ON SS. LIBERTINUS AND PEREGRINUS, BISHOP OF AGRIGENTO AND MARTYR, AND MARTYR,
UNDER VALERIAN AND GALLIENUS.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Libertinus, bishop. (S.)
Agrigentinus, martyr. (S.)
Peregrinus, martyr. (S.)
BY G. V. H.
§ I. The traditions of the Sicilians about St. Libertinus are weighed.
In the General Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, Filippo Ferrari on the third of the nones of November lists Saints Libertinus and Peregrinus, the latter a martyr, the former bishop and martyr, The Acts of Saints Libertinus and Peregrinus are obscure. from the tablets, as he himself says, of the churches of Agrigento and Syracuse: At Agrigento, St. Libertinus, bishop and martyr. At Syracuse in Sicily, St. Peregrinus, martyr. We take up with no willing spirit the elucidation of the Acts of the holy martyrs Bishop Libertinus and Peregrinus, since they are covered with such great darkness that we can scarcely bring a doubtful light to them. For most of what is reported of them by authors rests on uncertain report rather than on certain documents. We shall treat first of St. Libertinus, then of St. Peregrinus, and lastly of the Acts of the martyrdom of both.
[2] [Libertinus, first bishop of Agrigento, appointed by St. Peter according to the Sicilians, from Rocco Pirri] St. Libertinus is supposed to have been the first bishop of the city of Agrigento. For Rocco Pirri, abbot of Noto, in Sicilia Sacra Volume II, book III, column 717 (Leiden, at the expense of Pieter van der Aa).: St. Libertinus, he says, martyr, as is the report and constant tradition, was the first bishop of Agrigento; and the church of Agrigento records that he was appointed by the apostle Peter; indeed they narrate that the document of his apostolic institution, subscribed by that same divine Peter, was kept with great veneration in the tablets of that church for many years. On the first origin of the prelacy of Agrigento Father Cornelius a Lapide, of the Society of Jesus, after he had said that the churches of Syracuse, Taormina and Catania were erected in Sicily by St. Peter, adds: “Next to these is Agrigento, whose first bishop the writers record as St. Libertinus; but in what year this took place is hidden from us. The Syracusan Encomiast of St. Libertinus, a man worthy of credit, makes him a contemporary of St. Peregrinus, martyr, who was a disciple of St. Marcian, bishop of Syracuse appointed by St. Peter.” Cornelius borrowed this from our Ottavio Gaetani, a Sicilian, a most learned father of the same Society. Gaetani testifies that he has by him, unearthed from a Roman library, a Greek panegyric delivered by that Syracusan Encomiast on the feast day of St. Marcian to the people of Syracuse, where he says that Peregrinus, disciple of Marcian, underwent martyrdom together with Libertinus, bishop of Agrigento, on the summit of Mount Crotaleus. What mountain was formerly called Crotaleus is now uncertain. That it was next to Agrigento, and that the sacred body of Libertinus was honourably buried in the city of Agrigento on the 3rd day of November under the Emperors Vespasian and Domitian about the year of salvation 90, the same Gaetani affirms from manuscript codices and tablets of Agrigento. Ancient images of St. Libertinus are seen, struck with a sword-point in the head and breast. His magnificent church was erected in the year 1624, when the plague was raging, in the public square called “delli Zingari”, next to the parish church of St. Michael, where the report still lives that Libertinus, while preaching the word of God, was overwhelmed with stones and pierced * with a sword-point, and died and was buried. So much of St. Libertinus from Rocco Pirri; whose words I have transcribed entire, that what the Sicilians believe about St. Libertinus may be accurately known by the reader. Similar things are read in the Hagiologium Italicum.
[3] and from Ottavio Gaetani Ottavio Gaetani of the Society of Jesus, in volume I of the Lives of the Sicilian saints, in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of the martyrdom of Saints Peregrinus and Libertinus Page 21., discourses thus about St. Libertinus: Now I come to Libertinus, prelate of the people of Agrigento, of whom that Syracusan Encomiast praised shortly before speaks in passing, and of whom those Acts of St. Peregrinus report very little. And indeed report, handed down even to us, and constant tradition teach that he was set over that church of Agrigento by divine Peter, and I reckon that this took place in the year of Christ 44, when the prince of the apostles, coming to Rome, turned aside to Pancras, bishop of Taormina in Sicily, as Metaphrastes testifies, as we have said in his Life. For there the Apostle took careful thought for Sicilian affairs and consecrated Bishop Maximus and designated him as Pancras's successor, and sent Beryllus as prelate to Catania: wherefore it is the more easily to be believed that he then also gave Libertinus to the people of Agrigento, and perhaps others, whose names have been lost, to other cities. That Libertinus devoted his effort most diligently to the salvation of the people of Agrigento, and that his church flourished, is indicated by this, that the ministers of the Emperors hastened to mow it down and blazed up against him especially. And when
the breast of the holy pontiff could be conquered neither by guiles nor by threats, tortured in the bitterest ways he rendered up his spirit to God. But if we weigh the words of that Encomiast, who says that Libertinus won a triumph equal to that of Peregrinus, we shall judge that he was certainly cast into the fire. The Acts so often cited, however, say * that he breathed out his spirit as he poured out prayers to God at the altars. Report among most is that he was overwhelmed with stones and transfixed with the sword; and some very ancient images of him agree with this. He was honourably buried at Agrigento near the forum, and they report that at his tomb benefits have been conferred for many years. These holy martyrs are venerated on the third of the nones of November. I find no certain year of his death recorded anywhere: but I would easily put it back to the times of Domitian. For Marcian does not seem to have gone long before, whom the Acts indicate underwent martyrdom as bishop of Syracuse in this city of Syracuse, not in that of Agrigento, if we are willing to draw them without forcing to the truth and to the mind of other writers, and to interpret them kindly. But if anyone should wish to refer these things to the persecution of Nero, I have no reason to resist.
