertains to these, is established from Usuard, Ado and others; or certainly it is intruded in the place of "in the city Gortyna," where the following Martyrs in the Epternach transcript are celebrated, as will soon appear. The name of Sentiana is inscribed in the Paris Ms. of Labbe; for which in the Augsburg Ms. of St. Udalric is read Sentiatus. But the names of Vincentius and Sanctia are recounted in an ancient Ms. of the Aachen church. We represent therefore in the title SS. Sentiana, Vincentius and Sanctia, with Juliana from the Corbie Ms. adjoined. But Policrates and the others we have transferred into the province of Moesia, and of them above we treated. We give moreover below the Life of St. Senzius the Presbyter, also at Blera deceased, but in the fifth century, neither also crowned with martyrdom, and so from Sentiana and Sanctia as a different one we separate him; and we only note that the name of Sentius (whence the name of Sentiana is derived, just as from Quintus Quintiana) seems anciently to have been familiar enough to the Blerans, equally as to the Romans: from whom however I would not deduce the Centios, if there are today at Rome or in the neighborhood families so called: because Centius, by aphaeresis of the first syllable, from the use of a later age persevering until now, is the same to the Italians, as if it were written entirely Crescentius or Vincentius or Decentius: but the surnames of modern families we believe have nothing common with those most ancient ones, except the sound of the syllables, sometimes the same or akin.