Asterius

ON ST. ASTERIUS, PRESBYTER AND MARTYR, AT OSTIA ON THE TIBER,

IN THE YEAR 222.

HISTORICAL COLLECTION.

Asterius, presbyter and martyr, at Ostia on the Tiber. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ single. St. Asterius distinguished from his namesakes; the difference among the martyrologists concerning the day of his cult; his martyrdom; the fortunes of his relics.

In our work there has already been treatment of several Saints whose name was Asterius, [St. Asterius, distinguished from a great many namesakes, by the more ancient martyrologies on the 19th of October,] namely: at the 18th of January, of St. Asterius, martyr, companion of St. Fortunatus and of many others; at the 3rd of March, of St. Asterius, martyr in Africa, and of another at Caesarea in Palestine; at the 4th of March, of St. Asterius, companion of St. Caius the Palatine and of others; at the 11th of April, of St. Asterius, martyr in Dalmatia; at the 20th of May, of St. Asterius, martyr in Cilicia; at the 20th of June, of St. Asterius, bishop of Petra in Palestine; and at the 23rd of August, of St. Asterius, martyr at Aegae in Cilicia. Moreover, at the 25th of October we shall have to treat of St. Asterius, who suffered martyrdom with St. Saturninus, and at the 30th of the same month of St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea. From all of these St. Asterius, the Roman presbyter and martyr, of whom we shall now speak, is easily distinguished. Now his name already occurs among those passed over at the 19th of October. For at this day Fiorentini found in the Lucca codices of the Hieronymian martyrology: "At Ostia, of Austerus"; in that of Echternach, which he is wont to call the Antwerp one: "At Ostia, the heavenly birthday of Asterus"; and in that of Corbie: "At Ostia, of Austerus the presbyter." It is read moreover in the Corbie codex edited by d'Achery In Migne, Patrologia, vol. XXX, col. 479.: "At Ostia, of Austerius the presbyter"; in those of Augsburg and of Labbe, edited by our Sollerius after June: "Of Austerus"; in the Corbie codex edited by the same: "At Ostia, of Austerus"; it is omitted altogether in that of Reichenau. On the other hand, the Hieronymian Martyrology of St. Germain, and that of Auxerre of the tenth century Martène, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, vol. III, col. 1561.: "On the 14th day before the Kalends of November, of Austerius"; that of Murbach Ibid., col. 1580.: "On the 14th day before the Kalends of November, of Agnes. Of Festus. Of Austerus"; and finally the ancient Corbie one, edited, like the foregoing, by Martène Ibid., col. 1584.: "On the 14th day before the Kalends of November: At Ostia, of Austerus." There can therefore be no doubt that in the Hieronymian Martyrology at the 19th of October commemoration was made of St. Austerus, Asterius or Austerius, venerated at Ostia on the Tiber. From this a similar commemoration flowed down among the additions of many later Martyrologies. In the Adonian ones in Rosweyde there is found at that day: "In Istria, the heavenly birthday of the saints Austerus, at Naples, Sussius, Januarius, Festus and Desiderius," in place of: "At Ostia, the heavenly birthday of St. Austerus. At Naples, Sussius, etc." In the Usuardine ones in Sollerius, namely in the Strozzi codex: "At Rome, of St. Asterius, presbyter and martyr"; in the Greven one the same things are read as in the Adonian additions. In some auctaria to the Martyrology of Bede or Florus, edited by Papebroch at the front of volume II of March, a similar commemoration is also made at the 19th of October; namely, in the Barberini one and that of St. Cyriacus: "At Ostia, of Austerus"; in the Vatican one: "At Ostia, of Austerius." Traces of the same announcement survive in the Arras and Tournai ones; in which indeed one reads: "At Ostia, the heavenly birthday of the saints Januarius, Festus and Desiderius," where Asterius has dropped out; "at Naples."

[2] by the more recent ones, namely from the time of Florus On the other hand, in the pure texts of Bede, Florus, Ado, Wandelbert, Rabanus, Usuard and Notker there is no mention of St. Asterius or Austerus at the 19th day; but at the 21st. The first, however, whom I know to have made commemoration of St. Asterius on this day is Florus, using these words: "On the same day (the 21st of October), the heavenly birthday of St. Asterius, presbyter of Callistus: who, when he had buried his body, raised out of the well, after six days the emperor Alexander, hearing of this, ordered him to be cast headlong off the bridge: whose body was found and buried by certain Christians in the same city. Written in the Passion of St. Callistus." Henschen and Papebroch believed this commemoration to be that of the Venerable Bede himself; but they used no certain criterion at all by which to distinguish the labour of Florus from that of Bede; and Sollerius Martyrology of Usuard, preface, page XV. suggested another, much more certain one, judging that those things are to be attributed to Bede which are found in his metrical Martyrology: and from this the name of St. Asterius is absent. About the year 858 St. Ado brought the words of Florus into his Martyrology without changing anything; and Bl. Rabanus Maurus had done the same thirteen years before, except that he had added "pope" at the end. Usuard, as is his custom, abridged it and wrote: "In the city of Ostia, of St. Asterius the presbyter, who is read of in the Passion of blessed Callistus the pope." Notker also abbreviated it in this way: "On the same day, of St. Asterius, presbyter of St. Callistus, who, when he had buried the body of the father raised from the well, Alexander ordered to be cast headlong off the bridge." This at the 20th of October; but by a manifest error, since he records at the same day SS. Hilarion and Viator, who certainly belong to the following day. Finally Wandelbert, who published his metrical Martyrology about the 5th of April of the year 847, sang this at the 21st of October, or the twelfth day before the Kalends of November:

On the twelfth the presbyter Asterius shines with distinguished praise, Who taught many saints to conquer The wars that on every side threaten the godly with dire death;

that is, who taught many saints to conquer wars, etc. Now since the Old Roman Martyrology, which Rosweyde edited and which Sollerius Ibid., page XX and following. showed irrefutably to be more ancient than all those Martyrologies, lacks the commemoration of St. Asterius or Austerus, it is plain that the Martyrology of Florus is the source of all those announcements; and that Florus took his statements from the Passion of St. Callistus is declared in his very Martyrology.

[5] down to the present time he is announced on the 21st of October. Those who came afterwards entered upon no other path. Peter de Natalibus, who in the fourteenth century presided as bishop over the church of Jesolo, discourses thus at the 21st of October Catalogue of the Saints, book IX, chapter 89.: "Asterius, martyr, suffered at Rome under the emperor Alexander: he had been ordained presbyter by blessed Callistus the pope, and after his passion, snatching away the body of the same pontiff with his clerics, he buried it, as was said above in the Passion of Callistus the pope on the day before the Ides of October. But after five days the emperor Alexander, hearing this, seized Asterius the presbyter, whom he ordered to be cast headlong off the bridge into the Tiber. His body was found at Ostia and buried in the same city by certain Christians on the twelfth day before the Kalends of November." Maurolico concurs, in the Martyrology according to the custom of the most holy Roman and universal Church published in the year 1576, writing: "At Ostia, of St. Asterius, presbyter and martyr, whom the emperor Alexander ordered to be cast headlong into the Tiber because he had buried Callistus the pontiff"; and Galesini, in a similar Martyrology brought to light two years later: "At Rome, of St. Austerius, martyr, who, made presbyter by blessed Callistus the pontiff, both gave testimony of his piety by illustrious examples of life and above all proved it by his death: who, because he had buried that pontiff and had persevered constantly to the end in the confession of the faith, was cast headlong into the Tiber by order of the emperor Alexander." Finally in the renewed Roman Martyrology, and indeed in the Roman edition of the year 1583, and in the Venetian and Basel ones of the year 1584, there is read at the 21st of October: "At Ostia, of St. Asterius, presbyter and martyr, who, as is read in the passion of blessed Callistus the pope, suffered under the emperor Alexander": and the same has been kept in the following corrected editions, except that in place of "At Ostia" there has been substituted "At Ostia on the Tiber."

Now since we have come upon these things, a doubt has at once arisen whether the Austerus who in most Hieronymian books appears under this name at the 19th of October is different

from the St. Asterius who in other Martyrologies is announced on the 21st of the same month: for the answer of certain persons did not seem apt, who, not paying sufficient attention to the fact that from the times of Florus the memory of St. Asterius had been kept in the Latin Church on the 21st of October, thought they had disposed of the matter well enough by saying that, if St. Asterius is now venerated on the 21st of October, this is a slip of the correctors of the Roman Martyrology, who misunderstood the Passion of St. Callistus. What the truth of the matter is, the reader will understand better from the documents themselves.

[4] The same difference is observed in the Passions of St. Callistus. In the Passion of St. Callistus the following is read Acta SS., vol. VI of October, page 441.: "Alexander, hearing that a multitude of men had received baptism through blessed Callistus the bishop, sent an army of soldiers and seized all who had received baptism. He seized also blessed Calepodius, whom he caused to be slain with the sword and his body to be dragged through the city on the day of the Kalends of May … Blessed Callistus … took up the holy body, embalmed it with spices and linen cloths, and with hymns, and buried him in the cemetery of the same on the sixth day before the Ides of May. From that same day Alexander began to search diligently for blessed Callistus the bishop… Who … when he had been worn down in custody for many days, blessed Calepodius came to him by night in a vision and consoled him… Now there was there a certain soldier named Privatus … then blessed Callistus baptized him… Alexander, hearing this likewise, full of wrath because he had baptized the soldier Privatus, sent and caused Privatus to be beaten with leaded scourges until he expired; and Callistus the bishop to be cast headlong through a window of the house, and, with a stone tied to his neck, to be plunged into a well, and rubble to be heaped upon him in it. But after seventeen days his presbyter, Asterius by name, came by night with the clerics and raised the body of blessed Callistus the bishop and buried it honourably in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Via Aurelia on the day before the Ides of October. But after six days (Peter de Natalibus has five, the copy of Moretti Disquisitions on St. Callistus and his basilica, vol. I, page 185. seven) Alexander seized Asterius the presbyter, whom he ordered to be cast headlong off the bridge. His holy body was found at Ostia and buried by certain Christians in the same city on the twelfth (the edition of Moretti Ibid., loc. cit. and the copies that Ferrarius saw Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at the 21st of October. have the fourteenth day before the Kalends) day before the Kalends of November, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns God through all ages of ages. Amen." See then how the very copies of the Passion of St. Callistus do not agree among themselves concerning the deposition of St. Asterius, since some refer it to the 19th of October, others to the 21st: so that the same difference is present here as in the martyrologies.