[4] resting on report and popular tradition, From what we have brought forward, anyone can recognize the traditions of the Sicilians concerning Libertinus. What shall we say about them? If we seek documents or monuments of the things handed down, we find nothing besides report. Report, says Gaetani, handed down even to us, and constant tradition teach that Libertinus was given by the apostle Peter to the city of Agrigento as bishop. I praise Gaetani for not producing from the archive of the church of Agrigento the original letters of blessed Peter on the promotion of Libertinus to the bishopric of Agrigento, confirmed by this subscription of Peter: I, Peter the apostle, Vicar of Christ. For most truly did Fr. Thomas de Angelo of Messina, of the Order of Preachers, say in the Historico-critical Annals of the Sicilian Church [Dissertation on the bishops appointed by the apostles in Sicily, n. 6, p. 43. Messina 1730.]: Belief about Libertinus's being sent by divine Peter is rather undermined than strengthened by what Francesco Baronio adds, that there survived quite recently, even to our own times (the 17th century), in the archive of the Church of Agrigento the original letters on the promotion of Libertinus to the bishopric, confirmed by this subscription of Peter: “I, Peter the apostle, Vicar of Christ.” Against this trash the said Thomas inveighs with much pomp of words. We spurn it, and we give the greatest thanks to Paul V, supreme pontiff, who is said to have ordered it brought to Rome by Bonincontro, bishop of Agrigento Ibid.. For thus that rock of scandal was removed.
[5] which on account of its suspect origin But I cannot sufficiently wonder that the same Thomas so easily admitted that St. Libertinus was given by the apostles as bishop to the church of Agrigento. For he writes thus Ibid., n. 31.: The bishops appointed by the Apostles in Sicily listed at the beginning of the dissertation I therefore gladly uphold, namely Marcian at Syracuse, Pancras and Maximus at Taormina, Beryllus at Catania, Libertinus at Agrigento, Bachylus or Barchyrius at Messina, Peregrinus at Triocala, Philip or one unnamed at Palermo, but on no firmer foundation than the traditions of the churches. These I contend must be followed altogether. For although the foundations of ancient ecclesiastical history do not support them with clear proof, it is enough that they do not oppose them, etc. Whatever may be the case with the others, I wonder at Libertinus being so easily conceded to apostolic times. For what if the apocryphal letters of Peter, which Thomas hooted off with so much critical sense, have been the foundation of this tradition? It is not so, he will say; but tradition and report furnished a most favourable occasion for the forger to hammer out letters. It may be; but what is to be done about a document which not only does not support but openly opposes the tradition that places Libertinus in apostolic times? For Thomas could not have been unaware that in the history of the martyrdom of St. Peregrinus, where the martyrdom of St. Libertinus is narrated together with it, the discussion is of the persecution under Valerian and Gallienus, in which persecution Libertinus is said to have undergone martyrdom. Why then did he take it ill Ibid., n. 5. that the aforesaid Acts should be accused of interpolation by Gaetani? For Gaetani could not defend the tradition of the Sicilians, which Thomas thinks must be followed, except by accusing the Acts of interpolation. If Libertinus suffered under the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus, he was not given by St. Peter the apostle as bishop to the church of Agrigento. Either Gaetani did well in accusing the Acts, or Thomas did ill in contending that the traditions of the Sicilians are to be followed in the case of Libertinus.
