ON THE HOLY TEN MARTYRS OF JERUSALEM,
ABOUT THE YEAR 638
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY
Ten martyrs at Jerusalem. (SS.)
BY H. D.
[1] Today's announcement of Ado Today's announcement of ten martyrs in Ado and Usuard, each of whom uses these words: In the East, in the city of Theopolis, of the holy ten martyrs who are read to have suffered under the Saracens in the acts of the holy forty, has tortured the wits of almost all interpreters, nor has anything been contributed to untying the knot by the so-called little martyrology, in which we read that not ten but forty martyrs suffered on this very day: In the city of Theopolis, of XL martyrs. For since they understood Theopolis as Antioch, and of the forty
martyrs slain in this place they found no mention anywhere, they tried in vain to detect what lay beneath those tangled expressions. “To the time when Antioch was sacked by the Saracens under Chosroes, king of the Persians,” Baronius quite unhappily referred it Baronius in the notes on the Roman Martyrology, at 6 November.; Solerius more correctly sent it back to the year 637 or 638 Martyrologium Usuardi, p. 655., but from a less suitable argument, and with a mind so wavering that he confessed that he did not see where to fix his foot safely. Content to have reported the opinions of others, Giorgi did not disclose what seemed to him of the matter Martyrologium Adonis, p. 565..
[2] is illustrated If the Passion of the holy sixty martyrs, to be edited by us, had been at hand for these distinguished men as they laboured over the notice of Ado or Usuard, all doubt would have vanished at once, and they would without any trouble have removed the double error of the twin announcement. For unless he had read in a corrupted codex Theropolis for Eleutheropolis, and the number XL for LX, the martyrologist, without doubt, as we have shown elsewhere Anal. Boll., vol. XXIII, pp. 298–300., and as is clear even to one who merely looks, would have written: In the East, in the city of Eleutheropolis, of the holy ten martyrs who are read to have suffered under the Saracens in the acts of the holy sixty. And indeed the Passion, read in passing, offers this; but one who inspects it more attentively will at once detect that the ten martyrs suffered not at Eleutheropolis but at Jerusalem. Concerning the statement of the little Roman martyrology, judgment is easily passed from what has been said, namely that it consists of as many errors as words.
[3] from the Passion of the LX martyrs, In the Passion of which we are now about to treat, there is told the history of sixty soldiers who, Gaza having been taken by storm by the Arabs in the course of the fourth decade of the seventh century, were captured and thrust into prison, and, when they had refused to deny the faith, by order of Amr, the most celebrated general, all, yet not on one day, had their throats cut. For first, in the month of November, on the sixth day, as it seems, he ordered nine soldiers with their commander Callinicus to be beheaded, to strike fear into the rest, and the others in the month of December on the seventeenth day; whence it is clear that the heading of the Passion is not rightly drawn up, since it indicates that sixty and not fifty martyrs suffered in the month of December.
[4] rendered into Latin from the Greek We found the Passion of the holy sixty martyrs in a codex of the archive of the chapter of St. Peter in the Vatican, marked A 5, written in the eleventh century, foll. 222–223v, which one of ours examined in another place Catal. Lat. Rom., pp. 15–20., and we first edited it in the Analecta Anal. Boll., in the work cited, pp. 300–303.. That it is written in a style so barbarous that in many places it can scarcely be understood, was brought about both by a translator almost ignorant of the Latin language and by a negligent copyist, or one furnished with an exemplar difficult to read or excessively corrupt. I have said translator; for that the Passion was written in Greek and expressed in Latin almost word for word the manner of speech so openly indicates that, unless you recall the Greek words that underlie the Latin, you will scarcely attain the author's meaning. The Greek writer is made manifest by these, for example, to bring forward only the most commonplace: Christo amabilem civitatem = φιλόχριστον πόλιν; imperatoris a Deo coronat(i) = βασιλέως θεοστέπτου; vivificam crucem = ζωοποιὸν σταυρόν; iussit eos inferratos duci = ἐκέλευσεν αὐτοὺς σιδηρωθέντας ἀχθῆναι; prior sanctorum = πρῶτος τῶν ἁγίων; a deo odibilem = μισόθεον rather than θεομισῆ; finiti sunt Christi martyres = ἐτελειώθησαν οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυρες; mense novembrio, decembrio = μηνὶ νοεμβρίῳ, δεκεμβρίῳ, and so on.
