Chrysanthus and Daria

ON SS. CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA, MARTYRS AT ROME,

MORE PROBABLY IN THE YEAR 283.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Chrysanthus, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

Daria, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 2164

BY B. B.

§ I. Several days of cult are marked; the memory of these Holy Martyrs is very celebrated and very ancient in the sacred calendars and writers. The Acts, as it seems first written in Greek and then turned into Latin, are not approved, although they are ancient. The time of the Passion.

Their chief memory is indeed kept on this day; That to the feast of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, not a little celebrated in the church already from the earlier centuries, different days have been dedicated among different peoples is shown by the old calendars and martyrologies. Ménard calls their common day [Notes on the Sacramentary of St. Gregory. Migne, Patrologia, vol. LXXVIII, col. 412.] the 8th before the Kalends of November, or the 25th of October, which, as du Sollier says Usuardi Martyrol., page 714., the modern Roman has permanently consecrated to their solemn feast, whose announcement is conceived in these words: At Rome the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria his wife, who, after the many sufferings which they endured for Christ under the prefect Celerinus, were ordered by the emperor Numerian (in the margin Valerian) to be put down into a sandpit on the Via Salaria, and to be overwhelmed there alive with earth and stones. Likewise on the same day their office is held by simple rite in the Roman breviary, divided into two lessons with a proper prayer. Du Sollier supposes Ibid. that this day was taken not from Rabanus, whom Baronius did not know, but from Belinus and other more augmented codices of Usuard. And in very truth the martyrology of Rabanus has this In Canisius, vol. II, part II, p. 344 et seq.: 8th before the Kalends of November: The passion of the martyrs of Christ Chrysanthus and Daria, who under the appearance of marriage preserved perpetual chastity etc. Let us note here in passing the slip of Fiorentini Vetustius Martyrologium, p. 1013. who asserts that Ménard denied that mention is made of our holy Martyrs on this day in Rabanus; on the contrary Ménard explicitly wrote the opposite Migne, vol. LXXVIII, col. 412.. In the Calendar which Allatius first made public and asserts was written [De Ecclesiæ occidentalis atque orientalis perpetua consensione etc. col. 1487. Cologne 1648.] nine hundred years before (Allatius flourished until about the middle of the seventeenth century), there occurs on the 8th before the Kalends of November the birthday of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, as also in a Roman calendar again nine hundred years older, published by Fronteau from a manuscript of the monastery of St. Genevieve of Paris on the Mount [Jo. Frontonis epistolæ et dissertationes ecclesiast., Calendarium Romanum etc., page 233. Hamburg 1720.]. So also in the calendar prefixed to the Responsorial and Antiphonary of the Roman church, brought to light at Rome in 1686 by Bl. Giuseppe Tommasi, under the pseudonym Giuseppe Caro. Equilinus also writes Book IX, chapter CV. that our holy Martyrs suffered on the 8th before the Kalends of November. See further the augmentations of Usuard in du Sollier on this day. It will not be superfluous to have noted that neither on this nor on any other day are they marked in the very ancient Bucherian, Leonine and Gregorian calendars, which are found in Muratori's outstanding Dissertation on Liturgical matters Migne, Patrologia, vol. LXXIV, col. 879 and 880; also col. 886.. Cf. below n. 4. Finally they were remitted to this day by our predecessors from the 19th of March in these words: St. Chrysanthus and St. Daria his wife, martyrs, have a celebrated veneration among the Greeks in the great Menaea … and among the Latins on the 25th of October Acta SS., vol. III of March, p. 3 and 4..

[2] although they occur frequently on others too: the 19th of March, The other days on which memory is made of them I shall reckon up, keeping the order of the months. Among the Greeks their chief day is the 19th of March: so in the Menologion of Sirleto, and indeed in the first place Canisius, vol. III, p. 418., in the Greco-Muscovite Ephemerides of Papebroch Acta SS., Propylaeum of May. and of Assemani Kalendaria, 19th of March, vol. VI, p. 193.. As regards the Greeks, for the present feast (the 19th of March) there stand a good many calendars of the best quality; such as are the Neapolitan, the Jerusalem and the Gallipoli calendars published by Scholz; that of Vienna, written at Constantinople; the Medicean-Laurentian, the Turin, the Clermont, the Mazarin, the Coislin, those of Chifflet and of Sirleto. These things Father Martinov has in the Greco-Slavic Year, page 93 of this volume XI of October. In the Menaea printed at Venice in 1843 they are likewise marked on this day with the following verses:

Ζῶσι, Χρύσανθος καὶ Δαρεία ἑν πόλῳ, Κἄν ἐκπνέωσι ζῶντεσ εἰσδύντες βότρῳ.

Chrysanthus and Daria live in heaven, Although they died, cast living into the pit.

And a hexameter is added:

Χῶσαν συξυγὶην δεκάτῃ ἐνάτῃ ὁμόλεκτρον

The harmonious married pair is buried in the ground on the nineteenth.

And there is subjoined an epitome of the synaxarion. The Neapolitan marble Calendar also, illustrated by Mazzocchi

In vetus marmoreum Kalend. Commentarius, vol. I, p. 98. Naples, 1734., makes memory of both holy Martyrs both on this day and also on the 25th of October. On which matter the said Mazzocchi notes: Since it was the purpose of the authors of the Neapolitan calendar to bring out their calendar patched together partly from the Greek and partly from the Latin books of offices, they recorded both these Martyrs on both days… I would believe that at Naples both the Greeks and the Latins had special churches of these Saints. But when Mazzocchi adds that on both days there is inscribed: Passion; this is otherwise, not indeed in the copy he used, but in a more correct and better one, brought to light by Cardinal Mai; for in this in the first place, that is, on the 19th of March, there is inscribed: Birthday Veterum scriptorum nova collectio, vol. V, p. 60.; in the latter, that is, on the 25th of October: Passion Ibid. p. 64.; so that accordingly there holds here what, by the witness of the same Mazzocchi, holds elsewhere in the same calendar, whenever mention is made of any martyr on two days. As regards the memory among the Slavs, the above-mentioned Father Martinov has this in the place cited: The Slavic calendars report both holy Martyrs on this day only… And indeed the Tarnovo codex, written in Bulgaria in the year 1272, mentions them in the first place … “of the holy martyr Chrysanthus and Daria;” with “the Sabaite fathers” placed after them. Paris I, which agrees with the Tarnovo one in nearly everything, although it is shorter, similarly makes mention “of St. Chrysontus.” In the Šišatovac one, Serbian, made in the year 1324, there is inscribed: “Of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria,” in like manner in the Chilandar Typikon … which is only ten years more recent and sufficiently agrees with the former. From which Serbian source the same or a similar reading was derived in the Synaxarion of the Ostrog Bible, in the Prologue… the Ruthenian Horologion of Pochaiv and other more recent calendars, which it would take long to reckon up. It is to be regretted, however, that nothing is said of the Martyr pair in the Ostromir (mid-eleventh century), the Mstislav (twelfth century), the Rumiantsev (thirteenth century) and the Suprasl (eleventh century), the most ancient of all. The aforesaid author adds a little below: Whether in the Slavic calendars the memory occurs on a day other than the present one (the 19th of March), I can neither assert at present nor deny… On this same day the birthday of St. Chrysanthus is marked in the calendar or marble tablet which was at Rome in the portico of the monastery of St. Sylvester, and which in Mazzocchi's judgment is to be ascribed to the ninth century, against the opinion of Muratori, to whom this monument seems more ancient. See Cardinal Mai Ibid. p. 56.. On another tablet of the same portico, but broken and mutilated, the name of St. Daria was again supplied on this day by a rather recent hand Ibid. p. 58.. The bodies of both are recorded as having been translated there by Pope Paul I in the year 761 Cf. Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, p. 322 et seq.. Of these tablets, which you will find published in the cited work of Cardinal Mai, there will be further discussion at § II.

[3] the 12th of August and the 17th of October, Again, in some Hieronymian ones the Holy Martyrs occur on the 12th day of August, together with many others. In the Older one of Fiorentini one reads: At Rome the birthday of Saints Crissantus and Daria and those who suffered with them, Claudius, Hilaria, Jason, Maurus and 70 soldiers. On these companions of the passion see at the end the Acts, chapter II. On the same day they are found in certain augmentations of Usuard in du Sollier, who professes elsewhere Martyrologium Usuardi, p. 714. that he does not sufficiently understand what Wandelbert means on the 13th of October. He sings thus D'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 54.:

Marcellus, Faustus, Januarius fill out the third. Then too, Peter, the temple sacred to you and to Dionysius; And to Chrysanthus and Daria an altar gleams, Tulpia with its plain, by which level the fortress stands out.

It seems to be a matter of the dedication of an altar in honor of those holy Martyrs. For it is known that Wandelbert, deacon and monk of the monastery of Prüm in the diocese of Trier, flourished under the emperor Lothar in the year of the Lord 854. And at that time their cult was flourishing in this part of Germany, as will be evident from what is to be said where there will be discussion of the Translations of the holy bodies. In Sirleto, who has already treated of our Holy Martyrs in the first place on the 19th of March, memory is again made, but in the last place, on the 17th of October: On the same day of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria Canisius, Thesaurus vol. III, p. 480.. The 17th day of October also (it is wrongly written November in Montfaucon Bibliotheca Coisliniana, p. 185.) is noted in the Coislin codex, from which we publish the Acts written in Greek, likewise in our Vatican copy. Did perhaps the Menologion of the Greeks lead the way for these, which, composed by order of the emperor Basil at the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century, came out in Roman print in the year 1727? In this there is mentioned on the 17th of October in the first place: The Contest (ἀθλήσις) of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, with an image engraved in copper and a brief compendium of the Acts, of which mention will have to be made more than once below.

[4] the 29th of November In many more ancient calendars and martyrologies the same holy Martyrs are marked on the 29th day of November. We said at n. 1 that their names are missing in the very ancient Bucherian, Leonine and Gregorian Calendars cited by Muratori; but they are announced on the 3rd before the Kalends of December (29 Nov.) in another calendar of no lesser note, namely the Gelasian, in the same Muratori Dissertatio liturg. Migne vol. LXXXIV, col. 885., in these words: Of the holy martyrs Saturninus, Chrysanthus, Maurus, Daria and others. And in the likewise Gelasian sacramentary, on the same day, there is marked a Mass on the Birthday of the Holy Martyrs Saturninus, Chrysanthus, Maurus, Daria and others. The prayer, secret and postcommunion are proper; but in each of them only the names of the first two are expressed: May the prayer of the blessed martyrs, O Lord, Saturninus and Chrysanthus be present etc. Ibid. col. 1181.. So also have it the calendar of St. Maximin of Trier, prefixed, says Hontheim Prodromus Historiæ Trevirensis, vol. I, p. 373 et seq., to a Psalter of the tenth century, preserved in the archive of the same abbey (but now in our Bollandist Museum): Of SS. Saturninus, Chrysanthus, Maurus and Daria, martyrs; the calendar of the collegiate church of St. Simeon, prefixed to a Psalter of the eleventh century: Chrysanthus and Daria. Vigil Ibid. 380 et seqq.; a calendar inserted in an ecclesiastical computus of the year 1128: Saturninus. Chrysanthus. Maurus. Vigil Ibid. 394 et seqq.; a calendar of the end of the thirteenth century: Saturninus and his companions. Vigil Ibid. p. 401 et seqq.; which companions are here assuredly understood to be SS. Chrysanthus, Daria etc., since in other calendars of the same country or origin they are explicitly named, as also holds in many of the older Hieronymian ones, although in truth they were not companions of St. Saturninus in his passion. They occur jointly in the martyrologies, however, because the celebrated memory of Saturninus, not indeed the bishop of Toulouse, as some have held, but of that one who suffered with Sisinnius the deacon, and gave his name to the cemetery on the Via Salaria, also called that of Thraso, as Saracenio goes on in his notes to the poems of Damasus Migne, Patrologia vol. XIII, col. 394, note g., was kept in that place, as is evident from the Bucherian calendar and other old monuments on the 29th day of November; and in the same place had been put the tombs of the other martyrs, repaired by Damasus and adorned with verses, namely of Chrysanthus and Daria and Maurus and Hilarius and perhaps of others. Certainly the Gelasian Order has a Mass for Saturninus, Chrysanthus, Maurus and Daria, in one and the same place and on the same day. So also all are placed together in the Appendix to the martyrology of Ado: Likewise at Rome, of Araso (rather in that of Thraso) of Saturninus, Chrysanthus, Maurus and Daria and of seventy-two others. Who those 70 are, see in the Acts and Annotations. The Martyrology of Gellone concurs D'Achery, Spicileg. vol. II. From the beginning., as also the contracted Hieronymian ones published by du Sollier; namely those of Labbe and Reichenau, they are missing in the shorter Corbie one. These three are entire; other Hieronymian ones of du Sollier are mutilated, and do not show the end of the month of November. See also Martin Gerbert Monumenta veteris liturgiæ Alemanicæ, part I, p. 198. 1777 edition..

[5] and the 1st of December. Finally SS. Chrysanthus and Daria come on the Kalends or first day of December in the pure Usuard: At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria the virgin, who, after the many sufferings they had gained for Christ, were ordered by the emperor Numerian to be put down into a sandpit on the Via Salaria, and to be overwhelmed there alive with earth and stones. And du Sollier observes Martyr. Usuardi, p. 714. that Usuard is wrongly adduced by some on the 25th day of October, who here does not deviate a nail's breadth from his usual guides (the Little Roman and Ado). And he adds: For the rest, the very certain monuments reported here do not in any way allow us to doubt of their true martyrdom and of their ancient cult in the universal Church. How it has come about that their memory is observed on so many different days, it is natural to suspect that this variety arose from the day of the passion, of the finding, of the translation, of the dedication etc.

[6] The celebrity of their memory: from St. Damasus, This is certain, that the memory of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria is most celebrated in the Church of the West, and that from remotest antiquity, as results even from the older martyrologies alone. This also is beyond doubt, that their tomb was adorned with verses by St. Damasus (who presided from the year 366 to the year 384). For among the few poems of this pontiff that are held by all to be genuine, there is reckoned an epigram pertaining to our holy Martyrs Migne, Patrolog., vol. LXXI, col. 1149.:

His votis paribus tumulum duo nomina servant, Chrysanthi, Dariæ nunc venerandus honor, Effera quem * rabies, neglecto jure sepulcri, Sanctorum tumulos * præda furentis erat. Pauperis ex censu melius nunc ista resurgunt, Divite sed voto plus placitura Deo. Plange tuum, gens sæva, nefas; periere furores; Crevit in his templis per tua damna decus.

[With these equal vows two names keep the tomb, Chrysanthus and Daria, now a venerable honor, which savage madness, the law of the sepulcher neglected, the tombs of the Saints were the raging man's prey. From a poor man's means these things now rise better, but with rich vow to be more pleasing to God. Lament your wickedness, savage nation; the furies have perished; in these temples through your losses the glory has grown.]

By the witness of Saracenio and Merenda, the more distinguished editors of St. Damasus, the verses are those of Damasus, as the former has it in express terms Ibid., vol. XIII, col. 401. Note 1.; and the latter thus in the Prolegomena Ibid., col. 276 and 277.: From the cemetery of Priscilla, although many have perished, yet more of the poems of Damasus have survived than from others. For there still remain those that were inscribed on the tombs of Marcellus, Protus, Hyacinth, Saturninus, Maurus and of Chrysanthus and Daria. But that which is inscribed concerning Chrysanthus and Daria, since it was formerly copied negligently from a copy, stands in need of a healing hand, which Saracenio applied, and, as it is now read, it needs to be illustrated from the Acts of the same Martyrs and from Gregory of Tours; since from these it is given to be understood why the tomb of those Saints, idolatry

Damasus says to have been “the prey of a raging man”: that being, namely, utterly scattered and overthrown by the furious band of heathens who had flocked to the cemetery against the Christians, and the crypt moreover being closed with stones and heaped-up earth. But after peace was restored to the Church, the same place being restored to its former religion, Damasus both inscribed these poems, and besides added some new work at his own expense, and for this reason, I think, he not undeservedly designated himself under the title of “a poor man.” Which things will become clearer from the very text of St. Gregory of Tours, which we subjoin further for this reason, that from it again both the antiquity and the celebrity of the cult may be demonstrated.

[7] and from Gregory of Tours, and some other ancient authors. He therefore in Book I of the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter XXXVIII, writes Ibid., vol. LXXI, col. 739.: Chrysanthus the martyr, as the history of his passion declares, after receiving the crown of martyrdom with Daria the virgin, bestowed many benefits of healings on the peoples. And for this reason a crypt was also built over them with marvelous work, which, turned over in the fashion of arches, stood with very firm stability. Finally, when a throng of peoples had flowed together for his feast, a most wicked emperor, having had a wall erected in the entrance of that crypt, the multitude being shut in, ordered the edifice to be covered with sand and stones, and a great mountain was made above it, and that this was done is most certainly shown by the writings of his contest (see below, the Acts, toward the end). Which crypt remained covered for a long time by this its veil, until the Roman city, abandoning its idols, was subjected to Christ the Lord. Now as time went on the place of his burial was known to no one, until, the Lord Jesus revealing it, it was laid open. In one part of which place, a wall being interposed, the tombs of the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria were set apart; in another part the bodies of the other Saints were gathered in one. Yet in that wall which is placed in the middle the builder left a window open, that an access of sight might lie open for contemplating the bodies of the Saints. They report also that at the time when those approaching the holy solemnities were shut in, the men had brought with them silver pitchers formed from metal, with wine which is offered for the oblation of the divine sacrifice, and it is manifest that the silver remained there, and that it is discerned today by those looking on. But because the human mind always gapes after base and shameful desires, a certain subdeacon, having seen the silver through the window, considers within himself what on the next day, greed impelling him, he carried out. For rising in the night, he entered the basilica of the Saints, then entering the little chamber through the window, and feeling about with his hands through the darkness of the night, he took some of the pitchers: then, desiring to go out with the plunder, going around through the whole night, he could never find the entrance by which he had come in. But when day had come, wishing, being conscious of his crime, that his deeds should be covered, according to that saying of the Lord's oracle, that “everyone who does evil hates the light, that his works may not be made manifest *,” he hid himself in a corner of the little chamber the whole day lest he be discovered. And on the following night he again sought the way out, but could not find it. So he did for three courses of nights. And on the third day, when he was now tormented by hunger, he came before the people to the window, and leaving the silver confessed his deed, and went out with great shame, nor was the crime he had done hidden from the peoples who were present. And after much time Damasus, prelate of the holy apostolic see, learning of this deed, ordered the window to be covered more carefully, where he also adorned the place with verses. Nothing occurs in these of the crypt being enlarged by Damasus, which however results clearly from his poem recited above. Gregory reports further, in Book I of the Glory of the Martyrs Migne, Patrol. col. 779 et seq., that some relics of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were granted to a certain deacon by Pope Pelagius II and carried into Gaul about the year 590. From which Tillemont infers Mémoires, vol. IV, p. 567. that those pledges were sent to Gregory himself by the aforesaid pontiff, which however is not altogether clearly had from the words of Gregory. And so there are available, besides the martyrologies, certain testimonies of the ancient and very celebrated cult of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria from the fourth century, in which Damasus flourished, and from the end of the sixth century, in which St. Gregory of Tours was writing. In the ninth century we have Wandelbert, Usuard and Ado. Of this last there will be further and fuller discussion a little below.

[8] The martyrdom from the Acts, Among the martyrs who suffered at Rome under Numerian the more celebrated, says Baronius Annales vol. III, p. 231., are held to be Chrysanthus and Daria. He, the son of Polemius of Alexandria, at Rome, both by reading the holy gospel and by hearing Carpophorus, was imbued with the Christian faith, and stirred up his father's hatred against himself, whose art left nothing untried to call him back to his ancestral rites, and for this he used Daria the virgin. But she too by the persuasion of Chrysanthus believed in Christ, and both together for that reason under the praetor Celer * experienced very many torments. Claudius the tribune, wondering at their constancy and at the divine patronage around them, together with his wife and two sons, Jason and Maurus, and the rest of his household and seventy soldiers, became Christians, and soon were made illustrious by confession and finally by martyrdom. And Chrysanthus was thrust into the Tullian prison; while meanwhile Daria was condemned to the brothel; but being divinely set free, together with Chrysanthus she was let down into a deep pit, the entrance being closed (in the manner of the Vestals who failed and paid the penalty in the Wicked Field), outside the Salarian gate, and in this way both were forced to die. And it happened that when the Christians came together in a crowded assembly at the neighboring cave to celebrate their birthday, by the ill-will of the gentiles it came about that the entrance was blocked, and those who were holding the synaxis within, being thus forced to die, obtained the crown of martyrdom. So Baronius compendiously presents the very prolix Acts, would that they were also trustworthy. Of these, adds Baronius in the same place, having read very many copies, we have found those more faithful that are held written in Latin in shorter form; but those which Metaphrastes (rather another) published in Greek, with very many additions, are so far from having been made illustrious by Greek eloquence (as the author who published them thought), that they rather appear corrupted and brought under suspicion of imposture to learned men examining them more exactly. Tillemont holds any Acts, both the longer and the shorter, to be of no value Mémoires, vol. IV, p. 762. So also Ruinart: for he notes on the aforesaid place of Gregory of Tours, where he mentions the history of the passion Migne, Patrologia vol. LXXI col. 739, note b.: The Acts of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, which are had today, and seem here to be cited by Gregory, are of no weight.

[9] [of little trustworthiness, both because they call Numerian a cruel tyrant, and reigning at Rome at the time of the passion,] And in truth there are very many things in them by which, if they are not shown to be altogether spurious, they are at least rendered exceedingly suspect. For first St. Daria is reckoned, at least in most of the Latin Acts, among the Vestals, which we shall show to be false in the Annotations to the life, from the discipline of those virgins; then they are written to have suffered under Pope Stephen I and the emperor Numerian; but the former flourished nearly twenty-seven years before the latter; Stephen fell as a martyr in the year 257, Numerian was put in the place of his father Carus in the year 284, in which he was also killed, by the faction of Arrius Aper, his father-in-law [L'art de vérifier les dates, p. 347. Vopiscus in Numeriano, historia Augusta, p. 251. Paris, 1622.]. Next the Acts record that the passion took place with Numerian present and acting; which no one would admit: for it is established that this emperor was at hand for his dying father in the East and was killed there after he had reigned eight or nine months Ibid. in the place cited., and hence from the time at which he began to rule he never came to Rome. Since however in the Acts Numerian is called imperator and not Augustus, it may perhaps occur to someone that the martyrdom took place before the death of Carus, and that nothing prevents the emperor Numerian from having been staying at Rome at that time, since it is certain from coins Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, p. 516. that both sons of Carus, namely Carinus and Numerian, were presented with the title of imperator in their father's lifetime. Certainly a dispute of this kind about a word would have the look of a quibble; but besides, it would not follow from this that Numerian presided at Rome at that time, since there Carinus was exercising the Caesarian power by his father's decree. Let us hear the illustrious Eckhel Ibid.: By the witness of Vopiscus, Carus, setting out for the East, left the elder-born Carinus in the West, decreeing to him Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, the Spains, Britain, Africa, “with Caesarian power,” as he says, “on this condition, that he should do all things that the Augusti do.” Therefore Carus adorned his son, as Gallienus once did Salominus, with both the name and the power of imperator, that he might have greater authority in so great an empire.. The title of imperator was conferred by the father on Numerian also, as not indeed the historians but the coins clearly teach Cf. Vopiscus in Carino, Historia Augusta, p. 253.. Add that in our more prolix Acts it is hinted that a persecution was stirred up by Numerian against the Christians, which is explicitly asserted in some shorter ones that I have in hand: In the times, then, of Numerian, the most impious Caesar, while the worship of idols was kept up by the sacrilegious in the Roman city, a heavy persecution blazed out against the worshippers of Christ, by order of the most savage Caesar. Blessed Chrysanthus therefore etc. Which assuredly cannot easily be reconciled with the excellent character of Numerian. Numerian, says Eckhel Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, p. 511., was of excellent morals and truly worthy of the empire … and finally showed himself plainly unlike the perverse morals of his brother (Carinus), as Vopiscus records, who adds that after the death of his father his eyes began to pain him from excessive weeping Hist. Augusta, p. 251.. It is not therefore likely that such a man raged against the Christians. Hence also Baronius: Whence, he says Annales, vol. III, p. 231., I ask, is it that some martyrs are read in all the martyrologies to have suffered under Numerian? The matter is not easy of demonstration; nor is there anything that can be said, except that while his father was still living, when he was acting as Caesar, he often wrote rescripts against the Christians.