[6] [it seems it should be abandoned; and from another document Saints Libertinus and Peregrinus] We shall bring forward our judgment without human fear. The tradition of the Sicilians concerning St. Libertinus's being set over the church of Agrigento by St. Peter I judge must be abandoned, inasmuch as not only does no historical document or monument of antiquity support it, but also the documents that survive oppose it. We bring forward two documents opposing the tradition of the Sicilians. The first is the Greek encomium of St. Marcian which Gaetani and Papebroch have published, the latter in the Acta Sanctorum, at the 14th day of June Acta Sanctorum, volume II of June, p. 788–95., the former in the Lives of the Sicilian Saints Volume I, p. 4.. For Gaetani, Jacques Sirmond of the Society of Jesus translated that sermon from Greek into Latin and sent it to Sicily to Gaetani, as Papebroch narrates in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Marcian Volume II of June, p. 788, number 7.. He adds that in the year 1660 he found that same sermon in the codex n. 688 of the Vatican library. And from there, faithfully copied, he published it in Greek and Latin; Gaetani in Latin only. That Encomiast begins thus: Φέρε τοίνυν, ὦ ἠγαπημένε ὑπὸ Θεοῦ, τὰ περὶ ὁσίου τούτου καὶ ἀρχιποιμένος Μαρκιανοῦ διηγήσεις εἰς μέσον προθήσωμεν, καθὼς ἄνωθεν ἐξ ἀγράφου παρηκολουθήσαμεν μέχρι νῦν ἱστορίας , ἀλλὰ μὲν καὶ ἐκ διηγήσεως ἐγγράφου ὁμολογητῶν καὶ καλλινίκων μαρτύρων τῶν ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῦ χρόνοις διαπρεψάντων καὶ ἀναστραψάντων καὶ τὸν τῆς ἀθανασίας διαδυσαμένων στέφανον παρὰ τοῦ ἀγωνοθέτου καὶ παμβασιλέως Χριστοῦ. Ὦν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆς ἐγγέγραπται, ἅτινα μεθ᾽ ἕτερα ἀκολούθως λέξομεν, ἱνα μὴ δόξῃ τισὶ ψεύδεσι συγγράφεσθαι μυθολογίαν. Come now, beloved of God, let us set about telling of this holy prelate Marcian those things which either have reached us handed down as it were from hand to hand without writings from the memory of earlier times, or which the glorious confessors and martyrs, who flourished in the same times with him and obtained the crown of immortality, have consigned to posterity in their writings. Their names indeed are written in the book of life; but they will also be disclosed by us afterwards in their place, lest anyone suppose that we are weaving an empty and fabulous narrative. He promises, then, that he will adduce the authors on whom his narrative depends, and he does indeed adduce (n. 7) the holy martyr Peregrinus. Here are the words of the sermon for you: Μὴ φέρων οὖν ὁ ἐχθρὸς τῶν εὐσεβεῖν ἐθελόντων ὁρᾶν ἑαυτὸν ὑπτιαζόμενον, κινεῖται εἰς ὀργὴν, καὶ ἐπεγείρει κονιορτὸν, καὶ θωλὴν καμηνιαίαν ζέουσαν κατὰ τῶν πιστευσάντων εἰς τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν χριστόν. Εὑρὼν γὰρ ἱκανοὺς καὶ προχειροτάτους πρὸς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ * κακόσχολον γνώμην τοὺς ἐγκεχειρισμένους ἀναξίως τότε τὰ τῆς βασιλείας σχῆπτρα, ἐξάπτει ἐν αὐτοῖς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ θυμὸν, ἐκμυήσας ἐν αὐτοῖς τὸν ἰὸν τῆς κακίας αὐτοῦ, καθὼς διδάσκει ἡμᾶς τὸ μαρτυρικὸν σύγγραμμα τοῦ ἀθλοφόρου Πελεγρίνου, περὶ οὂ ἐν προοιμίοις εἴρηται, Καὶ αὐτὸς γὰρ διὰ τοῦ θεοφάντορος τούτου Μαρκιανοῦ διδασκαλείας ἐλλαμφθεὶς, μάρτυς τέλειος τῷ Θεῷ ἀπεδείχθη, θῦμα εὐπρόσδεκτον τῇ προαιρέσει γενόμενος καὶ ὁλοκάρπωμα εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας ἐν ὄρει ἐπιλεγομένῳ Κακουμήνῳ τῆς Κροτάλεος, τὸν ὅμοιον ἀπενεγκάμενος θάνατον τοῦ ὁσίου ἐπισκόπου καὶ μάρτυρος Λιβερτίνου τῆς ἐν Ἀκραγανθῶν ἐκκλησίας. “Ἐν γὰρ τῷ ὄρει ἐκείνῳ, φησὶν, Βαλεριανοῦ καὶ Γαλλιανοῦ τῶν τυράννων βασιλίσκων, ὡς εἴρηται, κρατούντων, ἐξαπέστειλαν προστάγματα ἐν κόσμῳ παντὶ πρὸς ἀποτροπὴν καὶ παῦσιν τῆς εὐσεβοῦς τῶν χριστιανῶν θρησκείας…” Not bearing, therefore, to be conquered and cast down by those who embraced piety, the enemy of the human race at once blazed up, and stirred up flames of fury equal to a furnace against the faithful of Christ. For having found suitable and ready for the nefarious design of his crime those who then held the sceptres of the empire, he breathed his rage into them and instilled the venom of his depraved endeavour, as the writings of that outstanding martyr of Christ Peregrinus, of whom we have spoken before, teach us. For he, imbued among the rest with the doctrine of Marcian, the herald of God, was made a perfect witness to God, having become an acceptable and voluntary sacrifice and a holocaust for an odour of sweetness on the mountain which is called the Summit of Crotaleus, having obtained an equal triumph of death with the holy martyr and bishop of the people of Agrigento Libertinus. “In that same time, he says, while Valerian and Gallienus were exercising their tyranny, commands were sent through the whole world to overturn and utterly destroy the religion of the Christians,” etc.