[5] and very badly transmitted. But it is plain too that the copyists have sinned in many things. And first indeed, after the one who wrote our codex had written that by order of Amr the soldiers were led to prison in the city of Eleutheropolis, and remained there for two months, he at once added these words: likewise, the Saracens ordering, he sent them across to theropolis, which do not follow in any way, and raise the suspicion that something was omitted by one of the writers. But their greatest carelessness appears in expressing the names of the martyrs. For they have mixed common nouns with proper names, omitted some, written others wrongly, so that even with the use of the remedies that the late J. Pargoire wisely brought Les LX martyrs de Gaza, in Échos d'Orient, vol. VIII (1905), pp. 40–43., one does not succeed in healing everything. We have said elsewhere that certain Bolognese authors, and also Peter de Natalibus, preserved the names of some of our saints Anal. Boll., in the work cited, p. 295.; but they offer us scarcely any help, since their readings go back to exemplars scarcely more correct than ours.
[6] The names of the martyrs Anyone who in the second series of names (n. 4) first picks out these: Devandus, Sciton, Devandus, Devandus autem voluntarisiorum and compares them with these Greek words: ἐκ βάνδου Σκυθῶν, ἐκ βάνδου Βολουνταρίων, will at once understand that these are the names not of martyrs but of cohorts (βάνδον), namely of the Scythians and Volunteers, and that our martyrs were selected from each J. Pargoire, in Échos d'Orient, in the work cited, p. 41.. Hence, if we turn to the first band of ten martyrs, which is said to consist of these twelve: Cithom, Devandus Callidicus, Imerius illustrius, Theodorus, Stephanus, Devandu voluntarisiorum Petrus, Paulus, Theodorus, Iohannes and another Iohannes, and if we place the first two names in inverted order, there is at once obtained this series of nine martyrs: ἐκ βάνδου Σκυθῶν Καλλίνικος, Ἱμέριος ἰλλούστριος, Θεόδωρος, Στέφανος· ἐκ βάνδου Βολουνταρίων Πέτρος, Παῦλος, Θεόδωρος, Ἰωάννης καὶ ἕτερος Ἰωάννης. I should more willingly believe that one name has fallen out than that one of the martyrs was called Ἰλλούστριον, which among the Greeks of the Middle Ages is the name of a dignity.
[7] how they are to be read. Of the second band, of fifty martyrs, who suffered on 17 December, these names survive. Ἐκ βάνδου Σκυθῶν Ἰωάννης, Παῦλος καὶ ἕτερος Ἰωάννης, Παῦλος, Φωτεινός, Ζίτας, Εὐγένιος, Μουσήλιος, Ἰωάννης, Στέφανος, Θεόδωρος, Ἰωάννης πατὴρ καὶ Θεόδωρος υἱός, Γεώργιος, Θεόπεμπτος, Γεώργιος, Σέργιος, Γεώργιος, Θεόδωρος, Κυριακός, Ἰωάννης, Ζίτας καὶ Ἰωάννης, Φιλόξενος, Γεώργιος, Ἰωάννης, Γεώργιος· ἐκ βάνδου δὲ Βολουνταρίων Θεόδωρος, Ἐπιφάνιος, Ἰωάννης, Θεόδωρος, Σέργιος, Γεώργιος, Θωμᾶς, Στέφανος, Κόνων, Θεόδωρος, Παῦλος, Ἰωάννης, Γεώργιος, Ἰωάννης καὶ Ἰωάννης, Παυλῖνος, Καιούμας, Ἀβράμιος, Μαρμισής, Μαρῖνος. Scarcely any doubt remains concerning the readings of the names themselves, since Zitas is by no means unheard of [For example in the Life of St. Auxentius. Compare Pargoire, in the work cited, p. 42.], while Galumas was read by the Bolognese as Caiumas. Three names have been omitted, since Marinus is reviewed as forty-seventh and last.
