ON SS. LUCIUS AND VICTORINUS, THAT IS, LUCIUS OR LUKE AND VICTORINUS OR VICTORINA OR VICTORIA, AND LIKEWISE ON ST. AGNES, VIRGIN, MARTYRS, PARTLY AT OSTIA ON THE TIBER, PARTLY AT NICOMEDIA,
IN THE 3RD OR 4TH CENTURY, OR IN BOTH.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Lucius or Luke, Martyr at Nicomedia. (S.)
Victorinus or Victorina or Victoria, Martyr, at Nicomedia. (S.)
Agnes, Virgin, Martyr, at Ostia on the Tiber. (S.)
A. T.
Of these Saints At Nicomedia, of Lucus, Victorinus, announces today the Hieronymian Martyrology of Fiorentini Vetustius Occidentalis Ecclesiae Martyrologium, p. 923.; then, Hermes and Taxius of Axiopolis being interposed, of whom we treat in another Sylloge, the same Martyrology says: And beside the Roman Gate the passion of St. Agnes, Virgin. That of Blume, or of Wissembourg Ibid., p. 1069.: At Nicomedia, of Luke, Victorina… And beside the Roman Port the passion of St. Agnes, Virgin. That of Corbie Ibid., p. 923, and in d'Achery, Spicilegium, volume II, p. 20, new edition.: At Nicomedia, of Luke, Victurina, Justin… And beside the Roman Port the passion of St. Agnes, Virgin; which announcement of Agnes likewise exists in the little Corbie one in Martène and Durand Thesaurus Anecdotorum, volume III, column 1584.. The reading of the codex of Antwerp or Echternach, as Fiorentini presents it at the beginning, has thus: At Nicomedia, of Agna. In the city of Ostia, at Puteoli, of Januarius and Eutychius, etc., so that Lucius and Victorinus seem to have been entirely passed over there. Nevertheless, that this defect was not in the codex itself, but that the mutilation was made by the fault of the transcriber or the typesetter, is sufficiently disclosed from Fiorentini's annotations: for in these he pronounces Page 925. that the Antwerp codex, concerning the Saints of whom we are just treating, seems less dislocated than the other codices; likewise he says: But since for the Roman Gate, in the case of Lucius and Victor (or Victorinus), the Antwerp Martyrology retains the city of Ostia; and again: the Antwerp Martyrology, enumerating Taxus among the Ostians, etc. From which it is concluded that in the aforesaid codex roughly these words existed concerning those Saints: At Nicomedia, of Agna. In the city of Ostia, of Lucius, Victorinus, Taxius. But Taxius ought to have been joined to Hermes, inasmuch as he suffered with him at Axiopolis; whereas on the contrary the Antwerp codex, as I shall say elsewhere, places at Axiopolis SS. Luke the Evangelist, Philip and Hermes. And as the Martyrology of Reichenau In Du Sollier, at the end of June, p. 13. agrees with the Antwerp one concerning these three, so also concerning Agnes it is consonant with it thus: At Nicomedia, of Agna. In certain other fasti, for instance the Augsburg Ibid., p. 22., the Labbean Ibid., p. 29., that of Gellone In d'Achery, volume cited, p. 35., there exist the mere names of Luke, whether Evangelist or Martyr, Victoria or Victuria, and Agnes, Virgin. Greven joins Victorinus with a certain Hermes different from the Axiopolitan, designating Nicomedia as the arena Cf. Du Sollier on the Martyrology of Usuard, p. 610..
[2] both arenas indeed are known, On all these things, which everyone sees are very much confused, I shall bring forward the judgment of Fiorentini, who tries to bring them back to some order at least to some extent probable. But I would have the reader forewarned that some words from Fiorentini's text seem to have fallen out through a blunder, probably typographical; which I shall restore within brackets in such a way that the mind of the writer, so far as I have been able to attain it, may be accurately represented. He then says thus Pages 924 and 925.: It is to be feared here that he who composed the older Martyrology, or took it down from an older autograph, recalling Agnes, the celebrated Roman Martyr buried near the Roman gate, and reading Roman Gate for Roman Port, removed Agna or Agnes from her city Nicomedia and fitted her beside the Roman Gate, by a twofold error: first, that he made the Martyrs Lucius and Victorius, venerated at Ostia or beside the Roman Port, Nicomedians; secondly, that he indicated the Nicomedian Agnes at Rome beside the port or gate. In this the most ancient Antwerp codex seems less dislocated, and we bring it forward as the sole author of our emendation.
