Arethas and Companions

ON ST. ARETHAS AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS, PERHAPS AT ROME,

PERHAPS AT ROME.

From the Martyrologies.

Arethas, perhaps at Rome. (S.)

The companion martyrs, perhaps at Rome. (SS.)

BY J. S.

St. Arethas with 500 martyrs Usuard, in his genuine Martyrology, has it thus at this day: At Rome, the birthday of blessed Arethas, martyr, and of five hundred and four others. These very words Baronius repeated in the Roman Martyrology, nor had he anything to add in the Annotations, adducing only Usuard and more recent writers as witnesses, and adding Ado, but I know not which, certainly an augmented and interpolated one, since Ado himself made no mention of these. Our Sollerius, in the Observations on Usuard, notes that Arethas and his Companions were first announced by Usuard, and are not found in older writers, and subjoins this: I have sweated abundantly to find even a trace of these Saints elsewhere, but in vain… Galesinius, Ferrarius and other more recent writers fashion and refashion that number, so much so that Bartolomeo Piazza in the Emerologio has contracted the Companions to only seven, the memory of whose glorious confession he says survives, and their relics dispersed through various churches of the City. The cited Galesinius and Ferrarius seem to divine the time of the martyrdom: I candidly profess that I have ascertained nothing about the whole announcement. Another Arethas, a martyr among the Homerites, who suffered with many companions under the tyrant Dunaan, of whom Metaphrastes treats in Surius at XXIV October, we touched upon in passing in the treatise on the Patriarchs of Alexandria, page 64. Whatever meanwhile may be the case with our Roman Arethas, it cannot altogether be denied that he was truly recorded by Usuard, from wherever at last he was received. With these words Sollerius hints no little doubt whether perhaps Arethas with his Companions was not wrongly transferred to Rome by Usuard.

[2] That Galesinius and Ferrarius divine in order to designate the time of Arethas, He was announced at Rome by Usuard. and that the number of the Companions is fashioned and refashioned by them, their very words show. For in the text, the time being omitted, they agree with Usuard about the number; but in the Annotations they hint that they were crowned under the emperor Antoninus, adducing the testimony of no one, and they contract the Companions to fifty, or to five, on the authority of others whom they do not name, and to whom they prefer Usuard. The author of the manuscript Florarium and Maurolycus agree accurately with Usuard. Peter de Natalibus probably wrote the same: but in both editions of his Work which we have, one of the year 1493, the other of the year 1515, it reads thus: Areta, martyr, and five and four others suffered at Rome on the Kalends of October. If for five one reads five hundred, it agrees with Usuard. And indeed it is hardly likely that five and four was written; but rather five hundred and four, as Usuard has, or fifty and four. From that passage perhaps Galesinius said that the Companions were diminished by some to fifty or to five; yet he rightly preferred Usuard. For it does not seem to be doubted that both Peter de Natalibus and all the rest drew from Usuard or from his codices, as they all hint by their brevity. This one thing seems in some way doubtful, whether perhaps Usuard did not by error transfer to Rome St. Arethas with his Companions, who is read to have suffered among the Homerites on the XXIV day of October: which can be examined more there.