[8] The difficulty concerning the day A much greater difficulty arises when you set about computing the dates from the numbers brought forward by the copyist. For in these he has sinned more than once. First a doubt arises from the fact that the martyrologies announce the ten martyrs on 6 November, while in the Passion we read in so many words that they suffered in the month of November on the eleventh day. Since it seems certain that the ancient martyrologists drew everything from the Passion alone as from a source, it is to be asked which reading was found in the archetype, the sixth day or the eleventh. But between the two no ground of decision is available. For it is a commonplace and very frequent error of writers to read the number VI for XI and vice versa, and it seems rash to impute the slip to Ado no less than to our copyist. Wherefore the birthday of the holy ten must remain in doubt, unless indeed you wish to draw an argument from the statement that the fifty soldiers stood before Amr after thirty days, and hold that one who asserts that a whole month elapsed from 11 November to 17 December comes nearer the truth of the matter than one who begins to compute from 6 November. Concerning the birthday of the holy fifty on 17 December there is no disagreement between Ado and our codex; the Bolognese tradition, however, differs, of which presently, and which seems to have arisen from the reading XVI for XVII.
[9] and the year If you turn your mind to defining the year in which these things were done, no sufficiently certain way occurs of reconciling everything that is represented as contemporaneous. For after the slaughter of the ten earlier ones, the remaining fifty soldiers are said to have undergone martyrdom in the month of December on the 17th day, the fifth day of the week, in the XIII indiction, in the twenty-eighth year of Heraclius, Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, still surviving, as is easily gathered from the whole history. Now in fact neither does the XIII indiction run with the twenty-eighth year of Heraclius (6 Oct. 637 – 5 Oct. 638), but the XI, nor, if you think it an error of the copyist and hold that XII should have been written for XIII, does the year of the reign fit, since from 6 October 638 the twenty-ninth year of Heraclius begins. The difficulty arising from Sophronius, who died on 11 March 638, would be lighter, since the day indeed is certainly established, but not so the year. If, then, you think one should read in the month of December on the seventeenth day, the fifth day of the week, in the XII indiction, in the twenty-ninth year of the rule of Heraclius, and at the same time add that Sophronius departed from the living in the year 639, everything, at least in this place, coheres sufficiently; but if you retain the twenty-eighth year of Heraclius, you must change both the indiction and the day of the week, since then 17 December, as is clear, falls on the fourth day of the week.
[10] by what reckoning it may be resolved. No one indeed will deny that the conjecture by which we try to restore the order of the dates is quite ready and plain; but that it is sufficiently certain, from which to take a beginning for establishing the series of events during the conquest of Syria by the Arabs, we do not dare assert either. For from what is brought forward from the annals of the Arabs by all who have written about the war [A. Müller, Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland (Berlin, 1885), pp. 248–61; J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur aeltesten Geschichte des Islams, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, vol. VI (Berlin, 1899), pp. 3–89; M. J. De Goeje, Mémoires d'histoire et de géographie orientales, vol. II, 2nd ed. (Leiden, 1900). Compare Gelzer, in Krumbacher, Geschichte der Byzantinischen Litteratur, 2nd ed., pp. 950–51.] we have learned nothing by which we can define the time of the storming of Gaza, nor have we understood that anything of the kind has been found up to now, from letters most courteously given by the distinguished John de Goeje and Theodor Nöldeke. At any rate, if we say that our martyrs suffered in the twenty-ninth year of Heraclius, it is not absurd that the city of Gaza was taken in the twenty-seventh year, as is stated at the beginning of the Passion. For if from the year XXIX (Oct. 638 – Oct. 639) there are subtracted thirty days, two months, again three months, and again ten, or sixteen months during which the sixty soldiers were held in various prisons, we fall in the year XXVII (Oct. 636 – Oct. 637). Yet, lest we proceed with safe step, there stands in the way the fact that the codex's reading twenty-seventh is no more undoubted
than the other notes of numbers; there also stands in the way the fact that in the place where the journeys of the captives are narrated the Passion is not certainly complete, as we said above Above, no. 5.. It is therefore prudent counsel to put off judgment of the matter to another day, when, with new aids found, the phrasing and numbers of the document shall have been established.
