ON ST. QUARTUS, DISCIPLE OF THE APOSTLES,
FIRST CENTURY.
CommentaryQuartus, disciple of the apostles. (S.)
BY G. V. H.
In most martyrologies there is celebrated today the feast day of St. Quartus, the martyrologies record St. Quartus; disciple of the apostles. The column is led by the Little Roman, among whose characteristics, says Sollerius, this is not counted the least, that it gathered from the New Testament the names both of the first deacons and of many others of whom some memory is celebrated either in the Acts of the Apostles or in the epistles of the apostle Paul. Such, on this day, is Quartus, who in Romans chapter 16, verse 23, is honoured by the apostle with a certain more distinguished title among his intimates, when he writes of him: Quartus, a brother, greets you: of whom no other more ancient martyrologist makes mention anywhere [The Martyrology of Usuard … illustrated with observations by the labour and study of John Baptist Sollerius, Antwerp 1714, p. 647.]. The name of Quartus occurs in no copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, at least of those we have seen. But the author of the Little Roman, at the third day before the nones of November, says: Of Quartus, disciple of the apostles. Following him Ado announces Quartus in this way: The feast of St. Quartus, disciple of the apostles. And from him Usuard: The feast of St. Quartus, disciple of the apostles. This announcement of Usuard is repeated by the Martyrologies of Fulda [Excerpted by an anonymous author from Ado and Usuard, and edited by Domenico Giorgi, Rome 1745.] and of Leiden, which is an abridgment from the Hieronymian martyrologies and others Edited by us in the Analecta Bollandiana, volume I (1882), p. 9–48.. Maurolycus, deceived by the fables of the Greeks, makes Quartus bishop of Beirut, writing thus: The feast of St. Quartus, disciple of the apostles, who was bishop of Beirut; of whom Paul makes mention to the Romans. Galesinius, however, not only followed the errors of the Greeks but, with other inventions piled on top, wove the following elogium of Quartus: Of St. Quartus, who was one of the seventy disciples, bishop of Beirut; setting out thence for Spain, he handed on to the Spaniards the discipline of the Christian religion after James the apostle. The Roman Martyrology, on the other hand, having wiped away the additions of Maurolycus and Galesinius, has pursued the ancient purity and reports Usuard pure: The feast of St. Quartus, disciple of the apostles.
[2] of whom the Greeks say nothing certain, The Greeks have reported uncertain things of Quartus, the Spaniards things more uncertain still. Though it is wearisome and irksome, these must be recalled here and marked with a black coal. Not a few of the Latins have, as it were, aided the errors of the Greeks with their vote, among whom we touched above in passing on Maurolycus and Galesinius. Baronius, although he did not follow the same in the Martyrology, nevertheless in his annotation seemed to favour them, or at least not to repel them, noting of Quartus: Dorotheus in his Synopsis reports that this man was given as bishop to the church of Beirut, and this from Hippolytus's little book on the 72 disciples. What is to be thought of that Dorotheus and of his synopsis and of the little book On the Seventy-Two Disciples we have sufficiently declared and demonstrated in the thirteenth volume of October, in the Acts of St. Stachys, to which we refer the reader. For all these things are invented out of a wanton delight in lying, and they deserve no credit, nor do they any longer find any among the learned. And whatever is affirmed on their credit and authority is rejected without delay, unless it be proved true from elsewhere. Now from that source flowed St. Quartus's discipleship among the seventy-two, and from the same the same Quartus's episcopate of Beirut; and for the same reason they cannot be carried over into truthful history, but are to be banished among the fables. — On the 10th day of November St. Quartus is celebrated in the Menaia of the Greeks with Olympas, Rodion, Sosipater, Tertius and Orestes; where in the Synaxarion these few words are read about Quartus: Ὁ δὲ Κούαρτος, ἐπίσκοπος Βηρυτοῦ γενόμενος καὶ πολλὰ παθὼν ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας, καὶ πλείστους τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐπιστρέψας ἐπὶ Κύριον, ἐτελειώθη καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν εἰρήνῃ. But Quartus, having been made bishop of Beirut and having suffered many things for piety, and having led very many of the Greeks to the Lord, was himself also brought to his consummation in peace. St. Quartus, the intimate of the apostle Paul, whom Paul honours with the name of brother, may certainly have been a bishop and have discharged an apostolic office; but history keeps a deep silence about the man, and his very name has become known solely from the Epistle to the Romans.