[5] [Bue's explanation of those Acts, a difficult one, by which the 19th day is to be held.] Now which day is preferable? At first sight the 21st day will please everyone better; for the times that are marked in the Passion flow much more easily if this day is admitted: for if it is admitted, St. Callistus will have been buried on the 14th of October; six days after, or on the 20th, St. Asterius will have been cast headlong into the Tiber, and on the next day drawn out of the waters at Ostia and laid in the tomb. But others think quite otherwise. Hear in a few words the opinion of our Bue Acta SS., vol. VI of October, pages 411 and 412.. Although, namely, he himself, his mind being too much occupied with other things, published a copy of the Passion of St. Callistus in which "the twelfth day before the Kalends" is read, yet in the Preliminary Commentary he reasoned according to the copy of Moretti, except that he kept "after six days," not seven. Now Bue had established that St. Zephyrinus died in the year 217, and indeed on the 26th of July, on which day his heavenly birthday is noted on a stone of the ninth century placed in the vestibule of the monastery of SS. Stephen and Paul Compare Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, page 332.; then that the see was vacant six days, as the Liber Pontificalis has it; then that St. Callistus was elected, namely on the 2nd of August; who then sat five years, two months, ten days, as is read in the Bucherian catalogue; who was slain in the year 222 on the 12th of October, on which day in the Hieronymian martyrologies there is announced at Rome the heavenly birthday of Calestus or Calistus, with the additions in some codices of "bishop," and "on the Via Aurelia," and also "in the cemetery of Calepodius": all of which seem to fit St. Callistus; and finally who was buried on the 14th of October, on which day his deposition is marked in the little book of the depositions of the Roman martyrs, likewise brought to light by Bucherius, and in many other calendars, even Hieronymian ones. Everyone sees that these things are well connected with one another; but how can they be reconciled with the numbers that the Passion of St. Callistus exhibits? Bue nevertheless made the reconciliation in this way. He distinguished in the Acts a twofold order, one of words, the other of things, which the author of the Acts had chiefly before his eyes. "If you attend to the former," says Bue Acta SS., vol. VI of October, page 411., "it must be confessed that the opinion just related and the Acts by no means agree as to the months and days of the pontificate entered upon and laid down by Callistus: but if you regard the order of things, and refer those words 'after seventeen days' not to the death of Callistus but to that time at which Callistus, first seized and cast into prison, began to be tortured, nothing at all will prevent his having ceased to live on the 12th of October, and, the Acts remaining unharmed, the opinion related a little before standing safe. And that the author of the Acts intended this seems to be elicited from other passages of them"; which argument he then pursues, and comes at length to St. Asterius himself: "But the anonymous author," he says, "kept almost the same manner of speaking at the end of the Acts, where he has this concerning St. Asterius: 'But after six days Alexander seized Asterius the presbyter, whom he ordered to be cast headlong off the bridge: whose holy body was found at Ostia and buried by certain Christians in the same city on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of November.' Where those words 'after six days' do not indicate that those six days are to be counted from the 14th of October, of which mention had last been made, but from some earlier day, and probably from the day of St. Callistus's death: for if you count six days from the 14th day of October (including this in the count), not only the day of the martyrdom of St. Asterius will fall on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of November, or the 19th of October, but also the day of burial; whereas it is hardly likely that St. Asterius was on the same day both seized at Rome and thrown into the Tiber, and found and entombed at Ostia on the Tiber, a place distant twelve Italian miles from the City." Thus far he.

[6] [it seems sound; and certainly, as is established from a stone inscription, the heavenly birthday of St. Asterius was formerly celebrated on the 19th of October.] Certainly these things will seem to some too subtle and difficult; but an inescapable argument compels us to hold them true. No one, I should think, will call into doubt that the author of the Passion of St. Callistus paid the greatest attention to the days on which the saints whom he praises were venerated; and so he seems to have been guided by that thread alone; which is manifest even from what he has about the deposition of St. Callistus. Now that the feast day of St. Asterius was celebrated on the 19th of October is established not only from the Hieronymian calendars (which may not be interpreted of his death, since they record the memory of St. Asterius not at Rome but at Ostia), but also from a stone inscription, much more ancient than the Passion of St. Callistus and the Martyrologies of Florus and his followers, as having been written in the fourth or fifth century, as the purity of the diction makes sufficiently manifest. And since the solution of the whole difficulty depends chiefly on this, we shall explain all its parts. It sounds as follows [Muratori, Inscriptions, page MCMXX, 6; compare Zaccaria, Dissertation on Christian inscriptions, last chapter, in Migne, Cursus completus theologiae, vol. V, col. 394.]:

PASCASVS VIXIT

PLUS MINVS ANNVS XXII

FECIT TATV IIII * IDVS

OCTOBRIS II. ANTE

NATALE DOMNI AS

TERI DEPOSITVS IN

PACE

[Paschasus lived more or less 22 years; he did only so much; on the 4th day before the Ides of October, the 2nd before the heavenly birthday of the lord Asterius, laid to rest in peace.]

that is: Paschasius lived more or less twenty-two years; he did only so much; he did not live more; laid to rest in peace on the fourth day before the Ides of October, the eighth day before the heavenly birthday of the lord Asterius.

[7] The words of this inscription are explained: "He did only so much"; In which observe the following. Vettori reads Philological dissertation, in Zaccaria, loc. cit.: "Fecit fatum" ("he met his fate"); but I have found nothing elsewhere that approaches this locution. Muratori's reading seems better: "Fecit tatu." For "fecit" occurs everywhere in sepulchral inscriptions in the same sense as "vixit," as Reinesius Syntagma of inscriptions, page 948. has made certain with a vast abundance of testimonies: and so that expression was customary not only among Christians but also among pagans and even among classical writers. "Tatu" for "tantum" is not rare: for n often drops out before t at the end of a syllable; m at the end of words is frequently omitted in the best stones and codices. "Fecit tantum" is a formula of one lamenting that the dead person did not live longer. You have similar ones in the very inscriptions affixed to tombs which, on account of a vessel stained red fixed to the wall (on which matter, however, see Marini In Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, vol. V, page 425., a very great man), have been held to be those of martyrs. Of this kind is Ibid., page 449.:

SECVNDA QVE VIXIT ANOS III

DOMTIXI PACE

that is: "Dumtaxat" (only). "In pace." And the following In Boldetti, Osservazioni, etc., page 433.:

DOMINE ECCOMPARIAVÆ

BIXIT IN PACE AIVS TRISTA

XXX

that is: "To an incomparable lady: she lived in peace three years 'tam,'" in place of "tantum," after the manner of the people of Praeneste [Compare Suarez, Praeneste, book I, chapter 26, in Graevius, Thesaurus of Italian Antiquities, vol. VIII, part IV, col. 47.], which the Romans first held in mockery Compare Plautus, Trinummus 3. 1. 8., then approved by usage Attius, cited by Festus, in Suarez, loc. cit.. For these are worth just as much as these other formulas, taken from the tombs of those in the cemeteries who are called martyrs:

DIOGENIÆ FILIÆ

BONÆ QUÆ VIXIT

ANNOS SEX M. X

DIOGENES PATER INFELIX In Mai, Scriptores veteres, vol. V, page 427.

NIMIVM CITO DECIDISTI

[To Diogenia, a good daughter, who lived six years, ten months. Diogenes, her unhappy father. Too soon hast thou fallen.]

CONSTANTIA MIRVM

PVLCHRITVDINIS ATQUE

IDONITATI QVÆ VIXIT ANNIS

XVIII. MEN. VI DIE XVI.

CONSTANTIA IN PACE [Ibid., page 425.]

CRISPINA

IVL CRISPINÆ FIL. INNOCENTISSI

ME Q. V. M. VIIII. D. XXVII

IVLIVS PATER CONTRA VOTVM POSVIT [Ibid., page 426.]

[Crispina. To Julia Crispina, a most innocent daughter, who lived 9 months, 27 days. Julius her father set this up against his wish.]

But enough and more than enough about the expression "Fecit tantum."

[8] [this other: "the eighth before the heavenly birthday of the lord Asterius";] That writers of epitaphs quite often played upon certain coincidences of days could easily be demonstrated by many examples. Rare, however, are examples of this kind: "the eighth (for the stigma is worth six) before the heavenly birthday of the lord Asterius"; by which it is probably indicated that it would have been very pleasing to Paschasius or his parents if they could have kept this feast day at the same time. Yet they are not altogether wanting. In the year 1732 the following inscription was dug out at Rome in the cemetery of SS. Processus and Martinian Lupi, The Tomb of Severa, page 181.:

PECORI DVLCIS ANIMA BENIT IN CIMITERO VII IDVS IVL. D. P. POSTERA DIE MARTVRORV

[The sweet soul of Pecorius came into the cemetery on the 7th day before the Ides of July; laid to rest on the day after that of the martyrs.]

