ON ST. HERON OF ANTIOCH, BISHOP AND MARTYR,
AT ANTIOCH.
IN THE YEAR 128.
SYLLOGE.
The memory of the saint in the calendars: the time of his episcopate and of his death.
Heron, bishop and martyr, at Antioch. (S.)
J. V. H.
Mention of St. Heron While the old Roman and the Hieronymian Martyrologies are silent, the Martyrology of Ado announces St. Heron on this day in these words: "Of blessed Heron, concerning whom it was revealed to the most blessed Ignatius as he went to his passion that he would govern the Church of Antioch after him. For he was at that time the deacon of the blessed martyr Ignatius: having been made bishop, a devout imitator, he followed the way of his master, and as a lover of Christ he fell on behalf of the flock entrusted to him." The genuine Usuard, as given by Sollerius, abbreviates the same eulogy after his custom: "At Antioch, the birthday of St. Heron, disciple of the blessed martyr Ignatius, who, having been made bishop after him, a devout imitator, followed the way of his master, and as a lover of Christ fell on behalf of the flock entrusted to him." Cardinal Baronius copied Usuard word for word in the Roman Martyrology.
Our saint is not to be confused with his second successor in the see of Antioch, who by the ancients was called Heros: whence others too made this man the second of the same name. But a real distinction occurs between the two, since the name of our saint begins with the Greek letter Ἡ with the rough breathing, but that of his successor with the letter E, although the manuscripts vary concerning the breathing Cf. the Treatise on the Patriarchs of Antioch, volume IV of July, p. 11, no. 38..
[2] in the Martyrologies: The praises which Ado reports of St. Heron, says our Sollerius, rest on his authority alone; for no one among the ancients relates anything else about Heron than the beginning and the end of his episcopate. For the letter of St. Ignatius to his disciple Heron is commonly not held by the learned to be authentic, inasmuch as it says that Onesimus, Damas and Polybius were with St. Ignatius at Philippi, which offends against the faith of history, for they were present at Smyrna Ceillier, Auteurs ecclésiastiques, volume I, p. 652.. Nevertheless this same letter was already in circulation in the time of Ado, and it attests the high opinion St. Ignatius had of the holiness of our Heron. "For I believe," says the holy martyr Bibliotheca maxima Patrum, volume I, p. 89., "in the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the only-begotten Son, that God will show me Heron upon my throne… Guard my deposit, which I and Christ have deposited with you, and do not reckon yourself unworthy of the things that have been revealed by God concerning you. I commend to you the Church of Antioch… Those whom I commend to you, as Moses commended them to Joshua, to be led after him… For you shall henceforth bring in and lead out the people of the Lord which is at Antioch: and the flock of the Lord shall not be as sheep which have no shepherd." These passages are certainly enough for composing such a eulogy as Ado has handed down to us: it is truly to be regretted that it rests on a rather weak foundation.
[3] the time of his episcopate depends The time at which St. Heron assumed the episcopate of Antioch depends on the year of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius. For I do not believe that anyone will readily assent to the opinion of certain persons, reported by Marcellinus Molkenbuhr, theologian of the Order of St. Francis Two Dissertations on the Chairs of Peter at Rome and at Antioch, p. 131., by which a twofold episcopal chair is set up at Antioch, one for the Jews, over which Evodius was set by Peter, the other for the Gentiles, over which Ignatius was set by Paul: the whole of antiquity, namely, and the catalogues of the bishops cry out against an assertion of this kind, and prove that Ignatius governed the Church not together with Evodius but after him. Further, most writers mark the martyrdom of Ignatius on the 20th day of December in the year 107 of the common era: wherefore the beginning of the episcopate of St. Heron is transferred to the year 108. The Acts of the Martyrdom, which are approved by all as authentic, openly assign the martyrdom to the consulship of Sura and Senecio, which falls in the said year 107. Here are the words Ruinart, Acta sincera martyrum, p. 22, Amsterdam edition of 1713..
[4] from the death of St. Ignatius, who, Ἐγένετο δέ ταῦτα πρὸ δεκατριῶν Καλανδῶν Ἰαννουαρίων, τουτέστιν Δεκεμβρίω εἰκάδι, ὑπατευόντων παρὰ Ῥωμάοις Σύρα καὶ Σεδεκίου τὸ δεύτερον. "These things were done on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of January, that is, on the twentieth day of the month of December, when Sura and Sedecius (read Senecio or Senecione) were consuls among the Romans for the second time." This epoch is also confirmed by what is said in the same Acts Ibid., p. 15., that in the ninth year of his reign, ἐννάτῳ ἔτει τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας, Trajan, grown insolent on account of the victory which he had won over the Scythians and the Dacians and many other nations, wished to exterminate the Christian name: and that he was at that time staying about Antioch; Διάγοντα κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνον τὸν καίρον κατὰ τὴν Ἀντιόχειαν: now the ninth year of Trajan's reign began from the 27th day of January of the common year 106: then John Malalas, Chronographia book XI (whose chronology we shall discuss below), says that Trajan entered Antioch on the 7th of the month Audynaeus or January, on the fifth weekday, at the fourth hour of the day Scriptores historiae Byzantinae, p. 272, Bonn edition, year 1831.: Μηνί αὐδηναίῳ τῷ καὶ ἰανουαρίῳ ἑβδόμῃ, ἡμέρᾳ ε᾽, ὥρᾳ ἡμερινῇ δ᾽. This concurrence of the seventh day of January with the fifth weekday fits the year 107, marked with the dominical letter C, but in no way suits the year which Malalas writes, the 12th of Trajan, the common year 112, which has the dominical letters DC, the letter D prevailing up to the leap day of the 24th of February.