[7] are said to have suffered under Valerian and Gallienus, Here then we have St. Peregrinus, martyr, crowned with the laurel of the contest with St. Libertinus, bishop of the people of Agrigento, testifying in writings (which that Encomiast had read) that Marcian underwent martyrdom in the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus, of which Marcian this Peregrinus had been a disciple, and of which persecution Peregrinus himself fell a victim together with Libertinus. The truth, then, shines clear in manifest light. The tradition of the Sicilians assigning Libertinus to the apostolic age neither is constant nor reaches to the times in which St. Libertinus lived. But the earlier tradition, consigned to letters, speaks clearly and establishes that St. Libertinus went through his happy contest for the faith when Valerian and Gallienus were persecuting the Church; whose martyrdom therefore took place in some year between 254 and 259 (for so long did Valerian and Gallienus rule together). Nor does it help those who cling to the later tradition of the Sicilians to object against us this very Encomiast, who asserts that Marcian was sent to Sicily by the apostle Peter. For this is that author's most shameful inconsistency; who, while speaking from oral tradition and from written tradition, did not understand that by the testimony of the contemporary martyr Peregrinus he was destroying the fabulous age of Marcian, and at the same time, with one wound, the fabulous age of Libertinus. But what he did not understand, we thoroughly understand; and I think there is no one who, having read the words, does not understand the matter.
[8] which agrees with the Acts: The second document in our cause is that which Constantino Gaetani, of the Order of St. Benedict, abbot of St. Barontus, sent to his brother Ottavio Gaetani of the Society of Jesus, and which the latter published in the Lives of the Sicilian Saints Volume I, p. 22., and which we shall presently set before the reader's eyes. That document, which treats chiefly of St. Peregrinus, before arriving at the Acts of this holy martyr, offers the following for reading: At that time Marcian presided as bishop over the church of Syracuse. He, roused by the report of Peregrinus's virtues, came to the hermitage for the sake of visiting him. For some days they spent time together in that solitude void of cares, and exhorting one another to the contempt of human things and the love of heavenly ones, they fed their spirits on discourses sweeter than honey. One thing they insatiably sought and pondered:
the return to the eternal fatherland and the embrace of the highest good. There was staying in the hermitage a certain Pelagius, an African, not of the same virtue as the others; for, composed in bodily bearing but corrupt in mind, stricken by the fraud of the demon and by envy against Marcian, he had bent his mind on the destruction of all, when (in this place in the manuscript codex the names of the emperors had been written out, struck out by Ottavio Gaetani and put back in the margin, who testifies that they are found in the manuscript codex. We shall restore them from the margin to their place) a letter was written by the emperors Valerian and Gallienus to Quintian, consular of Sicily, that he should force the Christians to the sacrifices and that those who spurned them should be subjected to punishments. Silvanus, a pestilent man, was sent by Quintian to seek them out and torture them. He, entering Agrigento, ordered Bishop Libertinus to be seized. Neither guiles nor threats, nothing was omitted whereby he might be recalled from Christ and might venerate the images. But Libertinus in the church of St. Stephen the protomartyr, praising and praying to God at the altars, rendered up his spirit; and he was buried not without mourning in the forum of the people of Agrigento, and for many years benefits were conferred on the sick at his tomb in plenty. We have in this author, then, a witness opposing the tradition of the Sicilians who assign St. Libertinus to the apostolic age, a witness ordered by Gaetani to be silent, his mouth stopped; the bonds of whose tongue we have loosed, that he may render testimony to the truth.
[9] [and by the authority of the Acts and of this document the tradition of the Sicilians is set aside.] How well it agrees with the Encomiast of Marcian, everyone who reads it sees. For both join Peregrinus to Marcian, both join the same Peregrinus to Libertinus; both treat of the same persecution of Valerian and Gallienus, in which both Marcian and Peregrinus and Libertinus underwent martyrdom. The second document adds not only the names of the emperors, but also the name of the prefect, very well known from the Decian persecution throughout Sicily; so that no room for doubt remains. Whence it is legitimately concluded that the tradition of which Ottavio Gaetani and Pirri stand as patrons is not of those traditions of the Churches which it is unlawful to abandon, and further that it agrees better with history to assign the martyrdom of St. Libertinus, bishop of Agrigento, to the third century than to the first. But if this is so, they will say, Marcian, bishop of Syracuse, did not live in the first century either! You answer me that it seems so to me as well. But of him there has been treatment at the 13th day of June. The remaining things that concern St. Libertinus we shall see further on.
Annotations* edition perfusum.
* edition erunt.
* edition ἄνοθεν.
* edition ἱστορίαν.
* edition εὐσεβῆναι.
* edition θελόντων.
* edition ἑαυτῶν.
§ II. The traditions concerning St. Peregrinus are weighed.
St. Peregrinus was a friend of St. Marcian. He lived in the third century. We must now treat of St. Peregrinus. What has been handed down to memory about him must be briefly seen. From what the encomiast of St. Marcian reports, we learn that Peregrinus had enjoyed the teaching of St. Marcian. For he says that “Peregrinus, imbued with the doctrine of Marcian, the herald of God, was made a perfect witness of God”: which the other document confirms, also using words that signify the outstanding holiness of Peregrinus, namely that Marcian was roused by the report of Peregrinus's virtues to visit him. Now Peregrinus was living in a certain “hermitage.” When Marcian had arrived there, both holy men in most holy conversations fostered mutually the pursuits of the heavenly fatherland. Although Peregrinus is not here called a disciple of Marcian, yet that both were joined by a close bond the matter itself proclaims. There was then staying in the same hermitage an African man, Pelagius by name, who, wasting away with envy against Marcian, when the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus arose at that time, used the occasion to destroy Peregrinus, Marcian's friend. So the author of that document. From which narrative it follows that the author knew nothing of the popular report that assigned St. Marcian or Peregrinus to the first century. Otherwise he could not have written such things. A hermitage in the third century ought to disturb no one. For there is no need to imagine a monastery composed by fixed rule and fixed form, but men living together who were zealous for piety and divine letters, such as Irenaeus quite clearly hints lived in a preceding time also at Smyrna with Polycarp. But from this very mention of a hermitage the event is removed further from the age of the apostles. Not that I suppose that in the time of the apostles pious men did not live together and with common zeal devote themselves to the exercises of a holier life, but a publicly known hermitage, which lay open to the eyes of the persecutors, proclaims the third century much more than the first.
