ON ST. SYMMETRIUS
AND THE OTHER XXII MARTYRS AT ROME.
ABOUT THE YEAR CLIX.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Their Martyrdom & cultus: the body of Symmetrius, whether at Lierneux: the fabulous Acts.
Symmetrius, Martyr at Rome (St.)
XXII, Martyrs at Rome (SS.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
The most ancient memory of these Martyrs is found in the Life of SS. Pudentiana & Praxedis the Virgins, which is held to have been written by S. Pastor, The history of the martyrdom: elucidated by us at the XIX of May. In this, when the Dedication of the Church had been indicated, built in the baths of S. Novatus the brother of S. Praxedis, performed by Pius the Roman Pontiff; these things are subjoined: After two years & eighteen days, a great persecution of the Christians was made, that they might be dragged to the worship of idols, & many were crowned with martyrdom. The Virgin of the Lord Praxedis fervent in the Holy Spirit, hid many Christians, whom she both fed with food & with the word of the Holy Spirit. Then it was divulged to the Emperor Antoninus, that an assembly was held in the Title of Praxedis: & he sent & seized many, among whom he also seized Symmetrius the Presbyter, with twenty-two others: whom without interrogation he commanded to be punished by the sword in the same Title; whose bodies B. Praxedis gathered by night & buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, on the seventh day of the Kalends of June. Then B. Praxedis, saddened by the affliction, groaned, & prayed to the Lord, that she might pass from this world: whose prayers & tears came to the Lord Jesus Christ. For after * thirty-four days, after the martyrdom of the aforesaid Saints & their crown, the holy Virgin migrated to the Lord, on the twelfth day of the Kalends of August: whose body I Pastor the Presbyter buried, beside her father, in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian way. These things are read in our various Mss. & in Mombritius. But Paulus Aringhus book 1 of Roma subterranea chapter 15 number 6, & book 4 chapter 28 number 4, alleges a Vatican Ms. codex in which these things are read: Whose bodies B. Praxedis gathering by night, drawing also the blood with a sponge, which still exists, from the pavement, buried them beside her father & sister, in the cemetery of Priscilla.
[2] The Relics were afterward elevated & distributed into various churches: The Relics where? whence Abbot Piazza in the Santuario Romano asserts that in the church of S. Sylvester in the Campus Martius a great part of the body of S. Symmetrius is kept, but a part is in the church of the Four Holy Crowned Ones. The same affirms Octavius Pancirolius, in the Tesori nascosti of the city of Rome, where he treats of each church. As for the time of the Martyrdom, in today's Roman Martyrology those Martyrs are said to have suffered under Antoninus Pius: to which assertion although the great persecution of the Christians indicated in the Acts seems to be repugnant; The time of the martyrdom yet we showed at the day XIX of May that it can easily be reconciled with the moderation which Antoninus mostly used; & accordingly that nothing hinders, but that the whole matter was done, & S. Praxedis herself died, about the year CLIX: nor have we need to weave again here the things said there. In Usuard these things alone are read: At Rome of the Holy Martyrs Simmitrius the Presbyter, the name in the sacred Calendars. & the others XXII. To which these things are added in Ado: Whom the Emperor Antoninus caused to be punished by the sword for Christ: whose bodies B. Praxedis gathered by night, & buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the day VII Kalends of June: Similar things have Notker, & the author of the Martyrology struck under the name of Bede, & the more recent here and there with Peter de Natalibus book 5 of the Catalogue chapter 58 & several Mss.
