ON SS. MARK AND MARCIAN AND COMPANIONS, BROTHERS AND MARTYRS IN EGYPT,
IN EGYPT.
In the year 304 and some following.
SYLLOGE.
Mark, brother, M. in Egypt. (S.) Marcian, brother, M. in Egypt. (S.) Their companions, MM., in Egypt.
BY C. B.
[1] Two illustrious champions, who made Egypt illustrious by the blood shed for Christ, the Hieronymian transcripts in Florentini announce today briefly and at the same time plainly thus: The Saints who today in most Martyrologies In Egypt, of Mark and Marcian. These holy Martyrs the author of the Little or Old Roman Martyrology calls Brothers, and joins to them an innumerable multitude of Companion martyrs. In Egypt, he says, of the brothers Mark and Marcian, and with them of an innumerable multitude. Ado, Usuard, and all the other older martyrologists — or those whom we call Classical — with one exception only, Bede, likewise celebrate Mark and Marcian today. But two of them, namely Rabanus and Wandelbert, after the example of the Hieronymian ones, do not join Companion martyrs to the Saints. I set down the words of both. Those of Rabanus — in whom moreover Mark and Marcian do not come under the name of brothers, and are wrongly written, through the fault or drowsiness, I suppose, of copyists, as Martus and Mauricianus — are these: In Egypt, of Martus and Mauricianus. But those of Wandelbert, who after his custom uses bound style, are these:
Mark and Marcian fill the fourth with their office, Brothers in stock, in martyrdom, in nature, and in death.
[2] As regards Ado now, and the other classical martyrologists, and other more recent sacred calendars are inscribed, namely Usuard and Notker: Ado indeed clings to the footsteps of the Little Roman, and commemorates today innumerable martyrs in Egypt together with the brothers Mark and Marcian, adding also the various kinds of martyrdom with which they were crowned, thus: In Egypt, of the holy martyrs Mark and Marcian, brothers, and of others almost innumerable of both sexes and of every age; of whom some, after scourgings, others after horrible tortures of various kinds, were given to the flames; others were hurled into the sea; some were beheaded; very many were consumed by starvation; others were fastened to gibbets; certain ones even, with the head turned downward and the feet lifted on high, deserved the most blessed crown of martyrdom. But Usuard and Notker — which is also to be said of the present-day Roman and of not a few other sacred calendars — agree excellently with Ado in substance. They likewise celebrate innumerable martyrs together with Mark and Marcian, and set forth in summary all that Ado supplies concerning their martyrdom in the words already recited. But Notker does this with less elegance than Usuard. Moreover Notker writes Marcellianus for Marcian. Hence he is charged with a fault by Baronius. But deservedly? That I would not venture to assert altogether without doubt,
for this reason, that our most ancient Echternach transcript of the Hieronymian Martyrology likewise substitutes Marcellianus for Marcian; so that perhaps one of the two holy brothers whom we here give was really called Marcellianus. But however the matter stands, Mark and Marcellianus or Marcian, brothers, of whom we here treat, are beyond all doubt different from Mark and Marcellianus, brothers, of whom treatment has already been made in our Work at the eighteenth of June. For, to omit the other marks of distinction, the latter were crowned with martyrdom at Rome, and that without innumerable companion martyrs; but the former in Egypt, together with an innumerable multitude of companion martyrs.
[3] they are the same as the Eusebian athletes crowned in Egypt, And thus indeed we have it ascertained that the two Saints whom we here give as brothers are most certainly different from those two holy brothers, however they may perhaps be their namesakes. Let us now inquire who these are, and whence they were originally drawn by the martyrologists together with their companion martyrs. The description of the martyrdom with which our Saints were crowned — or rather the elogium with which Ado adorns them above — the holy martyrologist of Vienne undoubtedly drew from book 8, chapter 8, of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius as interpolated by Rufinus, in which Eusebius hands down that innumerable Christians of every age and sex suffered martyrdom in Egypt when the persecution was stirred up by Diocletian. That this may be made plain, I transcribe here the words of the said chapter. And they are these: But in his own province among the Egyptians (the persecution against the Christians having been stirred up by Diocletian) innumerable others with no less glory, both men and women, and also boys and old men, counting the present life of little worth for the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, sought the blessedness of future glory. Some of them, after scourgings, after the claws, after whips and other horrible torments of various kinds, were given to the flames. Others were hurled into the sea; some also were beheaded, so that of their own accord they gave their necks to the axes; some were consumed by starvation; others were fastened to gibbets, on which certain ones hung in a perverse manner, with the head pressed downward and the feet lifted on high. Thus far the Rufinian chapter of Eusebius, as I have said. Compare it now with the Adonian elogium of the Saints transcribed here above, and you will see that the latter was most certainly taken from the former. Ado, namely, judged that our holy brother martyrs and their Companions were the same as the anonymous holy Martyrs whom Eusebius in the aforementioned chapter of the Ecclesiastical History records as having suffered in Egypt, and hence he was the first of all to apply it to Mark and Marcian and their innumerable Companion martyrs, whom he had seen celebrated today by the author of the Little Roman Martyrology.
