ON ST. HEDISTIUS, OR EDISTIUS, MARTYR, AT RAVENNA IN ITALY,
From the Martyrologies.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 4TH CENTURY, AS IS BELIEVED.
CommentaryHedistius or Edistius, M., at Ravenna in Italy (S.)
BY C. B.
All and each of the larger, that is, uncontracted Hieronymian copies which are extant in Fiorentini with unanimous consent celebrate today Edistius or Hedistius or also (for the name is written variously by various ones) Aedistus or Hedestus; Edistius, not at Rome, but they do not all attribute the same arena to this holy Martyr; for the Echternach sets him down at Rome, but the Corbie and Lucca at Ravenna, in this manner: At Ravenna, on the Via Laurentina, the birthday of St. Edistus. But are we to stand here by these two last Hieronymian copies, or, on the contrary, by the Echternach? Rabanus supports this latter Hieronymian copy, and, if Fiorentini says rightly in his Notes on it, Notker; but who the Notker is in whom Fiorentini found Edistius set down today at Rome at the beginning of the list, as he says, I do not sufficiently perceive. Certainly the Notker who exists with us today expressly announces Edistius at the beginning of the list not at Rome but at Ravenna, although meanwhile in the third place of it he sets down at Rome the birthday of Bedistus, M., the first syllable of the name Hedistus having been changed by an error of which we have already spoken above among those Passed Over; and as for Rabanus, he does indeed truly assign our Saint to Rome; but most probably he received that only from a Hieronymian codex which was similar to the Echternach, very greatly disordered and confused today, and the same is to be said of some contracted Hieronymian copies in Du Sollier and Martène in which Edistius is likewise attributed to Rome.
[2] but, as the reasoning which, to the contrary However that may be, certainly both Ado and Usuard surpass both these and Rabanus in authority and credibility; and they, and indeed he too who is even older than they, the author of the little Roman Martyrology, set down St. Edistius today at Ravenna, and Wandelbert also does the same, singing thus in his metrical Martyrology:
Edistius then enriches the fourth Ides with his merits, In whom, her famed Martyr, the city of Ravenna rejoices.
Now then, since these things are so, that Edistius was a martyr of Ravenna seems to be placed beyond controversy, as both Du Sollier, in his Observations on Usuard, today not undeservedly pronounces, and the most learned men who reformed the present Roman Martyrology announce him at Ravenna in these following words: At Ravenna, on the Via Lauretina, the birthday of St. Edistius the martyr; but, since the road which is here called Lauretina is named Laurentina in the Lucca and Corbie Hieronymian copies praised above, there will perhaps be someone who will contend that this latter appellation is to be embraced, and the Saint therefore to be set down not at Ravenna but at Rome, because it is known from what is to be said below that a Via Laurentina existed there, but not likewise at Ravenna. The matter is certainly not destitute of every appearance of truth. Galesini indeed speaks in the following manner in his Annotations on the Martyrology composed by himself: Edistius was buried at Ravenna on the Via Lauretina, which most call the Laurentina, but wrongly: for it is called Lauretina from a grove planted with laurels; and Ferrari too, Fiorentini likewise not opposing, assents to him in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, affirming from the monuments of the church of Ravenna and Girolamo Rossi that the body of Edistius was buried on the Via Lauretina between Ravenna and Classe.
[3] But it were to be wished that either this latter hagiologist or Galesini makes, having been weakened, it is concluded, at Ravenna, had proved by an ancient and credible document that there existed formerly at Ravenna, or at least not far from there, a road which, because either it itself or a neighbouring grove was planted with laurels, was called the Lauretina. Nor indeed was the road between Ravenna and Classe called the Lauretina, but, as Cluverius teaches in Ancient Italy, page 305 and following, the Caesarea; and since it is entirely certain from what the same Cluverius alleges, page 883 of the cited Work, that there existed formerly a road which, because it led from Rome to Laurentum, a town formerly not ignoble, distant from there about sixteen miles towards the Tyrrhenian sea, was called the Laurentina, there truly seems to be reason why the sacred Fasti praised above, which indicate that Edistius suffered at Ravenna on the Via Laurentina, should be judged to be charged with error, not because they do not call it the Lauretina, but because they place Edistius not at Rome but at Ravenna. Nevertheless, since a road which led off from the road between Classe and Ravenna, either to the right or to the left, elsewhere, and was called the Lauretina from the laurels with which either it itself or a neighbouring grove was planted, could without any doubt have existed formerly at Ravenna or not far from there, although meanwhile it is found mentioned in no ancient document whatever, and the word Laurentina could easily have been written in error for the word Lauretina, the difference between the two being only a single little letter, it appears, on account of the things which I have already said in num. 1, more probable that we must stand by the sacred Fasti praised there which set down Edistius at Ravenna, although meanwhile two of these too, the older ones, namely the Corbie and Lucca Hieronymian copies, call the road mentioned by them, on which they indicate the Saint either suffered or was buried, not the Lauretina but the Laurentina.