which some have explained thus: "The sweet soul of Pecorius," that is, the most sweet Pecorius, "came into the cemetery of the martyrs on the seventh day before the Ides of July; laid to rest on the following day." But the order of the words seems able to admit such a meaning only with great difficulty. The sense will be much easier if it is said with Corsini In Zaccaria, loc. cited above: "The sweet soul of Pecorius came into the cemetery on the seventh day before the Ides of July; laid to rest on the day after the feast of the holy martyrs," namely of the seven brothers, whose heavenly birthday was celebrated at Rome from the most ancient times on the sixth day before the Ides, or the 10th of July. To this also the inscription of Abundantius In Fleetwood, page 340. contributes something, who is said to have been DEP. IN P. D. NAT. SCI. MARCI. MENSE OCTOBRI [laid to rest in peace on the day of the heavenly birthday of St. Mark, in the month of October]; and no less the monument of Principalis, who was DEPOSITVS NATALE SVSTI laid to rest on the heavenly birthday of Sustus, that is, of Sixtus Vettori, Philological dissertation, page 38..

[9] martyrs were called lords, but others also; As to the appellation "lord" given to St. Asterius, Zaccaria discourses of it thus [Dissertation on Christian inscriptions, last chapter, in Migne, vol. cited, col. 393.]: "The Christians," he says, "called the saints DOMNI or DOMINI, for the sake of honour and reverence. The celebrated knight Vettori shows this by many inscriptions Philological dissertation, page 28 and following.; to which can be added the inscription of Tigris in Boldetti Osservazioni, page 351.; the epitaph of Ursa in the same Ibid., page 429.; the elogium of Acavia in the Thesaurus of Muratori Page MDCCCXIX, number 4.: by which those will be most moved who agree that the red-stained vessels and other things of that kind are genuine signs of martyrdom. But others will say that an argument of better note is the double votive tablet found at Rome in the year 1749 Zaccaria, Storia letteraria d'Italia, vol. II, pages 532 and 533.:

SANCTIS MARTVRIBUS

PAPRO ET MAVROLEONI

DOMINIS. VOTVM. REDD.

CAMASIVS QVI ET ASCLEPIVS. ET VICTORINA

NAT. H. DIE IIIX KAL. OCTOB.

PVERI. QUI VOT. H. VILALIS MARANVS

ABVNDANTIUS. TELESFOR

[To the holy martyrs Paprus and Mauroleon, lords. Camasius, who is also Asclepius, and Victorina paid their vow. Their heavenly birthday is on the 13th day before the Kalends of October. The boys who made the vow: Vitalis, Maranus, Abundantius, Telesphorus.]

and on the opposite side:

DOMNIS SANCTIS

PAPRO. ET. MAVROLEONI

MARTVRIBVS

The rest, with the order somewhat changed, is the same; except that they are said to have their heavenly birthday on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of October; whereby we know that the sigla IIIX are worth the same as XIII." And Zaccaria concludes his argument in these words: "Nay, I am of the opinion that nowhere in Christian inscriptions is the title DOMNUS given except to martyrs; so that, even if other indications of martyrdom are wanting, the single name DOMNUS manifestly declares it." But although it cannot be denied that martyrs were endowed with the appellation domnus or dominus, I should not dare to claim it for them alone. For in that age that word carried the sense not of reverence and observance but rather of familiarity and love, as Facciolati demonstrated from several passages of Seneca Lexicon of all Latinity, under Dominus.: for which reason Christian parents gave this praise to their children, almost infants [Compare Boldetti, Osservazioni, page 396; Muratori, Inscriptions, page MDCCCLI, number 3; page MDCCCLXIX, number 2; page MCM, number 8; Aringhi, Roma subterranea, book IV, chapter 38, vol. II, page 130; Reinesius, Syntagma, class XX, number 141, page 931.], children to parents [Compare Aringhi, book IV, chapter 17, page 78; Reinesius, class XX, number 329, page 973.], husband to wife [Compare Muratori, Inscriptions, page MDCCCLXXX, number 6; page MDCCCXC, number 4; page MCMIII, number 1; page MCMXIII, number 9.], wife to husband Ibid., page MCMVII, number 5., brother to brother Ibid., page MCMLXI, number 4., even where one may not suspect so much as the appearance or shadow of martyrdom. Indeed it has long since been observed that the same word, with the same meaning, is read inscribed on a great many tombs of pagans.