[3] Some Body at Lierneux: And these are the things which are had more certain concerning S. Symmetrius & his companions the Roman Martyrs. Meanwhile in the chief heritage of the monastery of Stavelot is the parish of Ledernacum, commonly Lierneux, of the diocese of Liège, but inserted into the dominion of Luxembourg: there the chief Patron is held S. Symmetrius the Presbyter & Martyr, under whose invocation the said church was founded; and this, as they relate, by Papolenus the second Abbot of Stavelot, & successor of S. Remaclus, who brought up the body of the said Symmetrius at Rome with the authority of the supreme Pontiff, & placed it in the said church, where these sacred Relics are enclosed in a silver casket, & from immemorial time were preserved in public honor, & in some solemnities carried about in a public procession. But the chief feast of the Saint is there celebrated with great veneration on this XXVI of May, on which his name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology. There is moreover mention of the place & Martyrdom in the second book of the Miracles of S. Remaclus, written by Nodgerus, where he has these things. The estate of Lierneux is assigned to our monastery: in it is the church of S. Symmetrius & others, illustrious for virtues. But it was decreed, Chapeavillus witnessing in the Notations to chapter 14 of Harigerus on the Deeds of the Bishops of Tongeren, that the aforesaid village should recognize itself a daughter of the Church of Stavelot, under a tax of one esterling to be paid from each house; & that they should carry the sarcophagus of the Martyr yearly on the ninth day of May to Stavelot with hymns & procession, as a token of filial subjection. Of the same Translation make mention Miræus in the Fasti Belgici, Fisen in the Flores Ecclesiæ Leodiensis, Saussayus in the Gallican Martyrology, & Gelenius in the Fasti Colonienses, who again touch upon it on the day IX of May, but Gelenius adds that some Relics of S. Symmetrius are among the Ubii, wherefore also IX of May it is reported in the general Catalogue of Ferrarius.
[4] We have obtained a twofold Life of S. Symmetrius from Gamansius & Crusius Priests of our Society, The Life from the Mss. twofold, because fabulous, is omitted: sent from Aschaffenburg & Cologne; such as also Chapeavillus found among the Ms. codices of the monastery of Stavelot & of the Church of Lierneux, & diligently surveyed. Christophorus Browerus also had those Lives, & judged the same of them as Chapeavillus, that they are besprinkled with many fables: nor is our opinion of them other. For they narrate that S. Symmetrius was raised in infancy by S. Maternus, & on that occasion Albana his mother with her offspring received the Sacraments of the faith, to whom Symmetrius the sixth Count of Salm, brother of Albana, gave the name. The former part is taken from the Life of S. Valerius, Bishop of Trier, illustrated at the XXIX of January; in which chapter 3 it is said that S. Eucharius raised the dead son of the matron Albana, & baptized her with her own & consecrated her house a church: where we then noted that it is to be reckoned among the fables, that S. Symmetrius is said to be the son of this Albana, & raised not by S. Eucharius, but by Maternus. But for the second part Browerus observes, how, the fame of the Martyr translated to Lierneux growing, it was easy to believe, that for honor's sake one of the neighboring Counts of Salm had rather taken a name from the Martyr, than that it had come to the Martyr from the Counts: which others, to flatter the said Counts, inverted. Then S. Symmetrius is said, after the death of S. Maternus, to have been delivered to the teaching of Navitus, the second Bishop of Tongeren; & then is narrated his journey, now an ordained Cleric, to Rome, where ordained Presbyter by S. Pius the Pope, he suffered Martyrdom under Antoninus, as is read in the Acts of S. Praxedis. These things being thus ill stitched together, the Author of the writings sent to us by Gamansius complains in the Prologue, that the Saint had lacked the honor due to him in the Village of Lierneux, while who, what kind, how great he was was unknown to the inhabitants of the region: but at length, says he, within the city of Rome… partly in the Apostolic Archives, partly in the Deeds of the Pontiffs of Tongeren & Liège, the book of his life & passion was found: in which the lineage & native land of the same glorious Symmetrius, the palm & cause of his martyrdom, as also the translation of his most sacred clay… are fully found described. But we are not moved by these, because we know how those things could have been found in the aforesaid Archives & Deeds.