[10] who at that time was not in the City, at least with authority; But first all the ancients are silent about rescripts of this kind, if you except however the Paschal or Alexandrian Chronicle, which I shall soon show to be of no value here. Next, Carus gained the empire in the month of August in the year 282, and in that same month created both his sons Caesars, and he was carried off at the end of December of the following year, after he had reigned sixteen or seventeen months Art de vérifier les dates, p. 347.. Moreover, having scarcely gained the empire, Carus set out against the Sarmatians who were disturbing Illyricum, whom he conquered in a short time, and from the whole narrative of Vopiscus it seems that Numerian accompanied his father on this expedition, which Tillemont also suspects Tillemont, Histoire des empereurs, vol. III, p. 237. Brussels, 1732. to be confirmed from a certain coin, which however Eckhel to Cimmerian, nay thicker darkness

says is wrapped, so that nothing certain may so far be inferred from it Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, p. 512 et seq.. This further is beyond all doubt, that Numerian, after the Sarmatians had been routed, at once went away into the East with his father against the Persians, and never returned from there to the West. It is therefore at least doubtful whether Numerian stayed at Rome without his father the Augustus for even the shortest time. And even if this were granted, it would not legitimately follow that it was permitted to Numerian to write any heavy rescript or undertake anything against the Christians dwelling at Rome: for we have seen above that Carinus Caesar, Gaul and Italy, Illyricum … being decreed to him by his father, held power, on the condition that he should do all things that the Augusti do, whence it seems altogether to be concluded that power at Rome, in the absence of Carus, lay with Carinus. Which is confirmed from another place of the same Vopiscus In Caro, Hist. Augusta, p. 250.: As soon, he says, as Carus received the empire … he undertook the Persian war, which Probus was preparing, his children being named Caesars; and indeed in such a way that he appointed Carinus to protect the Gauls with very select men, and took with him Numerian, a young man both very select and also very eloquent. And he is said indeed to have often said that he was wretched, because he was sending Carinus as prince to the Gauls, and because Numerian was not of such an age that the Gallic command, which above all requires a very steadfast prince, could be entrusted to him. Compare Aurelius Victor [Collectio scriptorum de Romanis imperatoribus ex recognitione Erasmi, p. 346. Cologne, 1527.] and Eutropius Ibid. p. 391.. Who could bring himself to believe that Numerian, a very select young man, and furnished with no authority, raged at Rome against the Christians, whom his father Carus favored? We read, says Baronius Annales, vol. III, p. 231., of no one who suffered under Carus, because, as has been said, he rather favored the Christians. And on the other hand Numerian was so dutiful toward his father that because of his death his eyes began to pain him from excessive weeping. Such things would surely be easily understood in Carinus, the most polluted of all men, whose father, hearing what he was doing, cried out: He is not mine Vopiscus, Hist. Augusta, p. 253.. And yet, as you may wonder, Baronius would have him free of all persecution against the followers of Christ. Under Carinus, he says Annales, vol. III, p. 232., there is put as having suffered… Marinus the senator, tortured with many very bitter torments under Marcian, prefect of the City. But since the more certain Acts of the Martyrs say that Carinus held some of the Christians in friendship, and rather caused the persecution that had been stirred up to cease; I think it fairer that he was taken off by martyrdom by order of Numerian than of Carinus; for in the Tables cited above he is put as having suffered at Rome not by means of Carinus but under Carinus, which seems to me altogether otherwise. For the rest, Baronius sets forth the affairs of that age confusedly and incoherently, as clearly appears from what has so far been said.

[11] nor is he known to have stirred up any persecution against the Christians; Shall we then say, against the credit of many Acts Ibid., p. 231 et seqq., that there were no martyrs under Numerian? Tillemont openly inclines to this opinion Mémoires, vol. IV, p. 565. Cf. Baronius, vol. III, p. 261.: Numerian, while his father survived, had little authority, being very young and only Caesar; and from the time he was made Augustus he was intent solely on this, to lead the army back from Persia and direct it toward Chalcedon, where he was killed on the 17th day of September 284. Hence he had scarcely any power in the East, and none in the West. I fear therefore that things may be attributed to him that were perpetrated under other emperors by prefects called Numerian or by a similar name. Certainly Maximus Numerius (in some manuscripts Numerian) was a most cruel persecutor under Diocletian in Cilicia; a certain Numerus is marked in the Acts of St. Isidore under Decius etc. But to Pagi it must be certain that many suffered martyrdom in the reign of Numerian, besides those whom Baronius mentions Baronii Annales, vol. III, p. 230.. Baronius enters on a kind of middle way, saying Ibid., p. 231. that although no one is read to have suffered under Carus, yet it happened at times that, against the will of the emperor himself, very many of the Christians were killed, as what has been said above on Severus demonstrates. Nor would I for my part deny it. But this being laid down, the Acts of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria are at least convicted of falsehood in this, that they say that Numerian was present at Rome and a savage persecutor. It remains for us to treat of the Paschal or Alexandrian Chronicle, which I have said is of no value here. Nor will many words be needed to show this: for the text itself teems with errors of every kind. Thus it has Vol. I, p. 510. Corpus scriptorum histor. Byzantinæ. Bonn, 1832.: In the consulship of Carinus II and Numerian. In the 255th year from the Ascension of the Lord into heaven (that is, in the year 284 of our era: for the era of the Ascension is shorter by 29 years Art de vérifier les dates, p. XXXV.) there took place a persecution of the Christians, in which many martyrs ended their lives, and among them St. George and St. Babylas. The latter was bishop of Great Antioch, to which the emperor Carinus came with Carus his paternal uncle, to bring war upon the Persians: which Carus perished in Mesopotamia, struck from heaven. But Carinus, being conquered, fled to Carrhae, where, the Persians having placed their camp by the city, he was made captive and at once killed by them: and his skin being stripped off, they made a bag from it, which, smeared with ointments, they thereafter kept as a memorial of victory. And Carinus perished when he was 36 years of age. After his death Numerian his brother, having undertaken an expedition against the Persians, went to avenge his brother etc. All of which are either false or incoherent: George suffered at Nicomedia at the beginning of the tenth persecution under Diocletian and Maximian Acta SS., vol. III of April, on the 23rd, p. 106.; and there is great controversy about the age of St. Babylas. The ancients mention only one, under Decius Ibid. vol. II of January, on the 24th, p. 570.; the father of Carinus was Carus, and he with Numerian brought war upon the Persians; Carinus, after the death of his brother, engaged in battle with Diocletian and was killed by his own men Tillemont, Hist. des empereurs, vol. IV, p. 3., at about the thirty-second year of his age Art de vérifier les dates, p. 347..

[12] and because they are woven with continuous prodigies from head to foot. The passion according to the Acts took place under Celerinus, prefect of the City, whose name is found neither in the Bucherian calendar nor in others; nor does it occur anywhere else except in the Acts of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, as also in the Acts of St. Maurus; and hence once and again in the Roman Martyrology, namely on the 25th of October, where our Holy Martyrs are treated, and on the 22nd of November, where St. Maurus is; but since, says Corsini De Præfectis Urbis, p. 133. Pisa 1766., the Acts of those martyrs are either apocryphal or highly suspect, absolutely no support for the name of the prefect Celerinus can be carved out from them. See the Annotations, where other things of nearly the same kind, worthy of the asterisk, will be more conveniently rendered. Let it suffice to have noted in general at this place that the Acts of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria are woven with continuous prodigies nearly from head to foot, so that in this respect also they diverge very much from the thoroughly genuine ones, and those held as such among sensible persons. Hence there comes into use here the prudent remark of Pope Gelasius: The Deeds of the holy Martyrs, who shine forth with manifold tortures of torments and wonderful triumphs of confessions, who among the catholics would doubt these, both that they endured greater things in their contests, and that they bore all not by their own strength, but by the grace and help of God? But according to ancient custom, by a singular caution, they are not read in the Holy Roman Church, both because the names of those who wrote them are wholly unknown, and because they are thought to have been written by unbelievers or by the unlearned with superfluous things or less suited than the order of the matter was… For which reason (as has been said), lest even a slight occasion for mockery should arise, they are not read in the holy Roman Church. So Gelasius in the fifth century Migne, Patrologia, vol. LIX, col. 160. Cf. Baronius, vol. III, p. 262..

[13] A more trustworthy encomium from the Menologion of Basil. Far greater credit is deserved by the encomium which, as we said at n. 3, is found on the 17th day of October in the Menologion of the Greeks, written by order of the emperor Basil, and for this reason we recite it here in full: Contest of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria. These were renowned under the emperor Numerian, and Chrysanthus, having set out for Rome with his father, a man of senatorial rank, was instructed in the faith of Christ by a certain bishop hiding in a cave. When his father learned of this, he shut him up in a dark prison; then he compelled him to marry Daria, imbued with philosophical studies; with whom however he behaved no otherwise than with a sister, since both had taken this counsel, that they would guard their virginity until death. Wherefore she too was baptized; but since both were leading the people to live chastely and temperately, the unbelievers, taking it very ill that their wives, having made divorce from them, were betrothed to Christ, reported the matter to the prefect, who handed them over to Claudius the tribune. Led out of the city, therefore, and tortured with various torments, they were thrown into a pit full of filth, and, overwhelmed and trampled, they died. In these things neither is Daria written as a Vestal; nor is mention made of Pope Stephen; they are indeed indicated to have suffered under Numerian, but neither is that emperor recorded as the author of a persecution, nor as present at Rome for the contest. Prodigies are lacking. So that almost all the things we have objected against the Acts fall away altogether, and there holds here what we noted above at n. 8 from Baronius: those Acts are more faithful which are shorter.

[14] The Acts first written in Greek, We publish the Acts of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria in Greek and Latin. The Greek from two Paris codices; namely the Coislin, which, in Montfaucon's judgment, is of about the eleventh century; and the Colbert, which seems to have been written in the twelfth century; likewise from a copy which our predecessors left us, to which Papebroch wrote in his own hand: From a Manuscript, as I think, Vatican. The Coislin codex is of far better quality (it alone is mentioned by Fabricius); we therefore submit this to the press, hitherto unpublished. What differences of any moment occur in the other two the Annotations will show. Let it suffice in general at this place to have noted that our three Greek manuscripts agree among themselves in matter, and disagree here and there in words; so that it is clear that they arose from the same source.

[15] and from these turned into Latin; The Latin, again from several manuscript codices, collated with Mombritius; I pass over Surius, who, as we shall soon see, has a far more faithful and better version. See the Annotations to the preface of the Acts, letters a and b. There seems to be no doubt that the Acts were originally written in Greek, which results clearly from the continual

comparison of both texts. Since however the Greek have so far remained unpublished, writers are found to have consulted only the Latin versions, some transcribed from others, not without errors (as is usual) and many adulterations or corruptions. The Surian is excepted, as I have just hinted, whose author most certainly had in hand a Greek copy not unlike our Coislin, since his version answers nearly always and accurately to the aforesaid codex; whence also in many places it departs not a little from the Latin ones, as will become clear from the Annotations. And from the fact that people stood by the Latin Acts, and those sufficiently faulty, it has come about that some assertions have everywhere prevailed which have raised not contemptible difficulties, easily either to be removed or elucidated from the Greek text. For example, it is commonly asserted that St. Daria was a Vestal, while in our three Greek codices she is called a Virgin of Minerva, Παρθένος τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς, as Surius also has it.

[16] although the author is not established, They also disagree somewhat on the author of the Acts. In the Latin ones one reads thus: all these things, just as they were done, we wrote, Varinus and Armenius, brothers, made presbyters by St. Stephen, Roman pope in the Apostolic See. The Coislin differs, naming only the first, and using the singular number: Ταῦτα ὡς ἐπράχθη ἀνεγραψάμην ἐγὼ Οὐιρῖνος, προτροπῇ ὑπειξας Στεφάνου τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου πάππα: these things, just as they were done, I, Virinus, wrote, obeying the will of Stephen, the most holy pope. In the other Paris codex, namely the Colbert, both are named, Verinus and Armenius, and the plural number is used: ἀνεγραψάμεθα Οὐηρῖνος καὶ Ἀρμένιος ἀδελφοὶ παρα etc.; We wrote, Verinus and Armenius, brothers. Surius follows the latter: and all these things, as they were done, we, Verinus and Armenius, brothers, have written. Which is surely an indication that Surius (who, as we know, generally had at hand various codices, and those of no low merit) found it so. If however the matter had to be judged from the two Paris codices, one would certainly have to stand by the Coislin, as far excelling the Colbert. In the Vatican the writers are omitted, and the whole last number among the others is missing, not indeed by negligence of the copyist, but by a defect of the codex itself, where after the narration of the slaughter of the faithful who were flocking to the tomb of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, an end is put by the customary doxology Ἐν Χριστῳ Ἰησοὺ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, ᾧ etc., in Christ Jesus our lord, to whom etc. And so of our Greek codices, one is silent on the writer or writers; the second names one, the third two. With this last all the Latin agree, not excepting Surius, so that I do not see how it came about that in the Vatican mention of Varinus and Armenius is lacking. In the Latin Acts (except however the Surian) Varinus and Armenius are called not only brothers, but also presbyters, and indeed ordained by Pope Stephen; and they are asserted to have written by his order. Similarly the Greek Colbert codex (the Coislin, as we said, marks only one author, Virinus) calls them brothers: ἀδελφοι; both teach that the Acts were recorded by order of Stephen, but are silent about the priesthood. Surius adheres to the Greek in every way: we brothers have written, by order of the most holy Pope Stephen. After this I do not grasp on what reason Baronius relies in writing Annales vol. III, p. 231.: The more celebrated among the others (Martyrs) are held to be Chrysanthus and Daria, whose Acts are reported to have been written by Verinus and Armenius, presbyters of Pope Stephen; not however (as the faulty codices have it) by order of Pope Stephen. On the contrary, the command of Stephen is attested, with Surius, by both Greek Paris codices, and all the Latin ones; the Priesthood by the latter only. And it is confirmed from the Acts of the translation In Surius, 17th of January. (written in the year 886) of SS. Diodorus and Marinus. These, on the birthday of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, had gathered with many others at their tomb, and are read to have been overwhelmed with sand by order of Numerian. See at the end of this Commentary our Acts, chapter II. And it is said in Surius, where he treats of the translation of SS. Diodorus and Marinus: Pope Stephen, seeing very many Christians daily afflicted by persecutions, and being himself near to undergoing the contest of martyrdom for the name of Christ, two presbyters approved by the testimony of the faith, namely Varinus and Armenius, who should write down the passions of the Saints whom they saw constantly suffering. Bolland remitted SS. Diodorus and Maurinus from the 17th of January to the Kalends of December. On which day they will have to be treated in our work. I shall add this one thing; if Varinus and Armenius, made presbyters by Pope Stephen, had lived to the age of Numerian; by the common way of speaking they would have been called presbyters not of Stephen, as by Baronius, but rather of Caius, who then presided over the Apostolic See, namely from the year 283 to the year 296 Art de vérifier les dates, p. 243. Cf. Tillemont, Mém., vol. IV, p. 763.. For the rest, what credit the Acts deserve we have seen above at nn. 10 – 13. Since, then, this wavers exceedingly, and in particular they labor under a manifest error where they place as contemporaries St. Stephen the pope and the emperor Numerian; and since on the other hand nothing is established on the authors except from the testimony of the same Acts, and moreover the Greek copies disagree among themselves; some marking one, others two writers, others finally passing over both in silence; let the learned reader see where prudent reasoning leads in such circumstances.

[17] and they would undeservedly be attributed to Simeon Metaphrastes. The history of the passion also seems to be wrongly attributed by some to Simeon Metaphrastes. Surius indeed says: The history of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, written by Verinus and Armenius, presbyters of Pope Stephen, by the witness of Baronius, is had in Metaphrastes, and the ancient Latin manuscript codices agree; but, as Leo Allatius shrewdly observes De Symeonibus, p. 80., it is wrongly affirmed, when some codex has come into our hands, and in it there are lives of Saints with no writer's name prefixed, that those lives are had in Metaphrastes, since the collection of those lives is not that of Metaphrastes, and consequently that Metaphrastes, even if he did not write them, approved them or at least thought them worthy to fly about through the hands of men. He then subjoins a threefold catalogue; first of the Lives that are proved to have a certain author from the manuscript codices themselves or from their context, as holds in the Life of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, whose Martyrdom was written by those present and seeing: ἡκούσθη δὲ τοῦτο πασιν ἡμῖν καὶ ἐλαλαλεῖτο καὶ τις τῶν ἀκουσάντων λέγει τῷ πατρῖ ἀυτοῦ: But this was heard by US all and was spread around; and one of those who had heard says to his father Allatius de Symeonibus, p. 110.. Allatius does not name Varinus and Armenius; perhaps because in his codices the verses which in our Coislin and Colbert are the last were lacking; as also holds in our Vatican copy. This too is to be noted, that the word ἡμῖν is indeed used in all the Greek manuscripts that it has been my lot to see, but is omitted in all the Latin versions likewise, not even Surius being excepted. See of these things more fully in the Annotations to chapter I and chapter II. In the second catalogue of Allatius there come the Lives denied to Simeon Ibid. p. 119 et seqq.; the third finally reckons the Lives written by Metaphrastes Ibid. p. 124 et seqq.; and in these there is none that treats in the least of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria.

[18] Yet the Acts are proved to be ancient from Ado; However it may be with the genuineness or the writers of the Acts, their antiquity cannot be called into doubt. And first Ado of Vienne has such a compendium in his martyrology on the 1st day of December that it is evident that a copy of them was in his hands. It will be helpful to recite the place from Ado: On the Kalends of December. The Birthday of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, who suffered at Rome in the time of Numerian under the judge Celerinus. The father of Chrysanthus was Polemius, an illustrious man, of Alexandrian race. He joined his son to a certain virgin of elegant beauty, who was certainly from among the most noble Romans. Chrysanthus, having been sufficiently faithfully taught in the divine letters by blessed Carpophorus the presbyter, converting her to the faith of Christ, and instructing her by his preaching to preserve her virginity for God, and bringing it about that, having together the name of marriage, they should live chastely, had her baptized. And it came about that through Chrysanthus a multitude of men, and through Daria (for so she was called) innumerable women flowed together to the grace of Christ. Therefore after some time a sedition arose against them, because they were Christians, Celerinus being then prefect of the City. He, having seized both, handed them over to Claudius the tribune, that he might kill them with various punishments. And Claudius the tribune gave Chrysanthus to seventy soldiers for torturing; who bound him with raw sinews, but soon all the fastenings were loosed. Then they put him in a very knotty stocks, so as to confine his leg at the third hole; and soon all the wood of the stocks was reduced to ash. Then they poured over him most stinking human urine, that you may lose, they say, your sorceries. But the stench was changed into a sweet odor. Then they bound him naked in a fresh calf's hide and set him out under the blazing sun; but by divine power the hide remained soft as it was. Then, binding his neck, hands and feet with iron chains, they shut him in a very dark place, but at once the chains were loosed, and such light shone in that innumerable lamps were thought to be shining there. The soldiers therefore announced all these things to the tribune, who ordered him to be presented to him and beaten with clubs, but the very stiff rods that were brought at once began to grow soft in the hands of those beating him. Seeing which, Claudius ordered him to be raised up and clothed with garments; and thrown at his knees, with all the soldiers he begged to be made a Christian. Why delay? Having been catechized he received the grace of baptism, and with him Hilaria his wife, his two sons Jason and Maurus, his friends and household, seventy soldiers with all their people. The emperor, hearing of this deed, ordered Chrysanthus and Daria to be shut up in the Tullian prison, from which a horrible stench rose up, because the filth of the houses and of the city constantly ran down there through the channels of the sewers. Thence Daria was placed in the public brothel of harlots. But to Chrysanthus divine light and sweet fragrances were furnished; and to Daria a lion, escaping from its cage, was given by the power of the Lord for protection; which, entering the little chamber in which the Saint of God lay prostrate in prayer, lay down beside her, that by its force it might drive back those coming and wishing to enter. And when many, struck by this miracle, venerated the power of Christ, Celerinus the prefect ordered a copious fire to be lit at the entrance of the cell where Daria was with the lion. Then, when the lion was now in fear and gave a roar, blessed Daria said: Go out in safety and farewell, for he whom you have honored in me, he himself frees you. Chrysanthus and Daria being presented again, by order of the emperor, to Celerinus the prefect, Chrysanthus was hung on a huge rack; but

at once all the wood of the rack was shattered and the bonds were broken, and the torches applied to his sides were put out. Celerinus the prefect, exceedingly terrified at this, announced it to the emperor. He, imputing this to sorceries, ordered them to be led on the Via Salaria to a sandpit, and to be put down alive and overwhelmed with earth and stones. And they suffered on the day of the Kalends of December. At whose venerable Memorial, when God was bestowing many benefits, it came about that on the day of their birthday an infinite multitude of people flocked together. This was announced to the emperor, who ordered a wall to be raised at the entrance of the crypt. And so it came about that all together, while they were receiving the sacraments of Christ, celebrated the glory of martyrdom, among whom were Diodorus the presbyter and Marinian the deacon and very many of the clergy. Thus far Ado. It is moreover most probable that his martyrology was written about the year 858 or perhaps a little sooner Du Sollier, Preface to Usuard, p. XXX, n. 151., and hence about the times at which the translation took place, made under Marcward, abbot of Prüm, in the year 844, of which there will be fuller treatment in the following paragraph. And it is surely worthy of notice that Ado for some time served at Prüm under that abbot. Handed over as a pupil (Ado) to the monks of Ferrières, says du Sollier Ibid., he seems to have been received there by Abbot Sigulf while still a little child or a boy, where, conducting himself well, by the witness of Lupus, he outstripped all his contemporaries in the study of letters. Thence, sent to the cenobium of Prüm at the request of Abbot Marcward, he stayed there for some time, until, attacked by the snares of certain envious persons, he betook himself to Rome.

[19] perhaps also from a poem recently found. Nay, our Acts would have to be held far more ancient, if the poem is genuine that was recently found among the manuscripts of the Saint-Germain library, and made public by MM. Miller and Aubenas in the year 1845 Revue de Bibliographie, August, 1845., at whose front one reads, written in a recent hand: The author of these verses is believed to be St. Damasus, supreme pontiff, which we too have thought fit to subjoin to this commentary from the Migne Patrology Vol. LXXIV, col. 527 et seqq.. Certainly if it were established (but it is not so) that St. Damasus was the author of that poem, no contemptible weight would be added to the Acts; for it would follow from this that in the fourth century (Damasus presided from the year 366 to the year 384) the martyrdom of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria was described in exactly the same way as it is presented in our Acts, with which the poem agrees exactly, as anyone will perceive who wishes to compare the two. But so far nothing at all may be determined either on the author or on the age of the poem. Since we have spoken of a poem, I shall note here in passing that among the poetic works of the very celebrated Spanish poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca there is found [Las comedias de P. Calderon de Barca …, por Juan Jorge Keill, vol. II, p. 622 et seqq. Leipzig, 1828.] a Drama under the title: Los dos amantes del cielo, that is, the two heavenly lovers or spouses, namely Chrysanthus and Daria, whose history is the argument of the poem. I would think that this work was written by the author when he was already a presbyter. For the rest, there is no one who does not know how highly that man is esteemed among his people. In the judgment of Nicolás Antonio he is in many things equal to Lope de Vega, and surpasses him in more than one gift Bibliotheca Hispana nova, vol. II, p. 177..

[20] The passion more probably took place about the year 283, under Numerian It remains for us at the end of this paragraph to indicate the time of the passion, if not with certainty, at least with greater probability. Surely from what has so far been disputed it is manifest that we are wrapped in thick darkness in this matter. The question namely is whether the contest of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria is to be ascribed to the time of Valerian or to the times of Numerian. That it took place in the age of one or the other of these emperors seems beyond controversy. If they are held to have suffered after the death of Carus, under Numerian his son as Augustus, this must have taken place in the year of Christ 284, since Numerian in that year began and ceased to reign Art de vérifier les dates, p. 347.; if they were crowned with martyrdom under Numerian when he was only Caesar, and in the lifetime of his father the emperor Carus, there will have to be admitted the end of the year 282, or the year 283; since in the former Numerian was declared Caesar, and in the latter Carus died about the 20th of December Art de vérifier les dates, p. 347.. In favor of this opinion are the Acts, which explicitly make Numerian the author of the passion, nay also the actor; and it is confirmed from the fact that it is difficult to deny that many Christians were subjected to martyrdom under his rule. Cf. n. 11. On the other hand, however, since, by the witness of the same Acts, our holy Champions met death for the faith of Christ under Pope Stephen I, and he sat under Valerian, it is natural to suspect that Numerian could easily have been substituted for this man in the Acts on account of the likeness of the two names: for by changing the first three letters, from Valerianus comes Numerianus. If we admit this, the passion will fall between the year 256, toward the end of which the persecution of Valerian began Ibid., p. 243; Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. IV, p. 779., and the beginning of the month of August of the year 257, in which St. Stephen obtained the crown of heaven Art de vérif. ibid. Tillemont, ibid., p. 780.. Nor must it be denied that the barbarous cruelty described in the Acts agrees very well with the most savage persecution stirred up by Valerian; not so with the rule of Numerian, who is nowhere found to have decreed anything grave against the Christians. Yet since the manner of the martyrdom is had only from the more prolix Acts; and these deserve scarcely any credit, and hence we are not forced to admit that the passion took place under Pope Stephen, since this is not established elsewhere than from the same Acts; one must not easily depart from the perpetual tradition of both Greeks and Latins, by which the contest of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria is placed under Numerian; and that all the less because, as I noted above, although he is proved to be the author of no persecution properly so called, there are nevertheless many weighty reasons that persuade that at least some martyrs suffered under the rule of that emperor. All things being weighed, then, it remains more consonant with reason for us that SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were Renowned under Numerian, to use a word borrowed from the menologion of Basil; and that they obtained the palm about the year 283.

* quæ rabies! Neglecto

* for tumulus

* John III, 20.

* Celerinus

§ II. Of the Translations of the relics, which various churches of various regions claim for themselves. And first of the threefold Roman translation and of the relics of the Lateran. Then of the translation to the Eifel.