[4] And let these things already said suffice about the place in which Edistius suffered. he suffered in the Diocletianic persecution, I now add some things about the time at which this was done, and the cult which the Saint enjoys among the people of Ravenna. That Edistius was crowned with martyrdom in the last persecution of Diocletian is related by Girolamo Rossi, with whom let the credit rest, in book 2 of the History of Ravenna; so that, since that writer also cites in his favour the monuments of the church of Ravenna, we may hence not undeservedly judge that it is commonly believed that Edistius suffered in the last persecution of Diocletian. And if the thing had perhaps taken place then truly, which the things already adduced make only probable, and that only with difficulty, it will have to be said that it happened before the twenty-seventh day of October of the year 306: for although the persecution, in which Diocletian, after he had raged against the soldiers from the year 298, began in the year 303 to rage against other Christians of every condition and sex, was still continued after the year 305, in which that prince abdicated the empire, for several years in the lands subject to Galerius Maximian, nevertheless the matter stood otherwise in Italy, where Ravenna is situated; for there in the year 306, already advanced to the 27th day of October, Maxentius, son of Maximian Herculius, seized the empire and then soon restored peace to the Church, as it is permitted to see in Pagi in the Critica at that year.
[5] and there too, as is proved, and on Mount Soracte he is venerated; As for the cult with which the people of Ravenna venerate Edistius, and indeed as their fellow citizen, that he is honoured by them every year today with an Office of semidouble rite Fabri affirms in the book entitled Sacred Monuments of Ancient Ravenna, and that nothing is proclaimed by him in this matter except what accords with the truth is clear from the Directory of the church of Ravenna of the year 1660 existing with us, in which it is prescribed at the 12th day of October that Edistius be venerated with an Office of semidouble rite. Nor at Ravenna only, but also, as appears, on Mount Soracte Hedistius enjoys ecclesiastical cult. For there, outside the town set on the slope of that mountain, which, although, just as the abbey of the Three Fountains enclosed in it, it is commonly called Sant'Oreste, is nevertheless believed in reality to take its appellation or title from St. Aedistus, there stands a little chapel sacred to this Saint, in which once every year the most holy Sacrifice of the Mass is accustomed to be celebrated (on the day, if I am not mistaken, sacred to St. Aedistius, that is, the twelfth of October) by the canons who perform the divine Offices in the church of the said town dedicated to St. Lawrence. So I understand from three different letters written to our Bolland from Rome, Tusculum and Mount Soracte in the years 1644 and 1647 by Silvestro Pietrasanta, who, as he himself says in one of them, acted as perpetual visitor of the aforesaid abbey for his most eminent lordship Cardinal Antonio, its commendatory abbot, as also that the Aedistius who is venerated on that mountain, as has been said, is not believed to be different from our Aedistius, that is, of Ravenna.
[6] [for neither from Hedestus, whom the Acts here mentioned relate to have suffered at Laurentum,] Nor indeed shall I easily bring myself to think that anything foreign to the truth is judged while this latter is believed (although meanwhile I should think it doubtful whether truly, as Pietrasanta supposed, the aforesaid abbey and town are commonly called Sant'Oreste by corruption from St. Aedistus, and not from St. Silvester, in whose honour Carloman is related by Regino and Aimoin to have built a monastery on Mount Soracte). Certainly that Edistius, whom some of the sacred Fasti praised above announce today at Ravenna, is by no means different, contrary to what that martyrologist there judged, from Edistius whom others attribute to Rome, and whom Galesini also sets down there together with SS. Evagrius and Priscianus, everyone, as I think, will conclude from the things I brought forward above when I referred the latter of the two Saints just named here among those Passed Over. But there exist with us certain Acts of a Hedestus or Hedistus, who was armour-bearer of the emperor Nero, excerpted, as they show at the head, from the codex 461 of Saint-Germain; and these record that that Hedistus was put to martyrdom not alone, nor at Rome or Ravenna, but with Priscus the presbyter, his wife Thermantia, his daughter Christe and the maidservant Victuria, near Laurentum, a town formerly not ignoble, already mentioned above in num. 3, not far from the road which, because it led there from Rome, was called the Laurentina, as I taught in the same place, on the 4th day before the Ides, that is, the 12th day of October.