[5] The other Ms. beginning from the mission of S. Maternus & the hundred-and-first year of the Incarnation, proceeds everywhere with almost the same words, with which the former Author, beginning from the coming of S. Peter to Rome: but in the title this Life is said, drawn with entire faith from the genealogical series Ms. of the most illustrious Counts of Salm; which series of what kind it is, learn from the old (as is pretended) verses, once found in the Abbey of Stavelot, of this tenor:
Born offspring of the Tongeran blood of Kings, O Werner, the first glory of our soil; In these verses are commemorated the deeds of holy Symetrius, By whom the citadel of Salm was ennobled. Here in few words receive the race of the Counts & the foundations of the castle, First placed on the Salm soil. Among the Tongerans by the ninth King Colongus That noble work rises constructed: His brother, by name Salmon, received the offer, From whom the Salm land was named. Then Richarius takes up the scepters of the empire, his Son Martialis succeeded to the honor of this soil: The fourth Mansuetus reigns, the fifth Julianus; Then Symetrius takes the kingdoms left to these. At the time when a certain matron, called Albana, Was joined to this illustrious Count by blood: the verses on the Genealogy of the Counts of Salm agree Whose offspring she had, whom in his first age Atropos snatched away, for whose sad funeral the parent Groaned, & suddenly venerating holy Maternus Begs his aid: life & warmth return to the boy. Hallowed so often at the font, from that Symetrius, The first Christian Prince, he has his name. Then he turned his journey to the thresholds of the Roman See After six lustra of his age accomplished. Whom when cruel impious Antoninus slays By slaughter, & his spirit seeks the heights of heaven: Whose body, the Pontiff not refusing, was brought to Stavelot With Baboleno as suppliant. Afterward placed in a splendid bier at Lierneux The land, which was the portion of Stavelot, of the soil.
[6] How not new it is for the origins of illustrious families
to be adorned with fables, nor is the history of the Translation more sincere, we have often seen: nor does he deny this who now holds the Principality of Salm, the most Excellent Tutor of the Imperial Prince Joseph, joined to us by some familiarity, & once deigning to search in the Museum of our study for the way by which he ought to lead his ancestors to the Royal stock of Charlemagne; nothing solicitous about the fabulous Kings of the Tongerans, first excogitated not many ages ago. Nor does the style of the aforesaid verses savor of a greater age, and thereby they persuade that that Werner, to whom they are inscribed, is the very one whom Hieronymus Henninges, in his Genealogical work Tom. 4 page 386, teaches to have been born of John Count of Salm & Rifferscheid, & Elizabeth daughter of William Count of Henneberg, joined in matrimony in the year MDXXXVIII. Be that as it may, all things are fabulous. But neither is the history of the Translation from Rome to Lierneux much better compacted, described consequently after Lives of this kind from a certain popular tradition; while in it Honorius the Pope is said, having heard the fame of S. Remaclus, who about the year DCLII, his Episcopate abdicated, was governing the monasteries of Stavelot & Malmedy, to have sent from Rome S. Babolenus, from the monastery of S. Andrew at the Scaurus slope, with power of visiting all the monasteries of Austrasia, professing the Rule of S. Benedict: who, having discharged that office of his Visitor, & report being made to the Pontiff, asked license to return to Stavelot, & to carry there the body of S. Symmetrius: but this being brought, not long after S. Remaclus died, & in the governing of the monasteries the aforesaid Babolenus succeeded, who, the Lierneux church being built, & consecrated by S. Lambert the Bishop, brought thither the aforesaid sacred body in the year DCLXII.
[7] I would not indeed move a suit with the Author of such a narration concerning the chronology of SS. Lambert & Remaclus, & say that this one was first ordained in the year DCLXXVII, They will join the Papacy of Honorius with the Prelacy of S. Remaclus. that one abdicated in the year DCLX: Pope Honorius alone suffices to overthrow the whole fable, of which name the First died in the year DCXXXIX, the Second was first elected Pontiff in the year MCXXIV. Yet the people of Lierneux, & their Pastor Paschasius Ronval, seem to have looked to this Second Honorius: who indicated that Honorius the Pope, with whose consent the Relics were transmitted, governed the Church about the year one thousand fifty-two, by letters given in the year MDCLXXI to P. Philip Schouville, Missionary of our Society in the dominion of Luxembourg: for this Honorius sat even to the year MCXXX. Thus while one error is avoided, another no less abnormal is incurred. For Notgerus Bishop of Liège, who (as we saw) mentions S. Symmetrius brought to Lierneux, died in the year MVII, & accordingly CXVII years sooner than Honorius II should be promoted to the chair of S. Peter. Nor yet meanwhile shall I deny, that that body which the people of Lierneux venerate, is of some S. Symmetrius who suffered at Rome, or (if you will) even of this very one of whom in the Acts of S. Praxedis, or of someone of that society of twenty-two Martyrs. I will also suffer it to be said brought by Babolenus, the Roman Pontiff permitting; provided he was Vitalianus, who from the year DCLXXI governed the Church. Of which matter more can be said at the Birthday of S. Babolenus XXVI of June. Meanwhile, that the style & genius of the insipid Author may be better known, we subjoin here whatever history of the Translation.