Several translations are mentioned. A laborious and not moderately intricate question is that of the relics and of their translations. Several churches still today claim them for themselves, and generally they exhibit instruments not to be despised, by which they judge their possession to be established. The first translation of all is marked in the eighth century, under Pope Paul I, who sat from the year 757 to the year 767; the second at the beginning of the ninth century, under Paschal I, who was consecrated pontiff in the year 817, and died in the year 824; the third in the same ninth century toward its end, under Stephen V, who presided from the year 885 to the year 892. And these three translations are recorded as Roman. Others outside the City are numbered six in all; those of the Eifel, of Reggio, of Oria, of Salzburg, of Naples, of Vienna; and thus three in Germany and as many in Italy. Of each we shall speak in order, noting beforehand that the translation to the Eifel seems to be better proved than the others.

[22] The first translation under Paul I, about the year 761, That Pope Paul I translated very many bodies from the crypts or cemeteries of Rome is clear from the Constitute of the same pontiff, given on the 2nd day of June in the year 761 [Baronius, Annal. eccl. at the year 761, numbers III and IV. Also Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, page 322 et seq.]: Having seen, he says, the idle neglect of the holy places, and greatly groaning over this; … I saw it fitting, God assenting, to take away the same holy martyrs and confessors of Christ and virgins from those same ruined places. And we brought them into this Roman city with hymns and spiritual canticles, and into the church which I have newly built from the foundations in their honor … placing their most holy bodies, I laid them, that is, in the church of St. Sylvester. The names of those saints are not expressed in the Constitute; but they are read in two tablets or marble calendars, which were to be seen in the portico of the aforesaid church, and which you will find published by Angelo Mai Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, vol. V, p. 56 – 58.. The first begins:

† IN N. DNI. HEC EST NOTITIA NATALICIORUM

SCORUM HIC REQUIESCENTIUM.

DIE XVIII * M. SS. N. * SCOR CHRYSANTHI ET THRASONIS.

MENSE MARTIO. D. XVIIII. N. SCA [E DARLÆ]

ET HILARIÆ V. [ET. M.]

[† In the name of the Lord. This is the notice of the birthdays of the saints resting here. On the 18th day of the month written above, the birthday of Saints Chrysanthus and Thraso. In the month of March, on the 19th day, the birthday of St. Daria and Hilaria, virgin and martyr.]

Moreover these Tablets seem to be contemporary with Paul I. Certainly Cardinal Mai observes on the first that this monument is adjudged by Mazzocchi to the ninth century, against the opinion of Muratori, to whom it seems more ancient, which opinion we also have followed in the Acts of St. Tryphonia, showing that the reasons alleged by Mazzocchi are of slight weight Acta SS. in the place cited, p. 233.. And so, standing by these monuments, the first translation of St. Chrysanthus from the cemeteries took place between the 28th day of May of the year 757, on which Paul I obtained the pontificate, and the 2nd day of June of the year 761, on which he published his Constitute on this subject; which certainly came out not long after the translations were performed; and the tablets themselves are more probably to be referred to nearly the same time. Of St. Daria less is established, since in the latter tablet her name, as I have said, had to be supplied.

[23] Nevertheless in the following century, namely in the year 817, the second Roman translation under Paschal I, about the year 817; by the witness of Anastasius the Librarian Vol. I, p. 320., Paschal I, the most blessed and illustrious pontiff, with pious solicitude, lest many bodies of saints that had long lain in the cemeteries should remain neglected, seeking them out and collecting them, with great affection of veneration carried them and laid them up in the church of the aforesaid martyr of Christ Praxedis, which he had wonderfully renewed and built … And these bodies were two thousand three hundred; the tablets survive, which you will also find reprinted in the new collection of Cardinal Mai Vol. V, p. 38 – 40.. Again we set down the beginning:

† IN N DNI DI SALV. NRI IHU XPI TEMPORIBUS SCISSIMI

AC TER BEATISSIMI ET APOSTOLICI DN PASCHALIS

PAPÆ INFRADUCTA SUNT VENERANDA SCORUM CORPORA

IN HANC SCAM ET VENERABILEM BASILICAM

BEATÆ XPI VIRGINIS PRAXEDIS: QUÆ PRÆDICTUS

PONTIFEX DIRUTA EX CYMETERIIS SEU CRYPTIS JACENTIA

AUFERENS ET SUB HOC SACRO SCO ALTARE SUMMA

CUM DILIGENTIA PROPRIIS MANIBUS CONDIDIT IN MENSE

[† In the name of the Lord God our Savior Jesus Christ, in the times of the most holy and thrice most blessed and apostolic lord Pope Paschal, the venerable bodies of the saints were brought into this holy and venerable basilica of the blessed virgin of Christ Praxedis: which the aforesaid pontiff, taking them away as they lay ruined out of the cemeteries or crypts, also laid with the greatest diligence, with his own hands, under this sacred holy altar in the month]

JULIO DIE XX INDICTIONE DECIMA.

There follow very many names of saints, distributed by troops of supreme pontiffs, bishops etc.; after the men follow the names of virgins and widows; among the latter is marked St. Daria, among the former St. Chrysanthus. What the age of the said tablet is, is not clear to me. Cardinal Mai testifies that it is found at Rome in St. Praxedis, not far from the high altar, in excellent letters, which last two words seem to betray an age not so remote. But if this translation of the sacred pledges to St. Praxedis is admitted, and indeed made from the Cemeteries or crypts by Paschal I about the year 817; it manifestly follows that what we have reported above from the Silvestrine tablets is supposititious; for those bodies could not have been brought out of the catacombs by Paschal which had been taken away nearly fifty years before by Paul I. Conversely, if the Silvestrine ones are held to be genuine, the tablets of St. Praxedis must be spurious, at least as regards the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria.

[24] likewise a third under Stephen V, to the Lateran church, about the year 886: But a third translation also, far more celebrated than the first two, is recorded as held under Stephen V, who is called VI by some, but wrongly, as will be made clear from what is to be said. Of this Saracenio writes thus in the Notes to the poems of St. Damasus Migne Patrologia, vol. XIII, col. 402.: The bodies of these Saints, found by Pope Stephen VI (rather V) in the year of the Lord 886, in the first year of his pontificate, with other relics, and translated from that place, he laid and bestowed in the Lateran palace and at the basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles and elsewhere, as is had in the history of the finding of Saints Diodorus and others in Surius, vol. I, on the 17th day of the month of January, on which also Peter in the Catalogue, Book I, chapter 12. The altar also of these saints Chrysanthus and Daria was in the Lateran basilica under the apse, in which their bodies had once been laid up; but since, at the time when the church collapsed under Stephen VI (read V), it had been polluted and ruined, they were translated to the oratory of St. Mary and St. Pancras the martyr, which was on the right side of the basilica where the sacristy is now, and there they were laid up under the altar of that oratory, as Panvinio writes in his work on the seven churches, in the temple of St. John. It is necessary to add from the history of the Finding of SS. Diodorus etc. the place to which Saracenio referred. Blessed Chrysanthus, then, and Daria the virgin (we recite the words of Surius Vol. I, p. 283.), already subjected to very many martyrdoms, since by the grace of Christ they gained the crown of victory in all, by the fury of the same emperor (Numerian) were ordered to be put down alive outside the gate of the Roman city, on the Via Salaria, in a sandpit, and to be overwhelmed with earth and stones. And when almighty God was bestowing many benefits on the faithful in the same place by their intercessions, it came about that on their birthday an infinite multitude of people gathered there… This therefore having been made known to the ears of Numerian, he ordered a wall to be raised at the entrance of the crypt. When this had been fulfilled, he threw the mountain that overhung the crypt upon them; and so it came about that all together, while they received the divine sacraments and celebrated the glory of the Martyrs, themselves also attained to the glory of Martyrdom; among whom were Diodorus the presbyter and Marianus the deacon etc. Then, after some matters conducing to piety have been interposed, there follows: This treasure, to be placed in paradise, hidden by the perfidy of the most wicked Caesar under the ruin of mountains, lay concealed through many centuries, and although it was searched for by many pontiffs, yet it could be found by none. But almighty God … willed to reveal the glory of his Martyrs to his faithful. Whence he set St. Stephen (namely V) over his holy apostolic church, whose mind he inspired for this with a wonderful ardor, that he should undertake to seek the treasure of such great saints, overwhelmed by the ruin. He therefore called in diggers, and having strengthened them with a blessing, instructed them where and how they should dig. He left the trenches that very many of his predecessors had made in great numbers, and showed that place where they should dig, which we do not doubt was revealed to him by divine utterance. The diggers began to bring out the earth, but more than all he himself pressed on with the work worthy of God. For they dug with their hands, he prayed to God with worthy prayers. They sought by digging, he found by praying. Who would doubt that this was done by divine providence? For about the times of the first Stephen, the martyr (the Acts report that SS. Chrysanthus and Daria suffered under this pontiff, cf. above n. 9), while he governed the Roman church, this persecution against the martyrs of Christ arose, and when the sixth (rather the fifth) Stephen was presiding over the Roman church their finding took place… The most sacred treasure being found, then, not to be equaled by any riches, he himself first, girded up, entered the crypt, and surrounded by the various ranks of the venerable priesthood and by an assembly of the people of the orthodox faith, rendering praises worthy of God with exultation, he began among the ruins and the heap of stones to gather with his own hands the pearls venerable to the whole world from the bodies of the saints, nor did he cease from his holy zeal until he had separated all the fragments of the limbs from the heap of the ruin. The limbs being collected, then, over some days, because of the very great heap of the ruin of the mountains, there was in the place a nectar of such fragrance that it refreshed all who were present. For which reason the diggers burned more and more to give their effort to the labor, forgetful of weariness and of bodily nourishment. For in the night time angelic voices were heard in the crypt and the psalmodies of those singing hymns, and such splendor illumined it that no one dared to approach in the night time. And when the work was accomplished, the same most holy pope proclaimed litanies, and the whole assembly of the clergy and people of the Roman citizens being gathered, coming with bare feet, with lamps and crosses and all ecclesiastical equipment, on biers, with psalms and spiritual canticles, he brought the bodies of the Saints into the City, and he himself, going first and carrying the bier on his own shoulders, with exultation and jubilation, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of February, in the eight hundred and eighty-sixth year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the first year of his pontificate, and in the fifth (another reading, sixth) year of the reign of the Lord Charles (the Fat), most excellent Augustus. In the fourth Indiction: of whom he laid some in the Lateran palace at the church which he himself had renewed from the foundations when it was already near to ruin, which is called At the Apostles; others through the various cardinal titles with worthy honor: others also he bestowed in all directions through various monasteries, where they shine even today with very many miracles, for the praise and glory of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ages. Amen. So Surius, in the history of the Finding, of which I have in hand a copy from volume 139 of a manuscript of the library of Monte Cassino in Lombardic letters.

[25] what the credit of this translation is, Moreover if credit is to be given to this narrative, which Baronius with Surius ascribes to Anastasius the librarian, it becomes evident that the two other translations of which we have spoken are fictitious. But there are many things that render the finding attributed to Stephen V at least doubtful. First, the translation made from the cemeteries or crypts to the church of St. Sylvester under Paul I is proved by monuments not to be despised, namely from the Constitute of this pontiff and from the Silvestrine tablets, which are more probably contemporary with the translation itself. Cf. n. 22. The second, to St. Praxedis, rests likewise on the marble tablets of this church, whose antiquity however is less established. It suffices, however, that one or the other of these translations should have credit, for the history of the Finding to be convicted of falsehood, at least as regards SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. Next, the said writing is wrongly attributed to Anastasius, a contemporary author. Baronius indeed so judged, and therefore inserted the greatest part of it in his Annals Vol. XV, p. 427 et seqq. Lucca 1744., but he was corrected by Pagi. Let us hear both: Although the name, are the words of Baronius Ibid., p. 430., is not disclosed, it seems to me to be no other than Anastasius the librarian, likewise a historian of this time, who, as we have said, wrote the deeds of the same Pope Stephen: but these have not been preserved for us entire, being held curtailed in many places: for among others there is missing the mention of the finding of the same Holy Martyrs, namely Diodorus, Marianus and others; SS. Chrysanthus and Daria are not named. Pagi thinks quite otherwise in the Critica Ibid., p. 427.: The bodies of these, he says, when they had been found while Stephen V was presiding over the Roman church, were carried into the City on the 16th before the Kalends of February … as is said in the same History, which Surius thinks was written about the times of Charles the Fat (he reigned from the year 880 to 888 Art de vérifier les dates, p. 434.) or of the emperor Arnulf (from the year 887 to the year 899 Ibid., p. 434 and 435.), and from which Baronius deduces that Stephen, who in this year ruled the Roman church, was wrongly called the fifth, and that that common error should therefore be corrected. But the writer of this history lived long after these times, since he calls the current year, which was the sixth of Charles the Fat, the fifth, and names as the sixth Pope Stephen, who was only the fifth in order. For Stephen the presbyter, who after the death of Pope Zachary was elected pontiff, because he died suddenly (namely on the third day from his election), was never ordained, and therefore was not a Roman pontiff… And hence the other Stephen, who afterwards obtained the pontificate, is called by Anastasius Stephen II … and the Stephen who at this time (in the year 886) ruled the Roman church is called Stephen the fifth by Flodoard, who, having died in the 62nd year of the following century, could not have been unaware of this. Finally this opinion of Baronius … has all the ancient writers against it, and all the catalogues of the Roman pontiffs, in none of which the name of Stephen the presbyter, because namely he was only elected pontiff, is read. But there is also another thing which binds Baronius much more: for, by the witness of the same Pagi In the place cited, p. 409 et seqq., Baronius wrongly attributes to him (Anastasius) the lives of Hadrian II and of Stephen V, commonly VI, since both were composed after his death. And this opinion of Pagi is far more common and more probable; whence both lives, which are usually placed at the end of the work of Anastasius See Migne, Patrologia, vol. CXXVII, col. 1397 et seqq. Also ibid., col. 1377., are ascribed by most to William, who succeeded Anastasius in the office of librarian. But whoever wrote the life of Stephen, it matters little, since in it, as Baronius himself admits, mention of the finding of the same Holy Martyrs is lacking, which, when it had been written there (this is a mere conjecture), the page being cut out, remained omitted Baronii Annal., vol. XV, p. 430.; nor do either

Pagi in the Breviary Vol. II, p. 129 et seqq. Venice, 1730. nor Novaes in the Elements Elementi della Storia de sommi Pontefici, vol. II, p. 139 et seqq. Rome 1821. make mention of that finding. For the rest, the learned know that the writer of the Lives of the Pontiffs was laboriously and diligently investigated in the past century, and that this opinion has nearly prevailed, that Anastasius can be the author by no means of all, but of certain few perhaps, from Gregory IV to Nicholas I, near whom he lived Cf. Fabricius, Bibliotheca latina, under Anastasius Bibl.. Whoever wishes to be fully informed on this question may go to Francesco Bianchini in the Prolegomena to Anastasius Migne Patrol., vol. CXXVII., Oudin on the ecclesiastical writers Vol. II, col. 258 et seqq., and Muratori Scriptores, vol. III.. But even if it were ascribed to Anastasius, the matter would not yet be altogether settled. It is true indeed that at first sight in the Narrative which you have written out at the preceding number, there is question as much of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, from whose martyrdom and deposition the author begins, as of SS. Diodorus, Marianus and others; yet where there is discussion of the finding and digging out of the bodies, SS. Diodorus and Marianus alone are expressed by their own name, while SS. Chrysanthus and Daria are passed over in silence. Was it for this reason, that the relics of these were no longer there, whether because they were dug out under Paul I or Paschal I, or because forty-two years before they had been carried into Germany by Marcward (as will be seen below)? Certainly it is established from Gregory of Tours, whose words I recited at n. 7, that the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were deposited apart from the others: In one part, he says, a wall being interposed, the tombs of the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria were set apart; in another part the bodies of the other saints were gathered in one. Yet in that wall which is placed in the middle the builder left a window open … And after much time … Damasus, prelate of the holy apostolic See, ordered the window to be covered more carefully, where he also adorned the place with verses, in which there is question only of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. Cf. n. 6. Gregory adds that some relics of these two were granted to a certain deacon about the year 590 by Pelagius II. Moreover since in the Acts of the finding of SS. Diodorus and Marianus and innumerable other martyrs (so they are entitled in Surius Vol. I, p. 283. no special mention is made of the found pledges of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, who nevertheless were the leaders of all and the most illustrious; it is not absurd to argue that there was no question of detecting or investigating these, and that all effort was spent in order that the fragments of the saints (of Diodorus and Marianus, who alone are designated by their name, and of the rest, the bodies of all of whom together in another part had been gathered in one) should be gathered with heavy labor over very many days Ibid., p. 281.. And so the finding and the translation from the cemeteries that are held to have been made to the Lateran under Stephen V are of doubtful credit at the least, both because, as results from monuments not to be despised, two others preceded, and perhaps also a third under Pelagius II, as can be conjectured in some manner from the relics that Gregory of Tours reports were granted to a certain deacon; and because the oft-mentioned history of the finding seems to have to be denied to Anastasius; and because it is not clearly established whether in it there is question of the translation of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria.

[26] and what is to be thought of the Lateran relics. What then is to be thought of the relics of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, which the Lateran church is recorded as possessing and venerating ever since Stephen V? We have seen at n. 24 from Saracenio, who brings Panvinio as a witness, that their bodies were laid up there under the altar of the oratory (of St. Mary and St. Pancras). Which Mazzolari also explicitly affirms, whose Sacred Diary was reprinted with third care at Rome in the year 1820 by Joaquín Marino Fuertez: In the underground chapel, he says Diario Sagro, vol. VI, p. 96., rest the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, and there are other outstanding relics. In another place the same Mazzolari had said Ibid., vol. V, p. 394.: Stephen VI (from the cemetery of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria) also translated their bodies, of which part is venerated in St. John Lateran under the papal altar, part in St. Paul's, and part in the Holy Apostles, which things are surely different from the former assertion. But what you may wonder at, Attilio Serrano in the short work on the seven churches of the city of Rome, offered to Gregory XIII, where he reckons the relics of St. John Lateran [De Septem eccless … una cum earum reliquiis, stationibus et indulgentiis, p. 120 – 124.], passes our holy Martyrs over in deep silence; while he writes that some of their remains are found in two other churches of the Roman city. For the rest, it is clear (unless it is to be understood of some part of the bodies, and not so large a one) that the possession of the Lateran does not stand except on the supposition of the Finding under Stephen V, in the year 886; and we have seen that this is not proved by sufficiently suitable testimonies. Moreover both this finding of the bodies and their preservation in the Lateran church cannot stand with another monument of surely the greatest value, namely the History of the Translation to the Eifel, of which we shall at once treat in detail, written by an author who was an eye-witness of the event. And this translation took place in the year 844, and hence nearly half a century before the pontificate of Stephen V. Moreover it is thus had in the aforesaid history: Marcward, abbot of Prüm, being at length honorably received by the apostolic Pope Sergius II, handed him the royal letters of Lothar. He, favorably assenting to the imperial commands and his petitions, promised that he would do all that had been suggested. And so on the appointed day Marcward hastened to the Lateran church. And when he had gone in by order to the Roman pontiff, the bodies (of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria) being placed in a small coffin upon the altar, and the orders of clerics standing on either side and singing, he handed over to him with the highest veneration and honor the bodies of the aforesaid Martyrs etc. A testimony assuredly clear and explicit, and, I would by no means doubt, altogether faithful, by which indeed the credit of the translation ascribed to Stephen V is exceedingly shaken. But from the bodies being said to have been handed over to Marcward in the Lateran church, it does not follow that they rested there; for nothing prevents their having been brought there from elsewhere by order of the pontiff Sergius (who desired favorably to assent in all things to both the wishes of Lothar and the petitions of Marcward), say from the edifices of St. Sylvester or St. Praxedis or from the cemeteries themselves. For the rest on this subject see both the following numbers, where we explain and establish the tradition of the Eifel, and the history of the Translation, which we subjoin to the Acts of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. Finally, when recently the Most Reverend Cardinal archbishop of Cologne had sent to Rome for approval the recent Proper of his diocese, the Sacred Congregation of Rites wished to have struck out everything in the Lessons of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria that pertained to the translation or possession of the Eifel (of which we shall presently speak in express terms); this reason being given, that the Lateran church also claimed the bodies of the same Holy Martyrs for itself; and that the Sacred Congregation could not approve for Germany what it had refused for the church at the Lateran, in whose Lessons nothing is said of the place where those bodies rest; lest by doing otherwise it should seem to have wished to settle the dispute, which is altogether foreign to its mind. So the Rev. Dr. Heuser, lector in the Major Seminary of Cologne, wrote back to us on the 16th day of July in the year 1858. See the very words of the Sacred Congregation at the end of our commentary, where there is question of the proper office of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. So much for the Roman translations, in which indeed many obscure and uncertain things occur, and some not a little conflicting among themselves. Let us pass on to that of the Eifel.

[27] [The translation to the Eifel: the bodies were first carried from Rome to Prüm by Marcward,] Of the translation to the Eifel there exists, as we have already noted above, a distinguished history, written either by Wandelbert or certainly by an author contemporary with the event. I would believe, says Mabillon Acta SS., Ord. S. Benedicti, sæc. IV, part I, p. 609., that Wandelbert is the author, unless certain faults of Latinity occurring in it persuaded otherwise, which cannot easily fall to an eloquent and learned man, such as Wandelbert was for his time. Certainly Wandelbert mentions this translation. See above n. 3. And a little later Mabillon again Acta SS. Ord. S. Benedicti, sæc. IV, part I, p. 610.: Which (the narrative of the Translation), if not by Wandelbert, was certainly written by some monk of Prüm, an eye-witness of the event. Namely at the beginning of the year of Christ 844 Cf. Annal. Bened., vol. II, p. 606. Marcward, abbot of Prüm, set out on the journey to Rome, having obtained from the emperor Lothar letters to Pope Gregory IV, for this end, that the body of some very illustrious martyr should be granted to Marcward. But scarcely had he set out on the way, when, Gregory having died, Sergius was put in his place. And so other letters were asked of the emperor and obtained for the new pontiff. He, without hesitation complying with the wishes of Lothar, through Bishop Marinus sent Marcward a book containing the passions of the saints, from which he might transcribe the martyrdom of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, whose pledges Sergius himself handed over to him in the Lateran church, a numerous crown of clerics being present and singing, cf. n. 26. Having received these, Marcward hastened his return, and on the fiftieth day from his departure from Rome, reached the cell of St. Goar, where he stayed two days, while what was needed was being prepared at Prüm. Moreover the relics were brought to Prüm on the 4th before the Nones of July, and then on the 8th before the Kalends of November the bodies of the Saints were entombed by Bishop Thegambert, a very religious man … in the cell which is called the New Monastery … that is, in the Monastery of the Eifel, today Münstereifel, as we shall show against Mabillon, after we have said some things first of Bishop Thegambert, whom certain persons have confused with Theutgaud, archbishop of Trier. If this confusion had to be admitted, no slight suspicion would arise against the historical credit of this translation. See the illustrious Marx, who, presenting the same translation compendiously, records that the holy bodies were first carried by Marcward from Rome to the cell of St. Goar, then to Prüm, and finally to the Monastery of the Eifel, built and founded a few years before by Marcward from abbatial revenues aus abteilichen Mitteln Geschichte des Erzstifts Trier, vol. II, part I, p. 288 and 284. Trier 1860..

[28] and then by Thegan, chorbishop of Trier, A difficulty was raised long ago concerning Thegambert, as appears from the letters, which we have in manuscript, of Father Johannes Gamans, S. J., to our predecessor Godfrey Henschen, while Bolland was still living: In the Translation of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, Your Reverence asks who that bishop Thegambert is,

since among you, as I seem to gather from your letters, he is called Thietgaud; whether this is so, I beg you to write back more explicitly. I would scarcely think he could have been the one, since Thietgaud was made bishop of Trier only nine years after. Is it not rather Thegan or Degan, the writer of the life of Louis the Pious, who was chorbishop of Trier under Amalarius, archbishop of Trier, and probably continued that office also under the following bishop Hetti? At least he was still living at this time of the Translation, which took place at the beginning of the reign of Lothar, the deeds of whose father Louis he himself composed, unless I am mistaken, after the death of Louis. Thus far Johannes Gamans, whose suspicion afterwards passed almost into complete certainty. Bishop Thegambert, a very religious man, says Mabillon Annal. Ord. S. Ben., vol. II, page 606. Cf. Marx, vol. II, part I, p. 288., who seems to be no other than Thegan, at that time chorbishop of Trier, whose wisdom and religion are highly commended Histoire litt. de France, vol. VI, p. 45 and 46.; and more explicitly in the Acts Acta SS. Ord. S. Ben., sæc. IV, vol. I, p. 612.: He is Thegan or Tegan, chorbishop of Trier, whose history of the Deeds of Louis Augustus is extant, praised in a poem by Walafrid Strabo. So also Dom Bouquet Vol. VI, p. 72., the Writers of the literary history of France Vol. V, p. 46. etc. It may also be noted that Thegambert consists of two words, Thegan and Brecht; and men and women were often designated by the first word only: thus Conrad was called Cuno, Brunechildis Bruna etc. And that Thegan was chorbishop of Trier we have as contemporary witness the same Walafrid Strabo, abbot of Reichenau, who was long joined with him in friendship, and who writes thus in the preface to the little book on the Deeds of Louis the Pious D. Bouquet, vol. VI, p. 73. Pertz, Script. vol. II, p. 589.: This little work in the manner of Annals Thegan, a Frank by nation, chorbishop of the church of Trier, composed briefly indeed and truly rather than charmingly. Whether he exercised this office first under Amalarius and then under Hetto, as Brouwer holds Annales Trev., vol. I, p. 396., or only under Hetto, as Lecointe more probably contends Annales ecclesiast. Francorum, vol. VIII. p. 382 et seq., matters little to our question. But was Thegan still living at the time of the Translation? After Amalharius, says Lecointe Ibid. p. 383., there sat in the chair of Trier Archbishop Hetto, who outlived Thegan the chorbishop and also Louis the Pious. Moreover Hetto held the miter from the year 814 until the year 847, in which he met death Gallia Christ. vol. XIII, col. 391. Cf. Marx, Geschichte, vol. I, p. 87 et seq.. Surely nothing prevents Thegan from having been still surviving in the year 844, in which the Translation took place. Yet he does not seem to have lived long after this, since Walafrid Strabo, who died in the year 849, must be judged to have written the Preface, of which above, after the decease of Thegan Histoire litteraire de France, vol. V, p. 46.. For the rest, Thietgaud or Teutgaud succeeded Hetto in the year 847, and the more common opinion is that Thegan wrote on the Deeds of Louis the Pious while he was still living, and hence before the year 840, in which he was snatched from the living. There are therefore some things not sufficiently accurate in the letters of Father Johannes Gamans, which he himself would surely have emended if he had written them to be given to the public; but no doubt seems to remain about the person of Thegan, who presided at the translation of the relics.