[4] who all indeed later, Ado was then followed by Usuard, Notker, and not a few more recent martyrologists along with the reformers of the present-day Roman one; nor, so far as I know, has anyone hitherto been found to disapprove that application, or even merely to call it in doubt. I therefore likewise admit it, and now inquire into the time at which our Saints consummated their martyrdom. That I may do this — since, as follows from what has been said, I make them the same as the aforesaid holy Eusebian athletes — it is only necessary that I examine at what time those athletes contended for the faith with shedding of blood. Diocletian's persecution against the Christians took its beginning in the year 303, as is now agreed among the learned, Lactantius's book On the Deaths of the Persecutors having been brought to light. Now, that while it raged the aforementioned Eusebian Athletes — or, as has been said, our Saints — obtained the palm of martyrdom, is manifest from the chapters immediately preceding the eighth chapter of the Eusebian Ecclesiastical History praised above; and accordingly undoubtedly not earlier than the year 303. But, you will say, may it not also have been later? Diocletian issued at least three edicts against the Christians. And by the force of the first of these savagery was directed only against bishops, presbyters, and deacons; but afterwards against men of the secular or lay state too. Now our Saints, or the aforesaid Eusebian Athletes, were of the secular order or state, as you will easily gather from the Rufinian words of Eusebius transcribed here in the preceding number; and accordingly they will have obtained the palm of martyrdom even later than the year 303, if Diocletian first ordered savagery against the Christians of the secular or lay state also later than that year. Whether he did so must now be investigated.
[5] Eusebius, in On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter 2, having narrated the martyrdom of St. Romanus, writes thus: These things were done in this manner in the first year of the persecution (namely the Diocletianic), when the monstrousness of the persecutors raged against the presidents of the churches alone; than in the year 303 and then, being about to set forth how savagery was directed also against persons of the secular order in Palestine, in the following chapter, according to a translation which differs somewhat from the translation both of Valesius and of Christopherson, and which nevertheless seems to be the one to be fitted to the Greek text of Eusebius, he prefaces thus concerning Timothy the martyr: Then, when the second year (namely of the Diocletianic persecution) had come, and the fury of the persecution was more vehemently kindled against us, when to Urbanus, who then governed the province, imperial letters had been brought, by which all men everywhere in all the cities were commanded to offer sacrifices and libations to the idols, Timothy at Gaza, a city of Palestine, having endured innumerable torments, when at last he had been placed upon a slight and slow fire, having given by his endurance a most brilliant specimen of sincere piety toward God, obtained the crown of martyrdom. There was therefore, as you will easily gather from the two passages of Eusebius already transcribed here, savagery by Diocletian's order against persons also of the secular state or order in Palestine (for Eusebius there treats of that region only) in the second year of the Diocletianic persecution; and accordingly this happened in the year 304 or at the beginning of the following. For the Diocletianic persecution, which, as has been said, took its beginning in the year 303, was begun in Palestine not earlier than in the month of April of that year, as is gathered from Eusebius's Prologue On the Martyrs of Palestine — although meanwhile in some other places this was done earlier, because the edicts of the persecution had been brought to them earlier. Further, since Egypt is more distant than Palestine from Nicomedia, whence the edicts of the persecution were sent in every direction, I think that in Egypt savagery against the Christians of the secular state or order too began somewhat later than in Palestine, yet in both places in the same year 304. The Saints, then, or the aforesaid Eusebian Athletes, inasmuch as they were, as has been said, seculars or laymen, obtained the crown of martyrdom even later than the year 303.
[6] but suffered partly in the year 304, partly also in some following ones. But, you will say, did not this also happen later than the year 304? Eusebius, in the Ecclesiastical History, book 8, chapter 9, treats of the Martyrs who suffered in the Thebaid while Diocletian's persecution raged; and where he has indicated that a huge multitude of Christians there fell for the faith at that time by various torments, he subjoins thus: And all these things were perpetrated continuously not in a few days nor in a short space of time, but in the long course of several years; when sometimes ten, at times twenty and more, sometimes up to thirty and sixty, and occasionally a hundred men together with women and little children, were killed in one day, being condemned to various punishments alternating by turns. And so the Christians who in great number contended for the faith in the Thebaid while Diocletian raged did not all suffer martyrdom in one and the same year; which I think must also be said of our Saints. Some of them, as it appears — and perhaps Mark and Marcian — will have obtained the palm of martyrdom in one and the same year 304, but others in the year 305 or the following, or even later. Nor does it matter that they are all comprehended today in the sacred calendars praised above under one and the same announcement; for in these it sometimes happens that martyrs who suffered in the same place and under the same raging tyrant, though at different times, are celebrated by one and the same announcement — and that on days taken at pleasure; which last most probably also holds in the case of the innumerable multitude of anonymous companions which is today joined to Mark and Marcian, although meanwhile a different judgment is to be passed concerning these two latter Saints for this reason, that they are inscribed today in the Hieronymian Martyrologies, which are wont to note the true day also on which the Saints suffered, as I have already taught above.