[7] Wherefore, if we are to stand by those Acts, it will be necessary different for these reasons, since only slight, or even, as here either that Edistius, who is mentioned today at Ravenna, as has been said, in some sacred Fasti, be judged to be better set down in others at Rome, since Laurentum, the arena of his martyrdom, as the said Acts report, is not far distant from there, as the things alleged above in the number just cited show; or that he be determined to be different from the Edistius or Hedestus who is narrated in the same Acts to have undergone martyrdom at Laurentum, or, if you prefer, near Laurentum; and if this latter is admitted, which indeed appears necessary, since companions are added to the Hedestus who is related to have suffered at Laurentum, but not likewise to the Hedestus who suffered at Ravenna, there will further be reason why not the latter of them but the former should be believed to be venerated on Mount Soracte, which is much less distant from Laurentum than from Ravenna. But what are we to do here? Priscus the presbyter, his wife Thermantia, his daughter Christis and the maidservant Victuria, whom the Acts praised above relate to have suffered together with Hedestus under Nero, when consul for the fourth time, are found inscribed in no Martyrologies whatever, nor are they mentioned in any other monuments of venerable antiquity either sacred or profane; and although it cannot be inferred from this that they never existed in the nature of things (for not all who fell for the faith in the various persecutions are enumerated in the ancient Collections of Martyrs or Martyrologies or other monuments), I nevertheless cannot be moved by the authority and credibility of the said Acts alone, which, as has been said, relate that they suffered under Nero near Laurentum, so as to believe without any scruple that these same, known neither from any cult with which they are honoured anywhere, truly did not spring merely from the licence of invention.
[8] Hear for what reason I am so disposed in mind. the things alleged persuade, by no Those Acts supply absolutely nothing from which you may gather either at about what time or by whom they were written; and besides the fact that, as follows from this, it may not undeservedly be called into doubt whether they are of sufficient antiquity to create belief, they are certainly later than the century in which they relate that those whom I have just named underwent martyrdom with Hedestus. For they connect it, as I have just indicated, with the fourth consulate of Nero, and so, since this fell in the year of Christ 60, they set it down in the first century of the Christian era; but that they are far later than this, even their style alone, in which they are written, entirely barbarous, insipid, and wholly foreign to all the purity of the Latin tongue which then flourished, convincingly proves. Further, the credit which, even though it is so, someone may perhaps still attach to the same Acts, must also be not a little diminished or weakened, first indeed from the fact that, as I have already shown, they relate that Hedestus and the others mentioned above were put to death by Nero in the year of Christ 60,
although meanwhile, before the year of Christ 64, that is, the burning of the city of Rome which then took place, neither was the Christian religion proscribed by that emperor nor was violence done against its followers, as Sulpicius Severus in book 2 of the Sacred History plainly teaches, Tacitus, Eusebius and other ancient writers also openly supporting him in this matter; and then also from the fact that they affirm, against the credit of all the writers of the Augustan History, that already from the same year 60 Nero, the people rising against him, was compelled to be long absent from Rome and to stay at Laurentum.
[9] to be held in esteem, he must be thought. Moreover, since the anonymous author of the Acts neither declares that anyone was present who could put into writing the words exchanged back and forth by Hedestus with the others a little before the martyrdom, nor does it come out as likely from any quarter, whence, I ask, did he learn the things he here adduces as having been then uttered by him, which he himself cannot have heard? That indeed I do not perceive, and even for that reason I think it is not a little to be feared that they are plainly fictitious, especially since not a few of them are of such a kind that it is by no means likely that they were really uttered by Hedistus. Now then, since the Acts of St. Hedistus which we have just discussed are to be held in no esteem, or certainly in slight esteem, as everyone will understand from these and other things already adduced above, these Acts, which for that reason it has not seemed good to bring into our Work, certainly ought not to bring it about either that Hedistus, who is set down at Ravenna in the sacred Fasti praised above, which we follow here, should be thought to be better announced in others at Rome and to have undergone martyrdom not in the Diocletianic persecution, as is commonly believed from what has been said, but under Nero; or that he should be believed to be different or distinct from the Hedistus whom these spurious Acts, as has been said, record to have suffered at Laurentum under Nero, and therefore that the latter and not the former is venerated on Mount Soracte.