ON SS. EUSEBIUS AND COMPANIONS: ERACLIUS, DIONYSIUS, SEPTIMUS OR SEPTIMA OR SEPTIMIA, SECUNDA, AND SALSA, MARTYRS IN AFRICA,
IN THE FIRST CENTURY OR IN ONE OF THE THREE FOLLOWING.
FROM THE MARTYROLOGIES.
Eusebius, M., in Africa. (S.)
Eraclius or Heraclius, M., in Africa. (S.)
Dionysius, M., in Africa. (S.)
Septimus or Septima or Septimia, M., in Africa. (S.)
Secunda, M., in Africa. (S.)
Salsa, M., in Africa. (S.)
BY C. B.
The six Martyrs set forth here in the title, all of whom, if you except Septimus or Septima or Septimia, Saints who, although also announced yesterday, belong to this day, are announced today in the Echternach Hieronymian apograph in Florentinius without the other Martyrs of uncertain place of whom we shall treat below, are also listed yesterday in the same Echternach apograph, with these others added and without Septima or Septimus being omitted, thus: Of Africa (other Hieronymian apographs have In Africa), of Eusebius, Eradius, Dionysius, Septima, Secunda, Salsa. But since in absolutely all the other Hieronymian Fasti, by which these Martyrs are reported either in part or all together, this is done only today, Florentinius rightly observes in his Notes that they, like those already mentioned (since these too are reported, either in part or all together, only today in all the other Hieronymian Fasti), being Martyrs of uncertain place, are commemorated out of their proper place in the Echternach apograph, and belong to this day. And this indeed appears certain, as also that not only Dionysius, who is marked today in all the uncontracted Hieronymian codices, but also Eusebius is rightly reckoned among today's African Martyrs in the Echternach apograph; for although he is found neither in the larger Corbie apograph which Florentinius supplies in his Notes, nor in the very ancient Martyrology in d'Achery which is distinguished by the name of St. Jerome, yet in the Hieronymian text of Florentinius itself, in the Gellone apograph in d'Achery, and finally in the Martyrology in Martène, tome 3 of the Anecdota, compiled some thousand years ago under the name of St. Jerome, he is placed before all the other Martyrs of whom we treat here, as their leader and standard-bearer.
[2] But in the said text of Florentinius one reads: In Africa, of Eusebius, [and that they are expressed partly in one way in the text of Florentinius, in another in the Echternach apograph,] Eraclius, Dionisius, Septimus, Sciendus, Salsus; and hence it may be doubted, first, whether the one who is counted here in second place among the African Martyrs should be called Eraclius with this Hieronymian apograph, or, on the contrary, Eradius with the Echternach one; and then whether the last three of them, who are written otherwise in the Echternach apograph than in the text of Florentinius, were of the male or, on the contrary, of the female sex. But since the figure which arises from the letter l joined at the bottom with the letter c comes very close to the figure of the letter d, it can very easily happen that the letter d, or rather its parts, if they are not sufficiently joined at the bottom, is taken for the letters c and l, or, on the contrary, that these, if the one is almost joined with the other at the bottom, are taken for the letter d; and the latter is very probably what happened here, because in the manuscript which the copyist was transcribing the letter l of the name Heraclius or Eraclius was almost joined at the bottom with the letter c. So I judge, not only because the name Heraclius is very common, but also, and chiefly, because in most Hieronymian apographs distinct from the Echternach one, one reads not Eradi or Eradii, but Eracli or Heraclii. Hence it further comes about that, since likewise in most Hieronymian codices one reads not Sciendus and Salsus, as happens in the cited text of Florentinius, but Secunda and Salsa, I am of the opinion that by these names not men but women are designated; and that, moreover, since Septimus occurs no less often than Septima or Septimia in the Hieronymian codices, I cannot yet determine, though I have studiously discussed the matter, whether a man or a woman is designated by that name, and I have therefore indicated in the title my doubt about the way in which it should be written.
[3] And let what has now been said from the uncontracted Hieronymian apographs concerning the sex and names of our African Martyrs suffice. In the more contracted Hieronymian and other more recent ones as well Some of them are further found also in the more contracted codices in Sollerius. In the Reichenau one five are commemorated thus: In Africa, of Eusebius, Eraclius, Dionisius, Secunda, Septimus. In the Augsburg one, and likewise in Labbe's, only four are listed, but to them, as also happens in the Gellone Martyrology in d'Achery and the very ancient one in Martène, praised above, two or three others are presently added, wrongly taken from the following class in the uncontracted codices, while the words and elsewhere, which are found in these after our Martyrs and indicate that they suffered separately from the others who follow, are omitted. For the rest, to add to the more contracted codices already adduced the shorter Corbie one, which is also exhibited by Sollerius, it has the following: In Africa, of Eradius, Dionysius, Septimia. Concerning all and each of these three, indeed concerning the other three African Martyrs likewise mentioned above, all the martyrologists who flourished in the eighth and ninth centuries are silent; but not likewise all those who afterwards added something to their Martyrologies. With us, before tome 2 of March, in the Barberini Auctarium of Bede one reads: In Africa, the feast of SS. Eusebius, Eraclius, Dionysius. To these is added the author of the prose Additions to Wandelbert. He has the following: In Africa, of Eusebius, Heraclius. Greven, and he who our Florarium
manuscript compiled, likewise commemorate these two Martyrs; but they too, keeping the same manner of proceeding which I have just criticized, wrongly join with them St. Venustus, a martyr of another class, who is to be given below here immediately, together with the others belonging to that class.
[4] They are partly found inserted in the sacred Fasti. And thus indeed these two hagiologists; Galesinius, moreover, who finally comes to be mentioned here as well, employs an announcement of this kind: In Africa, of the holy martyrs Euboracus, Eusebius, Serenus and Probus; and in this way he likewise wrongly joins not merely one, as those did, but two Martyrs of another class, of whom the one, Probus, suffered with Tarachus and Andronicus in Cilicia, the other, Serenus, with many others, as we shall see shortly below, in an uncertain place, with two Martyrs of the class of which we are treating here, Heraclius and Eusebius, or at any rate with the latter of them. And he will have done the former if, as Florentinius suspected in his Notes, he wrote Euboracus corruptly for Heraclius or Eraclius; but the latter if perhaps, when either he himself or another whom he then followed had read in some Hieronymian apograph these following words, Of St. Paulinus, bishop, of York, of Eusebius, Serenus and Probus, he took the name Eboracum or Euboracum, by which the very well known city of England is there designated, through error or a lack of due attention, for the name of a martyr, as those certainly did who, in some auctaria of Usuard in Sollerius, added to the announcement of St. Paulinus, archbishop of York in England, the memory of a confessor Eubrachius, as we have already seen in today's Passed Over; and, because he saw them joined with the African martyr Eusebius, marked him, together with Serenus and Probus, in Africa. However that may be, I find nothing more to say about our six African Martyrs, and since, by reason of the scarcity of monuments which treat of them, I cannot assign even a definite century in which they suffered, I have therefore written above in the margin, In the first century or in one of the three following.