[29] not to the monastery of St. Nabor, Mabillon writes in the Annals Vol. II, p. 606.: The relics were brought to Prüm on the 4th before the Nones of July, and there they were kept on the bier on which they had been carried, to the right of the altar, until the eleventh before the Kalends of November, until namely a fitting monument should be prepared for them in the possession of the Holy Savior, that is, in the cell which is called the New Monastery. All things being at length arranged, the bodies of the Saints were translated there on the 8th before the Kalends of November, on their very feast day. And again in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict Sæc. IV, part I, p. 610.: The relics of the holy Martyrs were deposited in the New Monastery or New Cell of the Holy Savior, which by another name is called that of St. Nabor, commonly Sainct Avold, on account namely of the relics of the holy Martyr, which Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, caused to be transferred there. Moreover the same Mabillon reports the foundation of that monastery under the year 734 Annal., vol. II, p. 89.; and the translation of St. Nabor under the year 765 Ibid., p. 194. But it is certain to me that the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were carried by Marcward from Prüm to the monastery of the Eifel, and not to that of St. Nabor. For first, this last is too far distant from that of Prüm, being situated near Divodurum or Metz (Metz); secondly it is very probable that in the middle of the ninth century, in which our translation took place, it was no longer called the New Monastery, but rather commonly St. Nabor's; thirdly in the history of this cenobium [See Gallia Christ., vol. XIII, col. 589 et seqq. Also D. Calmet, Histoire de la Lorraine, vol. I. In the Index under Avold.], absolutely no mention occurs of the aforesaid Translation, as neither of another by which those sacred pledges would have been carried from there to the Eifel, where they are known to have been preserved from time immemorial. Nor should it be passed over that in the annals of the same monastery the solemnities and ceremonies with which the body of St. Nabor was both received and deposited there and venerated are described at length; fourthly a decisive argument is furnished by Wandelbert, a contemporary writer, and whom Mabillon himself judges Acta SS. ord. S. Bened., sæc. IV, part I, p. 609. to be the author of that history, namely of the Translation of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, and who certainly mentions this translation in his Martyrology on the 8th before the Kalends of November. Moreover Wandelbert has thus D'Achery, Spicileg., vol. II, p. 54.:

The eighth has Crispin with Crispinian, Who, having suffered flames, conquered the savage tyrant. Twin gems of martyrdom we venerate on the same day, Chrysanthus and Daria, whom, by a new gift of Christ Now brought from Rome, the New Cell makes beautiful with their tombs, Where the waters of the Rhine approach the lofty forests.

Which last verse in no way suits the Monastery of St. Nabor, situated on the Moselle, not on the Rhine; but it suits very well the Eifel, which is not far distant from the Rhine. Brouwer, says Valois Notitia Galliarum, p. 185., says that the Eifel is “a region bordering on the Treveri and the Agrippinenses,” though he would have done better if he had said that it lies between the Treveri and the Agrippinenses, but nearer however to Cologne than to Trier. Maps place this district around the monasteries of Prüm, Malmedy and Stavelot. Compare Guibert Diction. géograph. Paris, 1850. Under Eiffel, Munstereiffel., La Martinière, Spruner Atlas medii ævi, Maps of Germany and Gaul.; fifthly what has been said is confirmed from the same Wandelbert on the 13th day of October, where he designates the monastery of the Eifel no less clearly:

And to Chrysanthus and Daria an altar gleams, Tulpia with its plain, by which level the fortress stands out.

Which assuredly signify that the Altar of the holy Martyrs gleams in that plain where there stands out Tulpia or Tulbiacum and Tulpiacum, commonly Zullich or Zulich, a place by far the most celebrated for the victory of King Clovis. Compare Valois Notitia Gall., p. 556., to whom the Fortress of Tulpia is in the small region Eflia or Eiflia, die Eifel, of the duchy of Jülich, not far from the river Rur and from Düren. From these things it is clear that the relics of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were not carried to St. Nabor's; finally sixthly Mabillon records Annal., vol. II, p. 545. that Marcward, about the year of Christ 836, built a cenobium in the Eifel, from which, as its origin, so also its name was taken by a town not ignoble of the territory of Jülich in the diocese of Cologne, commonly called the Monastery of the Eifel, Munster-Eiffel: which monastery was allotted to monks brought from Prüm, provisions being assigned to them from the same cenobium of Prüm. And this assuredly is the New Cell that Wandelbert praises.

[30] but to the Eifel. No doubt therefore remains to me that the pledges of our Holy Martyrs were translated there from the beginning Cf. Marx, Geschichte, vol. II, part I, p. 284 and 288. and have been perpetually preserved in that place to this very day; all the more because (as the Gallia christiana has it Vol. XIII, col. 589.) Prüm is situated about ten leagues from the city of Trier, toward the north, in the forest of the Ardennes and in the tract of the Eifel, on the stream Promea or Prumia, etc. Hence Mabillon is to be emended, whom all who have written on the same relics have thereafter followed, and they likewise are to be emended, namely Baillet Vie des Saints, 25 October, Butler 25 Oct. Louvain 1832.. That Dom Calmet scented the matter as it was is clear from the fact that he is altogether silent on the monastery of St. Nabor, and writes that the holy bodies were carried to the priory called the New Cell, Neuf-Moutier Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, col. 626. Nancy 1746., subject, as he had noted a little before Ibid., col. 617., to the abbot of Prüm. He does not however designate the monastery of the Eifel by its name, nay where he treats of its foundation Ibid., col. 625., he has not even a word about the translation of the relics. But the Notice on the Millennial Jubilee, celebrated at the Monastery of the Eifel in the year 1848, has it right, where these things are rendered from German into Latin [Jubilaum wegen der tausendjahrigen Aufbewahrung der Reliquien von den HH. MM. Chrysanthus und Daria in der Stiftskirche zu Münstereifel, p. 14 and 15. Cologne 1848.]: Marcward came back to Prüm on the 4th day of July in the year 844 with the Holy Relics, which remained there until the 24th of October. There was at that time in this place, which was formerly called the Valley of Peter, a founded cenobium subject to the abbot of Prüm, which, named the New Cell and also the New Monastery in the Eifel, then grew into the city of the Monastery of the Eifel. To this the relics of the Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria were destined; and so when on the aforesaid day (24 Oct.) Thegambert, bishop of Trier, had come to Prüm; on the 25th, in the year 844, he arrived here with those precious pledges of Christian antiquity. In memory of this translation, each year on the 25th of October, or, according to the present custom, on the following Sunday, the feast of our Holy Martyrs is kept. Below I shall speak more fully of the Jubilee. The complete History of the Translation, together with many miracles that took place during it, you will find after the Acts of the Martyrdom. For the rest, we shall give many things by which the credit of this Translation may be established at § V, where we shall treat of the monuments, succeeding one another perpetually and in nearly every century, pertaining to the cult of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria in the Eifel.

* that is, Martis.

* Birthday.

§ III. Of the translations to Reggio and Oria, in Italy.

In the tenth century the translation to Reggio, from Saracenio and others; The translation to Reggio is mentioned by Saracenio in the Notes to the poems of St. Damasus. Namely after the words (recited by us at n. 24) in which there is question of the finding under Stephen V and the Lateran relics, the said Saracenio adds Migne, Patrologia lat., vol. XIII, col. 402.: Sigonio however relates in the Kingdom of Italy, Book VI, under the year 947, that Adelard, bishop of Reggio, carried to Reggio the holy bodies of the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, obtained from Berengar, which the people of Reggio venerate to this day with special religion. And in the sacred offices of the city of Reggio there are also lessons on the Translation of the same Saints, where it is read that in the year of the Lord 915 Berengar obtained the bodies of these Saints from Pope John X, and that they were granted to him at the prayers of Adelard. And similarly Ferrari Catalogus SS. Italiæ, 25 October.: The bodies of these are preserved at Reggio in the great or cathedral church with the highest religion (for they are the guardians of the city), translated there from the city of Pavia by Adelard, bishop of Reggio, having been granted to him by King Berengar, who had obtained them at Rome from Pope John X in the year of the Lord 915. Although the same are recorded to be had at Oria among the Salentines, of which city the same Martyrs are patrons, and a marble tablet teaches that the body of Daria rests at Rome in St. Sylvester's, recently translated to it. Here assuredly the Silvestrine tablets are understood, of which we have spoken above. But Ferrari errs in recording that the body of St. Daria was recently translated; on the contrary it is manifestly established from the aforesaid tablets that this took place many centuries before, if however it took place. See n. 22. There are also other things in the recited place of Ferrari less accurately rendered, which will easily be emended from what follows. Giorgio Passi, where he treats summarily of the bishops of Reggio, has this briefly on Adelard [Racconto de' santi primi vescovi di Reggio et altri dell' istessa citta, p. 92. Parma, 1645.]: In the year 947 he translated from Pavia (Pavia) to Reggio the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, and deposited them in the cathedral (nel Duomo).

[32] and especially from a manuscript account; We have two manuscript documents of Reggio received from our predecessors, which pertain to the relics of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria: in the one is contained an Account from the manuscripts of the church of Reggio of the Translation of the holy bodies, and of their Verification made in the year 1522; in the other is presented the Instrument of this Verification. Both documents it is necessary to set down here. And the Account has thus: When Berengar the First, most serene king, in the time of Pope John X, in the year of the Lord 915 (had come) to Rome, to receive the crown of the empire, and had visited the thresholds of the Apostles in the accustomed manner; thinking, by divine inspiration, of building a church of distinguished size, where his body might one day rest, admonished in his sleep, he asked from him with great supplication the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. The same pope, hearing this, made exceedingly sad, began more obstinately to resist and to oppose him, not wishing Rome to be defrauded of the pledge of such great Martyrs. Then the king, anxious with desire for the Saints, having given him his right hand, promised to build a basilica in their honor and to enrich it from his own goods and to adorn it with beautiful design, and he promised that his body should at some time, God however permitting, be buried there; by whose pious prayers the Roman pontiff was overcome. And as the king returned with immense joy, it came about that after he had arrived at Pavia with the relics, surrounded there by the treachery of the Lombards, he was deprived of kingdom and life. His nephew Berengar II, when he was attempting to occupy Italy, and Adelard greatly favored him, established (him) bishop of Reggio; and after some time (Adelard) obtained from the same king the bodies of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria. And so the bishop, having received the price of so great a treasure, entrusted them to be carried to Reggio to a certain faithful man of his, Urso by name, judge and advocate of the church, with a certain religious presbyter as companion; who, receiving them in his faith, and laying them on his shoulders, proceeding secretly through the middle of the same city of Pavia in the silence of the dead of night, and also through an excessive flood of waters, as it were carrying the one by whom he was carried, reached the inn with dry feet. Thence at once on the following day, having taken to the road, when he was now approaching Reggio, where their seat, by the ordering of God's providence, was to be prepared, the people of Reggio, learning of the coming of the Saints, rejoicing and exulting, came out to meet them with tapers and lamps. Then many held by various infirmities, by their merits, on touching the bier, were set free. At the report of which very many sick persons hastening from various parts, having made a vow for their health, returned to their homes safe, sound and eager. The said bishop had becomingly laid up, as he had promised, the bodies of the blessed martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria within the basilica of the holy Mother of God Mary, which is the head of this city: then he ordered a chest to be made, covered with silver plates with marvelous work, and placed it over them for their memorial, where the benefits of God are bestowed by their merits to the present day.

[33] then in the year 1522 a celebrated verification of the same relics was made, But when for many years they were held in the highest honor in both places, the people of Reggio and of Pavia doubting which of the two held the precious bodies, in the year of the Lord 1522, Hadrian VI being supreme pontiff, Charles V emperor, Ugo Rangoni, bishop of Reggio, a fast of three days being first proclaimed, the clergy and people being present, in the morning on the Lord's day, the day before the Kalends of December, resolved to open this chest; and this pleased all, that all doubt at length being laid aside and the truth better proved, the people might gather in greater numbers to the church. All things necessary for this being prepared, the bishop and the clergy (the notaries constantly writing down what was seen) were solemnly vested, and from the upper church, where they had first duly sung the Nocturn of the proper office of the Martyrs, they descended in order to this lower choir, and there the pontiff, after he had offered sacrifice sufficiently worthily, first striking the tomb with a mallet, ordered it to be opened by others prepared for this. And after the chest had been opened with wonderful and incredible speed, there appeared first at the side of the chest a small box, of a wooden pyx with cut pieces of linen and bloodied, in which the bones of the Blessed ones were resting; this being reverently raised up by the ministers and opened by the prelate, all kneeling, he allowed the bones, breathing a marvelous odor, to be looked upon. Afterwards the separate bones being suitably placed on a litter by the bishop, he intoned the canticle Te Deum Laudamus, both choirs responding alternately, and the crosses of all the churches going before, the clerics carrying each a torch and singing together, with trumpets, flutes and bells everywhere sounding with joy, a solemn procession was led around the streets: for the bishop carried both heads with the arms, the senior canons raising high the small chest and the pyx on a litter, and the younger both the golden veil of the gastium *. And after they had returned to the church, the relics being carefully shut up within lattices and most faithful guards being applied, each went back to his own home. And at the competent hour, first vespers and the other offices of day and night being duly sung until second vespers of the following day, the guards however being changed in turn and constantly watching, the coming and going of men of both sexes was never interrupted, not even for the whole night. And when the day was already declining, the judgment of physicians being applied, it was discovered that those bones were of a male and a female, of about twenty years of age. Of which both heads with as many arms and the pyx were retained, and (the bishop) laid the old small chest with the rest of the bones in a new chest, and bound it on every side with iron, a title being added on top, and fixed it again in the marble chest; and the bones retained the same pontiff carried to the sacristy, where they are to be preserved with the greatest care, until they are honorably laid in reliquaries of gold and silver. The most blessed martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria suffered in the year of the Lord two hundred and eighty-five, Carus, Numerian and Carinus being emperors. Thus far the Account. But what was done in the Verification you will learn more accurately and in more detail from the following Instrument.

[34] whose Instrument is subjoined: Jesus. In the name of Christ. Amen. In the year of the Circumcision of the same one thousand fifty twenty-second, in the tenth indiction, on the last day of November, in the time of the pontificate of the lord Pope Hadrian VI, in the first year. Whereas it was decreed by the most reverend lord Rangoni, by divine providence bishop of Reggio, with the consent of the whole clergy and people of the city of Reggio, that the chest should be opened in which were placed the most sacred bodies of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, that there might be removed all doubt of the clergy and people of the same city whether the said bodies rested in the said chest or not, and to the end that if they were found to exist there, the said bodies might in future be venerated with firmer intention, and also that the heads and arms of the said holy Martyrs might be drawn out and placed in silver vessels, that according to the need of the time the said heads and arms might be shown to the sight of the whole clergy and people of the said city and praiseworthily (as is fitting) venerated.

[35] things done on the 30th day of November; Therefore the aforesaid Rev. Lord Bishop, having first called together the whole clergy and people and especially those deputed by the magnificent community for the aforesaid opening, and a fast of the three days immediately preceding the day of the said opening having gone before, by mandate of the aforesaid Rev. Lord Bishop, in the year and on the day written above, on the feast of St. Andrew the apostle, with great devotion, after the seventeenth hour and Matins having been celebrated by the aforesaid Lord Bishop and the whole clergy in the presence of the people, immediately he entered, the whole clergy and people following, beneath the high altar of the cathedral church of the said city of Reggio, to the altar of the said holy Martyrs, in which the said most holy bodies were said to exist, and there the aforesaid most blessed Bishop celebrated a most devout Mass. This done, at once by mandate of the same Rev. Lord Bishop master Ludovico de' Spani, otherwise de' Clementi, goldsmith and stonecutter and citizen of the same city, opened the chest of the said altar, which being opened, there was immediately seen by me the undersigned notary, within the said chest so opened, a certain small wooden casket, bound with three iron plates, and on the said casket, on the iron plate in the middle, there was a certain great seal in red wax, which seemed to have been that of a bishop, and next to the said seal, also on the said casket, there was a certain paper, in which were stored up certain small relics, which seemed to be of congealed blood, and next to the said casket there was also a certain wooden urn, about half a braccio long, also closed; and the said casket together with the said urn was on the right horn of the said altar, on which the priest is accustomed to read the Epistle in Mass, at the front part of the said altar. From which the aforesaid Most Rev. Lord Bishop first drew out the said wooden urn, which he gave to one of the canons standing by there; then he drew out the said casket, with the help of Mr. Gian Angelo de' Meli, in the drawing out of which it was somewhat broken

the said casket on account of its age. These things done, at once the said casket together with the said urn was placed on a certain prepared table, and the aforesaid Lord Bishop, remaining continuously in pontifical habit, first opened the said wooden urn, from which he drew out some fragments of linen cloth, on which blood still appeared, and it was said there by those standing by that the said fragments had been of the shifts of the said blessed Martyrs. This showing being made, the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop closed the said wooden urn, and having lifted the said wax seal that was on the casket, and also that paper in which (which) the said small relics were stored up, and the iron plates also being lifted, he opened the said casket. This being opened there was seen a certain small white linen cloth, in no part of it worn away, and very well sewn up and closed with thread, which the aforesaid Rev. Lord Bishop unstitched, and the small cloth being unstitched, there were seen there the bones of the said holy Martyrs, stored up in the said casket in wonderful order; and at one side of the said casket was the head of blessed Chrysanthus, at the other side was the head of most blessed Daria. Which heads of the said holy Martyrs were drawn out of the said casket by the aforesaid Rev. Lord Bishop together with two arms of the said Martyrs, and all placed by him in a silver basin, the remainder of the said bodies being kept in the said casket, and the aforesaid Lord Bishop published the cause of the said opening in a most ornate speech and humbly entreated the said Martyrs for this city. These things done, at once processions were made by the aforesaid Lord Bishop, the whole clergy proceeding and the whole people of the said city following, and the said heads in the said processions were shown by the aforesaid Lord Bishop to the universal people; and the said processions being finished, the aforesaid Lord Bishop placed the said heads together with the remainder of the said bodies next to the altar of the said holy Martyrs, within iron gratings (lattices) very well closed, on a certain prepared table, uncovered, to the end that they should stand there for a whole day and could be plainly seen by the whole people of Reggio; the aforesaid Rev. Lord Bishop asking me, the undersigned notary, to draw up a public instrument of the aforesaid things.

[36] attestation of the notary; All and each of the things written above were done and carried out in the city of Reggio, in the cathedral church of the said city, and in the places of which above, fittingly referring, in the presence of the aforesaid lord bishop and the lord canons of the said church and of many other clerics and illustrious men, of Lord Francesco Guicciardini of Florence, most worthy governor of the said city for the holy Roman church, of Mr. Ercole, son of the late Mr. Sigismondo d'Este, of Lord Ludovico di San Lorenzo, prior of the lords Elders of the said city, and of all those elected by the magnificent community for such opening, and of all the doctors of the college of the said city, and of innumerable other persons, whom it would take long to reckon up here. Asking themselves (sic) also concerning the aforesaid Lord Pietro de' Zamoroni, head of the notaries of the said city, Tommaso de' Cambiatori, Giovanni Battista Malvezzi, Petronio de' Parisetti and Giovanni Battista Martelli, all notaries of the said city. I, Alberto Panciroli, doctor of both laws and of the college of the lord judges and notaries of the said city of Reggio, have been asked concerning all and each of the aforesaid.

[37] things done on the 1st day of December. On the following day immediately after the aforesaid, which was the first day of the month of December, on which day the feast of the translation of the said Martyrs is celebrated in the city of Reggio, after vespers the aforesaid Most Reverend Lord Bishop together with the whole clergy and people of the said city replaced the said casket, containing within the bones of the bodies of the said holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, together with the said urn, containing the said fragments of the shifts, in a certain great chest, surrounded with iron plates, except however the heads and two arms of the said holy Martyrs, which they replaced in the sacristy of the greater church of Reggio in a certain chest, having three locks, one key of which was handed to the lord prior of the lords Elders, who was then Mr. Ludovico di San Lorenzo, another (the name is lacking) another (again the name is missing), and so the said chest in which the said bones were stored, except the said heads and arms, was placed in the marble chest within the altar of the said holy Martyrs, existing in the aforesaid church beneath the vault of the high altar of the said greater church, and the said stone chest was very faithfully and with good workmanship closed and walled up. All and each of the things written above were done and carried out in the presence of the persons of whom above, fittingly referring, and of whom also in the preceding request, and in the places written above, and in the presence of the witnesses of whom in the preceding request, each to each fittingly referring. There was subscribed: I, Alberto Panciroli, notary of Reggio, asked concerning the aforesaid.

[38] What is to be thought of this translation; What occurs in the aforesaid Account concerning Berengar I and II sufficiently agrees with Sigonio, who reports thus at the year 915 De regno Italiæ, Book VI, col. 388. Milan, 1732.: Berengar I certainly in this year was anointed emperor by Pope John, which however Valois and Pagi show to have happened in the following year on the day of Easter Ibid., Note (75).; and in the year 923, or according to others 924, Berengar was struck down by a sword from behind Ibid., p. 393., and that at Verona, and not at Pavia, as the Account has it. And again Sigonio at the year 947 Ibid., p. 411.: Berengar II gave Adelard as bishop to the people of Reggio, who afterwards carried to Reggio the holy bodies of the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, obtained from Berengar (assuredly II according to the mind of Sigonio, since he treats of this one there, and does not add the number of order), which the people of Reggio venerate to this day with special religion. Father Romualdo of Santa Maria records the same, but in other words, of Berengar I Italia sacra, vol. II, col. 267.: Berengar had carried from Rome to Pavia the bodies of the Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria in the year 915, which he thereafter gave as a gift to Adelard, bishop of Reggio Lepidi. And at first sight these things seem to be confirmed in Ughelli from a charter of Bishop Adelard, to be found in the archive of the cathedral church Flavia Papia sacra, p. 11. Pavia, Reggio 1699., by which many things are given to the clerics serving in the church of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria and of St. Thomas the apostle. I subjoin the words of Adelard pertaining here Ital. sac., vol. II, col. 268.: We grant the church of St. Mustiola, etc. to the church of the blessed martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria and of Bl. Thomas the apostle of Christ, that the clerics may have it, that is, Adalbert the presbyter and Martin the cleric, who there render to almighty God and to the blessed martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria the daily service of due veneration, and let those who at the time shall succeed in their place hold, possess… But if any of our successors shall at any time seek by crafty curiosity of wit to withdraw this burden of our offering from the brethren aforesaid, may all the curses which Bl. Moses set before the sons of Israel … come upon him …, unless by repenting he make all amendment according to God and the edict of our institution, to the said martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria and to the brethren. Done in the city of Reggio. Neither year nor day is written on it, whereas in another charter of Adelard on another subject in the same Ughelli Ibid. col. 266 and 267. both are clearly noted. For the rest, in the first charter of Adelard, as may be seen from the recited text, no mention is made of the translation, which Ughelli himself attributes to Gothard, of whom he reckons only this Ibid., col. 261.: Gothard, bishop of Reggio, in the year 914 carried away from Rome to Reggio the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, and placed them more honorably under the confession of the cathedral, where to this day they are observed with the highest veneration of the faithful. A little lower Ughelli teaches from what source he drew these things, namely from a document composed, as he says, in the year 1522, in which it is had at what time and on what occasion these pledges of the saints were translated to Reggio, where at the beginning one reads thus: Whereas formerly in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ from his circumcision 914 and on the 1st day of the month of December, by the most blessed father in Christ and formerly of blessed memory Lord Gothard, formerly bishop and prince, from the city of Pavia in part and into this bounteous city of Reggio, there were translated with great honor the bodies and holy relics of very many martyrs, Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, and they were placed in the cathedral church of Reggio in the altar below, and to which most blessed Lord Gothard, then bishop, the said bodies and such relics were then given and resigned. And as is more fully and evidently established concerning all the aforesaid and other things … in a certain very ancient book written on kid parchment and in ancient letters, existing in the archive of the lord canons of the chapter of the aforesaid cathedral church of Reggio. And let it be true that from the said time and on this side, that the said bodies and such relics have been placed in the said altar, etc. These things indeed are written in a style quite confused and barbarous, from which however it seems that this can be deduced, that the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were carried by Gothard from Pavia (Ughelli above has Rome) to Reggio. What moreover the words mean: in part; and bodies and holy relics of very many martyrs, Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, it is not worthwhile to inquire, since this very document bears the marks of evident supposition or adulteration. For it is clear to anyone reading that the instrument of verification, recited by us in full above, contains nothing of the kind; in which there is not even a word either of Gothard or of Adelard; it is only hinted that there was some contention (probably the church of Pavia is meant) over the possession of the holy bodies: That there might be removed all doubt of the clergy and people of the same city whether the said bodies (of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria) rested in the said chest or not. Moreover that one must stand by our Instrument is clear from the following attestation: The Instrument requested by … Lord Alberto (Panciroli), notary of this city, in its original folds I extracted and reduced to this public form, however written in another hand, in faith of which I have here subscribed and signed according to custom, being required… In the year of the circumcision of the Lord 1767 (perhaps 1747), on the 27th day of Nov. It was signed Stefano Ghini. So indeed one reads at the end of the Instrument, which is preserved in our hagiographical papers.

