ON BL. ANDREW OF CHIOS,
MARTYR AT CONSTANTINOPLE UNDER THE TURKS.
A.D. MCCCCLXV
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
How the Acts were written at Rome, and he himself there held a Martyr.
Andrew of Chios, Martyr at Constantinople (B.)
D. P.
George of Trebizond, a man born in Crete, but who from Trebizond a city of Cappadocia had imposed a name on himself, because he referred his paternal race to it, in the times of Pope Eugene of his name IV, about the year MCCCCXXX, came to Rome; By George of Trebizond, Secretary of the Pope, and there set over the Gymnasium, for many years taught Rhetoric and Philosophy; afterward by Nicholas V the successor of Eugene, and so about the year MCCCCL, was made Pontifical Scribe: Gesner in the Library calls him Pontifical Secretary. Many things this man translated from the Greek, and not a few he himself wrote in Latin; which, as partly at Venice, partly in the more celebrated cities of Germany for printing they were published, the aforesaid Gesner enumerates in a long order. Besides those at Rome he wrote, I know not whether he also took care to have printed, the Martyrdom of the most blessed Martyr Andrew of Chios, who died at Constantinople, in the first year of Paul II Supreme Pontiff, created on August XXX in the year MCCCCLXIV; the first therefore still was in course, on the day XXIX of May of the following year, when Andrew died; in November of which same year MCCCCLXV, George of Trebizond says he came to Constantinople, at the beginning of the aforesaid Martyrdom, which is found printed in the second edition of the Work of Surius; but in the last, after the death of Surius cared for, the Acts being written, not without scruple: because, those who enumerate the works of George of Trebizond, do not reckon this Life among them, nor do the writers of that time make any mention of this.
[2] But this scruple can be taken from all by Gerard John Vossius, also by the judgment of Gerard Vossius. On the Latin Writers, book 3, Chapter 8, beginning from his encomium, which we too have given in his words expressed in another character; where treating of George's style, and indicating that he was from the judgment of Erasmus a man indeed excellently learned, and of literature most well deserving, but that Theodore Gaza was more perfect than he, his rival; he would not have dared by adding his suffrage to write, what is most true, unless he had had George's character most well known, a man in discerning such things no less acute than sincere; yet devoid of Catholic union, and so by no means suspect in the cause of Saints, by whose praises on account of the original vice of the Calvinian sect he was little affected. He therefore since he deems it written by George, and only by name praises the Martyrdom of Bl. Andrew of Chios, is a fit author for us, that any scruple should be laid aside. For that other Latin writers of the same time did not mention the matter done at Constantinople, is no great wonder. But George wrote; what with memory still recent he had heard from eyewitnesses: and he wrote from a special devotion toward the Martyr, by which he had bound himself when set in peril of shipwreck, two years after he returned to Rome. The same died at a decrepit age, but some years before, than Vossius establishes, and from him our Labbé, indicating the year MCCCCLXXXVI; since Andrew his son, by the testimony of Vossius himself, in the Preface to his father's version of the Ptolemaic Almagest, inscribed to Sixtus IV, excuses his father, that prevented by death he could not finish the work. But Sixtus himself died in the year MCCCCLXXXIV, the XIII of his Pontificate being completed.
[3] We do not fear, moreover, lest, by giving the title of Blessed to Andrew, we should run against the Urbanian Constitutions. Since George gave it to him, 160 years before these were established, the Roman Pontiff knowing and reading it. The same did in his ecclesiastical Annals, printed at Rome after the said Constitutions, the continuator of the Baronian work Odoricus Raynaldus, and again in the Epitome of the same Annals printed there at Rome: that I may say nothing of Andrew Saussay, Bishop of Toul in Gaul, who under the auspices of Alexander VII published at Paris his work on St. Andrew. Andrew himself held at Rome a Martyr, This author, book 2, chapter 4, shows, that there were Many Saints, who having obtained the name of Andrew, adorned it more amply with their distinguished merits: and Article I, Comprising the more illustrious Saints of this name, and under that title reckoning the holy Martyrs, places tenth indeed Andrew slain by the Turks; but subjoins from the Franciscan Martyrology several, to whom we think the title of Blessed cannot be given, without a new and special license of the Apostolic See: I dissemble that he also errs in the year, which he writes 1406 for 1465.