[10] [read "the fourth before the Ides," not "the third before the Ides";] At the beginning of the discussion of this inscription we noted in the margin that Muratori in his papers had read "III idus," or the 13th of October, whereas Vettori copied "IIII idus," or the 12th of October. There can be no doubt that this is the genuine reading. For IIII is much more easily changed into III than, conversely, III into IIII; next, Vettori considered everything more carefully, since he wrote expressly on this epitaph: whereas of Muratori, who gave it some place or other among thousands of others, it may be said: "Intent on many things, the mind is less upon each one"; and finally Muratori's reading is such as would fix the heavenly birthday of St. Asterius not to the 19th nor the 21st of October, but to the 20th: which surely no one would defend. The expression, namely, "the eighth before the heavenly birthday of the lord Asterius" is to be compared with the common method of counting before the Nones, Ides and Kalends, most familiar to the Romans; so that the phrase "the eighth before the heavenly birthday of the lord Asterius," if that heavenly birthday is placed on the 21st, indicates the day before the Ides, or the 14th of October; but if it is placed on the 19th of October, it signifies the fourth before the Ides, or the 12th of October, but never the third before the Ides, or the 13th of October; just as "the eighth before the Kalends of November" necessarily refers to the 25th of October. Let it therefore be certain and fixed that there was written IIII IDVS OCTOBBRIS ς II ANTE NATALE DOMNI ASTERI [on the 4th before the Ides of October, the 8th before the heavenly birthday of the lord Asterius]: whence it follows that the heavenly birthday or feast of St. Asterius, when that stone was set up, was kept on the 19th of October. This is confirmed by the testimony of the book in which the readings of Holy Scripture to be read at Mass are indicated, and which is commonly called the Comes of St. Jerome. In the copy, namely, that guided Moretti Disquisition on St. Callistus and the new basilica, page 36., there was found: "On the fourteenth before the Kalends of November: of Proculus. Of Austerus. Of Desiderius."

[11] natale is said of any festival whatever, and not only of the day of death. But, you will say, "the heavenly birthday of the lord Asterius" signifies the day of his death, on which he was born to heaven. Such things are indeed commonly taught; and passages are brought forward even from ancient ecclesiastical writers by which these may be supported. But they cannot stand with certainty: as among the ancient Latins every festival, even a domestic one, was called a natalis, for example the natalis of a return Cicero to Atticus, book III, letter XX., so also in the usage of the Church there obtained the natalis of a bishop, of the chair of St. Peter, of relics, of the chalice or sacrament, of the purple of Valentinian, γενεσια σεισμου, the natalis of a temple or basilica, etc. Compare Du Cange, Glossary of medieval Latinity, under Natale and Natalis.. In the calendars themselves natalis is sometimes used for any feast whatever; thus in the most celebrated marble calendar of Naples there is read at the 28th of June Mazzocchi, The Neapolitan Calendar, vol. III, page 767 and following.: "The natale of St. Leo the pope"; which it had seemed to many must be understood of St. Leo II: but Mazzocchi Ibid., loc. cit. shows that the discourse there is of St. Leo I, whose sacred bones Sergius I translated in the year 688. From what we have so far discussed, then, the following seem able to be gathered: that the heavenly birthday of St. Asterius was in fact celebrated on the 19th of October; consequently that the copies of the Passion of St. Callistus in which his deposition is marked on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of November are better than the others in which it is noted on the twelfth day before the same Kalends; that these were corrupted by copyists because they could not reconcile the six days spoken of there with the other circumstances; that similar copies came into the Gauls, where Florus and those who followed him introduced into the martyrologies the commemoration of St. Asterius at the 21st of October; that therefore the St. Asterius who is now venerated on this day is not different from him who is indicated under the name of Asterius and Austerus in the Hieronymian martyrologies on the 19th of October; and finally, since the inscriptions of stone tablets have not suffered the damage with which copyists commonly afflicted written codices, that his true name was Asterius.

[12] As St. Callistus, so also St. Asterius For the rest, almost nothing is known of St. Asterius. And indeed those who have denied the martyrdom of St. Callistus will with greater right refuse to admit that St. Asterius was a martyr. But as regards St. Callistus, our Bue Acta SS., vol. VI of October, pages 424 and 425. so answered the difficulties of the adversaries, and by so many testimonies beginning from the fourth century demonstrated that St. Callistus in fact underwent martyrdom, that scarcely anything seems able to be asserted by a historian if the violent death of that pontiff is uncertain. Recently the Rev. Dr. Döllinger Hippolytus und Kallistus, page 253., whose keen judgment I otherwise gladly praise, brought forward a new argument against the martyrdom of St. Callistus: namely, that the title of martyr is given him not because he was cruelly put to death, but because he had once been sent into exile in Sardinia for the Christian faith. But, by the leave of that most learned man, I shall answer that in the first centuries of the Church no one was inscribed in the diptychs of the saints for holiness of life alone, but only those who had suffered for Christ: if they had not poured out their life with their blood, they were called confessors; if they had poured it out, martyrs: and that these names were never confused. Further, since the deposition of St. Callistus is recorded in the Bucherian catalogue, written in the middle of the fourth century, among the depositions of the martyrs and not among the depositions of the bishops, we have from this a certain argument that he was truly a martyr. Judge the same of the Hieronymian calendars and other most ancient monuments. But in the more ancient Missals, for example the Gregorian which Muratori edited, and the Lateran one, which Azevedo made public, blessed Callistus is not called martyr, and indeed in Azevedo's Lateran one he is called confessor and pontiff. But as regards the Gregorian, what wonder? "The heavenly birthday of St. Callistus, pope," is placed before the prayers, without the addition "and martyr": but it is commonly observed that titles are not doubled, as Pagi already noted concerning St. Callistus himself Critique of the Annals of Baronius, at the year 224, number 2.. If this is not admitted, it will easily be demonstrated by a similar argument that St. Stephen the pope himself was not a martyr, nay, even St. Sixtus. Now as to the Lateran Missal. It was written in the eleventh century; nor may you say that it is a transcript of a more ancient copy: for the prayers it has concerning St. Callistus you will find nowhere in older missal books.

