ON SS. PRIMUS AND CYRIL AND PITINUS AND PONTIUS AND COMPANIONS: MARTYRS AT ANTIOCH; ALSO SS. PONTIUS, LEO, GAIANUS, SECUNDIANUS OR SECUNDARIUS, A SECOND SECUNDIANUS, PLATO OR PLATIO, AND LEONTIUS, MARTYRS,
FROM THE MARTYROLOGIES.
CommentaryPrimus, martyr at Antioch. (S.)
Quirillus or Cyril, martyr at Antioch. (S.)
Petinus, martyr at Antioch. (S.)
Pontius, martyr. (S.)
Leo, martyr. (S.)
Gaianus, martyr. (S.)
Secundianus or Secundarius, martyr. (S.)
Another Secundianus, martyr. (S.)
Plato or Platio, martyr. (S.)
Leontius, martyr. (S.)
BY J. S.
Three of these Martyrs announced in the Roman Martyrology, Baronius in the Roman Martyrology announces three Martyrs today, as having suffered at Antioch, writing thus: At Antioch, of the holy martyrs Primus, Cyril and Secundarius. In the Annotations he has this: These are treated in ancient manuscripts (not Acts, but Martyrologies), from which Molanus also has them on this day. But if we consult the Hieronymian Martyrologies, from which these Martyrs passed into the others, either many more will appear to have suffered together, or not all will be of Antioch, but the last will appear to have suffered in another place. The resolution of this doubt will be the less certain, because the principal martyrologists who drew from the Hieronymian ones in the ninth century omitted these Antiochene Martyrs altogether. Nevertheless certain indications offer themselves in the ancient Fasti that several Martyrs, who in the Hieronymian ones seem to be recorded without a place, belong to the Antiochene class; and so it will at least become probable that many more suffered together, but that in the longer codices the whole band was torn into two parts by the interposition of St. Eusebius the Pope, as happened on the preceding day, as I observed in the same place; while in the more contracted ones many names of Martyrs were omitted, as commonly happens in these. Let us therefore hear the Martyrologies themselves.
[2] all in the Hieronymian Fasti, The Hieronymian ones in Florentinius have it thus: At Antioch, of Primus. Quirillus. Pitinus. And after St. Eusebius, commemorated at Rome, there follows: And elsewhere, of Pontus. Leo. Gaianus. Secundianus. likewise Secundianus. Platio. Leontus. In the Echternach one it is had thus: At Antioch, of Primus, Quirinus, Epesinus. And after Eusebius: And elsewhere, of Pantaleon, Gaianus, Secundianus, likewise Secundianus, Plato, Leontus. In the Corbie one: At Antioch, of Primus, Quirillus, Pitinus. Then after Eusebius: And elsewhere, of Leo, Gaianus, Secundus, likewise Secundus, Plato, Longus. If these codices, with the first of which the Blumian also agrees, were alone to be consulted, it would necessarily have to be said that Secundianus or Secundarius is not of the Antiochene Martyrs, but that in his place Pitinus, or Epesinus, is to be added to the two former; but the name is written in different ways in the present-day copies: this too the words And elsewhere, set before the latter, seem to require. This conjecture is also favoured by the Martyrology of Reichenau, which similarly divides the former from the latter, omitting one of the former and several of the latter in this manner: At Antioch, of Primus, Quirillus. Then Eusebius and Leodegar are interposed, and there is subjoined: And elsewhere, of Pontius, Leo, Gaianus, Secundianus, the rest being omitted.
[3] In the codices of Augsburg, of Labbe and of Gellone, the former are mixed with the latter without an assigned place. but not so distinctly, In the first there is had: Of Quirillus, Secundianus, Primus,… Gaianus, Cleontus (in others Leontus). The second records the same thus: Of Quirillus, Secundinus, Primus,… Gaianus, Leontus. The third: Of Quirillus, Secundianus, Primus,… Grecianus (for Gaianus), Leontus. In these, indeed, the latter are mixed with the former, as I said, but from this we have no effective argument for assigning all to Antioch, since Eusebius the Pope is mixed in among all of them in the same way. In the Martyrology which Martène believed to be nearly a thousand years old, only three out of all of them are recorded, in this manner: Of Quirillus, Secundianus, Primus, but without a place. These same are read in several Auctaria of the Usuardine Martyrology in Sollerius, namely in two Antwerp codices and two others, as follows: At Antioch, the heavenly birthday of the saints Primus, Quirillus and Secundianus. In the Brussels one in the same words. In the Florentine: At Antioch, of the holy martyrs Primus, Cirillus, Secundarius. There are added four editions of Usuard in which these three are announced together at Antioch, namely the Lübeck-Cologne edition, and those of Belinus, of Greven and of Molanus; but the name of the last is read in the first and third as Secundianus, in the second and fourth as Secundarius. In one augmented codex of Bede also there is read: At Antioch, of Primus, Quirillus and Secundianus.
[4] From what has been adduced thus far the studious reader will perceive with me [so that it becomes certain that others are to be joined with the three who suffered at Antioch,] that Secundianus began to be assigned in express words to Antioch only in the Auctaria of Usuard and Bede, after he had earlier been mixed in with the Antiochenes in other codices without a place added. Wherefore it seems doubtful whether all whom we have reviewed suffered at Antioch, or whether in fact Secundianus suffered with the latter in another place, and that unknown, and so with his Companions constitutes another band of Martyrs. But from the consensus of the ancient codices it must by all means be said that all those reviewed belong to this day, whether all were crowned at Antioch, or the greater part elsewhere. Three are certainly to be assigned to Antioch, who are rightly recorded in Giorgi in the Ottobonian Martyrology in these words: At Antioch, of Primus, Quirillus, Petinus. For these the most ancient codices by unanimous consent assign to Antioch. The names of the first two among the older ones are Primus and Quirillus; the latter, however, among the more recent is also written Cirillus and Cyrillus, which is the same name. In the name of Pitinus the Echternach codex varies more, in which he is called Epesinus. But on account of the consensus of the others that is to be held a scribal error, and Pitinus is to be written.
[5] who perhaps suffered separately, seven in number. Concerning the others, who are enumerated as seven in the codices of Florentinius, the Echternach one also agreeing, except that the names of the first two have been fused into one, I leave it doubtful whether they suffered at Antioch or in another unknown place. Their names, however, from a collation of the codices, I have judged should be set down thus. The first is Pontus or rather Pontius, the second Leo. Both are in all the codices of Florentinius, and expressly also in the Reichenau codex. Hence it seems not to be doubted that the word Pantaleonis, which is in the single Echternach codex, has been fused together from those two. In the Corbie codex in d'Achery Pontius is omitted, but perhaps through the fault of the copyist or the typesetter, since Florentinius testifies in the Annotations that in his copy of the Corbie Martyrology Portius is read in place of Pontius. The third is named Gaianus in many codices, in the single Gellone one Grecianus, which I take for a scribal error. The fourth among the ancients is mostly written Secundianus, as is the fifth also, a second Secundianus: in the single Corbie codex each is written Secundus, probably erroneously; and among the more recent now and then Secundarius: but the true name seems to be Secundianus. The sixth is Plato or Platio, as Florentinius advises in the emendations. The seventh, finally, is called Leontus or Leontius in most, and in the Corbie one alone is written Longus. Two of these Martyrs seem to be commemorated on the following day by Wandalbert, in the prose additions to his metrical Martyrology, together with Eusebius the Pope: And the heavenly birthday of the saints Eusebius, Pontus and Leo.