Annotation* nay, fifty.
THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY
From Rome to Lierneux in Belgium, Diocese of Liège, received by a tradition mixed with fables.
From two Ms. Codices.
Symmetrius, Martyr at Rome (St.)
XXII, Martyrs at Rome (SS.) BHL Number: 7966
[1] It remains next to explain, in what manner that noble treasure, namely the body of the glorious Martyr Symmetrius, To S. Remaclus from Bishop made Abbot of Stavelot & Malmedy, came to the place where it now rests. Inasmuch as the renowned Confessor Remaclus, after he had presided over the Church of Tongeren happily for the courses of seven years, wearied of the cares & labors which accompany the Pastoral office; according to the voice of the Psalmist, lengthened his flight, wishing to remain in solitude, & in purity of heart, to serve the Lord alone tranquilly. Therefore with the consent of Sigibert b King of the Franks & the Nobles of the Palace, renouncing the Episcopate, he was made Father of two monasteries, namely of Stavelot & of Malmedy; which the aforesaid King in the very forest of the Ardennes, under the rule of the holy Father Benedict c & in honor of S. Peter, built with a solemn endowment, for the use of the servants of Christ, whom he there gathered by divine inspiration. These things were done about the year of the Lord six hundred fifty d two.
[2] And when the fame of his sanctity & of his confreres grew frequent through the mouths of all, it came at length to the ears of the most Blessed Pope e Honorius, who governed the most sacred Roman Church at that season, S. Babolenus sent from Rome by the Pope, & rejoiced with the greatest affection over the advancement of religion. Now there is within the walls of the city of Rome an excellent monastery, beside the church of the Blessed Martyrs Cosmas & Damian at the Scaurus slope, which the Blessed Pope Gregory & chief Doctor built in his own house, in honor of B. Andrew the Apostle; in which he himself took the habit f of the monastery. In which monastery there was a certain great man, both in religion & in knowledge, Professor g of sacred Theology, namely Babolenus, by name Papomoleus, at that time deputed by the holy Apostolic See Father & visitor of the whole Order of S. Benedict throughout the whole h world. Him, I say, called forth from the monastery, the venerable Pope Honorius destined to the parts of Gaul & Germany, for the sake of visiting the several monasteries which had been dedicated under the Rule of the most holy Father Benedict.
[3] he is received by the same, And when the same Master of the Order, most of the monasteries being visited, had come to Stavelot; the chief Abbot thereof the most holy Remaclus being seen, & the most excellent religion which then flourished there irrefragably & unshaken, & persevered for almost two hundred years, namely even to the rage of the Normans i without diminution; forthwith he asked to be received as a Monk by S. Remaclus, & obtained it. Which holy Remaclus, not many days after, substituted him as Governor of the Malmedy monastery in part for himself: which he also for some space of time most skillfully governed under regular discipline.
[4] Not long after, the same venerable man Babolenus asked of his most holy Father Remaclus license to return to Rome, whence returned from Rome, that to the supreme Pontiff Honorius he might fully & plainly report what he had seen & found in the legation entrusted to him. The holy Man, assenting to the same just petition, permitted him with a blessing to go back to the first monastery. All the matters being fully explained, in the presence of the supreme Pontiff, which had befallen him on the very journey of the legation; Pope Honorius reckoned Brother Babolenus truly fortunate & happy, who, having obtained a tranquil life in the present world, in the future was to receive eternal glory & reward. He added at the same time, that he should ask what was just, that it would not be denied him. He asked therefore that it might be decreed by the Apostolic seal, that the monastery of Stavelot ought to be the chief k & principal, among the other Cœnobia of his Order which were built in the Kingdom of Austrasia. To which the Pontiff willingly gave assent, & copiously strengthened it with Apostolic privileges: which thereafter the public will of the Kings & Dukes of Austrasia followed.