[4] What hindered Baronius himself, that he did not insert Andrew into the records of the Roman Martyrology recognized by him and in manifold ways augmented, I do not indeed see; why not referred in the Martyrology? unless that he had not the second edition of Surius, only five years later than the first, nor much fuller. For he who gave that honor to Poppo Abbot of Stavelot at January XXV, only because he read the Life and miracles in Surius, although otherwise neither he nor anyone else, not even the Monks of Stavelot, had so far given him the title of Saint; I do not think that he would have wished to pass over Andrew. Unless perhaps someone thinks he feared, lest that matter should add courage to the schismatic Greeks for obstinacy, if they found a man of their party ascribed to the Roman records. But not yet thirty years had elapsed, that the Greek Church had professed the Roman union in the Council of Florence; and although many quickly recoiled from it, to the simple and pious common folk, the schism could scarcely be imputed as a fault, much less to those acting Christianly and bravely, and contending for the true faith even to blood and death and that most cruel, as did this Bl. Andrew. Besides if we recall the age of this one, dead in the year MCCCCLXV, to the reckoning; we shall find him born in the same year, in which the said Union of the Churches was concluded. For in the year MCCCCXXXIX inclining to summer it was done; and Andrew was a youth of twenty-seven years, when at Constantinople he found martyrdom: which years, added to the former, lead us to the number of the year MCCCCLXV: so that it may seem that God had then chosen him, as the first fruit of the new union, who by his death, set as an example to the Greeks equally as to the Latins, would show, that God is not an accepter of persons; but in every nation he who fears Him and works justice, is acceptable to Him, as Peter says, Acts 10, v. 34.
[5] Yet though it were established (which indeed is not established) that Andrew's parents either never renounced the schism, or had relapsed into it with most others, but neither would this truly have hindered the Martyrdom. and had educated Andrew in it, by an ignorance not only invincible (as for the most part happens to the unlettered) but even vincible and culpable, Andrew could nonetheless and ought to be believed, this if there was any fault to have washed away by his blood, by Him who gave the constancy by which he conquered the torments, also inflaming charity, by which he excluded every affection contrary to true piety. So indeed the whole Eastern Church showed that it believed concerning athletes of this kind, when into the number of Martyrs to be venerated it received those forty-two, under the Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast Dukes of the forces, in the destruction of Amorium captured by the Saracens,
and led off into Syria, and there for the constant confession of the Christian name slaughtered. Nor did Baronius doubt to insert the same into the Roman Martyrology; and this, not as if ignorant of the time and the impiety then raging in the court, and so touching most of the Emperor's ministers; since in his Annals he mentions them at the year 841, number 3, where he calls them the cohort of forty-two Martyrs, of whom the chief are named Theodore, Theophilus, and Baburzicus, Dukes of the army. For Baronius was not ignorant, writing this, that that army was of the Emperor Theophilus, of whose impiety he himself treats much, and to whose communion they are never known expressly to have renounced; which however they are supposed to have wished to do with the same mind, with which they resolved to despise all temporal things, even life, for the faith of Christ, and so also the favor of the Emperor, if there had then been a question of it.
ACTS
Written by George of Trebizond at Rome immediately after the matter done: from Laurentius Surius.
Andrew of Chios, Martyr at Constantinople (B.)
BHL Number: 0444
BY GEORGE OF TREBIZOND.
When already after three years from Crete I had sailed to Constantinople, After the defection of one Philosopher, I found that whole city together with Galata in admiration and joy not small, on account of the singular and for many ages unheard-of martyrdom of Andrew of Chios for the confession of Jesus Christ: for it had been wrought a little before with wondrous constancy through the grace of God. For I indeed came in the month of November, in the year from the incarnation of the Lord MCCCCLXV, but Andrew the chief martyr of Christ on the XXIX day of the month of May, of the same year having obtained the crown of martyrdom by the mercy of Christ, ascended into the heavens to Him, for whom he sustained many torments. But what will seem more admirable to one rightly considering is this, that unless the martyrdom of Andrew divinely destined had by divine grace brought help to the Christians, and firmed their minds, a great slaughter upon them and immense affliction by the enemy of the human race, in the manner of a storm, would have been poured out. For a certain one, whom for honor's sake I do not name, sprung from the city of Trebizond, Professor of the Philosophy of the Peripatetics, whether of his own accord (as many say) or impelled I know not, nor if I knew would I dare to say; denied the Cross of the Lord, and adhered to Mohammed.
