ON ST. CANDIDUS OR CANDIDA, MARTYR AT ROME,
MORE PROBABLY IN THE THIRD CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
Candidus or Candida, M., at Rome. (S.)
BY C. B.
In various copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology one martyr is rightly announced today at Rome; but since he is not rendered in one and the same way in all of them, it becomes doubtful Candida, or rather Candidus, a martyr, who by Usuard whether he was of the male or the female sex. In the Echternach, or St. Willibrord's, copy it is marked: On the 5th day before the Nones of October, at Rome, of Candida; but in the Reichenau, or that of Reichenau in Germany: On the 5th day before the Nones of October, at Rome, of Candidus. Fiorentini, in the learned Annotations which he appends for this day to his Lucca copy, prefers the latter reading, because more Hieronymian codices show it, together with the present Roman Martyrology, Usuard and other hagiologists. I readily embrace Fiorentini's opinion as the more probable, both because the Echternach copy, although most ancient, is not free of errors, and because Usuard, from whom the reformers of the Roman Martyrology and other martyrologists drew, undoubtedly took today's announcement, in which he writes St. Candidus, not Candida, from ancient monuments different from the Hieronymian copies. For that announcement assigns St. Candidus not only to Rome, but also to Rome at the Ursus Pileatus; and since this location is not expressed in the Hieronymian martyrologies, he must necessarily have received it from other ancient documents.
[2] Since nevertheless I have not ascertained what or of what kind these were, and by others is placed today at Rome at the Ursus Pileatus; I admit the aforesaid opinion of Fiorentini not indeed as certain, but as the more probable, as I have already said.
Hence also it comes about that I cannot declare for certain whether St. Candidus is placed at the Ursus Pileatus rightly or wrongly. Meanwhile the present Roman Martyrology, and very many more recent sacred Fasti, following Usuard here also, commemorate St. Candidus today thus: At Rome, at the Ursus Pileatus, of St. Candidus, martyr. Belinus, however, announces the Saint briefly at Rome thus: At Rome, of saint Candidus, martyr. Perhaps he held his placement at the Ursus Pileatus in suspicion. However that may be, there is no reason why I should pronounce without doubt that faith is here to be withdrawn from Usuard. Wherefore, since by that placement the place is probably designated where the holy Martyr was laid to rest by the faithful immediately after his martyrdom, it will be worth the trouble to bring forward some matters here by which it may be made known in some fashion or other; especially since this helps to define, at least in some broad manner, the time at which the Saint was crowned with martyrdom. Antonio Bosio, and after him Paolo Aringhi, in their Roma subterranea, distinguish two cemeteries situated at the Ursus Pileatus, destined once at Rome, in the time of the persecutions, to the service of the Christians. One of these was situated outside the city on the Via Portuensis, near some figure of a Bear Wearing a Cap, from which it also received the name of the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus; the other within the city, where the church of St. Bibiana now stands, on the Esquiline, in the fifth region of ancient Rome, in the street of the Ursus Pileatus mentioned by Sextus Rufus in his book on the Regions of the City, from which, or at least from some figure of a Bear Wearing a Cap near it, this cemetery likewise took the name of the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus.
[3] [He did not suffer before the third century, if that placement signifies the place] The first, as rightly follows from what the aforesaid Aringhi brings forward in book 2, chapter 19, numbers 1 and 3, was built neither earlier than the third century nor later than the year 269. But the second, as the same Aringhi teaches in book 4, chapter 42, number 5, took its beginning under the impious Julian the Apostate, and so not before the fourth century, already half elapsed. In one or the other of these cemeteries, provided that Usuard's announcement is true and is to be understood in the sense which I assigned above, the Saint was without doubt committed to the earth by the faithful. Wherefore, since the more ancient of the said cemeteries was not built before the third century, it must be that St. Candidus too, who obtained burial either in that one or in the other, less ancient, did not gain the palm of martyrdom before that same third century. And thus indeed we learn that the martyrdom of our Saint cannot be fixed to either the first or the second century of the Christian era; but can it be attached to the third or to the fourth? Since more Christians are found to have suffered at Rome in the third century than in the fourth, I prefer to refer the martyrdom of St. Candidus to the third century, and for this reason I have written this in the margin, though with a formula of doubt added. If, however, the Saint's tomb could by some reasoning be established for certain in the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus situated within the city, you would rightly tie his martyrdom to the fourth century, on account of the time at which we have shown that tomb was founded. But it is very doubtful whether St. Candidus was committed to a tomb within or outside the city.