[5] The holy Man understanding that he had by no means suffered a repulse in this prayer, ventured to ask greater things. Namely that it might be permitted to carry some bodies of the Saints, which in the City of Rome in subterranean places & crypts were hidden & worshiped with little devotion, to the monastery of Stavelot, he obtains the body of S. Symmetrius, for the exaltation of that place & the amplification of the divine worship. These prayers being heard the Pope, since it seemed worthy not to contradict his will, replied, that, the most holy bodies of the Apostles Peter & Paul being excepted, by whose merits the City stands safe, he should take whatever bodies of the Saints pleased him, & carry them with him into his Province. l But the honorable man Babolenus himself, a most diligent explorer of such things, inasmuch as he had fully recognized through revelation & experience & sacred scripture, in what places the bodies of the Saints were entombed, by what kind of martyrdom they had ended their life, or of what regions they had been native, taking from the cemetery of S. Priscilla or from the title of the Blessed Virgin Praxedis the body of B. Symmetrius, & the relics of many other Martyrs very well known to him, carried them with him to the Cœnobium of Stavelot, the Blessed Father Remaclus being still alive. Who over the incomparable treasure transmitted rendered immense thanksgivings, with an inward sigh of his heart, to the Lord creator of all, who had sent back the native of that very land, after so many courses of times, to his proper country in which he was born, for its eternal protection.
[6] Some time after, the venerable man Babolenus, & made Abbot of Stavelot, by the ordination & will of the Blessed Father Remaclus, as has been said before, being taken in the government of the Malmedy Cœnobium, the same Blessed Remaclus in a good old age m faithfully departed from the world: to whom by the assent & decree of all the Fathers the oft-named Babolenus was substituted, for the governance of both monasteries: which he happily & skillfully attended for no small space of time n. Nor long after, opening the desire of his heart, he transfers it to Lierneux. he ordered a bier to be made compacted of gold & silver, in which he placed the glorious Martyr Symmetrius. But going to the village of Lierneux, the chief & perpetual heritage of the monastery of Stavelot, he ordered a Parochial Church to be built. Which the most blessed Martyr of Christ Lambert with his own hands, in honor of the Saints Andrew the Apostle & the Martyr Symmetrius, solemnly dedicated, & there placed the sacred Relics with fitting honor, & enriched the aforesaid place with many indulgences & estates, in the year of the Lord o six hundred sixty-two. And it was decreed, the inhabitants consenting, whence yearly it is carried back to Stavelot. that from that day forward the aforesaid Village should recognize itself a daughter of the Church of Stavelot, under a capital tax of one silver Esterling [p], infallibly to be paid from each house, & every year on the ninth day of May the sarcophagus of B. Symmetrius was to be carried to the monastery of Stavelot with hymns & processions, for the space of two miles, as a token of filial subjection; who, the solemnities of Masses being there celebrated, & the divine offices completed, should all return home with joy, to the praise & glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father & the Holy Spirit be power, honor, & dominion, through infinite ages of ages.
NOTES AND CENSURES. D. P.
constituted the monasteries according to the tradition of the Fathers; & how there they ought to live according to the order & admonitions of the ancient Fathers. By which words we have often elsewhere seen the name of S. Benedict adjoined, yet not here.
p. What a silver Esterling is to the people of Liège & Cologne, Hocsemius explains in Cangius, saying in Adolph a Marca Bishop of Liège, that in the province of Cologne an ounce weighs 20 Sterlings, a Sterling 36 or thereabouts grains of coarse barley or spelt, but 8 ounces equal a mark. Furthermore concerning the origin & etymon of this word very many things the same most learned Cangius in the Glossary to the writers of middle & lowest Latinity, whom I advise you to consult.