[2] Wherefore the King of the Turks elated, a certain man, whose name escapes me, and likewise of Trebizond, to the same in vain a soldier of Trebizond is solicited: most skilled in war, he cast into prison; deeming it worthy, that he should imitate his Philosopher fellow-citizen willing or unwilling: for he desired to use his service in military matters: and since he did not trust the Christian, he desired to thrust him to Mohammed. But that one in mind a Martyr; The Philosopher, he said, educated in delights, with greater hope of them denied the cross of Christ: but I, who for my mortal Emperor so many and so great labors, waging wars with the Scythians, bore and received wounds (he said, and his breast opened, showed his scars) for the heavenly Emperor shall I fear death? Far be from me so great madness. What besides would be my mind, or rather what folly, to betray the truth for the cause of fleeing pain, and to repudiate the eternal and heavenly kingdoms, and to adhere to Mohammed, that I may undergo the labors of wars, take on great perils for a mortal Emperor, draw swords against Christians, I myself born a Christian; and at length rush into death, which the Philosopher judged to be fled, that I may be borne headlong into eternal and true death? Thus he.
[3] Meanwhile to Constantinople comes Andrew But while these things were being done at Constantinople, Andrew labored gravely with fevers, and vowed himself to be perpetually celibate to the Virgin queen of mercy, if he should escape. The fevers being straightway allayed, a little after as if from death he rose, and clad himself in white garments, that namely he might never be able to forget the cleanness of body, which he offered to the Mother of the Creator. Constantinople then he sought, not as a merchant or some vagrant from desire of seeing great cities: for the highest gravity and constancy shone in the youth of twenty and seven years: rarely did anyone hear an idle word fall from his mouth: for from jest he was wholly alien. Why therefore did he go? By the grace of God, as I judge, he was called to martyrdom, that he himself in the heavens might stand by Christ with the other Martyrs, and profit all, who by the levity or terror of the Philosopher had been disturbed. As soon as he came into the city, he was accused, that since he conversed with Christians, and visited churches as a Christian, with the highest religion and devotion, and is falsely accused of having denied the faith: a man who denied the Cross at Alexandria, trampled it, defiled it with spittle, and at length cast it into dung. These things the Egyptian merchants, who then were present in the city, brought to the judge; and attested that they themselves had seen him denying, and confessing that he adhered to Mohammed.
[4] Andrew is dragged to an iniquitous judgment, and the accusation being recited, he affirmed that he had never withdrawn from Chios, where he was born and educated, except then; and this he proved by many witnesses, and said that the whole city of Chios knew this very thing. The iniquitous judge deemed that in this matter Christians were not to be heard. although it was found he was not circumcised, Then the multitude of Christians, who stood poured round about, said: If, the testimony of Christians in such a cause is to be refused, that of the Mohammedans likewise is not to be received: for as we justly defend a Christian falsely accused, so the Mohammedans contend that the accusation of their own is true. Wherefore the witnesses being passed over, the matter itself is to be sought. Not otherwise therefore, than the Jews according to the Mosaic law, your Prophet ordered his own to be circumcised: wherefore if the genital members of this one are hurt by a similar mark, he will justly be punished with death: but if by no means, by the matter itself let his cause be determined, and no ambiguity will remain in the minds of men. The soldier of Christ is meanwhile stripped, and naked is beheld by so great a multitude: no indication in him, no stain of circumcision, no vestige of the Mohammedans appears. The Christians exclaim from joy, the adversaries are confounded, and conquered are utterly prostrated: unless aided by diabolical craft, they had set forth that it was the custom in Egypt, that men of lesser age be circumcised; of greater, if to Mohammed the Prophet of God they be converted, be circumcised if they wish; but if they abhor circumcision, by no means can they be compelled: since it is better to gain the soul of a man, adhering to us with the whole heart in all other things except circumcision, than to reject it because it dreads circumcision. By these reasons, or rather because he favored his sect, the confused Judge said he would pronounce no sentence in so great a matter, unless he had consulted the King: for so is the custom in ambiguous and arduous causes.
