ON SS. HERMES AND TAXIUS, MARTYRS, AT AXIOPOLIS IN BULGARIA,
CommentaryHermes, Martyr at Axiopolis in Bulgaria. (S.)
Taxius, Martyr at Axiopolis in Bulgaria. (S.)
A. T.
At Axiopolis, whose site is unknown, Axiopolis was formerly a fortified town on the Danube, either of Scythia or of lower Moesia [Cf. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Thematibus, book II, volume III of the Works, p. 47, Bonn edition; Hierocles, Synecdemus, ibid., p. 391; Banduri and Wesseling in the notes, ibid., pp. 292 and 410.], where, as the Notitia Imperii teaches Pages 235 and 236. Geneva edition of 1623., the soldiers called superventores dwelt, and there existed the seat of the prefecture of the river-bank of the second legion Herculea, of the fifth cohort of the lower stretch. Le Quien judges that there was an episcopal see there under the metropolis of Marcianopolis Oriens Christianus, volume I, columns 1231 and 1232., Coleti, the continuator of Farlati's Illyricum Sacrum, doubting it Volume VIII, p. 112., since Charles of St. Paul Geographia Sacra, p. 303. Amsterdam edition. and Holste In the notes, ibid. are wholly silent about a bishopric of that name, nor is there any other argument available to Le Quien for it besides the title of bishop given to St. Cyril, Martyr of Axiopolis, in a certain codex of Monte Cassino which Henschen alleges at the 10th of May Volume II of May, p. 557.. As regards the place where that town stood, the name Axiopolis is seen inscribed on certain maps as of a present-day city of Bulgaria; but Bruzen de la Martinière warns Dictionnaire géographique, under the word Axiopolis. that this was done not according to the ascertained truth of the matter, but only from some conjectures of geographers about the site of ancient Axiopolis: and what Ptolemy relates Geography, book [ , chapter VIII.], that at Axiopolis the name of the Danube ceased and that of the Ister succeeded, does not contribute much to the topography of this town either; because others speak otherwise of this change of name, as may be seen in Cellarius and Schwartz [Notitia Orbis antiqui, volume I, book II, chapter V, §§ XXIV and XXV, and chapter VIII, § LXVI, pp. 368 and 468. Edition of 1773.] and also in Coleti praised above Illyricum Sacrum, volume cited, p. 211.. Wherefore, leaving the various opinions put forward on this question [Cf. Baudrand, Lexicon geographicum, under the word Axiopolis; D'Anville, Géographie ancienne abrégée, volume I, p. 307; De la Martinière, work cited, under the words Axiopolis, Flotz, Galacz, Tiarantus] to be discussed by the geographers, I shall note only this, which pertains to sacred matters, that of the whole ecclesiastical province of Marcianopolis only one bishopric of the catholic communion survives at present, that of Nicopolis, and that the whole of Bulgaria now belongs to it; and this by the ordinance of Pope Pius VII, who, as Coleti teaches Volume cited, pp. 105 and 110., set over that church as bishop Fortunato Maria Ercolani of the family of the Discalced clerics of the Holy Cross and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, commonly the Passionists, and ordered him at the same time to discharge the apostolic vicariate of the whole principality of Wallachia. And in the Catalogue of catholic bishops compiled by the distinguished Girolamo Petri about the beginning of the year 1851 and published at Rome Gerarchia della Santa Chiesa, pp. 139 and 223., there is noted the Illustrious Lord Angelo Parsi, a pupil of the same most pious Congregation, made bishop of Nicopolis and apostolic vicar of Wallachia on the 30th of July 1848. To his sacred jurisdiction accordingly is subject the place, whatever it may be, where old Axiopolis was.
[2] SS. Hermes and Taxius suffered; Our forebears have already commemorated several Martyrs of Axiopolis, for instance at the 26th day of April, the 9th and 10th of May, the 5th of August and the 4th of October. At this 15th day before the Kalends of November the Martyrology of Fiorentini has P. 923.: At Acxiopolis, of Hermes and Taxius, that of Blume or Wissembourg agreeing In Fiorentini, p. 1069.. That of Corbie: At Axiopolis, of Hermes and Taxis, Julius. That of Antwerp or Echternach: At Axiopolis, the natal day of Luke the Evangelist, of Philip, Martyr, and of Hermes; where Fiorentini suspects that a transposition of words intervened, so that the natal day of St. Luke is to be put first, then: At Axiopolis, of Philip, Martyr, and of Hermes: which remark likewise falls on the Reichenau Martyrology of Du Sollier, which is at the end of our June. But Taxius in the already mentioned Antwerp Martyrology is placed at Ostia on the Tiber with Lucius and Victorinus, as Fiorentini too notes P. 925., although he first allowed these three names to fall out of the very text of that Martyrology. The Augsburg and the Labbean in Du Sollier, just as that of Gellone in d'Achery Spicilegium, volume II, p. 35, new edition. and that of St. Germanus of Auxerre in Martène and Durand Thesaurus Anecdotorum, volume III, column 1562., subjoin the memory of Hermes without designation of place to Luke and Victoria, Taxius being passed over in silence; but the Ottobonian codex announces him alone thus In Giorgi, Martyrology of Ado, p. 686.: At Axiopolis, the natal day of Taxius. In the Barberini Auctarium of Bede there is at this day Volume II of March, p. XXXV.: At Axiopolis, the natal day of SS. Hermes and Taxius; as we said there among the Passed Over that it was written at yesterday's date in the Brussels codex of Usuard. Finally both editions of Greven's Martyrology of Usuard say: At Axiopolis, of SS. Hermes and Rexius, surely for Taxius, except that Greven soon also places a certain Hermes with Victorinus at Nicomedia.
[3] but not likewise, as it seems, Julius and Philip. It is singular that the Corbie Martyrology today enumerates a certain Saint Julius, all the others passing him over; as also two days later it numbers among the Nicomedian Martyrs a Julius whom the other fasti do not acknowledge, and so not without suspicion, to confess candidly, of a vain addition, says Fiorentini there Page 928.. It is to be observed meanwhile that in that very Martyrology Taxius is indeed joined to Hermes by the copulative particle and, but the same does not hold of Julius: so that accordingly he rather stands alone, or at least the writer of the Martyrology seems to have left it doubtful whether his arena was Axiopolis. Whence nothing occurs concerning Julius which we can establish. But concerning Philip the Martyr, who appears with Hermes in the Antwerp codex, let me be permitted to propose some conjecture, to which indeed I would not wish much weight to be attributed: namely that today's announcement is perhaps to be traced back to a certain confusion of days and of names together. For four days later there occurs the natal day of SS. Philip, bishop, Severus, priest, Eusebius and Hermes, Martyrs at Hadrianopolis in Thrace. But for Hadrianopolis in the Hieronymian Martyrologies in Fiorentini is written Atriopolis; from which spelling a careless or less skilled amanuensis could quite easily have made that Axiopolis. Thus, therefore, it could have come about that someone or other joined to today's St. Hermes of Axiopolis a Philip who suffered at Hadrianopolis with another Hermes on the 11th day before the Kalends of November.