ON ST. DASIUS, AT AXIOPOLIS IN LOWER MOESIA,
AT AXIOPOLIS IN LOWER MOESIA.
From the Hieronymian Martyrologies and others.
CommentaryDasius, martyr at Axiopolis in Lower Moesia. (S.)
BY J. B.
The various announcement of St. Dasius, At Axiopolis, which was a town of Lower Moesia on the Danube, situated not far from Durostorum, most of the Hieronymian codices announce St. Dasius on this day, giving no certain indication from which you may discern whether he is to be reduced to the class of confessors or to that of martyrs.
The Lucca one, which Florentini published and illustrated with notes, has thus: At Acxiopolis, the birthday of St. Dasius; and of those which Sollier subjoined in part 2 of vol. VI of June, the Reichenau one has thus: And at Anxiopolis, of Dasius; the Augsburg one of the monastery of St. Udalric: Of Martius, Audactus, Dasius, Marcus. The Labbe one: Of Marcus, Audactus, Dasius. The Gellone one, from d'Achéry's edition in vol. XII of the Spicilegium: Of Marcus, Adaucta, Dasius. The Corbie one, in the d'Achéry praised, vol. IV: And elsewhere, of St. Dasius. The Barberini one: At Axiopolis, the birthday of St. Clasius. To the Hieronymian ones are added the Martyrology of the Church of Aachen under the name of Bede: At Rome, it says, the birthday of Marcellus the bishop, of Adauctus, of Dasius. The Martyrology of St. Germanus of Auxerre, published by Martène in vol. III of the Anecdota: Of Marcus, Adauctus, Dasius. Our manuscript Florarium: At Axiopolis, of St. Dasius. Usuard as enlarged by Grevenus closes the 4th day of October with these words: Of Dasius the confessor.
[2] I said a little before that the Hieronymian Martyrologies make mention of Dasius, but in such a way more probably that they manifest by no certain indication whether he was a Martyr or a confessor. Yet since in the older centuries of the Church the celebrations of martyrs were generally marked with the title Natalis, and the Lucca and Barberini codices use it, this can be an argument for it, and I the more incline to hold that St. Dasius belongs to the class of martyrs. But what makes me not judge this with certainty is that this was not so scrupulously and constantly established as a custom but that the days of death of Saints distinguished neither by martyrdom nor by exile, prisons, or torments endured for the faith were sometimes also called Natales. On which matter Florentini excellently, in the VIII Admonition prefixed to the Hieronymian Martyrology: Nor, he says, let him think that the day of celebration marked under the word Natalis is so strictly observed as though it were anciently attributed to martyrs only. For although in Tertullian's time the days of the martyrs' sufferings were customarily called Natalitia, and Albinus Flaccus confirms that this was in use from the ancient tradition of our Elders, yet the same Albinus, in the book On the Divine Offices at the chapter on the Parasceve, testifies that it was an ancient custom to celebrate the birthdays of any Saints whatever dying in the Lord, and to call their days of death Natales; which he drew from Origen, book 3 on Job.
[3] a martyr, Then, having assigned and proved by examples the manifold use of the word Natalis, he continues thus: But that it was an ancient custom of the Church to call the day of death, both of martyrs and of confessors, Natalitium, Pope Nicholas most plainly testifies in his Epistle to the Consultations of the Bulgars, chapter 5, in these words: The Church holds the custom that the solemn days of the blessed martyrs or confessors of Christ, on which they passed from this world to the region of the living, should be called natales; and that their solemnities should be called, not funeral rites as of those dying, but Natalitia, as of those being born into the true life. From Albinus Flaccus he cites this, as does Benedict XIV in On the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, chapter 128: Rightly are they said to be born, who out of the pressures of this world, as out of the narrows of a certain womb, are sent forth into that most spacious and most bright breadth of the heavenly habitation. From Eusebius of Emesa or Eucherius of Lyon: For if we call those days natales on which we are born into this light amid offenses and sorrows unto sorrows, more justly will those be celebrated as natales on which the Saints ascend from a corruptible body into that new brightness of the age to come, and the sons of men into the adoption of the divine Fatherhood. From Rabanus: And thence the Ecclesiastical custom has prevailed that we call the days of the blessed martyrs or confessors of Christ on which they passed from the world Natales, and call their solemnities not funeral rites but Natalitia. To these I add St. Augustine, who, although in Sermon 310, otherwise On Various Subjects 113, he says: Which name, that is, Natales, the church so frequently uses that it calls the precious deaths of the martyrs Natales; yet on Psalm 79 he speaks thus in general: Celebrate the Natalitia of the Saints with sobriety, that we may imitate those who have gone before, and that they may rejoice over you who pray for you. If you wish for more of these things, consult Du Cange.
[4] Several Saints of this name are read as inserted in the sacred calendars on various days, and his distinction from namesakes. namely at the 5th day of August, and the 18th, 20th, and 21st of October, in Florentini; but all these had either fixed companions of their contest or another wrestling-ground of martyrdom. The Basilian Menology too and the Menaea make mention of a Dasius at the 20th day of November, who, when he had been designated by lot as a victim to be sacrificed at the coming Saturnalia, and had the option of doing meanwhile whatever he pleased, fell at Durostorum — a nobler victim for Christ than for Saturn — under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Durostorum is another town of Lower Moesia, and not far distant from Axiopolis, as may be seen in Ortelius's Theater of the World. Both the nearness of the two places and the sameness of the Saint's name made Florentini doubt whether he is the same whom the Latin calendars praise at the 4th day of October and the Greeks at the 20th day of November; which indeed he neither denies nor asserts. With equal right one might doubt whether the St. Dasius announced at Axiopolis at the 5th day of August is the same as the one of today; for as various calendars sometimes assign the same Saints to various days, so it may easily happen that the same calendars, badly dislocated, note the same Saints now on this day, now on that; now jointly with others, now separately. But that either of these really happened here, I for my part would not wish to assert.