[5] He went therefore to the King to consult, the soldier of Christ being cast into prison: to whom when he had related all things, being asked about his age and whole bodily habit; He is a youth, he himself said, unconquered in mind and of great stature, fenced about with great bones and sinews. The King, desiring to have such men in his soldiery; Go, yet he is condemned to death unless he deny the faith. he said, and first to him, if he be willing to be ours, we offer a centurionship in our soldiery: then, as we shall see him to be strong in valor, we will advance him to greater things. But if by benefits he be not moved, with threats and terror shake him: and if by neither way you can prevail, punish him with the head. On the other day therefore, he being brought forth, first the King's promises are proposed with wondrous amplification, That you shall straightway be head, Andrew, of a hundred soldiers; and drawn from the condition of private men, you shall be numbered with princes: that easily your valor and diligence will exalt you to greater things. But when the Martyr of Christ, by answering nothing, seemed to despise the things offered; those who were poured round about, enemies of truth, some silver and gold, others garments, others various furniture promised: and when in silence he the more sharply persisted, What, they said, do you not think us worthy even of your words? Worthy indeed, he said, you are of much greater things, than I can say or devise: but the things, which you offer, are worthy of no answer. For why do you think this perishing and mortal life has anything great, by which it is to be preferred to the heavenly? You err, they themselves answer: for we both strive to open to you the way to that, and this besides we endeavor to render happy for you. They do not cohere, he said, perishing things with eternal, miserable with happy, profane with blessed. But what need of words? I make nothing of the felicity of this age: I will never, relying on His help, deny the cross, passion, and burial of my Christ. Decree against me whatever you prefer: one thing I ask, do not tempt me further with words.
[6] These things said, he was straightway cast into prison, chained with bonds, bound by feet and hands, and until the noon of the following day, which was May XX, he lay. Immediately after noon he is dragged forth, and into the part of the city, which looks to the East near the sea, he is led; where bound naked to a stake, he is beaten with scourges and thongs, more sharply than can be said. At the beginning of the scourges and blows he is said to have trembled, Direly scourged and with his hands drawn to his breast, and his fingers compressed into a fist, to have exclaimed with a great voice, Virgin Mary, help me. Then one foot brought to the other he stood upright on the same footprints (wonderful to say!) until the setting of the sun. Meanwhile while the soldier of Christ was being exercised with these torments, that man of Trebizond, of whom above I have related, leaning out from the window of the tower, in which he had been enclosed, cried: O happy Christian, O blessed the island which bore you! O most noble and praiseworthy race, whence you are sprung! Would that I were there with you, that I might suffer the same for Christ! These and other things he vociferated, desiring, as I judge, the crown of martyrdom. But the executioners Andrew being led back, anoint his precious members, foully torn by scourges and thongs, with unguents; food too and drink, to sustain the soul in the body, by the counsel of the physicians, of whom many and most skilled were present, they offered; and water, in which no slight weight of refined gold had boiled, he is smeared with medical unguents: they bring to him to drink. This they did, that his longer life might bring something to the denial of the Cross, and at the same time that they might show, how much they valued his life: perhaps also, because they were nourished with Christians, and some of them had been Christians; nor were they ignorant, how the Martyrs of Christ once by day were tortured, and by night recovered; wherefore, fearing lest this should happen divinely, by their medicines they strove to hide the truth.
[7] On the twenty-first day of the same month, again he is brought forth, and stripped with iron claws his back, which the day before that day had been scourged, is torn, nor anything else did or said the soldier of Christ; although first he trembled at the beginning, and his hands drew to himself, his fingers contracted into fists, his feet held on the same footprints, and with a great voice cried; the same is done the following day. Virgin Mary, help me. Thus the man of Trebizond also the same things, which the day before he vociferated, from the tower again and again repeated. Night coming on, with unguents he is smeared likewise; and with medicines and waters, into which great virtue of gold had been infused, is sustained, as if the enemies of the Cross held his salvation dear,
they ascribed; proclaiming that great power was in these things, deriving the grace of the Holy Spirit into the skill of the physicians, and into the convenience of food and drink.