[11] He is denounced to the judge by a traitor. By this traitor, then, ruin was prepared for the holy men. The author asserts that only Peregrinus's name was betrayed by Pelagius to the persecutors. But he hints at more. The progress and order of events may have been such. Pelagius betrayed Marcian, bishop of Syracuse, and together with Marcian all the holy men whom he had seen at Agrigento joined with Marcian in closer friendship. I should suppose that this wolf covered with a sheep's skin could not have stayed hidden from men outstanding in holiness: for the eyes of the saints are marvellously keen at detecting scoundrels who counterfeit virtue under a false appearance. Seeing himself caught out he may have wished to avenge his resentment and to destroy with Marcian the friends of Marcian, and therefore he perhaps betrayed Libertinus as well; and, when the persecutor had sacrificed him at Agrigento, he may have gone from a neighbouring place to the prefect to accuse Peregrinus, his fellow-dweller. In the same place the words of the accuser designate Peregrinus as an African by country, and mark him as a man zealous in restraining wavering Christians, lest, deserting Christ, they should sacrifice to idols: which supposes that as the storm raged at that time many had stumbled, a sign especially fitting for the Decian persecution, with which the persecution of Valerian grew together as it were into one. All that we read, then, conspires to confirm our opinion, that those holy men received the crown of martyrdom by no means in the first century, but in the third.
[12] The Acts suggest the third century, from the words of the judge There is moreover in the Acts of St. Peregrinus a certain utterance of the judge which, while it is utterly alien to the first century, suits the third century exceedingly. When Peregrinus was showing the greatest ardour of desire to die for Christ, the judge Silvanus said: I know that the Christians rush into slaughter from desire of honours, and seek the veneration of gods from death. You would wish to be put to torture, that worship may be paid to your ill-used body; but the event will be the contrary, as a lesson to those like you. The memory and worship of a later age for which you were hoping, I shall soon extinguish by the burning of your body. And he ordered Peregrinus to be cast into the fire and burned alive; that is to say, that they might not be able to bury the body of the Christian, with the ashes scattered to the wind. This fury God mocked by a miracle. Now these things savour so certainly of the third or the opening fourth century, that, unless the written names of the emperors, the prefect and the judge prevented it, they would rather suggest the persecution of Diocletian.
[13] and from the names of the prefect and the judge. Some difficulty is raised by the name of the judge Silvanus. For since the names of the prefect Quintian and of his assessor Silvanus are known from the Passion of St. Agatha, and she underwent martyrdom under Decius, in which that same Silvanus is read to have been punished with death, how is he here still alive under Valerian and Gallienus? From this one might think of referring the whole martyrdom of St. Peregrinus to the Decian persecution, which is sometimes indicated under the name of Valerian. But I do not see why this Silvanus should be believed to be the same as the one who, sitting at the side of Quintian in the martyrdom of St. Agatha, paid for his crimes by a sudden death. He may have been a brother or a son; or an error of the author too may be admitted: I shall not be much offended by so small a blemish.
[14] Peregrinus consummated his martyrdom by burning; concerning Libertinus It is indeed established from all that has been said that the holy men Peregrinus and Libertinus are martyrs not of the first century but of the third. What the martyrdom of Peregrinus was like is clearly stated in the Acts; and it leaves no room for doubt. Not so the kind of martyrdom of St. Libertinus. Peregrinus consummated his precious contest on a burning pyre. But the kind of death of Libertinus is doubtful. In Rocco Pirri we read: Ancient images of St. Libertinus are seen, struck with a sword-point in the head and breast. Gaetani says that St. Libertinus's being overwhelmed with stones and transfixed with the sword is the report among most; and some of his ancient images agree with this. The Encomiast of St. Marcian: Peregrinus, he says, won an equal triumph of death with the holy martyr and bishop of the people of Agrigento Libertinus. Here then are three opinions on the kind of death by which St. Libertinus was made a martyr of Christ. Images such as Rocco Pirri describes indicate death inflicted by sword or lance. The report of the Sicilians in Gaetani adds stoning, by which, not having been finished off, he ended his life by the sword. The penalty of fire some find indicated in the words of the Encomiast saying that his death was equal to that of Peregrinus, who was cast into the fire.