[39] which seems to be accepted only of a part of the Holy Bodies. There is no one who does not see from the aforesaid that the credit of the Account is not moderately weakened. It must be noted moreover that Ughelli, in the preliminaries to the catalogue

of the bishops of Reggio, contrary to his custom, brings forward nothing at all on the relics with which that church is adorned; and in the catalogue itself he is not everywhere consistent, as we have seen, nor does he rely on documents of firm credit, when he makes mention of the pledges of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. For the rest, Ughelli complains of the scarcity of monuments pertaining to the affairs of Reggio, concluding thus after enumerating the manifold glories of the city Italia sacra, vol. II, col. 240.: This one thing seems to have been lacking to Reggio, namely a historian who should cast the events and riches of the ancient city into commentaries, whose histories and annals should be made public. And we confess that we labor under the same scarcity: for if any have perhaps come out since, they are not at our hand. Moroni, who in the 52nd year of this century put to print the volume of his Dictionary in which he collected very many things on the city of Reggio, openly denies that the bodies of our Holy Martyrs are preserved there: for thus he writes Vol. LVII, p. 36.: The cathedral church is dedicated under the invocation of the Assumption of the B. V. Mary, in which among other outstanding relics, there is venerated a PART of the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria; other pledges of the same rest in the basilicas of the Lateran and of the Twelve Apostles at Rome. And again Ibid., p. 45.: Bishop Gothard in the year 914 translated from Rome the bodies (or a great part of them, o gran parte) of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria and honorably placed them in the confession of the cathedral; which, except the parenthesis, are manifestly taken from Ughelli. Finally Ibidem p. 47. Ugo Rangoni, to increase the cult of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, solemnly replaced their bones in a more honored place. I do not know whether Moroni saw our Instrument of verification (I would think not, however, since he does not describe the bones), from which it is had that the heads were drawn from the casket together with two arms … the remainder of the said bodies being kept in the said casket. And below: The bishop replaced the said casket containing within the bones of the said bodies, except however the heads and two arms, which, if not altogether the whole bodies, seem at least to designate by far the greatest part of them. Which assuredly neither the people of the Lateran nor those of the Eifel will in any way concede. Now let us speak of the translation to Oria.

[40] The translation to the city of Oria Uria (to our Italians Oria, formerly also Oyra, Oira) is an ancient city, which Pliny explicitly mentions Historia natur., Book III, chapter XI, p. 353 and 356. Hardouin's edition., in the kingdom of Naples, in the province of Otranto or the Salentine, commonly called the Terra d'Otranto, and it lies about midway between Brindisi and Taranto [Cf. Lorenzo Giustiniani, Dizionario geografico ragionato del regno di Napoli, under Oria. Naples 1804.]. From the first centuries it was an episcopal see under the metropolis of Brindisi; but since this was overthrown in the eighth century by the Saracens, those two churches were united, whence the archbishop was called of Brindisi and Oria or of Oria and Brindisi. And that every occasion of contention might at last be removed, Pope Gregory XIV on the 8th day of May 1591 separated the dioceses, and, the archiepiscopal title being left to the see of Brindisi, erected anew the bishopric of Oria, suffragan of the metropolis of Taranto. So Moroni Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, vol. XLIX, p. 107.. These things having been said by way of introduction, I subjoin the tradition of this church on the relics of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria from various manuscripts. Among the archbishops who presided over the church of Oria, before it had been united with that of Brindisi, is numbered Bl. Theodosius, very dear by the sanctity of his life and the integrity of his morals to many supreme pontiffs of his age, in particular to Pope Stephen VI, by whom he was sent as legate to Constantinople in the year 886, to the emperors Basil and his sons Leo and Alexander. When he had returned to Rome, at the time when the finding of the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria took place, and likewise of SS. Diodorus the presbyter, Marinian the deacon and others, there were kindly granted to him by the aforesaid pontiff the whole bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, with some relics of other Holy Martyrs. With that so precious treasure, then, he hastened to enrich his church and the city of Oria, and he placed the sacred pledges in the metropolitan church, which he had a little before rebuilt and dedicated under the title of the B. V. Mary assumed into heaven. So these things are read in an old parchment breviary, proper to the church of Oria, in the Lessons of the office of the said saints, which in past centuries was recited in that church. In our age also commemoration is made there every day of the translation of the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria as also of St. Barsanuphius, the following prayer being used: “Almighty everlasting God, who willed the bodies of your holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria and of Bl. Barsanuphius, your confessor and abbot, to be transferred to Oria, graciously grant that we who rejoice in their patronage on earth may be lifted up by their intercessions in heaven.” So in a manuscript under the rubric Notice of the Life and Deeds of some saints whose bodies are preserved in the city of Oria, by Domenico Tommaso Albanese, a citizen of Oria, who, as one of our predecessors noted and as is also established from the preserved letters of Father Viterbo, S. J., himself sent this notice to Father Giacomo Viterbo, rector at Taranto, in the year 1683, in the month of February. And again in another place of the same manuscript it is read that the aforesaid finding took place on the 17th of January 886 under the pontificate of Stephen VI, Charles the Fat reigning in the West, and in the East Basil with his sons Leo and Alexander.

[41] is weighed And so indeed the tradition of the people of Oria has it, which rests wholly on the finding made under Stephen V; and this we have seen is not proved by sufficiently suitable testimonies. Hence already on this head the credit of that tradition wavers. And on the other hand what pertains to Theodosius, bishop of Oria, is very obscure. He is indeed reckoned by Ughelli, where he treats of the church of Oria Italia sacra, vol. IX, col. 167. Venice 1721., but with no year or century attached. Nor is much light added by this, that he lived, as Ughelli says again in the same place, in the times when the bones of St. Leucius were carried from Benevento by half to Trani. For the history of that translation, published by Bolland in the Acts of St. Leucius Acta SS., vol. I, on the 11th of January. and reprinted in a more correct form under the care of Coleti in the more recent Italia sacra Vol. VII, col. 892 et seq., contains absolutely no chronological mark; and it was written by an anonymous author and dedicated to John, archbishop of Trani, who lived after the year of our salvation one thousand Ibidem.. Here are the words relevant to our matter Ibid. col. 893.. Meanwhile Theodosius, prelate of the see of Oria, had entered into a charitable friendship with the pontiff of Benevento. Trusting in whose affection he asked from him some part of the precious body. And he, satisfying his petition, with the greatest diligence granted what fraternal charity devoutly requested; and receiving the gift of so great a treasure, with great exultation he placed it at Brindisi in the former place. From which it surely results that this took place before Oria was overthrown by the Saracens in the year 924 [Lorenzo Giustiniani, Dizionario geografico ragionato del regno di Napoli, vol. VII, p. 83. Naples 1804; Papebroch, vol. II of April p. 25.]; otherwise why would Theodosius not have carried the relics to Oria rather than to Brindisi? Papebroch suspects that they were carried to Brindisi Vol. II of April, ibid. because already then the bishops were common to both cities, and if this holds, it is wrongly asserted at the beginning of the preceding number that Theodosius presided over the church of Oria before it was united with that of Brindisi. Moreover the translation of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria is ascribed there to the year 886 or a little later, under the pontificate of Stephen VI, rather V. Which certainly cannot stand, if Theodosius flourished after the aforesaid calamity of Oria. Bishop Theodosius, says Papebroch in the Acts of St. Barsanuphius Ibidem p. 25., we judge to have lived about the year 850 or 860, so that at least from his death to the first calamity of the city of Oria (the second is referred to the year 978) 60 or 70 years intervened. No reason is added by which this opinion or conjecture may be supported.

[42] nor is it proved The age of Theodosius is therefore uncertain on every side, and wrapped in thick darkness. And as to its being said that he was very dear to many supreme pontiffs of his age, in particular to Stephen VI, by whom he was sent as legate to Constantinople, we indeed learn nothing of the kind anywhere else. Perhaps this arose from a wrongly understood letter of Stephen V to Fulk, archbishop of Reims, on behalf of Teutbold, bishop of Langres, recited in Flodoard [Historia ecclesiæ Remensis, Book IV, chapter I, Migne, Patrol., vol. CXXXV, col. 216.], in which the pontiff declares that he has sent from his side, together, Oirannus, bishop of Senigallia, as executor of his mandates. This letter indeed is not found entire among the published letters of Stephen Migne, Patrol., vol. CXXIX, col. 795 and 796., but only in part; and there is added in the Notes a supplement from Flodoard, who, as is established from elsewhere, was not much distant from the age of Stephen. Moreover the word Oirannus, if the letters are regarded, comes near to Oiriannus from Oiria, as is often written for Oria or Uria, so that Oirannus could have been taken for the Oirian bishop, namely Theodosius of Oria. However that may be, neither Pagi, nor Novaes, nor Baronius has even one word on the legation of Theodosius. For the rest, it is altogether falsely recorded that Theodosius dedicated his church under the title of the B. V. Mary assumed into heaven; for by the witness of Ughelli and others Italia sac., vol. IX, col. 166. Moroni, Dizionario under Oria., Theodosius built the old cathedral, adorned with the title of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, in the place where a fortified citadel is now seen. On a marble column these verses are still read, witnesses of the building:

This kindly edifice Bishop Theodosius built; Say, I beg: God be merciful to him.

The new cathedral is of more recent structure and dedicated to Mary assumed into heaven. Finally Ughelli teaches in the same place that this church is ennobled, among very many other relics, by some bones of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, and Moroni mentions only an arm of St. Barsanuphius, whereas above it is asserted in explicit words that the whole bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were granted by Stephen to Anastasius. I would not think, therefore, that the translation to Oria is proved. I would not however deny that some outstanding relics of those holy Martyrs were carried there, at whatever time in the end, so that there really holds what Papebroch noted in the Acts of St. Barsanuphius on the 15th of April Acta SS., vol. II of April, p. 26.: The same Martyrs (SS. Chrysanthus and Daria) will be treated on the 25th of October, where it will be indicated how many churches there are that, having obtained some part of the holy relics, boast that they have their bodies, as has happened here to the people of Oria. Finally the translation to Oria (unless it is understood of some bones) is altogether destroyed by the translations to Reggio and to the Eifel, of which we have spoken above.

* See Du Cange's Glossary under: Gastus.

§ IV. Of the translations to Salzburg, Naples and Vienna. Likewise of lesser relics, which are shown in many churches.

The translation to Salzburg, Hund makes mention of the translation of the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria to the church of Salzburg in Bavaria. Adalwin Metropolis Salisburgensis, vol. I, page 4. Regensburg, 1719. brought the bodies of Saints Crispin, Crispinian, Chrysanthus, Maurus and Daria the virgin from Rome to Juvavum (Salzburg). Moreover Adalwin presided from the year 859 to the year 872 or rather the following, in which he met death Ibid., Cf. Hansiz, Germania sacra, vol. II, p. 135., and accordingly he flourished not so very long after the relics were brought by Marcward to the Eifel. The same translation is mentioned by Hansiz in these words Germania sacra, ibid., p. 133.: In the year 860 Adalwin set out for Rome to Pope Nicholas, from whom he received the pallium; moreover relics of the saints Crispin and Crispinian, brothers, of Maurus the martyr, and likewise of Chrysanthus and Daria, spouses. Hund has noted the day of the obtaining of the pallium as the 2nd before the Kalends of October (30 Sept.); Mezger attributes this same day to the bringing of the sacred remains into the city of Salzburg. Both are uncertain. Thus what in Hund are called Bodies are in Hansiz relics. Finally in the Altaich Excerpts, very brief, in Pertz Monumenta Germaniæ (scriptores), vol. IV, p. 36. it is noted: In the year 859, Archbishop Adelwin brought the bodies of Saints Chrysanthus and Zoaria (assuredly Daria) to Salzburg. But Pertz notes on those Excerpts: Hartmann Schedel, a physician of Amberg, found in the monastery of Lower Altaich, smeared on the margin of a codex of Otto of Freising, historical notes, which, from his papers brought into the royal library of Munich, published by Oefele in the Scriptores rerum Boicarum, we present here. I have found nothing else on the translation to Salzburg. I would not deny that some part of the relics was granted to the aforesaid church, perhaps by Marcward himself; but the want or lack of testimonies forbids me to admit more. Surely the anonymous contemporary of Adalwin, the writer of the little book on the conversion of the Bagoarii (Bavarians) and the Carantanians, mentions only the pallium received; he is silent on relics translated from Rome. When Adalram, he says Ibid. vol. XI, p. 10 et seq., had been loosed from the bonds of the body, Liupram, the venerable shepherd, received the pontificate of the aforesaid see in the year 836; whom Pope Gregory (IV of this name) honored with the pallium. Who, after innumerable works pleasing to God had been performed, ascended to the starry seats, in the year of the nativity of Christ 859. His successor, whom he himself brought up, Adalwin, the venerable prelate, honored with the pallium by Pope Nicholas Acta SS., vol. II of April, p. 26., shines to the present time, ruling with all diligence the flock divinely committed to him. In whose times, that is, of the archbishops Liupram and Adalwin, Bishop Osbald ruled the people of the Slavs, as the bishops already mentioned had done in earlier times, subject to the bishops of Juvavum (Salzburg). And still Archbishop Adalwin himself strives personally to rule that people in the name of the Lord, as is already evident in many places in those regions. And these things are so at chapter IX in Pertz's edition, as far as which only the second copy of Canisius reached. And at chapter XIV or the last in the same Pertz many other things done by Adalwin are summarily reckoned; but neither there is there any mention of a translation.

[44] [of which there is nothing in the distinguished Little Book on the bishops of Salzburg.] It will be helpful to indicate in a few words at what time the aforesaid little book was written and of what value it is, and what its fortunes were: for from these there can be emended a place of Papebroch, who, trusting Canisius, brought forward some things not sufficiently accurate in the Acts of St. Rupert. From the words recited above it results that the author is contemporary with Adalwin. And it is established from elsewhere that these things were written by him toward the end of the life of the said pontiff: for Adalwin died on the 14th of May in the year 873 (as most hold); and in the last chapter of the Little Book one reads the following: From the time, then, in which, by the gift and command of the lord emperor Charles, the people of Eastern Pannonia began to be ruled by the prelates of Juvavum, to the present time, there are 75 years Ibid., p. 14.. And Pannonia was not committed to the people of Juvavum before the year 796, as is explicitly had in the Little Book at chapter XI Ibid., p. 9.; hence our Anonymous wrote either in the year 871, if, as Wattenbach prefers Ibid., p. 1 and 2., the commission is tied to the year 796, or in the year 872, if, as others prefer, this took place only in the year 797; and not, as Canisius hints, in the year 1186 or 1190. The Little Book was first brought to light, but from a mutilated and foully adulterated manuscript copy, by Heinrich Canisius, in volume II of the Antiquae Lectiones, and again, much more correct indeed and in some things fuller, but yet mutilated, in volume VI of the same work; and it was submitted to new printing by Basnage in the Thesaurus Monumentorum Vol. III, p. 282 – 285, and p. 340 – 344., and attributed, with some hesitation however, to a certain disciple of St. Eberhard, archbishop of Salzburg; that this is altogether otherwise is proved even by this, that St. Eberhard paid his debt to nature in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1164 Germ. sac., vol. II, p. 276.. Afterwards it came out entire and more correct through the care of Markus Hansiz, S. J., who inserted the text, not in one continuous tenor, but scattered through volume II of the Germania sacra, affirming that he had accurately collated the copies of Canisius with the manuscripts. Finally very recently, namely in the fifty-fourth year of this century, we received the short work entire and pure, and according to the credit of several manuscript codices, from the learned Mr. W. Wattenbach Pertz, vol. XI, p. 1 – 14., of which he himself writes thus in his preface: The line is led by that precious narrative of the coming of St. Rupert, first bishop (of Salzburg), and of the conversion of the Bavarians and Carantanians, which extends to the year 871. And a little below: A little book of the highest value, the only source of many matters that touch those borders of the Germans and Slavs. Nor otherwise Hansiz, to whom this writing has always been held of the greatest authority, and as it were the sacred line of the Acts of Rupert Germania sacra, vol. II, p. 34.. It remains for me to set down the place of Papebroch in the Acts of St. Rupert Acta SS., vol. III of March, p. 700., of which above, which it will be easy to correct from what has so far been said. The short work, he says, on the bishops of Salzburg, which a certain disciple of St. Eberhard composed in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1186 Cf. Thesaurus Monumentorum, vol. III, part II, p. 282. Note.; and Canisius published it from a manuscript, volume II of the Antiquae Lectiones, page 255; and again volume VI, page 1138, as it was changed by that same author who deformed the Acts of St. Rupert by interpolating them, as we have said: which edition being omitted, we shall more willingly use the first, as more genuine, when there is need. But now it is established that the second edition is far more genuine than the first; and that the little book itself was composed in the ninth century, and indeed, in the opinion of Wattenbach Pertz, in the place cited, p. 1., by an anonymous cleric of Salzburg, to defend the integrity of the diocese, diminished by the newly erected archbishopric of Moravia.

[45] The pledges of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria to Naples At Naples too the bodies of our Holy Martyrs are shown in the church of the most holy name of Jesus (now commonly called the Gesù Vecchio), which the Fathers of the Society of Jesus once built and held until the suppression of their order under Clement XIV. But when the Society had been restored by Pius VII, the Fathers returning to Naples never recovered that temple; which thereafter has existed on the pattern of an oratory, having its own rector, and it enjoys a very frequent concourse of the people. When and how the relics came to the aforesaid church will be taught by Giuseppe de Magistris: Whereas, he says Status rerum memorabilium civitatis Neapolitanæ, p. 366. Naples 1678., Agostino Caputo, Baron of Bagnoli, among his other treasures, which during his life he held with great veneration in crystal chests adorned with precious gems and gold, possessed a precious treasure in a most beautiful reliquary of the Holy Martyrs, granted to him by Clement VIII and Paul V, supreme pontiffs of happy memory, and at his death the aforesaid treasure had passed to Giovanni Caputo, Baron also of San Mango … his son …; and the same Giovanni, since being perhaps occupied in other things he did not intend to devote himself to the veneration and cult of that so great treasure, at the urging of that so great man and servant of God Father Giulio Cesare Recupito (of the Society of Jesus), gave the said relics as a gift, in the manner in which they were preserved by the said Agostino his father, for their greater veneration, to the college of the said Society; which were four whole bodies, namely two of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, spouses … the third was that of St. Hyginus, Pope and Martyr, and the fourth of St. Lucilla, Virgin and Martyr. Which four bodies of the Saints were placed together by the said Fathers of the college under the high altar, or rather, as will be seen below, behind the high altar of the same church in a certain small oratory, in which there is daily celebration …; and the Fathers with grateful heart placed there a sculpted marble tablet with the following words:

Here are preserved the Bodies Of the Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus And Daria, spouses, Of St. Hyginus, Pontiff and Martyr, And of St. Lucilla, Virgin and Martyr. Giovanni Caputo, Lord of Carovigno and San Mango, Gave them as a gift. The Society of Jesus placed this Monument In the Year of the Lord 1634.

[46] brought in the year 1634 And so these things in a style not very polished the said Giuseppe de Magistris. From which we learn that the sacred relics, granted by the supreme pontiffs Clement VIII and Paul V first to Agostino Caputo, then came into the hands of Giovanni, his son, who gave them as a gift to our Neapolitan Fathers. And Pellini, of whom there will soon again be discussion, notes that the church of the Holy Name of Jesus was consecrated in the year 1632, and that two years after, namely in the year 1634, the sacred pledges were placed there, in which place they remained until the thirty-first year of the present century, when a new translation took place, of which we must speak at the following number, from the short work of the aforesaid Mr. Pellini, canon and lector of sacred scripture in the royal academy of Naples, which on this matter, in the very year of the translation 1831, he published in the Italian language under the title: A historical treatise on the glorious deeds of St. Hyginus, pope and martyr, and of the holy spouses Chrysanthus and Daria, Virgins and Martyrs, and also on the new translation of their bones from one place to another in the church of the Old Jesus at Naples [Trattenimento storico sulle gloriose geste di S. Igino papa e martyre et de santi conjugi Crisanto et Daria VV. et MM., e sul nuovo transferemento delle loro ossa da un luogo all'altro nella chiesa del Gesu Vecchio in Neapoli.]. In the first part are recited

the Acts of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria from Surius, with words somewhat veiled here and there, where there is talk of the girls brought in to undermine the virtue of the most holy Young Man. It would accordingly be superfluous to set down anything of these.

[47] and in the year 1831 translated to another place, In the second part Pellini treats of the translation of SS. Hyginus, and Chrysanthus and Daria; but he passes over St. Lucilla, because her relics had at that time been laid up in another place. The reason for moving the holy bones was that, on account of the erection in the year 1826 by the Rev. Mr. Placido Baccher, rector of the church, of a magnificent throne or monument of the B. V. Mary, whose image is in the greatest veneration there, the tomb of the Holy Martyrs could now scarcely be seen or approached, nor was it permitted, as had been the custom, to say Mass over their bodies Ibid., p. 43.. For, as we have said before, their confession was behind the high altar, at whose summit the throne just mentioned had been built. The Rev. Mr. Placido resolved therefore, with the full consent of the most eminent cardinal Luigi Ruffo, archbishop of Naples, to transfer the sacred pledges to the front part of the high altar. On Saturday, the 16th day of April in the year 1831 Ibid., p. 45 et seqq., the tomb was opened, and there were drawn out, one after another, the small chests (cassettine) in which were contained the relics of the individual Saints, and the small chests being opened the bones were verified; first of St. Hyginus, then of St. Lucilla; finally of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria: In the urn of these there was found a small wooden chest, on whose outer part there were seen painted the images of both, next to the place in which their bones rested. And these were altogether intact, as having received no damage from the moisture pervading the place, which had not likewise happened to the relics of SS. Hyginus and Lucilla. These things done, the sacred pledges were first deposited for a time in a neighboring edifice, and there each was carefully arranged separately in its place and locked up until the opportune day of the solemn translation should come. Meanwhile they girded themselves for the work, and began to bring the lower part (the upper was destined for the throne of the Bl. Virgin) to a new form, which would be suitable for preserving the sacred remains. Wherefore under the table of the altar a place was prepared, not indeed a little spacious, yet not sufficient for depositing four bodies; accordingly it was resolved that the bones of St. Lucilla should be carried to a separate seat; and that images of proper size should be made of the other three Saints. The following words of Pinelli are to be noted Trattenimento, p. 51.: By order of the Rev. Mr. Placido, a most skilled craftsman sculpted the heads, chests, hands and feet of the holy Martyrs, whose face or countenance represented very well the age and character of each. The heads were of very hard terracotta, and furnished with a small door at the back of the head, by which some part of the skull might be put into the hollow (qualche ossa del cranio). The other bones of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria they placed in two great reliquaries, which are now seen placed before the breast of each holy Martyr. As regards St. Hyginus, who was to stand out among his Companions, the Rev. Mr. Placido wished part of his relics to be so distributed that some suitable bones should be applied to the separate members of the image; whence, besides the portion enclosed in the head, and the ribs, which, contained in a great reliquary, are shown placed before the breast, other smaller bones of the hands and feet were seen placed in the corresponding members of the image. And all these things were disposed and arranged in a transparent tomb or sepulcher; and hence exposed on all sides to the eyes of visitors. Moreover in the middle reclines St. Hyginus, adorned in pontifical dress, bearing a tiara on his head, and in his left hand a cross, as they call it, patriarchal. On the one side St. Chrysanthus, on the other St. Daria are placed, in the dress of noble Romans, they also each lying on a cushion, with face turned toward the holy Pontiff. Finally the altar was consecrated on the 16th day of May 1831, which was the anniversary of the first dedication, made in the year 1634; and the translation was solemnly celebrated on the 1st day of June of the aforesaid year 1831, an innumerable people being present. In order that these things so accomplished might be commended to the perpetual memory of posterity, there was placed at the back part of the high altar the following inscription, cut in a marble stone:

Α Ω

THE REMAINS OF THE SAINTS

HYGINUS, POPE AND MARTYR, AND CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA, SPOUSES, VIRGINS AND MARTYRS,

WHICH HAD LONG LAIN CONCEALED HERE IN AN OBSCURE PLACE,

HIDDEN, OVERWHELMED, ALMOST UNKNOWN,

THAT THEY MIGHT HENCEFORTH BE HEAPED WITH GREATER HONOR,

THE REV. MR. PLACIDO BACCHER, RECTOR OF THE CHURCH,

NOT WITHOUT THE COUNSEL, AUTHORITY AND PROVIDENCE OF THE MOST EMINENT PRELATE OF NAPLES, LUIGI CARDINAL RUFFO,

CAUSED TO BE DRAWN OUT OF THEIR SMALL CHESTS,

ARRANGED WITH NEW CRAFT, RESTORED IN MORE ELEGANT FORM,

TRANSFERRED ABROAD WITH SOLEMN RITE,

AND PLACED UNDER THE HIGH ALTAR

IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 1831.

