ON ST. FLORENTIUS OF THESSALONICA, MARTYR,
From the Martyrologies.
MOST PROBABLY BEFORE THE YEAR 312.
CommentaryFlorentius, martyr, at Thessalonica. (S.)
BY C. B.
Among the not few Saints brought from the Sacred Calendars of the Greeks into the present Roman Martyrology [The Saint, who for the reason alleged here is inserted into our Work, is little known,] must be numbered also Florentius, a martyr, announced today in it in the following words: "At Thessalonica, of St. Florentius the martyr, who after various torments was burned with fire." Hence it came about that, although the Greeks sometimes count among the Saints even those unworthy of this honor, I nevertheless did not fear to give Florentius a place here in our Work, being disposed in mind thus partly also from the fact that nothing occurs from any other source which prevents him from being numbered among the Saints. But although this is so, I find scarcely anything by which he may be made sufficiently known to the reader. For, passed over in silence by all the writers not only of the Latins but also of the Greeks, he is known almost solely from the Sacred Calendars of the latter, to whom, however, Galesinius also is to be added, namely from the Menaea, as well as from the Basilian and Sirletian Menologies.
[2] Nor do the very three eulogies of Florentius by which this is done in these teach us much about him; nor the very one which the Menaea supply about him, but since nothing pertaining to this Saint of ours is found committed to writing elsewhere, those eulogies can be alleged not altogether in vain, so that at least some knowledge of the saint may be had; and since they agree with one another to such an extent that whoever has learned what is handed down in one of them will at the same time have ascertained what is commemorated in the other two, so that he may have perceived the few things which pertain to Florentius and are in any way known, I here place before the eyes the one eulogy which the Menaea supply, together with the little verse which, according to the custom usual in them, it has at its head, adding an interpretation by which both the latter and the former are turned into the Latin language.
3] The little verse runs thus in Greek: [and which here in GreekὈ͂ θάρσος οἷιον μάρτυρες Φλορεντίου, Πρὸς τὴν φλόγα τρέχοντος ὤσπερ πρὸς δρόσον.
And in Latin it sounds thus:
O the confidence of Florentius, running, as martyrs do, through the flame as through dew!
Let us now proceed to the eulogy. It is couched in the following Greek words:
Ὁ ἅγιος μαρτυς Φλορέντιος ὑπῆρχεν ἐκ πόλεως Θεσσαλονίκης Χριστιανὸς δὲ ὡν καὶ ζηλωτὴς τοῦ καλοῦ ὕβριζε καὶ διέβαλλεν ἐπὶ πάντων τοὺς θεοὺς τῶν ἐλλήνων. ἐπεστήριζε δὲ τοὺς Χριστιανοὺς τῇ πρὸς Χριστὸν πίστει καὶ παντοίως ὡδήγει πρὸς τὴν τῶν θέιων ἀυτοῦ ἐντολῶν ἐργασίαν. Οὔτω δὲ ποιῶν ἐκρατήτη παρά τοῦ τῆς χώρας ἡγεμόνος καὶ ἐρωτηθεὶς, τὸν μὲν Χριστὸν παῤῥησίᾳ ὡμολόγησεν ἐνώπιον πάντων, ὄντα Θεὸν προαιώνιον καὶ ποιητὴν τοῦ παντος. Τοὺς δὲ τῶν ἑλλήνων θεοὺς ξύλα, λίθους, χρυσὸν, ἅργυρον, χαλκὸν, σίδηρον, εἴδωλα ἄψυχα καὶ ἀναίσθητα· καὶ τᾶυτα εἰπὼν τύπτεται σφοδρῶς. Εἶτα κρεμᾶται ἐπὶ ξύλου καὶ ξέεται, καὶ πυρᾶς ἀναφθείσης μεγάλης, ἐμβαλλεται ἐν ἀυτῇ χαίρων, καὶ προσευχόμενος, ἐν ἀυτῆ καὶ εὐχαριστῶν τῷ Θεῷ ἐτελειώθη.
[4] and is transcribed in Latin, And in Latin it is translated in this manner: "The holy martyr Florentius was of Thessalonica, and, being a Christian and inflamed with love of the good, he hooted at and cursed all the gods of the heathens, and greatly confirmed the Christians in the faith, and by his example roused them to the observance of the commandments of God; and while he was doing these things, being seized and questioned by the governor of the region, he boldly confessed that Christ is God from all eternity, the Founder of the whole universe, but that the gods of the heathens are stocks, stones, gold, silver, bronze, iron, and lifeless statues without sense. Hence, cruelly beaten, he is hung on the rack, torn with iron, and, cast rejoicing upon a huge pyre that had been kindled, was consumed amid prayers and the praises of God and thanksgivings."
[5] the eulogy teaches us much besides his birthplace and kind of martyrdom. Such is the eulogy of Florentius which I thought should be transcribed here from the Menaea; and since it teaches us almost nothing besides the place where he was born and the kind of martyrdom by which he fell, nay, supplies not even a word from which even the century in which this took place can in any way be determined, being hence compelled to speak indefinitely, and thinking that the Saint most probably ended his life by martyrdom before the three hundred and twelfth year, for the reason alleged in the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of SS. Faustus, Januarius and Martial, num. 7, I have indicated above in the margin that this in fact also most probably happened before that year.