[15] various opinions. A fourth opinion arises from our document, which in no way suggests a violent death, nor records tortures inflicted. According to this author St. Libertinus is ordered to be seized: neither guiles nor threats, nothing was omitted whereby he might be recalled from Christ and might venerate the images. Thus far of tortures not even one word; unless someone contends that he who declares nothing was omitted signifies that tortures themselves also were not omitted. Since we may not reach the complete truth, what I judge nearest to the truth I declare as follows. Both the written and the oral tradition of the Sicilians acknowledge Libertinus as a martyr. The images that show Libertinus transfixed by a sword or pierced by a lance perhaps signify nothing more than a martyr. I would take from this no argument about the kind of death. Let the credit for the stoning stay with Gaetani. From the Encomiast of St. Marcian nothing is certainly deduced besides the martyrdom of Libertinus. Our document indicates the martyrdom of Libertinus, but in a broader sense. For it reports only such things of Libertinus as prove him a most illustrious confessor of the faith, endowed with a spirit unconquered and stronger than guiles and threats; who, sent back home after confessing the faith, perhaps under free custody, rendered up his soul to God praying in his oratory.
§ III. On the Acts of Saints Libertinus and Peregrinus that are extant. On the honour paid to their burial and on their cult.
[The Acts, partly stitched together from various scraps, are not very ancient, yet not unworthy of all credit.] We must now treat of that very document of the martyrdom of Saints Libertinus and Peregrinus. Ottavio Gaetani says it was taken from an ancient codex, from a codex of the most celebrated abbey of St. Mary in the Acutian territory. We do not know the age of the codex. The document itself consists of various parts stitched into one. The last part is the Acts of the martyrdom of St. Peregrinus. They begin with narrating a little story about a certain Liberatus of Lilybaeum, who was sent by St. Peter the apostle, appearing to him, to the tomb of St. Peregrinus, that by the intercession of the blessed martyr Peregrinus he might obtain from God that the demon, from whose possession he had been freed by the help of St. Peter, might not dare to infest him again: and at the same time that his son Abundantius, afflicted with paralysis, might find health. The man did as he had been ordered, and came with his son to Mount Crotaleus, on which the body of St. Peregrinus was placed. Then he came to the hermitage which had the name of Thirty. Of the son Abundantius or
of Liberatus himself nothing further is said; whence that part of the document must be judged mutilated. Which of the mountains near Agrigento goes under the name of Crotaleus the Sicilians themselves do not know, according to the testimony of Ottavio Gaetani. Papebroch in the Acts of St. Marcian suspects that it was one of the mountains famous for an oracle of demons, which was delivered with the sound of castanets. Of the monastery or hermitage which had the name of Thirty we must likewise despair, since by the testimony of the same Gaetani no ruins of it are known, nor can the place where it was be determined. We regret this with Gaetani all the more because in this unknown place the tomb of St. Peregrinus is said to have been. Whether Agatho was superior of the hermitage in the time of Peregrinus, or at the time of Liberatus's coming there with his son, is doubtful. This part too seems torn from elsewhere and placed here on account of the following history of Peregrinus the martyr, since he stayed in the same hermitage with Marcian and found in the African Pelagius his betrayer. In like manner, for the understanding of the Acts of St. Peregrinus, a few things are set in front about the persecutors, namely the emperors, the prefect and the judge; then the confession and death of Libertinus are briefly narrated, and the Acts of St. Peregrinus begin with the approach of the judge Silvanus to the hermitage. From which it is gathered that this document in its present form is not of exceptional value; but since it is of some antiquity and the author reports things suited to the time, we judge it to have been collected from more ancient writings, and accordingly not wholly unworthy of credit. The Acts of St. Peregrinus especially bear on their face an appearance of truth not to be despised, as has been indicated above. And these are almost all the things we had to say about Saints Libertinus and Peregrinus. We add to these a few words about what was done after the death of each.
[17] St. Libertinus is buried at Agrigento; In our document it is read that St. Libertinus was: Buried not without mourning in the forum of Agrigento, and for many years benefits were conferred on the sick in plenty. That Libertinus is said to have been buried not without mourning seems to indicate that a public funeral procession was held for the obsequies of the holy martyr. If that is so, St. Libertinus may be seen to have been in great honour among his fellow citizens of Agrigento, not only among the Christians, but dear also to the pagans on account of his virtue and learning. The thing is not without example in that time. For the same reason, perhaps, he was treated more mildly in the confession itself; for the persecutors earnestly desired to induce outstanding bishops to abandon the faith: and therefore perhaps at the outset the torments were spared. That he is said to have been buried in the forum of Agrigento, however, shows a man of a later age. Certainly at the time when he was crowned with martyrdom men were not buried in the forum. Near the forum, says Gaetani. I would willingly believe that the place where St. Libertinus was once buried is now near the forum; but at that time certainly the forum was not in that place. That formerly many benefits were conferred on mortals at the place of the tomb our document testifies; but from its manner of speaking you would say that in the author's age those benefits had ceased, and neither Gaetani nor Rocco Pirri celebrates any present benefits. The latter, however, mentions the magnificent church erected in honour of St. Libertinus at the time of the plague in the year 1624 in the public square called “delli Zingari”, near the parish church of St. Michael, men being of the opinion that in that place the holy bishop died overwhelmed with stones and struck with a sword-point.