[11] Acts most worthy of belief But, if the words of the history have been transmitted less than well, yet we are persuaded by no indication to doubt its truth. Grant even that the narrator himself has brought forward several things less accurately, especially those which pertain to the reckoning of dates, and which no one will deny to be very tangled; that he is honest and sincere the entire account proclaims. For the circumstances of things, persons and places, which are not so famous that they could have been used by just anyone, fit excellently with what is narrated, and the deeds of the holy martyrs are set out so plainly and candidly that you could devise nothing further removed from the scholastic manner of speaking. It is thus established that a double band of venerable martyrs, enrolled in the army, fell by the sword in Palestine, Heraclius ruling the Romans and Amr the Arabs, the one at Jerusalem, more probably on 11 November, the other at Eleutheropolis on 17 December, or perhaps the day before; and that in each place where they had been buried an oratory or church was raised; and finally that by an anonymous author, not far removed in time or space from the events, their Acts were written in Greek, which hold no last place among the so-called “sincere” ones.
[12] badly fitted to St. Florian; It is worth inquiring who, apart from Ado, read the Passion of the sixty martyrs. And first indeed it is certain that the Bolognese, already in the twelfth century, when the relics were found in the church of St. Stephen Act. SS., Oct. vol. II, p. 466., had the Passion of the holy sixty in their archives; for since there was nowhere any history of those whom they fancied to be martyrs, some bold hagiographer without any shame fitted the Passion of the Palestinian martyrs to his own uses, and, changing a few things and adding several, put together from it another, to which he gave the title Legend of St. Florian and his companions, which was found from most ancient and approved writings, and which we have edited in our Analecta Anal. Boll., vol. XXIII, pp. 303–307. from the Corsini codex 64 Catal. Lat. Rom., p. 277.. By what reasoning this was done we set out briefly in the same place Ibid., pp. 292–98.. In the Passion of St. Florian which it has been our lot to find, no names of companions are read, apart from that of Callinicus. That another recension of it existed, in which were recited nearly the names of which we spoke above, is all but certainly deduced both from Peter de Natalibus Catalogus sanctorum, book I, c. LXXIII. and from the Bolognese writers, such as Pullieno [O. Pullieno de' Lupari, Relatione historica ovvero chronica della misteriosa chiesa di San Stefano di Bologna detta Gierusalemme, Bologna, 1600.], Casale [Casale, Nuova Gierusalemme detta la sacra basilica di San Stefano di Bologna (Bologna, 1637), p. 190.] and Masini Masini, Bologna perlustrata, vol. I (Bologna, 1666), p. 558., who had that same text at hand. There is no doubt that little usefulness would be gathered from it for emending the Passion, if it should by chance survive, since the Bolognese exemplar seems to have been stuffed with plainly the same errors as ours. I think, therefore, that it is to be held of small account that the Bolognese too read that Gaza was taken by storm in the twenty-seventh year of Heraclius, and that the fifty martyrs died on 16 December, which is now sacred to St. Florian, and not on the 17th.