[3] still less certain things have others written, especially the Spaniards. But it is much more surprising that it should have come into Galesinius's mind to send St. Quartus, the disciple of Paul, into the Spains, before the now thoroughly notorious and proclaimed falsity of the false chronicles had cast a cloud over men's eyes. Nor have I been able to discover on what authority Galesinius in the year 1578 (for in this year his Martyrology came out at Venice) wrote that Quartus set out for the Spains and handed on the discipline of the Christian religion to the Spaniards after James the apostle, since Pseudo-Dexter was not sent from Germany into Spain before the year 1594. So Dexter did not go before Galesinius, but Galesinius before Dexter, who writes thus at the year of Christ 50: St. Quartus remains in Spain, who died in the year 76; and again at the year of Christ 101: St. Quartus, disciple of the apostles, twice travels through Spain, once after James, and again when left behind by Paul. At Berela (which is now called Baetyrus, by others Baetica or Gonciolum, in Spain) among the Baetones he is now renowned for miracles. Hence it is no wonder that in the commentary on the Chronicle of Dexter, at the year of Christ 50, n. 5, Peter Galesinius is adduced by Bivar as agreeing with Dexter among the rest. On the episcopate of Quartus Bivar offers three opinions: the first that of the Greeks, namely that Quartus was bishop of Beirut; the second, which Galesinius had adduced in his notes, that according to some Quartus was bishop of Norcia; the third, to which he himself adheres because it is that of his Dexter, that Quartus presided over the church of Betyrus in Spain. We shall neither refute nor admit any of the three opinions. For what is asserted so gratuitously, we gratuitously deny, according to the custom of the schools. To me, however, it seems likely that the forger who hammered out Pseudo-Dexter, having read among the Greeks or among their followers the name of the city of Beirut, to which Quartus was given as bishop, fashioned from it by changing the letters his own Betyrus, a name of course unknown to the geographers. Let the reader observe the fable gradually growing up. The sacred Scriptures had given the name of St. Quartus, with his dignity, office and place left unspoken. The Greeks added a discipleship of Christ among the seventy-two, the dignity of bishop, and the name of the church over which they made him the head. Galesinius attached an apostolate through the Spains; Dexter marked out the periods of the apostolate, and set down the place in which he lived and the miracles worked after his death: and out of these rivulets the most lying of authors was to make a river.
[4] From which Tamayo hammers out Acts, John Tamayo Salazar, in volume VI of the Spanish Martyrology, pp. 58 and 59, seized Quartus like a hunting dog seizing prey with the greatest greed, and carried him over to his Spaniards; and since no written Acts were extant, Tamayo hastened to produce the following.
Acts of St. Quartus, disciple of the apostles, bishop of Beirut and preacher of the Spains, confessor, from various writers.
