ON ST. FORTUNATUS OF ROME, MARTYR,
In an uncertain century.
From the Hieronymian and other sacred Fasti.
Fortunatus, M., at Rome. (S.)
BY J. B.
The Roman Martyrology opens today's list of the Saints with these words: At Rome, on the Via Aurelia, of St. Fortunatus, Martyr. Baronius, in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology, cites Usuard and Ado at this place: rightly indeed Usuard, in whose text as given by Sollerius the words concerning St. Fortunatus are the same as those of the Roman Martyrology; but less rightly Ado, whose text, namely the pure one, passes him over, as Rosweyde, the editor of Ado, agrees in this matter, together with Sollerius [and Dominicus Georgius, who last edited the Martyrology of Ado in the year 1745]. Usuard, moreover, as Sollerius rightly judges, drew St. Fortunatus from some Hieronymian apograph; but that which Fiorentini edited, as also the Corbie copy in the same editor, have not Fortunatus but Fortunata, in this fashion: On the Via Aurelia, in the cemetery of the same, of St. Fortunata; which latter reading, indeed, [does not seem to be retained; for although two apographs agree in it, yet far more, and those ancient, ascribe the Martyr to the male sex. Besides Usuard, who constantly writes St. Fortunatus, Dominicus Georgius also exhibits, in his edition of Ado Martyrol. Adonis, p. 680., in the very ancient San-Germano copy, whether an apograph or an autograph, the Ottobonian Martyrology, of about the tenth century and therefore older than the Hieronymian of Corbie D'Achery Spicil., vol. II, p. 20. Paris edition 1723., in which is read under the Ides of October: In Gaul, the birthday of the Holy Moors, and of the Soldiers Lupulus and Fortunata. A similar announcement is found in the Palatine-Vatican Calendar of the twelfth century Mart. Adon. cit., p. 708.: Of Fortunatus, Mart. Could the feminine ending of the name perhaps have arisen from an inscription like the Ottobonian one, in which the name of the soldier is given as Fortunata?] I have given St. Fortunatus the title of Martyr, both because he is honoured with it by Usuard, and because in the Hieronymian lists only Martyrs commonly have a place. I have likewise assigned Rome to him as his arena, both on account, again, of the authority of Usuard, and on account of the Via Aurelia and the cemetery on it expressly mentioned in the Hieronymian Codices cited, which surely seem to proclaim no other arena than Rome, that soil most fruitful in the blood of Martyrs. Castellanus indeed, in his Universal Martyrology, since, following the Hieronymian Codices, he makes the Martyr a woman, says that St. Fortunata seems to be the same as the St. Fortunata of whom we treated yesterday; but what she has in common with this one of ours besides the name and martyrdom, though endured elsewhere, I do not see. A Saint of the same name as ours, taken out of the catacombs by order of Urban VIII, is venerated with the highest veneration on this day by the Discalced Fathers of Valladolid, on the testimony of Tamayo; more, however, as we judge, because they knew that our Fortunatus is today inscribed in the Roman Martyrology than because they firmly believed that the same had been brought to them.