[13] he was a martyr; moreover a Roman presbyter. Much more prudently, therefore, the Rev.

Dr. Cruice seems to have acted, who, writing on the same subject as the Rev. Dr. Döllinger, did not hesitate to admit the martyrdom of St. Callistus [Histoire de l'Église de Rome sous les pontificats de S. Victor, de S. Zéphirin et de S. Calliste, page 352.]. And indeed, although it is not credible that Alexander Severus, who favoured the Christians rather than being hostile to them, ordered St. Callistus to be thrown out of a window and St. Asterius off a bridge into the Tiber, as is narrated in the former's Passion, nothing prevents each of them from having received death at the hands of the raging populace; and indeed, as Bue noted, these kinds of death were not customarily inflicted by emperors, but are such as would be inflicted by an unmannerly rabble. And since SS. Callistus and Asterius had undergone them in the time of Alexander Severus, everyone sees how easily it came about from this that, when the Passion was written, the emperor himself was made their author. Add that the body of St. Asterius was not buried at Rome or in a suburban cemetery, as is sufficiently clear from the Hieronymian calendars, in which his heavenly birthday or deposition is announced at Ostia; and how indeed would the corpse have come there, unless it had been thrown into the Tiber and carried down by the waters to this city? Will you affirm that St. Asterius was not a Roman presbyter, but one of Ostia? But if you suppose this, whence arose the most ancient tradition that he was the presbyter of St. Callistus?

[14] [It is commonly held that the body of St. Asterius now lies in the Roman church of St. Martin on the Esquiline; but that is the body of another Asterius;] It is the common opinion that St. Asterius no longer lies at Ostia; and indeed it is commonly believed [Aringhi, Roma subterranea, book III, chapter 8, number 13, vol. I, page 260, Cologne edition; Ferrarius, Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, page 658.] that his body was translated by Pope Sergius II, who held the chair of Peter from the year 844 to 847. They rely on the testimony of Anastasius the Librarian: "Of Saints Silvester," says this author In Bianchini, On the Lives of the Roman pontiffs, vol. I, page 355., writing of Sergius, "he completed the church of Saints Silvester and Martin… And to the honour of almighty God he dedicated under the sacred altar the body of the same most blessed prelate Silvester, with the most blessed Fabian, and Stephen and Soter, martyrs and pontiffs; AND TOGETHER WITH ASTERIUS THE MARTYR WITH HIS MOST SACRED DAUGHTER; St. Cyriacus and Maurus, Largus and Smaragdus; … with many others, whose names are known to God alone, both together." But there it is by no means our Asterius that is in question, but another of the same name. Certainly it is false that all those bodies were taken from the cemetery of Priscilla, as is read on the marble tablet set up there, by which the passage of Anastasius is almost repeated, with these words added at the end:

HEC. SCŌR. CORPORA. TRANSLATA

SVNT. DE CIMITERIO. PRISCILLE. VI.

A SALARIA: STATVĒS: OMNI ANN IN FE.

STIVITATIB.: VI: ECCLESIE: INDVLGENTĪĀ. TRIVM

AGNŌR. ET. III QVATRAGENĀR. OMNIB. AD EANDĒ.

[These bodies of the saints were translated from the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria; establishing every year on the six festivals of the church an indulgence of three years and three quarantines for all who come to the same.]

For it is most certain that most of the bodies which Sergius II placed in the basilica of St. Martin on the Esquiline had long before been dug out of various cemeteries by other pontiffs and translated to churches within the walls of Rome, as we have shown in a separate book. Setting this argument aside, then, we have another, most solid one. He whom Sergius II translated is not called presbyter (a title which was not usually omitted); but on the contrary he is called "Asterius the martyr with his most sacred daughter." Further, by these words is plainly designated the St. Asterius who is venerated on the 18th of January. This man, however, was a leading man, instructed in the doctrine of the faith by St. Valentine the presbyter, who by prayer had restored to life his adopted daughter, and baptized with all his house by Callistus the bishop. Thence, sent away to Ostia with all who were in his house, he was tortured on the rack by Gelasius the judge, and his companions were beaten with clubs: then thrown to the beasts, and these gently licking their feet, they were cast headlong into the flames; and when these too were extinguished from heaven, some were overwhelmed with stones outside the walls of the city of Ostia, others were struck with the sword. "Then the Christians buried their bodies with all diligence on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of February: in which place a church was built, and there the benefits of the martyrs flourish." These things are read much more fully in the Passion of SS. Marius, Martha and their sons at the 19th of January Acta SS., vol. II of January, page 217 and following.. Marcellinus and Faustinus also mention the basilica of the martyr Asterius in their Libellus precum [In Sirmond, Works, vol. I, page 150; compare de Magistris, Acts of the Martyrs at Ostia on the Tiber, page 35,]. There can therefore be no doubt that the Asterius with his most sacred daughter, whom Sergius II translated, is the Asterius taught by Valentine the presbyter, as Bolland said long ago Acta SS., vol. II of January, page 190.. Moreover, although in the third century men who had formerly been married and had children quite often sought holy orders, and it is not to be denied that in the time of St. Callistus, ἐπι τοῦτου, as the writer of the Philosophumena puts it, even the twice-married were promoted to the diaconate, the presbyterate and even the episcopate, at least in Africa Compare Döllinger, Hippolytus und Kallistus, page 140 and following. (about which matter Tertullian does not allow us to doubt On the exhortation to chastity, chapter 7, page 747, Oehler's edition.): although these things are so, since nothing is said in the Passion of St. Callistus about a most sacred daughter (who must certainly be thought to have suffered and been buried with her father), it appears manifest to me on this head also that the Asterius translated by Sergius II with his most sacred daughter is altogether another than St. Asterius, presbyter of St. Callistus.