Quartus, a fearless persecutor of the Catholic faith, drawn by the apostles to the confession of Christ, embraced their footsteps as a faithful servant and received the teaching of the blessed apostle Paul and, as his inseparable companion, the windings of his journeys. But having learned of the death of St. James, apostle of the Spains, he went on to the Spains, where, sowing the word of God through the cities of the whole region, he brought very many back to the knowledge of the truth; and entreated by their prayers and those of other faithful, he was compelled to go to the East, that he might bring Paul his master to the Spains as soon as possible. The most blessed man assented to their wishes; and at once travelling through the East he joined himself to his master, to whom he effectively made known the longing of the Spaniards for his coming. Finally, staying at Corinth with Paul, he followed on his travels; until, as they hastened to Rome, Paul, committed there to prison by Nero, sent the holy man back to the Spains, to render an account to the faithful of his detention in chains. And when he had returned again to the Spains and told the Catholics of Paul's commendations, they immediately sent their envoys with gifts to Rome to visit Paul. At that time blessed Quartus, standing among the gatherings of the Spaniards, strengthened their faith, taught the seeds of the virtues, condemned the contagion of the vices, set forth the constancy to be held in labours and perils for the confession of the faith, and carried out the other things that befit a good shepherd; until, when Paul had been loosed from his chains and had set out for the Spains, he received him there and with him went round the whole region, visited the cities, visited the flock, and erected and consecrated churches, having first been ordained bishop of Beirut by the holy apostle. But when Paul, having completed the ministry of his apostolate through the Spains, was compelled to return again to Rome, leaving Quartus in the Spains, he undertook the journey through the Gauls. Then the holy man, traversing the region of the Vettones, in which Salamanca stands, and scattering the seeds of the faith, at the town of Berela, which was afterwards called Baetyrus, shaken by hardships, rested in the Lord, on the third day before the Nones of November, in the year of the Lord 76. His sacred body, buried in that same place, was renowned for miracles through many centuries.
[5] resting on authors Thus far, says Tamayo, the Acts of the holy prelate, which we have been able to cull from the writers listed above. As regards the topography of the town of Barela or Baetyrus, see Bivar on Dexter, year 105, n. 4, fol. 103, where he locates the site of this town near Salamanca among the Vettones from Ptolemy. It will be worth the trouble to review the authors from whose testimonies Tamayo professes to have composed the Acts of St. Quartus. They are the following; he has set their names and the places of the writings in front of the Acts: Martyrologists and writers, Peter Galesinius, Usuard, Bede, Ado, others, Baronius in the Roman Martyrology. Dionysius Vazquez in the Castilian Martyrology. John Lupus in the Portuguese. Constantius Felicius in the Italian Martyrology. Flavius Dexter in the Chronicle, year 50, n. 5, and year 105, n. 4, in Bivar. Peter Equilinus in the Catalogue of the Saints, book 6, chapter 100, and book 10, chapter 16. Rodrigo Caro on Dexter, year 105. Epistle to the Romans, chapter 16.
[6] who give him no help. Of Usuard and Ado we have treated above: from them, together with Bede, he could draw nothing that is not manifest from the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 16, namely that St. Quartus was a disciple of the apostles. Baronius, to be sure, does not repel the fables of the Greeks, but he says nothing of a Spanish preaching. Nor did Peter Equilinus (who is Peter de Natalibus, bishop of Equilium) venture anything further; here is the elogium which he composed on Quartus, book 10, chapter 16: Quartus, a disciple, was one of the 72 chosen by Christ, who afterwards was distinguished under the discipline of the 12 apostles, as Abbot Dorotheus reports. Of him the apostle also makes mention in Romans, chapter 16. He was appointed bishop of Beirut by the apostles, and exercising himself in the office of preaching he rested in that same city on the third of the nones of November. From Peter, then, there is nothing of the preaching of Quartus in Spain. Pseudo-Dexter, together with his commentators Bivar and Rodrigo, are of no authority in this matter. The remaining authors are martyrologists, and they depend on Dexter and his commentators and on Galesinius; who, since he alone before all others made Quartus an apostle of Spain and brought forward no historical foundation on which so great a matter might rest, certainly finds no credit with us. And thus it is clear that no credit can be given to the Acts of Tamayo.
[7] The cult of St. Quartus is certain. The cult of St. Quartus is both ancient and certain, belonging to the Latins just as much as to the Greeks, as the martyrologies and menaia demonstrate. We have cited the elogia of the martyrologies above.