[13] by few In two places Peter de Natalibus treats of the Palestinian martyrs. In the month of November, between Sts. Felix of Fondi and Prosdocimus, that is, at the end of day 6, he has this: Of the holy ten martyrs. Ten martyrs suffered in the east at the city of Theopolis (elsewhere Rheopolis). Seized by the Saracens and confessing Christ the Lord, hung on crosses, they deserved to receive from the Lord the crowns of martyrdom, on the VIII Ides of November. So Ado in his martyrology Catalogus sanctorum, book X, c. XXXII.. In what respects this differs from the notice of Ado will easily be clear to one comparing the two; not so, from where Peter took what he adds about the punishment of the cross. Again he recalls the same men in the month of December, where he treats of Sts. Florian, Calanicus and their fellow martyrs Ibid., book I, c. LXXIII. Compare Anal. Boll., in the work cited, p. 295., and he excerpted their history, as we are taught by the heading alone, from the Passion of St. Florian, at any rate in a more complete form, since he recites the names of certain martyrs. Yet I should like this to be noted, that, if you listen to Peter, the passion of Florian with the others is recalled on the XVI Kalends of January, that is, on 17 December.
[14] seem to have been read. Solerius thinks that the Acts of the Passion of the sixty martyrs were used by Baronius in the martyrology at 17 December Martyrologium Usuardi, p. 749.; but by what right he so judged I do not see, since Baronius rather contaminated Ado from the Acts of St. Florian, while on reading the genuine Passion he would at once have understood that whatever the Bolognese devise about their Florian is fiction. Solerius had in hand a copy of the Passion from the very codex of the archive of the Vatican chapter, which we also preserve in our library. But, deceived by the notice of Baronius, he did not think the matter to be looked into thoroughly, and, as he himself says, referred it to further investigation.
[15] Such as they lie in the codex, although written very barbarously, we judge that the Acts of the holy martyrs should be edited with the greatest accuracy; and if anything occurs that is certainly to be emended, we prefer to put it at the foot of the page rather than to thrust it into the writing itself.
PASSION OF THE SIXTY MARTYRS
from the codex of the chapter of St. Peter in the Vatican A5. Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 4.
Ten martyrs at Jerusalem. (SS.)
Here begins the passion of the sixty martyrs who suffered from the Saracens in the month of December on day XVII.
[1] By the Saracens The martyrdom of the holy sixty soldiers of Christ who were held by the impious Saracens in the Christ-loving city of Gaza, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, in the twenty-seventh year of Heraclius, the emperor crowned by God. It happened in that time, concerning the godless Saracens, that they besieged the Christ-loving city of Gaza, besieging Gaza and forced by necessity the city asked for terms. Which was done. And the Saracens gave it terms, except for the soldiers who were captured in that same city. Entering the city and seizing the most Christian soldiers, they sent them to prison. On the following day Ambrus That is, Amr. ordered the holy soldiers of Christ to be brought; and when they were brought before him, he tried to compel them to depart from the confession of Christ and from the precious and life-giving cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as they would not consent, Ambrus ordered their wives and sons and arms to be separated from them, the sixty soldiers to Eleutheropolis and them to be sent again to prison. And when they had passed thirty days in prison, he ordered them again to be led ironed to the city that is called Eleutheropolis, and there they were again sent to prison for two months. Likewise, the Saracens ordering, he sent them across Something seems to be lacking; compare above, n. 5. to 〈Eleu〉theropolis [codex theropolim, which also Ado seems to have read: Theopoli, and Peter de Natalibus (X, 32): Rheopolim.] in irons. And there again when they had passed three months, the impious Ambrus, remembering, the Saracens ordering, took them from prison, and leading them to the holy city, had them sent again to prison. And the most holy patriarch Sophronius, learning of it, devoted himself to them by night, admonishing and begging them not to depart from the confession of Christ, then they are led away to Jerusalem, who suffered for us, and that not one of them should be separated from the faith of Christ our Lord. In like manner did the chief of the holy martyrs of Christ, by name Callinicus, admonishing and begging them daily to be more imitators so the codex. of the holy forty martyrs Without doubt he means the XL martyrs of Sebaste.. And the devil again pressing upon the God-hated Ambrus, after ten months he wrote to Ammiras [Perhaps Amir ibn Ghailan, who died in Syria in the year 639, carried off by plague, as M. J. De Goeje conjectured. Compare Anal. Boll., vol. XXIII, p. 290. Unless indeed ammiras is the name of a dignity.], who was commander in the holy city, concerning the holy martyrs, saying that he should go to the holy martyrs in the prison and tell them to deny their faith; and if they consented to deny Christ, take the irons off them and send them across with great honour; and if they would not consent, to behead their chief with nine others before them; the rest, seeing it, perhaps led by fear, would deny their faith.