[48] they are only parts of the sacred bodies. It is clear that the whole bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were not granted to Agostino Caputo by the supreme pontiffs Clement VIII and Paul V, since it is nowhere recorded that the Lateran church was stripped of the relics of the same Blessed Martyrs (for I do not see from where else they would have been brought to Naples); on the contrary the opposite is established from what has been said, where we have seen that those sacred pledges (so namely they think) have been venerated in the aforesaid basilica with perpetual veneration for many centuries down to our own times. Cf. nn. 24 – 26, where we noted that there are many things that make the Lateran relics themselves at least doubtful. For the rest, the words of Pinelli recited above sufficiently hint that whole bodies are not found at Naples: Part of the skull, he says, enclosed in the head of each image; the remaining bones placed in two reliquaries. Which surely are to be understood only of parts. Which is moreover confirmed from the comparison with the pledges of St. Hyginus, which are indicated as far more abundant. This one thing remains for us to note, that no mention is made of letters by which the genuineness of the relics is declared; whether there were any, we do not know. Certainly the condition of these relics is the same as that of the others preserved in various places. Since it cannot be that all at once should be held genuine (at least if there is question of whole bodies or the greater part of them); the titles on which the individual churches rely must be seriously examined. And on this head the Neapolitans labor not a little, and those of the Eifel, in my opinion, prevail over all the others.

[49] Finally a translation to Vienna is mentioned; What of this, that the body of St. Chrysanthus, without the body of St. Daria, is asserted to have been translated also from Rome to Vienna in Austria about the middle of the seventeenth century? On which matter we have among our hagiographical manuscripts an instrument of the following tenor: We, Philip Frederick, by the grace of God and of the apostolic see bishop of Vienna, prince of the sacred Roman empire etc. We make known to all, and by this public instrument of donation we attest, that whereas by mandate of our most holy Lord Urban VIII, by God's providence Pope, three bodies of Saints, namely of St. Chrysanthus, St. Marcellinus and St. Cyriaca, were transmitted to us from Rome here to Vienna, and license was given to give them to others or to place them in a church for the veneration of the faithful, the tenor of which transmission and license is as follows. We, Giovanni Battista degli Altieri, formerly bishop of Camerino, vicegerent of the most eminent Vicar of the City and ordinary judge etc. To each and all who shall inspect the present letters we make faith and attest how, for the greater glory of almighty God and of his Saints, we have handed over and consigned to the most illustrious and very Reverend Mr. Giovanni Barsotti, apostolic protonotary, provost of Isny, coadjutor primicerius of the cathedral of Lucca, prefect of the chamber of the most eminent cardinal von Harrach, and counselor of the Sacred Imperial Majesty, the bodies of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus from the cemetery of Priscilla, and Marcellinus and Cyriaca from the cemetery of Callista, whose names are found written in the martyrology, for the purpose of transmitting them to the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Philip, bishop of Vienna and prince of the sacred Roman empire etc., to which most illustrious and most reverend Lord bishop, that he may give them to others and place them in churches for the veneration of the faithful, we grant and bestow license and faculty in the Lord. In faith of which etc. Given at Rome on this 30th day of March 1643. J. B., bishop of Cam., Vicegerent (Place of the Seal). And since the said bodies of the saints St. Chrysanthus, St. Marcellinus and St. Cyriaca, on the 5th day of June in the year 1644, in a public procession, at which His Sacred Imperial Majesty Ferdinand III, our most clement Lord, and his most august consort Maria and the Most Serene archduke Leopold William were also present, with the highest veneration of the whole clergy and people, we brought in from the church of the B. V. of Montserrat, situated in the suburb before the gate commonly called the Schottentor, to the cathedral church of St. Stephen here at Vienna, and there placed and exposed them for the veneration of the faithful; and it has seemed well and pleasing to us to give the said three bodies to the said basilica of St. Stephen and to apply and appropriate them in perpetuity. Therefore with deliberate mind, by this public instrument of donation, we give, apply and appropriate the aforesaid three bodies of Saints to the same cathedral church of St. Stephen, so that these bodies are to remain perpetually at the aforesaid basilica and be preserved in the custody where the other relics are preserved, and as the others, so also these relics may and can be exposed and placed for the veneration of the faithful; forbidding, under pain of excommunication to be incurred by the very fact, that anyone of our successors the bishops or any other should attempt or presume to alienate anything of these three holy bodies or to give it to strangers. In faith of these things we have subscribed this public instrument of donation with our own hand, had it strengthened with our greater seal, and handed it to the venerable chapter of the cathedral church of Vienna. At Vienna in Austria, in our episcopal residence, on the 6th day of Sept. in the year 1644. It was signed: Philip, Bishop of Vienna.

[50] but it is not proved. Certainly if this is the true body of St. Chrysanthus, the relics of the same holy Martyr are false that are preserved whether in the Lateran basilica, or at Oria, or at Reggio, or in the Eifel. But, what has so far been disputed being considered, who would dare to affirm this? For the rest, on the verso of the sheet of the aforesaid Instrument there is read added the following note: Letter of Cardinal Altieri to the bishop of Vienna, Rome, 27 Feb. 1646, whose doubts he answers, asserting that the aforesaid bodies were found by him with their proper name; but that he cannot affirm for certain whether they are the same as those Saints of the same name who are in the Roman martyrology, since in the same cemetery, also with their proper name, Saints of the same name are found. I would not think, therefore, that in any way the body of St. Chrysanthus that is preserved at Vienna can be referred to the husband of St. Daria; but it seems to me that it must certainly be determined to be that of another Saint of the same name. Accordingly on this side again firmness remains to the possession of the Eifel.

[51] Partial relics in various places. There are moreover other churches to which some part of the relics of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria has fallen. By the witness of Serrano De septem urbis Romæ ecclesiis, p. 114., at Rome in the Vatican

basilica of St. Peter there are relics of St. Chrysanthus and an arm of St. Daria Ibid., p. 115.; in the basilica of St. Paul relics of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria Ibid., p. 118.; likewise at Pavia in the church of St. Helena, of the nuns of the Order of St. Benedict, bones of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria Flavia Papia sacra, third part, p. 27. Pavia, Reggio 1699.; in the church of Santa Maria Rotonda alle Pertiche, bones of the same Ibid., p. 47.; in the church of San Michele Maggiore, from the Bones Ibid., p. 62.. In the year 1754 some small pieces were sent from the Eifel, from the reliquary tomb at Münstereifel, to the parish church in Welckerath of the diocese of Trier [Katzfey, Geschichte der Stadt Münstereifel und der nachbarlichen Ortschaften, vol. I, p. 93. Cologne, 1854.], as is established from genuine letters. Above at n. 25 some mention was made of relics carried from Rome into Gaul by a deacon of St. Gregory of Tours. His narrative we set down here in full Book I of the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 83. Migne, Patrol., LXXI, col. 779.: The glorious Martyrs by their confession have merited always the ineffable benefits of saving gifts, and have furnished this to those who entreat them by the power imparted to them by the Lord the Creator, as we have learned that it took place as was recently reported to us by our deacon. This deacon, having received from the pope of the Roman city, Pelagius, pledges of certain martyrs and confessors, was conducted as far as the port with great psalmody or office of the clergy and with the attendance of an immense people. And entering the ship, with the sails raised and spread through that rigging of the yard which bears the measure of a cross, the wind blowing, he took to the deep sea. And as they were sailing to reach the port of the city of Marseilles, they began to approach a certain place from which, rising from the shore of the sea, a stony mountain, gradually subsiding, stretches into the sea at the very surface of the wave. And when, the wind driving it, the keel was borne headlong with great force, so as to be shattered, namely, by being dashed on the rock, and the sailors, seeing the danger, cried out their end, the deacon, raising up the box with the holy pledges, began to invoke the names of each with groaning and with a very loud voice, entreating that by their power they who were about to perish might be freed from this danger. And now, now the ship was approaching, as we have said, the rock; and at once in contemplation of the holy relics, a wind, moved from that very place, contrary to this wind, with greater violence dashed back the wave and repelled the opposing wind, and the ship being called back into the deep sea, it freed all from the danger of death. And so, the bulk of the danger being turned aside, with the mercy of the Lord and the patronage of the Saints they reached the port they desired. For they were relics of the Saints whose sacred feet were washed by the hands of the Lord (Gregory means the Apostles), with those of Paul and Lawrence and Pancras, of Chrysanthus and Daria the virgin, of John and of the other Paul, his brother, whose contests and palms of victories the very city of Rome, the head of the world, devoutly celebrates.

[52] The translation to the Eifel is more certain than the others. Before we put an end to the long and laborious disputation on the relics of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, let it be permitted to add one thing. The translation and possession of the Eifel seems to me better proved than the others. For it is established from contemporary and most trustworthy documents that the pontiff Sergius granted to Marcward, in the year 844, two bodies which at that time were certainly held to be the pledges of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria; for otherwise the Romans and even Sergius himself would have to be convicted of fraud (which is wicked to say); it is established by equal testimonies that the aforesaid bodies were carried by Marcward to Prüm and thence to the Eifel. Cf. nn. 27 – 30. Whence Moroni Dizionario, vol. XIX, p. 108. Under Daria.: The bodies of those Saints were buried on the Via Salaria, and that part of the cemetery was for a long time named after them. In the year 842 (read 844) the relics of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria were translated to the abbey of Prüm in the diocese of Trier, and two years after (rather months) to the monastery of St. Nabor near Metz, rather that of the Eifel. Moroni mentions no other translation in that place; but elsewhere, as we have seen above, he writes that the same relics are to be found partly at Rome and partly at Reggio Lepidi. How these things can be reconciled with one another, the learned man himself may see. In my opinion indeed this one thing could be objected to the people of the Eifel: namely, that what in good faith, while Marcward was at Rome, was believed to be the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, was afterwards found to be supposititious; either because they are proved to have been found in the year 886 and translated to the Lateran church by Stephen V; or because the translations to Reggio, Oria, Salzburg, Naples or Vienna, or at least some one of these, rest on suitable testimonies. But it is otherwise: for we have seen that there exists none of those (not excepting the Lateran one, on which more than one of the others is built) which is proved by documents of certain credit. Nor do we however deny that in the aforesaid churches fragments more or less distinguished can be preserved, which by synecdoche were called bodies; provided this remains firm, that by far the greatest part of the holy pledges was received by Marcward and carried to the monastery of the Eifel, so that it can be rightly and justly asserted that the bodies rest there. Since therefore the translation to the Eifel seems to be preferred to the others, we have thought fit to subjoin in a special paragraph the documents by which it may become known that the sacred bodies have been perpetually preserved there and held in the highest veneration ever since the ninth century.

§ V. Monuments of the Eifel pertaining to the relics and perpetual cult of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria.

Notice of the monastery of the Eifel I premise a brief notice of the region and the town. Its site, says Hontheim Historia Trevirensis diplomatica et practica, vol. I, p. 68. Augsburg 1750., is shown between the Sura die Saur, the Ura die Ur, the Urta or Ourt, the Orta, that is the Orf, and the Erpaha or Arnapha or Erva die Erft, and the Rhine, and it is still called today die Eyffel (now commonly Eifel) Eifflia. The region is mountainous, and has here and there plains 1200 and even 1600 feet higher than the level of the sea Katzfey, Geschichte von Münstereifel. vol. I, p. 1. Cologne 1854.. The Monastery of the Eifel is encircled by the Eifel mountains, in which the small river Eifflia (so Arnapha is sometimes called) is born Ibid., p. 6.. Among the older writers it is called Eyphalia, Eiphalia, Eiphla, Eifalia, Eifflia [Ibid., p. 3. Cf. Eifflia illustrata seu Beschreibung der Eifel von Schannat, edited by Georg Bärsch, vol. I, part I, p. 3 et seqq. Cologne 1824.]. The sacred edifice, which was the origin of the town called Monastery of the Eifel, Münstereifel, was built by Marcward, in the judgment of Brosius in the year 830 Katzfey, vol. I, p. 88.; Brouwer insinuates that this took place later Annales Trevirenses, vol. I, p. 412. Liège 1670.; who, at the year 846; about this time, he says, there was also founded a monastery by Abbot Marquard in Eifalia, which, growing with a town and a college of canons, the sacred bodies of the blessed Chrysanthus and Daria also being brought in from Prüm … became distinguished, and formerly obeyed the jurisdiction of the abbot, before it passed to the people of Jülich. Certainly this glory of martyrs for the land of the Eifel, under the name of the NEW CELL, Wandelbert has outstandingly claimed in his verses: “Twin gems of martyrdom” etc., as at n. 29. Mabillon differs from Brouwer by a whole decade: About the same time (so at the year 836 Ann. Benedictini, vol. II, p. 545.) Marcward built another cenobium in the Eifel, commonly called the Monastery of the Eifel. It seems to me more probable that the New Cell was founded before Marcward's departure for Rome in the year 844, who, having returned in the same year, after he had stayed two months at Prüm, translated the relics in the month of October, and hence their seat was already prepared. Which in my opinion is confirmed from the following words of the history of the translation: On the 4th before the Nones of July they carried them (the relics) to the Monastery of Prüm; and they lay on the bier on which they had been carried, to the right of the altar, until the 11th day before the Kalends of November; that is, until a certain part of the ancient temple, leveled off, should be extended to a longer space, and a place worthy for the tomb should be built. Which time being completed … (the bodies) were translated … on the 8th before the Kalends of November. No work of proper bulk was undertaken, therefore, but in a space of nearly two months a suitable place was prepared for laying up the sacred remains. Who moreover could persuade himself that such distinguished pledges would be conducted to the Eifel by Marcward, unless there were in that place those who would themselves show them due veneration and see that it was shown by others, and to whose custody they might be entrusted? And this being laid down, must we not admit that a dwelling or cell existed, which monks inhabited? From these things I judge that what is had in Lesson V of the office of the first translation, formerly for the use of the church of the Eifel, is to be emended: But from that time (namely from the time the relics had been carried to Prüm), to increase the glory of those Saints … Marcward applied himself wholly …, whence by divine inspiration there fell to him … the good counsel, namely that he should have a new monastery built for these holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, in which their translated bodies might rest and be religiously preserved. For the structure of this monastery, as it were foreordained by God, a place was chosen formerly called the valley of St. Peter, because the faithful inhabitants venerated St. Peter the apostle, the vicar of Christ, as patron, and he is still held as co-patron; which place thereafter … with its name changed to new monastery, on account of the country of the Eifel with a doubled word is called the Monastery of the Eifel. To this collegiate church therefore, from the monastery of Prüm, afterwards by Bishop Thegambert, the bodies of the holy Patrons were translated etc. It seems to me most probable that the error flowed from this, that the author judged that Bishop Thegambert was the same as Theutgaud, who first obtained the miter of Trier in the year 847. See n. 28.

[53] When the church of that town was made collegiate, Hontheim observes Hist. Trev. diplom., vol. I, page 238.: The Monastery of the Eifel, founded by Marcward, into which the same abbot introduced a college of religious from Prüm. But in the course of time the regular and monastic state passed into that of secular canons, the name of monastery being retained. In what year however this took place is not known. Our region, says Günther Codex diplomaticus Rheno-Mosellanus, vol. I, p. 41. Koblenz 1822., toward the end of the twelfth century, as is demonstrated from original charters, numbered six collegiate churches, among which he reckons that of the Eifel Ibid., p. 34.. But it is gathered from the same monuments that this took place earlier at the Eifel. Thus in a charter of Poppo, abbot of Prüm, given in the year 1110, at the end it is had thus: There were present at this restitution Walter, provost of the same place, Wicelin the dean, Master Alberic, Becelin the custodian of the church, with the other brethren [Ibid., p. 165 and 166. Cf. Rule of St. Chrodegang, chapter 46, entitled: on Provosts. Migne, Patrol., vol. LXXXIX, col. 1077.]; and in another of the same Poppo of the year 1115:

There were present the Canons of the church of the same Saints (Chrysanthus and Daria), Wicelin the dean, Reginher the provost … with the other brethren; Count Theodoric of Are, advocate of the same place, etc. Günther, p. 184 and 185..

[54] and the town began to be called by the name of Villa. The first mention of a Villa is made in a charter of Frederick, archbishop of Cologne, given in the year 1112: In the district of Eflia, in the Villa which is called Monastery Ibid., p. 179 and 180.; and in the year 1114: To the church of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, which is situated in the Villa New Monastery in the Eifel, at which time Rudolf is marked as advocate of that place Ibid., p. 181., or rather subadvocate or second advocate; for the Count of Are was the greater advocate, or Obervogt, that is, guardian, protector Ibid., p. 486 and 487.. The author of the history of the Monastery of the Eifel seems to hint, from the fact that Arnold, prefect of the city, is read as a subscriber to a charter of Sigewin, archbishop of Cologne, given in the year 1086, that the Villa already existed at that time; but first, in the charter itself the matter is the Congregation of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria which is in the New Monastery situated in the district of Eifle; and next, the words: prefect of the city Arnolt do not seem to me to be referred to the town or Villa of the Monastery. It will be helpful to subjoin the end of the charter: At which handing over there were present as witnesses these provosts: Berenger, Luidolf, Hartwic, Arnolt, Bertolf, Hezel; and the Chaplains: Gerhart, Heinrich, Ruprecht etc.; Count Palatine Heremann, prefect of the city Arnolt, Wernere, Hupreht, Heinrich, Hupreht, Hereman, Theodoric. That this may be more truly believed etc. [Katzfey, vol. I, p. 24, §29. Günther, vol. I, p. 151 and 152.]. Is not the prefect of the city of Cologne rather to be understood? The town from the beginning of the twelfth century to the middle of the seventeenth numbered three thousand inhabitants; in the year 1849 there were there about one thousand nine hundred and eighteen catholics, only four protestants, ninety-one Jews; in all two thousand and thirteen Katzfey, vol. I, p. 320..

[55] Charters pertaining to the Relics and cult. Centuries IX, XI; That the Holy Relics have been perpetually preserved in the church of the Eifel from their translation is proved by innumerable documents of the individual centuries succeeding one another. And indeed in the ninth century, namely in the year 898, Zwentibold, king of Upper Lotharingia, testifies that he came to the New Monastery situated in the district of Riwerense (that is, Ripuarian) and determined that a market should be held in the same place and public coinage made, and that of the toll of that market he had perpetually granted two parts to blessed Chrysanthus and Daria, WHOSE BODIES REST IN THAT PLACE [Hontheim, hist. Treviren. diplom. vol. I, p. 238 and 239. Günther vol. I, p. 55. Katzfey, vol. I, p. 96.]. Surely an explicit and evident testimony. So far no charters of the tenth century have been found for our matter. At the end of the eleventh century we have the Privilege of Sigewin, archbishop of Cologne, on the tithe of the newly cultivated lands conferred on the church (of the Eifel) in 1086, in which: The tithe, he says Günther, vol. I, p. 151 and 152., we have given to the congregation of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, which is in the New Monastery situated in the district of Eifle, for the remedy of our soul and of our parents resting there in Christ, for the use namely of the brethren there serving God in warfare. Of which privilege a confirmation and enlargement is read as made in the year 1105 Katzfey, vol. I, p. 96 and 97.. At the preceding number mention was made of the charter of Sigewin as of some of the following.

[56] Twelfth century. The twelfth century furnishes many very clear documents. In the year 1110 Poppo, abbot of Prüm, restored the toll to the Monastery: In the name etc., be it known … how I, Poppo, by the grace of God abbot of the church of Prüm, the toll in the New Monastery, freely handed over with the revenue and gift by Zwentibold, king of the Lotharingians, to the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria for the remedy of his soul, partly diminished by my predecessor Wolfram, for the pious memory of us there and in desire of eternal life, have perpetually restored in full to the brethren there serving the Lord, on this condition, that the brethren of the same church, for the common utility, all other power being removed, have their own liberty of giving and disposing Günther, vol. I, p. 165.. Worthy of attention also is another instrument of the same Poppo, which in the History of the Monastery of the Eifel was first published from its archive, together with this prefatory Note Katzfey, vol. I, p. 98 et seq.: Justatius and Wicelin, the first deans known from the eleventh century, about which time Niro, abbot of the cenobium of Prüm, gave the tithes of this Villa; from which time various privileges are found, our own and special, granted by bishops and abbots of Prüm, namely on the mill, toll, municipal rights, tithes etc., but specially the privilege of Poppo, abbot of Prüm, on the mill situated in the street Werth on the Arlapa (Erft), with a gift of wood for building from certain farms. Thus far the Note; there then follows the Charter of Poppo, given in the same place in the year 1112: I, Poppo … the mill … to the altar of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, which is in the lesser crypt in the same Villa, namely the New Monastery, for the use of those there serving God … have handed over etc. At the end there is added: There were present at this handing over both clerics and laymen. Walter, provost of the same place, Wezelin the dean … and of free laymen: Count Theodoric of Areara (another reading, Ara), supreme advocate of the same place, besides inhabitants of the same Villa etc. It seems a trustworthy instrument; he however who transcribed it changed the orthography and probably also some words. It is surely to be regretted that so few things survive from the archive of the Monastery. For the rest, the same thing results from that instrument as from the third charter of the same Poppo, cited above, namely that in the year 1112 the word Villa was used. In the year 1114 Justina gave an estate to the church of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, which is situated in the Villa New Monastery in the Eifle Günther, vol. I, p. 181.; in the year 1115 the same Poppo, abbot of Prüm: Becela with all the offspring of her three daughters Sigewina, Acela, Adelheid, both born and to be born, previously belonging to Notteno (Nöthen), I have handed over to the altar of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, which is in the New Monastery in the lesser crypt, for the remedy of my soul. For whom I have established this law to be violated by no one, that no one of this aforesaid progeny should seek or buy from anyone the license of marrying, nor should anyone of the same progeny pay that which is commonly called Ervideila, and in Latin is called the hereditary portion; but that all revenue and right should depend on this alone, that on the feast of the same Saints, which is the 3rd before the Kalends of December, at the aforesaid altar, whether a man or a woman joined in marriage, they should faithfully pay a pennyworth of wax for a light, to be burned there according to the Christian religion Ibid. 184 and 185. Katzfey, vol. I, p. 100.. To the same end tends again the Privilege of Frederick, archbishop of Cologne, on the Tithes and Toll conferred by the abbot of Prüm on the church (of the Eifel), where among other things there occur these: Among which (churches) I have beheld with my eyes the congregation of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria in the Villa that is called the New Monastery, serving God and the same aforementioned Saints with the highest devotion etc. The charter is had in the archive of the Eifel Katzfey, vol. I, p. 100 et seq.. About the same time Wolbert, born of free men, freely handed over an estate to the church of the Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, for the use of those there serving God, for the burial of his brother in the same place and for his and his own soul's remedy, and for the prebend of his son Regenold in the same monastery. This donation Lacomblet refers to the year 1182 Urkundenbuch, vol. I, p. 343. Düsseldorf 1840., but in vain, by the witness of the author of the history of the Monastery of the Eifel Katzfey, vol. I, p. 101.. In the year 1140 Gerard, archdeacon of Cologne and provost of the church of Bonn, settled a controversy which had been stirred up between the brethren serving God and the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria in the church of the Monastery, and a certain priest of theirs, who ruled a certain parish church of their right, received from them, in the Villa which is called Reinbach Günther, vol. I, p. 260 et seqq.. In the year 1182 Philip, by the grace of God humble minister of the people of Cologne, that is, archbishop, makes known that Herimann, canon and cellarer in the greater church, and his brother Arnold, canon in the Monastery which is in the Eifel, also their brother Rudolf, advocate in the said Villa, and his wife Flandria, lawfully conferred their allodium in Schevene with all its integrity, namely cultivated and uncultivated, the mill and the meadow, rented and not rented, granted in benefice and not granted, on the church which is in the monastery in the Eifel Lacomblet, Urkundenbuch vol. I, p. 342.. Finally in the 97th year of the same twelfth century there was given a charter of Gerard, abbot of Prüm, in which he says that it is known to all the faithful in Christ that those whom they call advocates were in past years guardians of the churches. And one of them, Lothar by name, Count of Hostaden … since he was greater advocate of the Villa of the Monastery, which is in the Eifel, to the annual exaction and to all the work that is called burchwerc, which his predecessors seemed to have possessed, led by the will of God, coming to the altar of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, Chrysanthus and Daria, by the rod freely renounced… And Rudolf, the second advocate, renouncing his exaction, similarly swore.