[3] but it is doubtful But if anyone would rather follow the reading of our codices and of the Corbie Martyrology, and contend that after Lucius and Victorinus the Nicomedians, and Hermes and Taxius the Axiopolitans, passed over in other edited Martyrologies and differently marked in the Antwerp one, the Roman Agnes is commemorated here; let him know that from the so many relics of St. Agnes everywhere it has been doubted whether there were several Martyrs under this name, and that Bolland adduced some at the 21st day of January, in the chapter on the Relics of Agnes Volume II of January, p. 354.. The words of the Corbie Martyrology would indeed indicate another Roman Martyr: "Beside the Roman Port the passion of St. Agnes, Virgin": for of the most celebrated Agnes it is nowhere read that she completed her martyrdom beside the Roman Port. Yet those words added in our codices would not conflict with her being the same, the more celebrated one: "Beside the Roman Gate the passion of St. Agnes, Virgin"; since her principal basilica, erected beside the Viminal gate by order of Constantia Augusta, was in the very view of the city, and buried there she was venerated, as Prudentius sang in the Peristephanon, Hymn XIV:
"The sepulchre of Agnes is in the house of Romulus, of the brave girl, the renowned martyr: laid in the very sight of the Towers."
The Greeks certainly commemorate St. Agnes not on the same day as the Latins, but on the 14th of January, the 21st (of January) and the 5th of July.
[4] which of the two In writing these things Fiorentini somehow did not notice that the 21st day of January is the very feast of St. Agnes among the Latins, and so is common to them with the Greeks: so that accordingly the difference between the two consists rather in this, that the latter keep the memory of the same Martyr besides on the 14th day of January and the 5th of July, the former on the 28th of January, which is the day of St. Agnes for the second time, as is noted in the Roman Calendar. For the rest, I entirely agree with Bolland and Fiorentini that the St. Agnes whom some fasti of the Greeks commemorate at the 5th day of July is the same of whom the same Greeks treat at the 14th and 21st of January; since the songs of the Menaea on these three days sing of one and the same Saint in the same words, and the lesson of the Basilian Menologion at the 5th of July is nothing other than a compendium of the Synaxarion which the Menaea present at the 21st of January concerning St. Agnes: on which matters see also the remark of Assemani at the 14th of January Kalendaria Ecclesiae universae, volume VI, pp. 74 and 75.. Wherefore it is strange that our Pien wrote at the 5th day of July as though of another St. Agnes, whose homeland and arena of Martyrdom are unknown Volume II of July, p. 228.. But let us go on now to hear the remaining words of Fiorentini.
[5] in which of the two Nor in the Acts which are commonly on sale signed with the name of St. Ambrose is a certain day of the passion established. But the older Roman monuments, which we adduced at the 12th day before the Kalends of February, constantly assert that to be the day of the passion; nor another
leave room for conjecturing, except that this 15th day before the Kalends (of November) is the day of the dedication of a basilica or of the translation of relics beside the Roman gate, not the natal day of the Passion. But since for the Roman gate, in the case of Lucius and Victor, the Antwerp Martyrology retains the city of Ostia, it would suggest that the reading of the Corbie Martyrology is the more genuine: "Beside the Roman Port"; where Ostia on the Tiber was, as we have said elsewhere. The Nicomedian Martyrs in the same Corbie Martyrology are three: Luke for Lucius, Victorina for Victorinus or Victoria, and Justin, missing in our books. But that Justin is perhaps the Martyr of Auxerre whose Life Bede composed, volume III of his works, and Surius in volume X at the 18th day of October (of which Justin, or rather Justus the boy, we too treat today). The same Martyrology also adds, beyond our codices, Julius to the heavenly citizens of Axiopolis; as the Antwerp Martyrology, enumerating Taxius among the Ostians, adds Philip besides. So far Fiorentini.
[6] is to be assigned. Whence it is clear that there is room here for various conjectures: for either SS. Lucius and Victorinus, otherwise Luke and Victorina or Victoria, suffered at Nicomedia, and St. Agnes, otherwise unknown, is to be assigned to the Roman Port or Ostia on the Tiber, unless perhaps the dedication or translation or some other celebration of the very well-known Roman St. Agnes occurred on this day; or, on the contrary, the arena of today's St. Agnes was Nicomedia, while Lucius and Victorinus are to be called Ostian Martyrs: which latter conjecture indeed pleased Fiorentini more, nor surely is it without its weight; although it must be admitted that no slight difficulties arise against it from the disagreement of several codices from the Antwerp and Reichenau ones in this matter. Since these things are so, I have preferred to leave the dispute under judgment; and for that reason I have made this Sylloge common to the three Saints, although they did not suffer together or in the same place, writing both arenas in the title, yet not knowing which was that of St. Agnes, which that of the other two. Nor, as anyone will readily perceive, can anything certain be established concerning the time of the martyrdom of either; unless perhaps it seem to someone that the Nicomedian martyrdom should be referred to the persecution of Diocletian, which is known to have raged in that city chiefly in the year 303 and those immediately following.