[18] St. Peregrinus in a place unknown to us. Of St. Peregrinus we learn from the Acts the following. The body of St. Peregrinus, who died on the pyre, remained whole and inviolate in the midst of the flames. Domnina, a most religious woman, received it and gave it burial in the same place, namely on Mount Crotaleus. And to celebrate the cult of the same holy man Domnina built at her own expense a church in that very place above the sacred tomb. That church was renowned for miracles through many centuries. From which it is proved that the Acts were written many centuries after the martyrdom of St. Peregrinus. Why Ferrari assigned St. Peregrinus to Syracuse, I find no other cause than his friendship with St. Marcian. Mount Crotaleus being unknown makes the place of the tomb unknown; hence the site of the church is unknown. We now share with the reader in this place, again committed to print, the document often cited and printed by Ottavio Gaetani in the Lives of the Sicilian saints, and we would give better if better had been at hand.
NOTICE CONCERNING THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT.
Libertinus, bishop. (S.)
Agrigentinus, martyr. (S.)
Peregrinus, martyr. (S.)
Ottavio Gaetani in the Remarks on the martyrdom of Saints Peregrinus and Libertinus (Lives of the Sicilian Saints, volume I, p. 18): “The beginning of those Acts, he says, is By the favour of the mercy of almighty God,” and he adds that the codex is kept in the Anician library of the lord abbot Constantino Gaetani. We know, then, that here we do not have the entire document, but an excerpted part. We know also that the original text of the codex was not given by Gaetani, but corrected by his own hand. We can lament the troublesome diligence of Gaetani, but we cannot now correct it, as we do not have the codex in our hands. Further, we wish the reader to be warned that the Lives of the Sicilian Saints is a posthumous work of Gaetani, which has perhaps in more than one place suffered the correcting hand of the editor Pietro Salerno of the Society of Jesus. We had to set this forth, that the reader may understand why, if anyone attends to the style of this document, he should at once judge most certainly that this form of the text is not ancient, but indeed rather recent. The Acts, however, are much more ancient, and have an age far older than that whose face they now bear. For Gaetani himself confesses that the copy, disfigured by many solecisms, was corrected by changing the words. He adds, however, that he moved no period from its place, and neither inserted nor added another. He protests that the change of inelegant diction stands with the same things unmoved and with the same sequence of the history.
DOCUMENT ON SAINTS LIBERTINUS AND PEREGRINUS published by Ottavio Gaetani Compare Preliminary Commentary, number 8 above.
Libertinus, bishop. (S.)
Agrigentinus, martyr. (S.)
Peregrinus, martyr. (S.)
BHL Number: 4909
FROM THE EDITION.
MARTYRDOM OF ST. LIBERTINUS, BISHOP OF AGRIGENTO, AND OF ST. PEREGRINUS The editor adds: From an ancient codex, Year of Christ 90. 3 Nov..
A certain Liberatus is sent by St. Peter to the tomb of St. Peregrinus, A certain Liberatus of Lilybaeum a had for a long time been harried by a demon. And because the calamity could not be driven off by human aid, he hastened to Rome to the church of St. Peter the apostle, to seek the medicine of his miseries from the embrace of the renowned tomb and altar. There he stayed for a year, praying to the apostle by day and night with a rare example of perseverance. After the end of the year, lying before the altar at dead of night and dissolved in tears, he besought blessed Peter more ardently to hear the now constant prayers of one year; to bring aid to one besieged against the violence of the common enemy, comfort to the sick; to drive away the servitude and bonds by which he was held wretchedly bound; to return him unharmed to his household gods: that the memory of the benefit would remain with him. Moreover that it would be a glory among all nations to the banisher of his ills. As he prayed thus, a voice was heard: Liberatus, you are now free from all vexation of body and soul. But I order you to return to Sicily, to Mount Crotaleus, where the body of Peregrinus the martyr lies: at his tomb you must offer prayers and endure a fast of 90 days. When you have done that, be confident that Peregrinus will ensure for you that the demon will dare to assail you no more, and at the same time will obtain help from God for Abundantius your son, afflicted with paralysis.
[2] and he arrives there. So Liberatus, strengthened by the heavenly address, went back to Lilybaeum in Sicily, and there was no delay in carrying out the commands of the prince of the apostles. He took care that his sick son, sixteen years old, should soon be brought to the tomb of blessed Peregrinus; and sailing along the Sicilian coast he reached Mount Crotaleus, on which the body of Peregrinus lay, and thence the Hermitage which had the name of Thirty. At that period b, Agatho was superior over the ascetics and trained them in a sharp discipline, a man of outstanding religion and exceedingly learned in sacred letters. At evening, giving thanks to God, he desired the food he had innocently prepared by his labour; nor would anyone have outdone the most holy man in piety when there was an assembly in the church to sing praises to God. Through the seven years that he had in the hermitage, no one ever went away from him sad; so strong was he in gentleness of spirit, in cheerfulness of face, and in the constancy of both. The discipline of his morals and life was widely celebrated throughout Sicily.
