ON ST. JULIUS, MARTYR, AT COPTOS,
BEFORE THE 4TH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
Julius, martyr, at Coptos. (S.)
B. B.
Castellan has on this day: "St. Julius, crowned with martyrdom with many other Christians of both sexes. He is venerated by the Copts and the Abyssinians." He is likewise celebrated in the sacred Fasti or Calendar of the Ethiopian church in Ludolf Commentary on the Ethiopian history, page 395., where nothing is given but his name alone. In the first Index of the ms. Coptic Martyrology, concerning which see below in the Acts of SS. Abibus and Apollo, is read: "Dedication of a church in honour of St. Julius, martyr, after the persecution of Diocletian, under Constantine." But in our ms. Martyrology (of which again you have an account in the Acts of SS. Abibus and Apollo), I find these words: "And the Dedication of St. Julias at Alexandria, and the Translation to that church by Constantine the pious emperor; which church the emperor himself built; and the emperor himself wrote to Julius the pope how, seeking with great diligence the relics of the holy Martyrs, he was bearing them with reverence to sacred places, and how he translated the body of this Saint to Alexandria," etc. Since St. Julius the pope was elected on the 5th of February 337 Art de vérifier les dates, page 245. Paris, 1770., and died in the year 352; and Constantine the Great died on the day of Pentecost, that is the 22nd of May of the same year 337 Ibid. page 349 and following.; it is not impossible that the letter mentioned was sent by the latter to the former. I have nothing else to say about St. Julius the martyr, except that he flourished before the peace of the church granted by Constantine, that is, before the fourth century.