ON SS. GABINUS AND CRISPULUS
MARTYRS AT TORRES IN SARDINIA.
UNDER HADRIAN
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
On their cult, and namely at Rome the cult of S. Gabinus, and of others differing from him by various synonyms.
Gabinus, Martyr at Torres in Sardinia (S.)
Crispulus, Martyr at Torres in Sardinia (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Torres, which is also in the singular number
Turris Libissonis in Pliny book 4
chapter 7, was once a renowned city of the island
of Sardinia, whose Bishops are recorded;
Felix in the Notice of Bishops,
who by command of King Numericus
came to Carthage to
render an account of the faith; Torres the city. and Marianus
in S. Gregory, epistle 59 book 1 Indiction 9.
But today nothing of it remains except ruins and the name
Torre; and Sassari, the other metropolis of Sardinia, is
said to have succeeded it. Some monuments of this city exist in ancient
Martyrologies, and things always more certain than what
are said among the Sards can be dug out. Now the four ancient
transcripts of the Hieronymian Martyrology have on this day these things:
At Torres in Sardinia the birthday of SS. Gabinus and
Crispolus, or Crispulus. The same have Usuard, Ado,
Notker, Sacred cult. and the rest of the more recent ones with very many MSS. and the present-day
Roman Martyrology.
[2] Paul Aringhi in book 2 of Subterranean Rome chapter 7
number 6 writes these things: The Vatican Basilica is moreover ennobled
among the rest by the remains of the illustrious Martyr Gabinus.
For from Sardinia, where he had undergone glorious
martyrdom for Christ, his body was once translated hither
and laid beneath an altar dedicated in his honor, The body of S. Gabinus at Rome in the church of S. Peter, and consecrated
by Gregory III, near the Odeum of the Canons,
likewise enclosed about with bronze railings.
To this church, already from ancient times most celebrated, the islands
of Sardinia and Corsica had been accustomed to pay an annual tribute
for the sake of veneration. These things briefly and
elegantly says Aringhi: which a Roman Canon of the said Church,
five hundred years and more ago under Eugenius III as Pope,
in the description of the old Vatican basilica at chapter or title 6,
thus indicated: In the choir of the Canons there is an altar, or
rather an Oratory of B. Mary the mother of our Lord
Jesus Christ: in which oratory of blessed memory
Pope Gregory III deposited, in honor
of the Savior and of his holy Genetrix, relics
of the Holy Apostles and of many Saints,
Martyrs and Confessors, of the perfect just,
resting throughout the whole world. Among
which, as we have received from our elders, he deposited
the body of S. Gabinus the Presbyter, whose altar remained there
until our times. For in the time of the Lord
Eugenius III the Pope, when by his command we erected
that altar there, two altars were there: namely the altar
of S. Gabinus the Presbyter, to which Sardinia
and Corsica sent tribute yearly, his altar there
and the altar of B. Mary ever Virgin, which the aforementioned
Lord Pope Gregory III had made
and consecrated. Beneath which altars we found
three burial-places, very well bound with iron and lead:
which altars also he surrounded with bronze railings.
These things there, which Onuphrius Panvinius transcribed in On the VII Churches
of the City chapter 4 page 42, and he calls it the altar of S. Gabinius, and the body
of S. Gabinius the Presbyter. But that it is the body of S. Gabinus
the Martyr, of whom here we treat, is an ancient tradition, and
S. Gabinus the Martyr is venerated in the Vatican Church of S. Peter on May XXX,
Ecclesiastical Office, with an Ecclesiastical office under the double rite, because there
is the body, and all things are said from the Common of one Martyr:
the Mass begins with these words: In virtute, and under it are said
the Gloria and Credo. There is, apart from this Gabinus, another S. Gabinius,
Presbyter and Martyr at Rome, father of S. Susanna Virgin
and Martyr, and brother of S. Caius Pope and Martyr,
whose anniversary memory is celebrated on February XIX: but his
body we have said, at his Acts, to have been preserved at Rome in the Church of S. Susanna.
[3] Baronius in his Notes asserts that this is thought
to be the day of the translation, but that the birthday is kept on October XV
with marvelous celebration, whence also the Sards call the month
October Gabinus. But he is called in the ancient
transcripts of the Hieronymian Martyrology Gavinus and more often
Savinus, and to him in the Blume and Corbie transcript
printed at Paris are joined the companions Saturus, Asturus, Charus,
or Asthentarus, in place of Asturus and Charus, as is read in
the Lucca transcript, which we approve less. But this S.
Gavinus or Savinus is mentioned in the Acts of SS.
Protus and Januarius, another from him is venerated 15 Oct. who likewise suffered at Torres in Sardinia,
and because he freed them from prison, was led by them to the faith
of Christ, and is said to have consummated martyrdom by the cutting off of his head
under Diocletian, as will be explained at October XXV.
The times therefore differ greatly, and
so also even the persons, though under one or a similar name.
[4] Further, the Acts of SS. Gabinus and Crispulus are said by Baronius
to be read in their church: some things are had in
Fara book 1 On Sardinian Affairs. Dymas Serpi in book 1 of the Chronicle
of the Saints of Sardinia page 29, asserts that they were converted in the passion
of S. Antiochus, when he was crowned with martyrdom on the day December XIII:
moreover, that these were the first Martyrs
who suffered at Torres, and are venerated there with the highest
veneration. Ferrarius celebrates them with this encomium in the Catalogue
of the Saints of Italy: Gabinus and Crispulus, citizens of Torres,
after S. Antiochus under the Emperor Hadrian
suffered. For when, converted to Christ at Torres, some of their Acts
they preached the faith to others, having been seized they are cast
into prison and tortured. But these having been overcome,
since they came forth more constant in the confession of Christ,
they are crowned with martyrdom on the III Kalends of June.
On the following day suffered S. Crescentianus in the same city
of Torres: at which day we give some things from Jacobus Pinto and Ioannes
Arca, having these in common with them, namely that beyond the cult
scarcely anything of their Acts has become known. Dionysius Bonfant
of Cagliari transfers their martyrdom to the times
of S. Dionysius the Pope, and attributes their conversion to a certain Trajan,
a companion of S. Luxurius in the supposititious martyrology of Bede, which
we approve less, and reject with other things suspected in the same Bonfant.
But S. Luxurius is venerated on August XXI.