[3] [St. Marcian meets Peregrinus; and afterwards he is denounced to the judge by a traitor.] At that time c, Marcian presided as bishop over the Church of Syracuse. He, roused by the report of Peregrinus's virtues, came to the hermitage for the sake of visiting him. For some days they spent time together in that solitude void of cares; and exhorting one another to the contempt of human things and the love of heavenly ones, they fed their spirits on discourses sweeter than honey. One thing they insatiably sought and pondered, the return to the eternal fatherland and the embrace of the highest good. There was staying in the hermitage a certain Pelagius, an African, not of the same virtue as the others; for, composed in bodily bearing but corrupt in mind, stricken by the fraud of the demon and by envy against Marcian, he had bent his mind on the destruction of all *. When a letter was written by the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus to Quintian, consular of Sicily, that he should force the Christians to the sacrifices and that those who spurned them should be subjected to punishments. Sylvanus, a pestilent man, was sent by Quintian to seek them out and torture them. He, entering Agrigento, ordered Bishop Libertinus to be seized. Neither guiles nor threats, nothing was omitted whereby he might be recalled from Christ and might venerate the images. But Libertinus in the church of St. Stephen the protomartyr, praising God at the altars and praying, rendered up his spirit to heaven, and was buried, not without mourning, in the forum of the people of Agrigento; and for many years benefits were conferred on the sick at his tomb in plenty.
[4] Who orders Peregrinus to be brought; Sylvanus went straight from Agrigento to the hermitage d, to seek out Christians. At once Pelagius, the violator of the faith, went to the man. He reported that a certain African was staying there, by whose arts especially they were easily turned from obedience to the emperors and from the gods, as one who frightened away most of those wishing to cross over to the worship of the gods. [That Marcian, bishop of Syracuse , condemned for the same superstition, had been consumed by flames in that city.] Therefore let them make an end of Peregrinus, zealous for the same sect, with the same punishments. At once Peregrinus e was seized, and set before Sylvanus. He said: I know very well that you are a foreign man; which your name shows. Why have you dared to frighten citizens from obeying the edicts of the emperors and burning incense to the gods? Peregrinus answered: I acknowledge that both I and my fellow citizens are not strangers to Christ, and such is my hope in God that no force of torments will be so great as to tear me away from the faith. Nor is it worth the trouble to discourse much among you, whose ears are turned to false hearings, and whose mind would prefer corrupt things to true. Sylvanus rejoined: Pelagius, your fellow citizen, has brought forward very many things against you, and will convict you to your face. Then Peregrinus said: Let him be called; let him testify what he pleases.
[5] who, having fearlessly confessed Christ, When Pelagius had been brought forward, Sylvanus, turning to Peregrinus, said: Here is your informer and witness. Then Pelagius, frenzied by the crime already begun, said: Peregrinus,
he said, came from Africa to the hermitage, and entangled the superior Agatho and the rest besides in his frauds, that we should reject the edicts of the emperors. Peregrinus answered: What I have urged, I urge again; for who would sacrifice to gods, to works made by hand? Sylvanus said: The testimony of Pelagius, as I see, is true; you plainly oppose the orders of the princes. Peregrinus answered: I have told you that I am a Christian, and I confirm it with constant assertion. Your gods I spurn, who have no power of helping, being like senseless stones. Grievously do they err who worship them and sacrifice victims to them. Nor will that error be without ruin for them: them the everlasting fire will consume in the lower world. But my faith and sacrifice are in all things alike true and pure; for I sacrifice to the eternal king, in whom I believe, who abides in Trinity and persists in unity; who is truthful and all-powerful; to whom the world and heaven are subject. Sylvanus said: I recognize that vain talk of yours; I pity the folly that drags you to destruction. Do you not know what Bishop Marcian endured? by what death he ended his life? Peregrinus answered: I am not unaware that Marcian endured extremities for the faith of Christ; happy man, whom a dreadful death has carried over to a rest fullest of delights. And would that you would make me an equal sharer of his punishments and of his kingdom, and that you might give what I desire, to be dissolved through tortures and to enjoy my Christ!
[6] ordered to be cast into the fire, he consummates his martyrdom. Sylvanus said: I know that the Christians rush into slaughter from desire of honours, and seek the veneration of gods from death. You would wish to be put to torture, that worship may be paid to your ill-used body; but the event will be the contrary, as a lesson to those like you: the memory and worship of a later age for which you were hoping, I shall soon extinguish by the burning of your body. Thus then he pronounced sentence: “I order Peregrinus the Christian, who has despised the edicts of the emperors and spoken abuse against the gods Saturn and Minerva, to be burned by flames.” When blessed Peregrinus heard this, he said: I give you thanks, Jesus Christ, who have accounted me your servant worthy of a most longed-for death, and call me to you through martyrdom. For your name I suffer, O Christ; the atrocity of the torments I shall endure by your help. But I pray and beseech you, that the demon may not terrify my soul as it goes out of the body with his most hideous gaze, nor hinder my journey to heaven; but may your brilliant ministers receive it and lead it to you, who are God blessed for ever. Thereupon, having been hurried to Mount Crotaleus f and cast into the fire, as he commended his spirit to God he expired; but his body remained inviolate, and, received by Domnina, a religious woman, was given the honour of burial in the same place, and was revered with a church built over it by her wealth. That church was indeed renowned for miracles through many of the centuries. His feast day is celebrated with anniversary rite on the 3rd of November, an everlasting monument of his glorious death, to the glory of God, who lives and reigns for all eternity.
ANNOTATIONS.
* edition omniorum.
* edition Syracusorum.
* edition alieno.