For when the day dawned, the Martyr of Christ appeared wholly sound, which thing cannot be done by medicines; which, since they act naturally, need a longer time and a fitting repetition, nor do they bring anything to a doubtful issue except when digested: which, however, they can by no means do, if the body be again and more often shaken, or even more cruelly tortured: for what power can bring help besides the divine? Assuredly none.
[8] On the twenty-second day of the same month, he is brought forth likewise after noon; and his hands and feet are so twisted, that not even the joints of the fingers, and a third time; nor the elbows, nor the knees remained in their places, but all leapt from their places: which pain is the greatest of all. The rest was likewise done and said, not by himself alone (who however cried nothing else, but, Virgin Mary help me, at the beginning of the pains, and that but once) but also by that man of Trebizond, who so sought martyrdom, that, with many, even Mahometans, listening, he often repeated those things which have been said above: the diligence of the physicians likewise also, nay even greater, is said to have been. On the twenty-third day Andrew, unharmed and sound, not by the art of physicians, but by that first Martyr and the Lord of all Jesus Christ, brought forth, is vexed with a new kind of torture: they bare his shoulders of flesh with swords, always taking care, lest a swifter death seize upon him. For they hoped, if not by the bitterness and greatness of the pains, yet by their long duration, that they would conquer him; but at last, mocked, they lay defeated. The day declining he is led back, as on the former days, with deeds and words, medicines also being applied no otherwise than before. On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, all things are done in the same manner, and in the same place where on the day before the buttocks are stripped of flesh with razors, not suddenly, but with delay, that the bitterness of the pain might be more felt. All the rest done likewise, then daily he is flayed by parts, as on the former days, and said in the same manner also by the man of Trebizond, a Martyr in mind and will, who on those days, in which Andrew was suffering, likewise cried out from the tower. On the twenty-fifth day, the parts of the legs, which are between the knees and the buttocks, are likewise bared of flesh: the rest was said and done in the same manner. On the twenty-sixth day, the calves, that is, the fleshy parts of the legs, which are within the knees and * the hams, are likewise bared of flesh; and the other things were done, said, procured likewise. On the twenty-seventh day, the thigh, and the parts of the body which are about it, are flayed. On the twenty-eighth day, the whole body from head to feet is beaten with blows, that, the pains being renewed, he might at last be moved. One jaw also was bared of flesh by one stroke, which the Christians snatching away preserved, and it was in the monastery f of B. Francis fragrant with an unwonted and marvelous odor.
[9] On the twenty-ninth day of the same month, in the first year of the Pontificate of Pope Paul the Second, Andrew of Chios is brought forth for the last time, and at length on the 8th he is beheaded, the chief martyr of Christ, into the accustomed place toward the Eastern part of the city, near the sea, sound, lively, with cheerful countenance, with comely face. The Mahometans, moved by these things, asserted that it was so done by the power of medicines, and accusing his ingratitude; Dost thou not see, they cried, Andrew? Care for thy life has been had by us: by our zeal, nay of the King himself, thou art unharmed; and by the power of medicines, and by the grace of Mahomet; who wishes thee to despise the ravings of the Christians about the cross and the passion of Jesus: which benefits, since thou ungrateful dost not feel, thou shalt die by death. To die thus is not death, he said, but life. Wherefore do not think that I can be terrified by your words: nor have the medicines profited, since indeed they can scarcely, even in the smallest wounds, after many days bring anything. But me the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Virgin Mary, hath unto this day preserved and reserved. These things being said, he placed his head under the axe, and flew away to the heavenly realms.