[4] where he was committed to the earth; if not, It therefore remains uncertain whether he obtained the palm of martyrdom in the third or the fourth century, and it will likewise be uncertain, as will be plain to one who considers it, whether this did not happen in the first or second century, if, as may be, he is announced today by Usuard at the Ursus Pileatus not because he was buried there but because he was translated there from elsewhere. Wherefore, in order that by the reasons brought forward above the Saint's martyrdom may rightly be removed from the first and second centuries, it is necessary that Usuard's announcement of today, as I have already sufficiently hinted before, place St. Candidus at the Ursus Pileatus on account of his burial alone; and that this is so seems, as I have also insinuated, more like the truth. But Baronius, in the Annotations which he appends for this day to the Roman Martyrology, attributes an altogether different sense to Usuard's announcement of today, and says that by it St. Candidus is set down as having suffered at the Ursus Pileatus. So, as appears, that most learned man judges, because in that region of ancient Rome an old memorial cut in stone is read, in which a huge multitude of martyrs is described as laid at the Ursus Pileatus. I scarcely doubt that this memorial, which Baronius cites in the place quoted, is one of the two inscriptions designating the number of martyrs in the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus situated within the city, and exhibited by Aringhi, already cited more than once, in Roma subterranea, book 4, chapter 42, number 19 and the following. But Usuard is accustomed to mark only the cities where the martyrs suffered, not also their streets. Moreover, as may be gathered from the same Aringhi, in the book and chapter cited, number 21, all those martyrs whom those inscriptions enumerate are counted among the martyrs of the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus not because they were crowned with martyrdom there, but because they were either buried there or translated there; so that, even if St. Candidus were set down by Usuard as having suffered at the Ursus Pileatus, Baronius would nevertheless not rightly affirm it, for the reason already discussed.
[5] Nonetheless Ferrari here also agrees with Baronius, The time at which he underwent martyrdom is plainly uncertain. writing thus for this day in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy: Candidus is recorded by Usuard … as having suffered martyrdom at the Ursus Pileatus (which was a street of the city on the Esquiline, where the church of St. Bibiana, virgin and martyr, now is); and his memorial still stands there inscribed; comprised, that is, as this author probably means, under the old memorial of very many martyrs just cited from Baronius. Certainly I know no other memorial which records St. Candidus by name. Furthermore, if St. Candidus should perhaps be announced by Usuard at the Ursus Pileatus because he suffered there, which however I do not think, nothing whatever will be available, as will be plain to one who considers it, by which you could attribute his martyrdom to one rather than another of the first three centuries of the Christian era; and it will remain altogether doubtful not only whether St. Candidus was buried in the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus within the city, but also whether he was ever buried in, or even translated to, the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus outside the city. However that may be, Bosio, cited above, with whom Piazza agrees in his sacred Hemerologium and Roman Menology, in Roma subterranea, book 2, chapter 17, page 167, inclines to the opinion which holds that St. Candidus was committed to the earth in the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus situated outside the City on the Via Portuensis. And he inclines to it because, as he conjectures, St. Candidus derived his origin from the most illustrious Roman family of the Candidi, to whose ownership the place once belonged in which the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus on the Via Portuensis was afterwards built. But I do not see that this conjecture of Bosio rests on any solid foundation. If, however, St. Candidus was buried in some cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus, I think this took place rather in the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus outside than within the city, for the reason that, as I showed above, the Saint was probably crowned with martyrdom before the fourth century, and at that time the cemetery at the Ursus Pileatus within the city did not yet exist.
[6] His translation to Spain, and his cult there, are asserted by Tamayo. You see now, I believe, learned reader, that nothing can be brought forward from which it becomes sufficiently certain at what time our Saint suffered, or in which cemetery, whether situated within or outside the city, he was buried. Hence Tamayo, in the Spanish Martyrology, to the Announcement by which he today commemorates the deposition of St. Candidus, a Roman martyr who, as he says, suffered at the Ursus Pileatus, at Solana, of the Order of St. James of the Sword, in the monastery of the Discalced Friars of the Most Holy Trinity, rightly subjoins this annotation: His (St. Candidus's) Acts have perished; therefore the time at which he endured martyrdom is unknown. But he soon adds: This is most certain, that the sacred relics of this Martyr were translated from Rome to Madrid with other remains of holy Martyrs, which the Reverend Father Fray Juan de la Anunciación, a son of the Order of the Discalced of the Most Holy Trinity, received from the Supreme Pontiff Urban the Eighth, whose nephew's confessor he had been, and sent to the General of the Order, that he might divide them among the monasteries of his Order in Spain; who gave this holy body of Candidus to the monastery of Solana in Martia, in our tongue La Mancha, where it is still venerated and honourably kept. Whence, amid all the uncertain things which we have so far discussed concerning the Saint, at least his cult in Spain will turn out certain and undoubted, provided that Tamayo's Candidus is not distinct from ours, which I would not dare to assert. For the rest, since no Acts of St. Candidus exist, I know nothing more about him.