[15] [His body lies under the ground in the church of St. Aurea at Ostia, whither it was translated about the year 1159.] Add that to Walter, a canon regular of Arrouaise, who in the year 1159 or 1160 set out for Rome and from there to Ostia on the Tiber (intending to carry from there to his monastery the body of St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine), a certain cleric of St. Aurea from New Ostia said, among many other things, the following Acta SS., vol. I of May, page 485.: "There are so many relics of saints in that wilderness" (namely in Old Ostia, which, nearer the sea, had formerly been utterly destroyed), "that we could not easily find where to place them as honourably as was fitting. For a few days ago we brought from there the relics both of blessed Asterius and of twelve other martyrs; and not knowing where to place them, we merely dug the ground in the church of St. Aurea in New Ostia and stored them there." I have found no record of the relics of St. Asterius being translated afterwards; and so I judge that they lie hidden under the ground somewhere in the church of St. Aurea in New Ostia. And since there is frequent talk here of New and Old Ostia, let the reader remember that Old Ostia, which acknowledged Ancus Marcius as its founder and flourished at least until the fourth century, thereafter gradually perished, because sands filled the harbour, the fields were turned into marshes, and Portus, rising on the right bank of the Tiber, drew everything to itself Compare Döllinger, Hippolytus und Kallistus, page 77 and following.; so that the former city, extending three thousand paces in length Volpi, Vetus Latium, vol. VI, page 154 and following., was reduced to a few little houses Orlendi, Orbis sacer et profanus, vol. II, page 602. with the cathedral church, which has St. Aurea as patroness. And this is called New Ostia, half a mile nearer to the City of Rome than the Old Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione ecclesiastica, vol. L, page 43.. Since many works have now been undertaken in these parts, it may come about that something will be attempted in the church of St. Aurea itself and the relics of St. Asterius will at last come to light. Which we heartily desire.

[16] What seems certain about St. Asterius. If we gather together all that seems to have been ascertained about St. Asterius, it comes back roughly to this. In the time of St. Callistus the pope he was one of the forty-four presbyters which the Roman Church had in that age, as St. Cornelius the pontiff wrote some years later to Fabius, president of the church of Antioch In Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book VI, chapter 43, page 244.. No indication survives by which it may be established that he excelled his colleagues in any praise. Alexander Severus then ruled the empire, a mild character and friendly to the Christians. Nevertheless the times were sometimes clouded, chiefly because others who had a part in administering the state thought otherwise, under the leadership of Ulpian, who at that time collected all the edicts issued up to that day against the worshippers of Christ; nor did the pagan rabble patiently endure the holy people. The Christian cause laboured also with internal commotions, the faithful not sufficiently agreeing on dogmatic and disciplinary doctrine: much has become known of these things from Tertullian, from the book of the Philosophumena recently discovered, and from others; but nowhere is it read that St. Asterius had any part in these, faithfully adhering to St. Callistus, his superior. This fidelity he showed brilliantly when this holy prelate was thrown out of a window by the rioting populace and then cast into a well. For he by no means hesitated to rouse the popular fury against himself and to incur peril of life by drawing the holy corpse out of the waters and bestowing on it honourable burial. He did this on the 14th of October. When this became known among the people, he himself also was seized and from the Sublician bridge, from which malefactors were ordinarily thrown Severano, Memorie sacre, part I, page 356 and following., he was cast headlong into the Tiber and carried by the waters as far as Ostia. There the Christians took up his blessed body and buried it honourably on the 19th of October of the year 222. And when Ostia had perished in the lapse of time, about the year 1159 the clerics of St. Aurea in New Ostia dug up his remains with the relics of twelve other martyrs and stored them in their basilica under the ground. His name occurs in none of the ancient sacramentaries which have been printed. In some churches, however, from the most ancient times his heavenly birthday or deposition was held in honour on the 19th of October, as is established from the inscription of Paschasius and from the copy of the Comes of St. Jerome. These have already been cited.

* Muratori reads III.