[5] the opinion of certain men, especially of Pagi, having been refuted, Nevertheless this authority of John Malalas weighed so much with certain learned men that they thought the year of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius should be adjusted to his chronology. Let Antoine Pagi, Critica in Baronium, year 109, § III and following, stand for all. He contends in the first place that Trajan did not move into the East before the year of Christ 112: and that St. Ignatius did not undergo martyrdom before the earthquake which horribly shook Antioch in the year 115; nay rather, that since in the following year, in springtime, Trajan was preparing arms against the Parthians, it was then, by his command, that St. Ignatius was brought to Rome and consummated his martyrdom on the 20th day of December; from which it follows that this passion is to be fixed in the year of Christ 116. But the chief foundation of this opinion is the testimony of John Malalas, who says Ibid., p. 276.: "At the time when the earthquake happened at Antioch, while the emperor was still staying there, St. Ignatius was crowned with martyrdom." Ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς βασιλεῦς Τραἳανὸς ὲν τῇ αὐτῇ πόλει διῆγεν, ὂτε ἡ θεομηνία ἐγενετο· ἐμαρτύρησε δὲ ἐπὶ αὐτοῦ τότε ὁ ἅγιος Ἰγνάτιος.
[6] the year of Christ 107 is established: That Trajan was not in the East before the year of Christ 112 is contradicted by contemporary testimony, namely by the Acts of St. Ignatius cited a little above, which no one will readily hold to be spurious or corrupted. This contemporary authority is supported also by various arguments, which may be seen in Tillemont's History of the Emperors [Histoire des Empereurs, note XVII on Trajan, volume II, p. 218 and following, Brussels edition of 1732.]. Pagi's primary position therefore totters. Further, in order that his authority might stand for John Malalas, it would be necessary before all else to know this writer's age well; but this, on the witness of Johann Albert Fabricius in the Bibliotheca Graeca Volume VII, p. 447, Hamburg edition of the year 1801., is extremely uncertain, some referring it to the 6th or 7th century, others to the 8th or 9th, and indeed a certain one to the 10th century. But granted, so far as I am concerned, that he be held a writer of the 6th century, and no account be taken of the fables with which, by the judgment of Pagi himself, he swarms; why, I ask, should the authority of a writer distant from the event by an interval of four centuries weigh more with us than that of one who witnessed the whole affair in person? St. Jerome, book
On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter XVI Volume IV of his Works, part II, column 108, Paris edition of the year 1706., says that St. Ignatius suffered in the eleventh year of Trajan, a chronology which does not differ much from ours; for if, as the opinion had anciently grown up among the Latins Cf. Acta Sanctorum, volume I of February, p. 33, no. 21., the holy bishop is said to have undergone martyrdom on the Kalends of February, no other year could be fitted to our chronology. Hence we have St. Jerome agreeing with us after a fashion.
[7] [whence St. Hero began to sit in the following year and held the pontificate for 20 years.] I thought these matters should be set out at some length, both because our predecessors, the manuscript codices of better quality not yet having been discovered, could not properly order the chronology of Ignatius Ibid., p. 19, no. 31., and because the beginning of the episcopate of our Heron depends on the time of the passion of St. Ignatius. For the solitary testimony of George Syncellus in his Chronographia [P. 656, Bonn edition, and the Historia chronologica Patriarcharum Antiochenorum, Acta Sanctorum, volume IV, p. 10, no. 34.] is to be rejected, who asserts that Heron, created bishop in the year 95 of the Lord's Incarnation, held the see for twenty years, and further that in the following year, the year of the world 5596, Ignatius the God-bearer, second bishop of Antioch, was crowned with martyrdom for Christ in the time of the emperor Trajan. All the more ancient writers contradict this inverted order, and place the inauguration of St. Heron after St. Ignatius. Wherefore they put back the beginning of his pontificate, his predecessor having departed this life on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of January, to the year of Christ 108. But in this all agree, that St. Heron occupied the chair of Antioch for twenty years, whence his death had to be fixed in the year of Christ 128 See Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, volume II, column 701..