[10] Then the ministers of his death, as the Judge had ordered, attempt to drag the head and trunk of the body swiftly to the sea. The Christians cry out, who with poured-out tears were standing about, and he is honorably buried, of whom there was a great multitude, that the dead man ought to be buried, not cast into the sea. They resisting, they say the Royal majesty ought to be consulted, whether it wished him, now dead, to be buried, or to be cast into the sea? This being heard, the Judge himself runs forward to the King, for it is not lawful for Judges, when they hear that the King ought to be consulted, to do anything further, unless they first report to the King. But the Chief men of the Christians also, as swiftly as they could, go to the King. Who when he had perceived with what tortures and how long Andrew had been vexed, is said to have boiled with anger, and to have used such atrocious words against the Judge, that the iniquitous Judge, lifeless, did not even mutter. But that anger and those huge threats vanished together with the words. He then commands the Christians to bury Andrew honorably, as becomes a brave man. Who, the head being set to its body, carried it to Galata. And there was present the whole people of both cities, of Galata and Constantinople, men together with women, boys and girls, in the church of the Lord's Virgin. free and slaves, nor of the Christians only, but also many of the Mahometans, moved with admiration, not fewer than ten times ten thousand: who all, some weeping, some proclaiming his praises, and some his constancy and strength of mind, some his prudence and gravity, some his contempt of human things, many narrating his faith in Jesus Christ, in his cross and passion, and his devotion to the immaculate Virgin. At length they came to the extreme part of Galata toward the East, contiguous to the sea; where there is a church g dedicated to the Virgin Mary, if I rightly remember: there laid down he lies.
[11] These things being thus done, the King burned with a great desire of freeing that man of Trebizond, of whom we spoke above: but because he did not judge that he could honorably do it, unless requested, where long after the author saw the body incorrupt, he brought it about, through certain women, as it was said, that his wife should make supplication for her husband. Thus the death of Andrew and his martyrdom freed him indeed openly, but also freed many others from danger, confirmed many in the orthodox faith; those who before his martyrdom by whatever reason had adhered to Mahomet, it confounded with shame, affected with sadness, and finally with vain penitence both vexed and vexes. By all these things I, vehemently moved, was burning with desire of seeing his body: but detained by snow, cold, and ice, by the tempest of winter and of the sea, I was there. Scarcely in the month of February did God, by the intercession of the Martyr, grant me that grace as I prayed for it; and I saw him lying in the sepulcher, too deep, with a horrid situation, yet with such integrity of all the members, with such color of the whole body and dignity of form, with such splendor and bearing of countenance, that he seemed to me not to have breathed out his soul, but lightly to sleep beneath the shade. And yet he lay in a place so humid, that, all the garments now being putrefied in which the body was wrapped, he was beheld wholly naked, except that the genital parts were covered with a fragment of linen h. I burned with desire of descending, of touching, of kissing, the feet, hands, face of the chief Martyr; nor so much the humidity of the place, and the difficulty of descending, as the words of the Priest the keeper, and the hope of being able to do it more conveniently another time, detained me. Then I entered into counsel with the Priest N. of carrying those holy relics thence to Rome by stealth, and the matter was now being arranged: but I know not how he, deterred, changed his opinion and his faith.
[12] When I had set sail thence on the eighteenth day of March, immediately on the first day, then freed from shipwreck, nay in the very hour of setting sail, I fell into no small danger. When, the storms blowing against and driving the ship upon the rocks, I implored suddenly the Martyr's help; and I promised, if I should come unharmed to my own at Rome, that I would write his martyrdom in summary in the Latin tongue. I escaped the perils of the sea and of robbers, and, what is a miracle, an old man i and sick I departed hence, younger and sound and much more robust I returned; nor did the fluctuation of the sea, nor the journeys over lands too rough, which from Brundisium lead to Rome in summer-time, hurt me. But brought hither, I was indeed never forgetful of the Martyr, but night and day I was with him. I enjoyed his memory; and I thought I beheld with my eyes, not only sleeping, but also waking, him lying in the sepulcher. But of my promise it never came into my mind, except after two years, while the memory of George the Martyr k is celebrated. For when on that day I was recollecting the pains of George, and he writes the martyrdom in the year 1468. which he underwent for Christ our Lord, straightway the memory of my promise pricked my mind: for Andrew endured no less, not to say even much greater, on account of the condition of the times, in which they are aided by no l example, who love Christ; so much does charity, thrust into the darkness, grow faint. And so straightway on that very day I took the pen, and now paid the Debt of my promise. But thou especially, Martyr of Christ, I pray intercede to our Lord Jesus Christ for the universal Church, and for the amplification of it; for the supreme Pontiff Paul the Second, whose times thou hast adorned with thy martyrdom, and made perpetual: and as in Greece thou didst cast down perfidy, so the Platonists m rising up in Italy by thy intercession repress.
ANNOTATA.
* nay the ankles