[2] where ten of them are beheaded; Hearing this, the most holy patriarch Sophronius did not rest that night, supplicating with tears, admonishing each one concerning the faith of Christ. Then it came about that Ammiras came to them, and bringing them out of prison, read over to them what had been written by Ambrus; and the holy martyrs of Christ not consenting to his precepts, but all together confessing the faith of Christ our Lord, then Ammiras in anger cast the saints outside the city before the gates and ordered their chief to be beheaded with nine other martyrs. Whom the most holy patriarch Sophronius taking, he buried them in one place, where he also built an oratory of St. Stephen, the first martyr. These are the names above, nn. 6, 7. of the saints who suffered in the holy city of God: Cithom, Devandus, Callidicus, Imerius illustrius, Theodorus, Stephanus, Devandu voluntarisiorum, Petrus, Paulus, Theodorus, Iohannes and another Iohannes. And the martyrs of Christ were finished in the month of November on the eleventh day Ado read on day VI, above, n. 8. in the thirteenth indiction above, n. 9..
[3] the rest But the remaining saints were led back to prison. Ammiras sent word to Ambrus, saying: According to your command I have done; those soldiers not consenting, I have adjudged them sentence of death; but the rest I have shut up in prison. What seems good to you, write back to us. And after thirty days the devil again sows in the heart of Ambrus; he sent word to Ammiras to send the other saints to him in irons, and on their joining them the martyrs of Christ stood before Ambrus. Ambrus ordered their wives and sons to be brought before them. are killed at Eleutheropolis. When they had been brought, Ambrus said to the holy martyrs of Christ: How long will you be stiff-necked and not consent with us to be of our ceremonies? For if you consent with us, behold, you have your wives and sons, and you are as we are, and you will have honour as one of us; but if not, what your fellow soldiers suffered you too will suffer. Then the holy martyrs with one accord
answered Ambrus, saying: No one can separate us from the charity of Christ, neither wives, nor sons, nor all the substance of this world; but we are servants of Christ, the son of the living God, and we are ready to die for him who died and rose for us. Hearing this the most cruel Ambrus, full of fury, and his face changed, ordered the holy martyrs of Christ to be surrounded by a multitude of Saracens, and so impiously he cut them down for the faith of Christ. And the saints thus ending, there were found these Christ-loving men, and they bought their bodies, giving three thousand solidi. And with great honour they buried the martyrs of Christ, laying them in Eleutheropolis, building there a church in which is adored the holy life-giving and consubstantial Trinity.
[4] The names of the martyrs. These are the names above, nn. 6, 7. of the saints who were finished for the faith of Christ: Devandus, Sciton, Iohannes, Paulus and likewise Iohannes, Paulus, Fotinus, Zitas, Eugenius, Musilius, Iohannes, Stephanus, Theodorus, Iohannes the father and Theodorus the son, Georgius, Theopentus, Georgius, Sergius, Georgius, Theodorus, Quiriacus, Iohannes, Zitas and Iohannes, Philoxenus, Georgius, Iohannes, Georgius, Devandus, Devandum autem voluntarisiorum, Theodorus, Epiphanius, Iohannes, Theodorus, Sergius, Georgius, Thomas, Stephanus, Conon, Theodorus, Paulus, Iohannes, Georgius, Iohannes and Iohannes, Paulinus, Galumas, Habramius, Mermicius and Marinus. And the martyrs of Christ were finished in the month of December on the seventeenth day, the fifth day of the week, at hour VI, in the XIII indiction above, n. 9., Heraclius ruling, in the twenty-eighth year, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.