[57] [The state of the collegiate church of the Eifel at the beginning of the sixteenth century, from a bull of Julius II.] In the following centuries there are a good many diplomas of this kind, which it would be superfluous to recite, since they are indicated or recited in full in Hontheim in the diplomatic and practical history of Trier, Katzfey's history of the Monastery of the Eifel, Günther's Rhine-Moselle diplomatic codex, Lacomblet etc. I shall pick out only a few things from the monuments of more recent age. In the year 1508 Pope Julius II incorporated in the chapter the parish church in Wichtrig, by a bull signed on the 10th before the Kalends of August, from which we also learn what the state of the College was at that time: Since, says the pontiff Katzfey, vol. I, p. 115. Cf. ibid. p. 125 and 126., in the said church of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria thirty canonries and prebends have been established for as many canons, although the greater tithes of many parish churches of the said diocese (of Cologne) and other annual revenues have at other times been assigned for the sustenance of the same canons and for the endowment of the aforesaid canonries and prebends; yet, since there is a frequent concourse of nobles and others to the said town, the aforesaid canons not only from this hospitality to those arriving, but also in the contribution

of burdens, both by reason of the said church, and of those contributions that are to be made by them to our venerable brother the present and for the time being Archbishop of Cologne, especially in time of war, if at any time the same Archbishop must enter upon it for the defense of the rights of his church, cannot suitably sustain themselves from the fruits of their canonries and prebends; nay, they are obliged to betake themselves to other places, whereby the number of ministers in the same church of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria is diminished; but if the said parish church were perpetually united to the capitular table of the said church of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, for the increase of the portions of the aforesaid canons …, assuredly by this more of the said canons would be invited and induced to reside in the same church of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, whereby the due number of ministers and also divine worship would be maintained in it; on the part of the aforesaid chapter, who assert that the fruits and revenues of the said parish church do not exceed the annual value of four marks of silver according to common estimation, it has been humbly petitioned of us that we should deign to unite, annex and incorporate the said parish church perpetually in the same capitular table … etc. Pope Leo X also in the year 1520 confirmed an agreement entered into between the provost, Dean and Chapter of the church of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria of the town of the Monastery of the Eifel, of the diocese of Cologne, and the Abbot and dean and the beloved sons of the convent * of the monastery of the Holy Savior in Prüm, of the Order of St. Benedict, of the diocese of Trier. Likewise a certain Sale is confirmed. Katzfey has the Bull in full from the archive of the chapter Vol. I, p. 117 – 120..

[58] In the seventeenth century two transports of the Holy Relics are recorded; Two transports of the Holy Relics to safer places are also recorded, while the affairs of religion through Germany, on account of the tempests of the reformation, had been brought into the greatest danger. Of which thus in the proper office of the second Translation for the collegiate church of the Eifel, Lesson VI: But afterwards, on account of dangerous times of war, by the dean of that collegiate church, with the consent of the venerable chapter, the bodies of the holy Patrons (Chrysanthus and Daria) were carried to the very strongly fortified citadel of Arburg; where a tower, the gunpowder being caught from the top to the bottom, kindled by the fire of lightning, threatened the most imminent ruin to both the citadel and the adjoining town; nevertheless the tower alone was shaken with a horrible crash, the relics of the Saints being unmoved and the town in nothing harmed; which is justly credited to the patronage of the Saints with an anniversary solemnity (there is a hint of the feast of the second Translation, on which see the following paragraph). For a like cause the bodies of the Holy Martyrs were conducted to Cologne, and when peace had at last been established between the warring princes, they were brought back with distinguished solemnity and the pomp of all ranks to their place of rest at the Monastery of the Eifel, about the year one thousand six hundred and ninety-eight. Writers mention both transports Katzfey ibid., p. 90.; the first under Dean Anton Gleen, whom Katzfey thinks most probably to be the same as Gelenius, who is found in charters from the year 1647 to the year 1652; but under the name Gleen he comes in the year 1639 Vol. I. p. 182.. From these things it can be deduced at about what time that first transport took place; of the second there exists a document written by an eye-witness, from which it is clear that the Holy Relics were restored to the church of the Monastery in the year 1698. Which document, published in the history of the aforesaid town Ibid. p. 90 et seqq., I have thought should be reprinted here in full:

[59] of the latter a distinguished account is recited. Account of the solemnity on the return of the Saints, patrons of the Monastery of the Eifel, Chrysanthus and Daria, instituted (sic) by the venerable chapter, clergy, city and gymnasium, in the year 1698, on the 14th (rather 24th) of June. On the feast of John the Baptist, about the first hour after noon, as had been promulgated and posted in the choir of the collegiate church, the procession went out from the collegiate church, accompanied by our students, the catechism and the sodalities, through the Cologne gate to the cross nearest the mill and bridge, where a stage had been erected from tree branches for the performers. The young artisans two or three hours before had gone forward toward Euskirchen with 2 banners, with pipers sounding music among them. The younger citizens, with their captain going before on horseback, went to meet the Saints as far as Iversheim. A procession likewise was waiting at Weingarten, to escort the Saints as far as Iversheim. There stood on the hill near the city, which looks east, near the entrance of the forest of the Monastery, 12 small mortars or chambers, as they call them, of which the firing of one or another was the signal of the approach of the Saints. But although one or another had been fired, one had to wait, in a somewhat rainy and cold sky, until after the fourth hour, when at last there appeared after the procession from Iversheim two carriages. In the one, which was drawn by caparisoned horses adorned with red and white ribbons, sat the most honorable Mr. Dean Karl Brewer and the Very Rev. Mr. Gerhard Graeff, treasurer of the collegiate church and parish priest, who had the heads of the Holy Martyrs in a chest placed before them. In the other sat the most illustrious widow Madame de Goldstein, of the former Chancellor of the most serene Philip William, Palatine, and governor of this city, at whose expense the holy reliquaries had been brought here from Cologne. Before the reliquaries went a troop of young men with their caps adorned with branches. There followed an armed troop of citizens. When they had come to the stone cross which divides the roads to Wachendorf and Iversheim, and the sacred relics drawn out of the chest were being replaced by the aforesaid Lords, clothed in choir dress, with two other Lord canons assisting, for greater veneration, behold, the air soon cleared and that which had been cold all day grew warm. Then the 12 chambers were discharged a second time. When in the said order they had come to the mill, and the sacred heads had been reverently placed on a table by the Lord canons, Ceres on the stage, with Fauns, describing the misery and sterility of the fields and the calamity of the peasants in the absence of the holy relics, and promising fertility and fruitfulness and all good fortune by the merits of the Saints, applauded the returning Saints. Hence after a new firing of the 12 chambers, having entered the city, they halted opposite the burned citadel and the house of the procurator Hörstgen; where Justice, deploring, in the absence of the remains of the Saints, the furies of Mars, the fires, the plunderings, the once most lamentable miseries of the citizens and the city, bade the citizens be of good cheer, and congratulate themselves on the rise of a new star and propitious constellation (the city has a star in its arms), and they submitting the fasces to these twins, and committing the keys and the whole city to the protection of the returning Saints, amid the roar of cannons and larger muskets, our students going before the clergy, with 4 crowned lute-players and many performers (the Capuchin Fathers, not invited, stayed away), in a long order, among branches and extended arches of flowers, we came to the town hall… Before this there had been erected, from the bottom to the front of the Rhetoric, a Parnassus, beautifully and ingeniously clothed with trees, shrubs and flowers… At the foot of the Mountain there leaped to the amazement of all copious and high waters of Helicon, which would have flowed also on the following day at the Theophoria, had not the rain prevented; on Parnassus Apollo with the Muses, sitting in a long and beautiful order, received the Saints in Latin and German with vocal and instrumental music. Thereafter, opposite the portico, to the altar erected under a canopy, artfully constructed by the Carmelite nuns, on which the heads of the Saints had been set, standing brilliantly illuminated and carried down by the Rev. Levites of the vicariate. Here Religion with the Virtues applauded, and in the figure of a dove with the olive of peace returned to the ark, consoling the Very Rev. Lords Domicellars, who had suffered no small loss of their property in the time of war, not without the emotion and tears of the bystanders, and having venerated the holy things, promised after penitence and patience golden ages of peace. There stood not only in the market place the benevolent procession to watch, honored by the presence of the most illustrious Madame de Goldstein and her niece with our Rev. Rector (that is, of the S. J.; the writer himself of this Account namely was Father Maximilian Scheiffart or Scheiffert of the same Society, and he was then staying in our college at the Monastery of the Eifel, as will be manifestly clear at the end Cf. Katzfey, vol. I, p. 215 et seqq.) Heinrich Hinterhausen and his companion Father Franz Weisweiler, minister at Cologne, and Father J. Raquet, preacher of our church at Cologne, and the Lord vice-governor, the prefect, consuls and senators; but the houses and windows also were filled with strangers, among whom there were very many from Cologne. Finally when the student youth had fallen silent, Mr. Captain Trips, Commandant of the city, standing before his cohort, stationed in the market around the Carmelite nuns, carried off the last applause with the firing of the cannon and bombards… From the market at length we proceeded to the choir at the 6th hour, and after the Te Deum and the Benediction had been given, while the Lord canons were beginning Vespers, we with the college went to supper. The work spent by our gymnasium for the holy Patrons so pleased the venerable chapter that, although after the roles had been distributed the most honorable Mr. Dean with Mr. Treasurer had refreshed the teaching staff in the college with a draught of wine, and again, after what had been done on the mount of Apollo in the place of the old citadel, they had most liberally entertained the Rev. Father Rector and the Father Prefect with the teaching staff; nevertheless by the unanimous decree of the venerable chapter a refectory was still proclaimed, to which the Rev. Father Rector, Father Maximilian Scheiffart (who wrote this Account), preacher of the church of the S. J. (?), Father J. Kafrad?, prefect of the schools, Father J. Stoll, procurator of the college, were invited, and they appeared cheerful in the Lord until eight in the evening… Blessed be God in his Saints. There was no one who did not wish to esteem and commend the composition of the Father Prefect and the acting of the young men and the concord of them all in honoring the Holy Martyrs. So I testify, who was present from the egg to the apples as a spectator and in part an actor. Servant of the venerable collegiate chapter of the Holy Martyrs C. and D. etc. Maximilian Scheiffert (sic). M. E., 19 Jul. 1698.

[60] The Sodality of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, formerly very celebrated. There existed in the same town of the Monastery a Sodality or confraternity named after SS. Chrysanthus and Daria; at what time it began I have nowhere discovered, but it is said to be very ancient; in the year 1679 it was enriched with plenary indulgences by the supreme pontiff Pope Innocent XI, whose indult was printed in a little book for the use of the members. But the Rev. Dr. Heuser has also submitted to us another document of nearly the same age and pertaining to this matter, which, since it has not so far been printed, I shall therefore set down in full: Johann Heinrich, by the grace of God and of the apostolic See bishop of Hierapolis, vicar general in spirituals of the most serene and most reverend archbishop and prince elector of Cologne, our lord, Lord Maximilian Henry, duke of both Bavarias etc., provost and canon presbyter respectively of the metropolitan church of Cologne and of the imperial exempt church of SS. Simon and Jude of Goslar etc., to each and all who shall see, read or hear read our present letters, everlasting greeting in the Lord. In the duty of the office of the vicariate general in spirituals entrusted to us through the city and archdiocese of Cologne,

we earnestly apply our mind to those things by which the piety and devotion of the faithful of Christ are promoted together with the salvation of souls, and we willingly attend the same faithful of Christ with special favors and graces, that they may be fostered in the exercise of pious works, as we perceive to be salutarily expedient in the Lord. For recently our beloved in Christ, the Dean and chapter of the collegiate church of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria of the town of the Monastery of the Eifel, of the archdiocese of Cologne, devoutly caused it to be set forth to us how from time immemorial in the said collegiate church there has flourished, instituted and erected, and even now indeed exists, a confraternity of the faithful of Christ of both sexes, not however for men of one special craft, in honor and under the invocation of the same holy martyrs of Christ Chrysanthus and Daria; and that this, through the injury of the times and mutual charity growing cold through the raging heresies, having in a manner collapsed and being buried in the oblivion of very many, the same Dean and Chapter aforesaid, for the greater glory of almighty God and the perpetual honor and veneration of the same Holy Martyrs, and for the stirring up of public devotion by more frequent exercises of piety and charity, not long since requested that the confraternity be renewed and restored by our former predecessor as vicar general, the most reverend Father in Christ and lord Paul Aussem, while he lived bishop of Arminia; for which reason, plenary indulgences having now also been obtained for this effect from our most holy lord, Lord Pope Innocent XI, under the 9th of the month of November 1679, they have caused it to be devoutly petitioned of us that we should deign to strengthen such renewal and restoration with the force of perpetual firmness, and thereupon to decree and to grant them suitable letters of renewal and restoration. We therefore, desiring favorably to assent to the pious desire of the same Dean and Chapter, and to promote public devotion, inclined by such supplications, have thought fit that the aforesaid confraternity in the aforementioned collegiate church under the invocation of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria of the Monastery of the Eifel should be restored and renewed, or even erected and instituted anew, so far as is needful, without prejudice to anyone, as we restore, renew or erect and institute it by the ordinary archiepiscopal authority which we exercise in this regard; by the tenor of these presents giving and granting to the brothers and sisters for the time being of the same confraternity, in the Lord, license and faculty to institute processions and to go in procession, to exercise works of devotion and charity, to recite divine offices in one oratory or chapel of the aforesaid church in the manner of confraters, and to assemble for treating the business of the same confraternity, outside however the time at which divine offices shall be celebrated there, and to make and publish whatever statutes, ordinances and decrees necessary and opportune for their salutary and the said confraternity's government and direction, lawful however and honorable, and not contrary to the sacred canons and to the decrees of the council of Trent and the apostolic constitutions, to be examined and approved by the most serene and most reverend prince and our lord, Lord Maximilian Henry, archbishop and prince Elector of Cologne, or his vicar general in spirituals, and to change, correct and reform them for the better at the time, as shall seem good to them, a like examination and approval going before; and moreover to receive each and all legacies, things and goods of whatever kind, movable and immovable, which shall have been left and bestowed by any faithful of Christ on the said confraternity by way of testament, donation or in any other manner, and to rule and administer them faithfully and diligently through their deputed officers and to spend them on the uses of the same confraternity and of its pious works, in such a way however that each year all the said officers are altogether bound to render an account of receipts and expenses and of all their administration to the same archbishop or to his vicar general in spirituals, according to the ordinance of the council of Trent. In faith of which we have ordered the present letters to be issued by the protonotary in spirituals and, subscribed by our own hand, to be strengthened with our accustomed seal. At Cologne on the thirty-first day of the month of January in the year of the Lord 1680. J. H. d'Anethan, bishop of Hierapolis, vicar general of Cologne. Hen. Jansen, protonotary in spirituals. It has been written back to me in these days that the Sodality of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria was solemnly renewed in the year 1859 on the occasion of the first communion of the children. From the year 1830 no member had been enrolled.

[61] The millennial Jubilee, celebrated in the year 1848, Mention of the millennial jubilee has already occurred elsewhere, of which we must treat more fully at this place. It should have been celebrated in the year 1844, in which a thousand years had passed from the arrival of the holy relics in the Eifel, but it was deferred for four years, namely until the day of Pentecost, or the 11th of June 1848. Since there is no doubt that the faithful both from neighboring and from more distant places will take part in the solemnity, by license of the Most Reverend Lord Archbishop of Cologne it has been ordered by the clergy of the Eifel that on the sacred day of Pentecost the Relics with their reliquary should be exposed and should remain through the whole octave in the choir above the altar of the Holy Patrons. On the three feast days and the following Sunday there will be a solemn office with exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament, which last will also be done, on the intervening weekdays, at the morning Mass. Through the whole octave there will be four or more priests who shall distribute holy communion at every hour. Finally on the Sunday after Pentecost there will be a solemn supplication, the Holy Relics accompanying it. So the clergy of the Eifel in the admonition preceding the jubilee [Jubilæum wegen der tausendjahrigen aufbewahrung der Reliquien von den HH. Martyrern Chrysanthus und Daria in der Stiftkirche zu Münstereifel, p. 18. Cologne 1848.], and there is added the following chronogram:

CHRYSANTHI NOS ATQVE DARIÆ MILLE PER ANNOS PROTEXIT, SERVET LUX ET TVTELA PER ANNOS. [The light and protection of Chrysanthus and Daria has guarded us through a thousand years; may it preserve us through the years.]

[62] with an immense concourse of people. With what concourse of people, with what solemnity, with what devotion the jubilee was carried through is declared in the same little book Pages 20 – 22.: In the week before Pentecost there was a cessation of all labor in the town of the Eifel, as is usually done in the greater cities, where the arrival of a prince or liberator of the country is awaited; and when on the vigil of the solemnity the bronze of the bell sounded, at once there came out through the whole town shrubs and other adornments of the kind, especially around and within the church, where also in the upper choir the skillfully made Reliquary with the bones of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria was raised up. This is certain, that the zeal of the inhabitants shone greater than all expectation; immense also was the concourse of outsiders, who came with their presbyters in troops, especially on the second day of Pentecost and on the feast of the Holy Trinity. Priests from the surrounding places, each surrounded with a numerous crown of his people, were at hand for the solemn supplication through the town on the last day of the octave. Three clerics carried before them as many Heads of the Holy Patrons, namely of Blessed Chrysanthus and Daria and of St. Leo; eight others likewise bore the reliquary containing the rest of the bones. In a long order there accompanied them about three thousand faithful, praying and singing. After the solemnity was completed, the crowds nevertheless flowed together to the church, and did not seem able to restrain themselves from looking upon and venerating the holy Pledges. Finally about the tenth hour of the evening the citizens came carrying torches in their hands, in order to give thanks to the Rev. Mr. Weber, chief presbyter of the town. And so an end was made of the jubilee.

[63] The present state of the Relics. The bones (not however all; the heads and some other things are missing) are wrapped in a silken cloth adorned with pearls, deposited separately in a gilded reliquary, skillfully made, but not so ancient: the relics of St. Chrysanthus in the front part, those of St. Daria in the back. On the front of the reliquary there are seen painted the effigies of the B. V. Mary (she in the middle), and of Saints Peter and Paul; those of the other apostles around the circuit. This first reliquary is enclosed in another of iron latticework, adorned with images, and those outstanding, of each holy Martyr. Moreover those sacred pledges, so locked up, are preserved in the crypt over which is placed the choir of the parish church, exceeding the rest of the nave not a little in height. From this there is access to the crypt by an elegant portico of marble, in whose middle there is a door furnished with iron railings. I have said that the heads of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria are not in the reliquary in which the rest of the bones, at least the greatest part, are contained: for those are deposited at the right side of the high altar, enclosed in reliquaries of Gothic, as they say, form. And so much on the present state of the sacred pledges, received from the Rev. Mr. Richters, present parish priest of the town of the Monastery of the Eifel. A few days before the solemnity of the millennial jubilee the relics were visited, and at that time the following instrument was drawn up, which by way of conclusion, but out of German into Latin, I subjoin: The undersigned presbyters of the parish of the Monastery of the Eifel testify that on this day they unlocked the relics of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria; and that they found all things duly closed, and the reliquary itself secured with the parish seal; in this unlocking the sacred bones were found fittingly wrapped in cotton, with certain instruments added, of which the most recent was given in the year 1818 by Mr. Schopp of pious memory, chief parish priest, who then verified the relics. At the Monastery of the Eifel on the 2nd day of June 1848. It was signed: Weber, chief parish priest. Katzfey, president of the gymnasium, Roth, catechist. Müller, chaplain. The other instruments are missing.

* of the convent?

§ VI. The Office and Mass of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria from the Propers of the Eifel and Cologne. What was written back from Rome concerning the Lessons that make mention of the Translation of the holy relics.

The proper Office of the feast; We have in hand a little book, whose title is: Office with Lessons of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, patrons of the collegiate church of the Monastery of the Eifel, emended and renewed in the year 1749, published by the press of Cologne with the approval of the Most Reverend Lord Archbishop Elector. The little book belongs to the aforesaid church, and was kindly lent to us for a time. The Antiphons, Responsories, Hymns and other things of the kind are proper and are taken from the Acts. The principal feast with an octave is celebrated on this 25th day of October. The Lessons of the First Nocturn: Brethren, we are debtors; of the Second Nocturn, they contain the beginning of the Acts up to the victory of St. Chrysanthus over the girls sent in by his father to tempt his son, but many things are omitted and the style is changed, which same holds through the Octave in the lessons of the same Nocturn; finally of the Third Nocturn a homily of St. Ambrose on the Gospel: Jesus coming down.

[64] Likewise of the first translation And on the first day of December is noted the feast of the first Translation of the Holy Patrons. The Office as on the 25th of October, except the Lessons of the First Nocturn, which are of the occurring scripture. Of the Second Nocturn the fourth is a brief compendium of the Acts; the fifth begins thus: But how the bodies of these Saints were afterwards found, when the darkness of paganism had been driven from all Italy, and exposed to public veneration in the church, it is worthy that, as far as we have received from most certain tradition, we should set before your minds for the glory of God. Then it is declared in many words that it was put into the minds of the faithful from heaven to search out the holy bodies, and God, cooperating with the pious intention by heavenly power, did not allow them to be defrauded of the desire

of theirs: for he filled the place of martyrdom with a heavenly odor and with divine ointments; after the odor of which sweetness the Christians, digging with unwearied labor, cleared away the mountain of sand heaped upon the crypt, and with exultation found the sacred treasure, namely the bodies of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, as if embracing one another, which then, religiously translated by the universal prelate of the Roman see and laid up in a church built in their honor, began to be venerated by all, both of the Greek and of the Latin church. But you, O Lord, etc. These things surely are to be corrected from what was said at n. 27 and following. The sixth Lesson sets forth how the holy bodies were handed over to Marcward at Rome to be carried into Germany, whence we are taught to what the office of the first Translation refers, namely to the relics received in the City itself by Marcward. The Lesson see below, where we treat of the office from the Cologne Proper of the year 1828.

[65] and of the second The feast of the second Translation of the Holy Patrons is proclaimed for the 26th of June. The Lessons of the First Nocturn are of the occurring scripture; those of the Second Nocturn teach that on this day it is celebrated that the Relics were brought first to the basilica of St. Goar, then to Prüm, and thence to the Eifel, and from there, once and again, as wars grew more serious, conducted elsewhere. In particular the fourth Lesson treats of the stay at St. Goar's and of the other made at Prüm, and has nothing that may not be learned from the history of the Translation to be published below. It will be helpful to recite the fifth in part: But from that time, to increase the glory of those Saints, to promote their cult and the religion of the faithful, blessed Marcward applied himself wholly: whence by divine inspiration there fell to him and to the brethren of the monastery the good counsel, namely that they should have a new monastery built to the honor of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, in which their translated bodies might rest and be religiously preserved. The matter is surely otherwise, since that monastery had already been built before Marcward's return. There follows a description of the cenobium of the Eifel and of the place in which it rises, which will be more conveniently rendered in the Annotations. At the end of the same Lesson V there are noted the following: And in the year one thousand five hundred and five, these sacred bodies, in the presence of very many prelates and abbots, reverently enclosed in a silver reliquary, are preserved in the altar formerly of St. Severinus, now of the patrons SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. But you, O Lord, etc. The sixth Lesson has thus: But afterwards, on account of dangerous times of war, by the dean of that collegiate church, with the consent of the venerable chapter, the bodies of the holy Patrons were carried to the very strongly fortified citadel of Arburg; where a tower, the gunpowder being caught from the top to the bottom, kindled by the fire of lightning, threatened the most imminent ruin to both the citadel and the adjoining town; nevertheless the tower alone was shaken with a horrible crash, the relics of the Saints being unmoved and the town in nothing harmed; which is justly credited to the patronage of the Saints with an anniversary solemnity. For a like cause the bodies of the Holy Martyrs were conducted to Cologne, and when peace had at last been established between the warring princes, they were brought back with distinguished solemnity and the pomp of all ranks to their place of rest at the Monastery of the Eifel, about the year one thousand six hundred and ninety-eight. There follow some miracles, of which elsewhere.

[66] and of the commemoration. Finally in the same Proper at the end there is placed the Office of the holy patrons Chrysanthus and Daria, for Tuesday, votive through the year. For the Second Nocturn there is placed the passage of St. Gregory of Tours, which see at n. 7, distributed into three Lessons. Nor should it be passed over that three different Prayers are prescribed: One on the very feast day, the 25th of October: O God, who grant us to celebrate the annual solemnities of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, grant, we beseech you, that we may both celebrate them with devout minds, and, their patronage meriting it, may fully gain an increase of security; another within the octaves and in commemoration: O God, who consecrated your holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria with the honor of virginity and the glory of martyrdom, grant us by their intercession to extinguish the flames of our vices, that with clean heart we may merit to become a worthy dwelling-place for you; on the second feast of the Patrons: May the prayer of your blessed martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria be with us, that those whom we venerate with service we may constantly experience in pious help; or the following: Be propitious, we beseech you, O Lord, to your servants, through the glorious merits of your holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, who rest in the present church, that by their pious intercession we may be freed from all adversities everywhere. Elsewhere, namely where there is treatment of the office for votive Tuesday, it is noted that the prayer Be propitious is to be said in Choir; but outside the Choir, the Prayer O God, who your holy martyrs etc. And all these things so far recited from the emended and renewed Office I would think persevered at least until the suppression of the collegiate church in the year 1802.

