ON SS. THE BOLITAN OR VOLITAN MARTYRS, IN AFRICA,
From the old Calendar of Carthage.
3RD CENTURY OR BEGINNING OF THE 4TH.
CommentaryThe Bolitan martyrs, in Africa. (SS.)
A. T.
The memory of the holy martyrs at Carthage. "That the town of Bolitanum or Volitanum," says Morcelli Africa Christiana, volume I, p. 104., "belonged to the proconsular province, the Notitia indicates. And so it is not to be doubted that it is what Ptolemy Geography, book IV, chapter III. calls Vol, and records was below Carthage. The fame of the town was increased by the Bolitan martyrs, of whom mention is made in the Calendar of Carthage on the 16th day before the Kalends of November, and on whose feast it is established that a sermon was preached by Augustine at Carthage in the Basilica of Gratian. This is Sermon 156, otherwise 13 On the Words of the Apostle Works of St. Augustine, volume V, column 749 and following, Maurist edition., to which, in an old codex of the Cistercians of Holy Cross in Jerusalem in the City, as the Maurist editors report Ibid., note a., these words were prefixed: Preached in the Basilica of Gratian on the birthday of the Bolitan Martyrs." For the rest, besides this annotation and that which exists in the Calendar of Carthage in these words In Mabillon, Vetera Analecta, p. 166, new edition.: "On the 16th day before the Kalends of November, of the holy Volitans," from which we gather that these martyrs obtained a cult at Carthage, there is nothing from which more can be known about them, as Morcelli, a diligent investigator of the affairs of the African Church, indicates where he treats of that Calendar Work cited, volume III, p. 265.. That they are to be distinguished from the Mauretanians of whom we treat on this day, the very appellation of Bolitans sufficiently shows. For the town of Bolitanum belonged, as was said above, to the Proconsular province, between which and Mauretania lies vast Numidia.