[67] The proper Mass on the first feast: Introit etc. We have among our hagiographical documents a proper Mass, printed, which I judge to be contemporary with the aforesaid office, and which bears this rubric: Mass on the first feast of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, martyrs, virgins and spouses, patrons of the collegiate church of the Monastery of the Eifel, which is celebrated on the 25th of October. Introit: Let there come in before you, etc. Prayer (in which the memory of two other Saints is to be noted): O God, who grant us to frequent the annual solemnities of your holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, Crispin and Crispinian, grant etc., as above. (From the memory of SS. Crispin and Crispinian it seems to be concluded that outstanding relics of them are preserved in that present place.) The Rubric adds: Through the octave, in place of the prayer O God, who grant us annual, etc., the following is said: O God, who your holy martyrs, as at the preceding number. Epistle: Brethren, we know that to those who love God … from the charity that is in Christ our Lord. Gradual: God is glorious in his saints, wonderful in majesty, doing prodigies. ℣ Your right hand, O Lord, is glorified in strength, your right hand has shattered the enemy. Alleluia, Alleluia. ℣ The voice of exultation and of salvation in the tabernacles of the just. Alleluia. Another Alleluia after the Octave: Alleluia, Alleluia. ℣ The holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria became companions in passion, as they had been joined by strength of mind, and as if in one couch, so in one pit they have rested. Alleluia.

[68] Sequence. Sequence: In honor of the highest King, keeping the commands of the new law, let the church shout for joy,

With the brides of heaven joined to the bridegroom, to whom in hidden places the courts of the bridegroom lie open.

These are they who hold their vessels and bring their oil with the five Wise ones;

These are they who follow the Lamb, are clothed in white robes, but born of the gentiles.

Chrysanthus, taught to spurn the life of his father, and, as knowledge night shows to night,

Day has poured forth the word; him Carpophorus cleansed by the grace of the Sacrament.

The evildoer hates the light; the father shuts up his son, who shows the ray, the guide of life.

The prison, a place welcome to the light, a brightness shines; he is placed above, not under the bushel,

The father, not that he may spare, sparing, keeping away the sight snatched by the flesh, leads him to the banquet-hall;

In which he is broken neither by thing nor by persons: for by the gifts of God marriage falls asleep.

Therefore Daria, comely of face, false of words, unlike in worship, tempts, nor Chrysanthus;

Here form is cheated by words, the chaste woman is betrothed to the chaste man, as Mary to Joseph.

Let her, overcome, be given to a harlot, they cry, but through a lion Daria is protected from the suitor.

The ewe-lamb gives back the wolf as a lamb to God, and those whom the lion took, sending them before to joys.

Chrysis, gold firm, to this saint the name Chrysanthus, the thing and reason gave;

With the tribune the whole house, with kinsmen a notable people, many souls besides,

Joined by one death, now victors, then beheaded, he sent here to the nuptials.

The couch held the spouses; the pit snatches from us both alive, who will live through the ages.

Make us here, O Christ, who are about to die, to live with these and with you without stain of the flesh.

[69] Gospel. Gospel: Jesus coming down from the mountain. Creed through the whole Octave. Offertory: Rejoice in the Lord and exult, you just, and glory, all you of upright heart. Secret: Look favorably, O Lord, on the present sacrifices that we bring to you in the commemoration of your Saints, that they may profit both our devotion and our salvation. Communion: I say to you, my friends, do not be terrified by those who persecute you. Postcommunion: Having received the blessing of the heavenly gift, we humbly beseech you, O Lord, that the same may be for us, by the intercession of your saints Chrysanthus and Daria, Crispin and Crispinian, whose feasts we keep, the cause both of the sacrament and of salvation.

[70] On the second feast and in commemoration. On the second feast of the patrons SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, which is celebrated on the Kalends of December. All as above except the collects. Prayer: May the prayer of your blessed martyrs, O Lord, Chrysanthus and Daria be with us, etc., as at n. 66. Secret: May the victim of your people, we beseech you, O Lord, be pleasing to you, which is sacrificed at the solemnities of your holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria. Postcommunion: We have been filled, O Lord, with mystical vows and joys; grant, we beseech you, that by the intercession of your blessed martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, what we perform bodily we may spiritually attain. In the commemoration of the Holy Patrons through the year. Introit: The wisdom of the saints, etc. Prayer: Be propitious, as at n. 66. Epistle: Brethren, the saints through faith conquered, etc. Gradual: God is glorious, etc.; after Septuagesima, the tract: Those who sow in tears, etc. Part of the sequence is said from that verse: Chrysis autem. Offertory: Rejoice, as above. Secret: May your clemency, we beseech you, O God, accept from our hands the gift offered, and through the prayers of your holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria cleanse us from all sins. Communion: I say to you, do not be terrified, as above. Postcommunion: Tasting the divine mysteries, O Lord, which we have offered to your majesty for the veneration of your holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, grant, we beseech you, that through them we may merit pardon of sins.

[71] The Office from the Cologne Proper of the year 1828, In the year 1804 the church of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria was made a parish church and it belongs to the archdiocese of Cologne, in whose Proper of the year 1828 I find the following on the 26th of October (on the preceding day comes the feast, major double, of St. Raphael the archangel): On the feast of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, martyrs. Semidouble. All from the common of several martyrs, except the Prayer: O God, who grant us to venerate the birthdays of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, grant us to rejoice in their society in eternal beatitude; and the Lessons of the Second Nocturn, in which, in a brief and well-corrected compendium, there are presented the martyrdom, the Finding and the Translation in this manner: Lesson IV. Chrysanthus and Daria the virgin, killed for Christ at Rome in the third century, received the crown of martyrdom. In the same century a crypt was built over their tomb: where, when a crowded people flowed together for the feast of the Saints, a heathen emperor, a wall being built in the entrance of the crypt, shut the multitude in it and killed them. In the fourth century, Christ revealing it, the bodies of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria were discovered and separated from the others, and St. Damasus the pope adorned the place with verses. Lesson V. In the sixth century a deacon of St. Gregory of Tours received from Pope Pelagius certain relics of Saints Chrysanthus

and Daria, obtained as a gift with some others, and was carrying them by ship to Marseilles; but when the keel was just about to perish on a rock, the deacon, raising up the box with the sacred pledges, with groaning invoked the names of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria and of the others whose relics were contained there; when the wind suddenly turning carried the keel happily first into the deep sea, then into port. Lesson VI. In the ninth century Marcward of venerable and blessed memory, abbot of Prüm, sent by the king to Rome, obtained from Pope Sergius the bodies of these Saints; which, carried with the greatest celebration to the monastery of Prüm, were made illustrious by many miracles. And when the same Marcward had founded another monastery in the Eifel in the archdiocese of Cologne, and had taken up its government, the sacred bodies also of Chrysanthus and Daria were translated there. Zwentibold, to honor the holy Martyrs, presented the place with a munificent diploma; and on account of the multitude of the faithful flowing together there for the sake of devotion, a town not ignoble rose up, which drew its name from the monastery founded there by Marcward.

[72] whose lessons were not approved, and in their place were substituted But here there come some things to be noted. First, that before the year 1857 no Cologne Proper was had that was approved by the holy See, although already from the year 1646 it was published in separate print by Archbishop Ferdinand, and afterwards several times reprinted; secondly that Maximilian Frederick, likewise archbishop, in the year 1780 prepared a new edition of the Cologne breviary, which came closer to the Roman breviary of St. Pius V, and at the same time submitted to the press the Proper of his diocese, adjusted, as far as could be done, to the norm of that breviary; thirdly, that from this were taken the Lessons of the Second Nocturn on SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, which are read inserted in the Proper of the year 1828, from which I recited them at the preceding number; fourthly, that another was composed with new care in later years, which indeed was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites by a decree of the 27th of November 1857; fifthly and finally, that the same Congregation wished the Lessons on SS. Chrysanthus and Daria to be struck out, and in their place those to be used which are found in the Lateran Proper. The Most Eminent Lord Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne had requested, by letters sent to Rome on the 2nd of May 1857, that it might be permitted to compile from the three Lateran ones the first two Lessons of the Second Nocturn, the third being retained from the Cologne Proper, which begins In the ninth century and pertains to the relics of the Eifel. The reply was made by the Sacred Congregation on the 7th day of August of the same year 1857 in these words: Nor of less moment is the reason by which the sacred Congregation is compelled to abstain from admitting the third request (the first two pertained, the one to a certain hymn, the other to the Lessons on St. Ursula), which concerns the Lessons of the second Nocturn on the feast of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria. For although the Sacred Congregation intends to bring no prejudice to the foundations of the tradition according to which the monastery of Prüm (sic) boasts that it possesses the bodies of these holy Martyrs, since nevertheless it is not unaware that their bodies were venerated from most ancient times here at Rome, and are still venerated by the faithful under the high altar of the patriarchal Lateran basilica, in order to avoid critical questions, it judges it prudent that, any mention in the Lessons of the place where the bodies of the aforesaid holy Martyrs lie being omitted, the same Lessons be recited in the diocese of Cologne as are customarily used by the Lateran clergy. It was signed: For the Most Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinal Patrizi, prefect of the S. C. of R.… A. Card. Fieschi. At length the Proper was approved, as I have said, with this restriction for the office of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria placed at the margin of the copy submitted: Note. In the Second and Third Nocturn there shall be recited the Lessons long since approved by the S. C. of R. for the Lateran church, a copy of which is exhibited in the annexed sheet. It will be helpful to set down the Lateran lessons:

[73] The Lessons from the Lateran proper. Lesson IV. Chrysanthus of Alexandria came to Rome together with his father Polemius, an illustrious man of senatorial rank, where, led by the divine spirit to the knowledge of the true Divinity, he also happily converted to the faith Daria, his betrothed, whom his father, in order that he might be called back from the faith of Christ, had betrothed to him after a very harsh imprisonment. It is wonderful how many temptations he had before endured from his impious father and from demons, but the unconquered spirit of the Athlete of Christ bore itself so bravely, and eluded all the arts and strength of his adversaries, that he was an object of admiration and an example to all. Lesson V. Wherefore at Rome they converted to Christ an innumerable multitude, she of women, he of men. Having seized them therefore, Celerinus the prefect handed them over to Claudius the tribune, who ordered Chrysanthus to be bound and tortured by the soldiers with the sharpest torments; but all the bonds were loosed, and the fetters into which he had been thrown were shattered. Lesson VI. Then, enclosed in an ox-hide, they set him in the most burning sun: then, his feet and hands being bound by a chain, they thrust him down into a dark prison; where, the chains being loosed, a most brilliant light illumined the place. And Daria, thrust down into a brothel, was divinely defended by a lion that had escaped from its cage, so that no one might approach her. Finally in the sandpit that is on the Via Salaria, both, the earth being dug out, were thrown into a pit and overwhelmed with stones, and obtained a like crown of martyrdom. This one thing is to be noted at this place, that Lesson V is almost word for word the same as that which is had as the II (for the office is of a simple feast) in the Roman breviary, except that in this one at the beginning some things are recorded of the race of our Saints, which, more developed, are the material of the IV in the Lateran proper; and that Lesson VI differs only by a few words from the III, which is found in the aforesaid Roman breviary.

ΒΙΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΙΟΝ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΧΡΥΣΑΝΘΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΔΑΡΕΙΑΣ.

LIFE AND PASSION OF THE HOLY MARTYRS CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA.

From Coislin codex CX, fol. 35 verso et seqq., collated with Colbert codex 1540, fol. 65 recto et seq., and with the Vatican copy.

Chrysanthus, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

Daria, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 1787

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PREFACE.

The examples of the Saints teach us to despise earthly things and to pant after heavenly ones.

Τὴν ἱστορίαν τῆς ἀθλήσεως τῶν προγεγονότων ἁγίων πρὸς ἡμετέραν οἰκοδομὴν καὶ ὠφέλειαν ὁ Θεός ηὐδόκησε παραστῆσαι, οὐχ ἵνα ἐπαίνοις θνητῶν ἐκείνοις κορέσῃ οὕστινας ἀθανάτου εὐωχίας ἡξίωσεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἳνα ἡμᾶς τῷ ἐκείνων ὑποδεὶγματὶ ἐκδιδάζῃ τῶν ἡδονῶν τοῦ παρόντος βίου περιφρονεῖν καὶ ὑπὲρ πορισμοῦ τῆς αἰωνίου δόξης τὴν πρόσκαιρον καί παράγουσαν θλίψιν μὴ δεδιέναι. Πᾶς γὰρ πόνος σωματικὸς, εἰ μὲν ἔστι κουφότερος, εὐφόρητος ὑπάρχει· εἰ δὲ βαρὺς, σύντομον τὸ τέλος ἐπάγει. Εἰ οὖν τὰ ἀμφότερα φόβον ἔχει, ἀναγκαίον πρὸς τὸ ἐκφυγεὶν ἐκεῖνον τὸν αἰώνιον θάνατον τούτου καταφρονῆσαι. Εἰ γὰρ αὗται αἱ ἀλγηδόνες αἱ σήμερον ἐπιοῦσαι καὶ αὔριον ἀφανιζόμεναι οὕτω χαλεπαὶ ὑπάρχουσι, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἐκεῖναι αἱ μὴ ἔχουσαι τέλος; Καὶ αὗται μὲν εἰκόνα ἔχουσι τῶν προσφερόντων ἑαυτοὺς ταῖς τῶν ἰατρῶν περιοδείαις ὑγείας χάριν τέμνεσθαι ἢ φλέγεσθαι καυτῆρσιν ἢ πικροτάτων πομάτων μετέχειν τὴν τοῦ θανάτου δειλίαν ἐπτοημένων ὧν τὸ πικρὸν οὐ παραιτοῦνται, καὶ τὸ πῦρ οὐ δεδοίκασι καὶ σίδηρον οὐκ ἀποστρέφονται. Ἔι δὲ ὁ θάνατος τῆς σφαλερᾶς ταύτης ζωῆς καὶ ἀπίστου χρυσίῳ ἐξαγοράζεται τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτὴν, καί ὑποφέρουσι πόνους σιδήρου και πυρὸς καὶ πικρίας μετάληψιν, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἐπιχειρεῖν δεῖ τοῖς ἑκοντὶ καὶ δωρὲαν περιεχομένοις παθήμασιν; Ἃ ποιοῦσιν ἡμᾶς πρὸς ὀλίγον ταπεινοῦσθαι, ὅπως εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς ὑψωθῶμεν, καὶ ποιοῦσιν ἡμῖν πικρὰς βασάνους, ὅπως μετάσχωμεν αἰωνίου γλυκύτητος, ἅπερ ἔχουσιν ἐμπυρισμὸν δραπετεύοντα, ὅπως αἰωνίου ἀναψύζεως μέτοχοι γενώμεθα. Ταῦτα σκοποῦντες οἱ τοῦ Θεοῦ μάρτυρες, ἵνα καὶ τὴν κατὰ τῶν πολεμίων νίκην ἄρωνται, πᾶν γένος παθῶν τε καὶ βασάνων γελῶντες μᾶλλον ἢ φοβηθέντες ὑπέμειναν, πιστεύοντες ὅτι αἰωνίαν ζωὴν καὶ δόξαν κερδανοῦσι τῆς προσκαίρου περιφρονήσαντες, καὶ τὸ αἰώνιον πῦρ διαφεύζονται τὸ πρόσκαιρον ὑπομεῖναντες. Τοιγαροῦν καὶ ἡμεῖς τὴν τοιαύτην δόξαν ἐπιποθήσαντες διαπτύσωμεν τὰ τοῦ κόσμου σὺν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις αὐτοῦ καὶ τῶν ἁγίων τὰ ὑπομνήματα ἄνευ ζοφερὰς ἀπιστίας καθαρᾷ διανοίᾳ ἐξαγορεύσωμεν, τὴν ἱστορίαν Χρυσάνθου καὶ Δαρείας ἐν τῷδε τῷ μετὰ χεῖρας λόγῳ διαχαράζαντες, οὐ τοσούτῳ ἡμῖν τοῖς πιστεύσασιν, ὅσῳ μᾶλλον τοῖς μέλλουσι πιστεύειν ἐπωφελῆ γινομένην γινώσκοντες.

God has willed that the history of former Saints should reach us for our edification , not that he might feed with the praises of mortals those whom he refreshes with immortal banquets; but that he might teach us by their example to despise the blandishments of the present world, and for the acquisition of supernal glory not to fear passing momentary distress ^c. For all labor is either light, and can be borne; or heavy, and imposes an end. But if each is to be feared, it is reasonable that that which is eternal should not be disdained ^d. For if these pains, which threaten today and are emptied tomorrow ^e … are so dire and so heavy; how heavy will those pains be which so begin that they grow daily, so take their beginning that they can in no way end ^f. This image, finally, is borne by those who allow themselves to be cut by physicians, or burned with cauteries, or wounded by most bitter potions: for, thoroughly frightened by fear of death, they both seek bitterness, and do not dread fires, and do not shudder at the steel ^g. If therefore, for love of this life, which does not know how to keep faith with its lovers, pains of fire and bitternesses are bought with gold; we should rejoice in gratuitous sufferings, which, coming of their own accord, make us humble for a time, that we may be exalted forever; they make us incur now momentary bitternesses, that we may take hold of everlasting sweetnesses; they cause for us the heats of a fleeting burning, that they may make us partakers of everlasting refreshment. With this view the martyrs of Christ, that they might gain a triumph over their enemies, endured all kinds of sufferings, laughing rather than fearing; believing that they would both acquire everlasting glory by spurning the temporal, and escape eternal fire by bearing the present burning. Delighted therefore by the glories * of these men, let us spurn the world with all its delights, and let us recite the deeds of the saints without the cloud of unbelief, with a most serene mind, namely the history of Chrysanthus and Daria, destined to profit both us who believe and all who shall believe ^h.

ANNOTATIONS.

were written by Varinus and Armenius, who in a codex sent to our predecessors by Father Alexander Wiltheim are called notaries of the Roman church, and are said to have formerly written our Acts at Rome under the emperor Numerian. Wiltheim followed the common opinion.

* Another reading: victory.

* In the Greek: of the contest of the Saints who went before.

* Greek: and usefulness.

* Another reading: everlasting.

* Another reading: hastening.

* Greek: bodily labor.

* Greek: easily.

* Gr. has a swift end.

* by examples.

CHAPTER I.

St. Chrysanthus, very illustrious by birth and gifts of mind, believing in Christ, is baptized. Harshly tempted by his father, he is not torn from the love of chastity, but leads Daria, the vanity of the gods being recognized, to bind herself by a vow of virginity, marriage with Chrysanthus however being feigned.

Πολέμιος τις ἀνὴρ τῶν συγκλητικῶν, ἐκ πόλεως Ἀλεξανδρείας, ἔντιμος καὶ πρῶτος, εἰς τὴν Ῥωμαίων πόλιν ἅμα Χρυσάνθῳ τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ παρεγένετο. Ὑπεδέξατο δὲ αὐτὸν ἡ τῶν Ῥωμαίων σύγκλητος, καὶ μεγίσταις τιμαῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως Νουμεριανοῦ λαμπρύνεται καὶ τὴν καθέδραν ἐν τῇ συγκλήτῳ Ῥωμαίων ἐδέξατο. Οὗτος τὸν μονογενῆ υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Χρύσανθον πᾶσαν τῶν ἐλευθερίων λόγων φιλοπονίαν ἐκπαιδείσας, τῇ τῶν φιλοσόφων σπουδῇ παραδέδοκεν. Ἦν δὲ εὐφυὴς ὁ νεανίσκος πρὸς τὴν μάθησιν. Οἵας γὰρ συνέσεως καὶ φρονήσεως ὑπῆρχεν, ἡ τῶν πραγμάτων ἔκβασις ἀναδιδάξειε· καὶ γὰρ ἐν τῷ αὐτὸν πᾶσαν τὴν τῶν βιβλίων συγγραφὴν διερευνᾷν ἀκριβῶς, ἐπὶ τὰς τῶν Εὐαγγελίων γραφὰς ἔφθασε· καὶ προσπήζας τοῦ τοῖς τῆς ἰδίας φροντίδος τὸν αὐχένα, ἔλεγε πρὸς ἔαυτόν· Ἐπί τοσουτόν σοι ἔπρεπε, Χρύσανθε, ἡ διὰ τῶν βιβλίων τοῦ σκότους ἀνάγνωσις, ἕως οὗ φθάσῃς πρὸς τὸ φῶς τῆς ἀληθείας. Οὐκ ἔστω οὗν συνέσεως οὐδὲ φρονήσεως, ἵνα ἐν τῷ σκότει ἐπανέλθω ἐκ τοῦ φωτός· ἀπόλλυμεν γὰρ εἰς ὅπερ κεκοπιάκαμεν, ἐὰν τὸν καρπὸν τῶν πόνων ἀποβαλωμεν· ὁ γὰρ καρπὸς τῶν πόνων μου οὗτος ἐστιν, ὁ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ δοθεὶς τοῖς ζητοῦσι· καὶ γὰρ ἀνέγνωμεν τὸν Θεὸν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις προστεταχέναι· “Ζητεῖτε καὶ εὑρήσετε.” Ὃ οὖν ἐζητήσαμεν καὶ εὕρομεν, ἐὰν καταλίπωμεν, ἐσόμεθα ἄφροσι καὶ μωροῖς ὅμοιοι. Κρατήσωμεν τοίνυν ἀσφαλῶς ὅπερ κρατῆσαι δεῖ ὅλῃ τῇ διανοίᾳ· καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐπαχθῆ καταλείψωμεν. Γενήσεται ζημία μεγάλη τῆς μοχθησᾶς μου ἐρεύνης, ἐὰν μή κρατήσω γενναίως ὅπερ εὗρον. Ἐπὶ πολὺ κέκμηκα ζητῶν. Εὗρον τὸ χρυσίον· εὗρον τὸ ἀργύριον· εὗρον λίθους τιμίους. Τούτου χάριν ἐπεζὴτησα, ἵνα εὕρω καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εὗρον ἵνα κτήσωμαι. Οὐκ ἀνέξομαι διαρπαγῆναι παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ ὅπερ εὗρον. Χρήσομαι, ἀπολαύσω· διότι ταῦτὰ ἐστι τὰ πρωτεὶα τῶν ἐμῶν κόπων· ἅπερ ἐάν ἀποβάλῳ, μανήσομαι μάτην ζητήσας.

[3] Καὶ ταῦτα εἰπὼν, περιῄει ζητῶν τίς ἐστι τῶν θείων Γραφῶν ὁ παιδευτής· καὶ καθὼς ἠκηκόει παρὰ τοῖς ῥήτορσι τῶν γραμματικῶν καὶ ῥητόρων, οὔτως ἐπεπόθει ἰδιώτας διδασκάλους καὶ ἁλιεῖς εὑρεῖν· ἀνέγνω γὰρ τὸν Ἀπόστολον λέγοντα· “Ποῦ σοφὸς, ποῦ γραμματεὺς, ποῦ συζητητὴς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου;” Καὶ ὅτι ἐπειδὴ διὰ τῶν σοφῶν ὁ κόσμος οὐκ εὐηρέστησεν, ηὐδόκησεν ὁ Θεὸς διὰ τῆς μωρίας τοῦ κηρύγματος σῶσαι τοὺς πιστεύοντας. Ταῦτα καθ᾽ ἑκάστην συλλογιζόμενος, καὶ τοὺς τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐπιζητῶν θεράποντας, συναντᾷ τινι, ὃς ἔλεγεν ἐγνωκέναι ἄνδρα τινὰ Χριστιανὸν ὀνόματι Καρποφόρον πεπαιδευμένον ἐν ταῖς Γραφαῖς, οἰκοῦντα ἐν τῷ ὄρει ἐν σπηλαίῳ τινὶ διὰ τὴν ἀσέβειαν τοῦ τότε διωγμοῦ καὶ οὐδεὶς ᾔδει τὸν τόπον ἐι μὴ ὀλίγοι τινὲς τῶν πάντων. Ἀκούσας ταῦτα ὁ Χρύσανθος, ἐχάρη λίαν, καί κρατήσας τὰ γόνατα τοῦ διηγουμένου, παρεκάλει μετὰ δακρύων ἵνα ὑποδείξῃ αὐτῷ τὸν τόπον ὅπου ἦν ὁ ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Θεοῦ. Γίνεται Θεοῦ προνοίᾳ τοῦτο, ὅπερ τῇ πίστει ἐπεζήτησε καί παραγενόμενος πρὸς τὸν ἅγιον Καρποφόρον τὸν πρεσβύτερον, εἴσω ὀλίγων μηνῶν πάσας τὰς θείας Γραφὰς ἐπαιδεύθη· καὶ γέγονεν ἐπεστηριγμένος τῇ πίστει καὶ τέλειος ἐν Χριστῷ, ὡς μετὰ ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας τοῦ βαπτισθῆναι αὐτὸν Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ δημοσίᾳ κηρύττειν.

[4] Τότε τινὲς τῶν εὐγενῶν αὐτοῦ ἄνδρες ἐμφανεῖς καὶ δυνατοὶ, ἀκούσαντες αὐτοῦ, προσῆλθον τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ λέγοντες ὅτι κατὰ τῆς ὑπολήψεώς σου καὶ τῆς σῆς κεφαλῆς ἐτόλμησεν οὗτος ὁ νεανίας τοιαῦτα κατὰ τῶν Θεῶν κηρῦξαι. Λέγει γὰρ τινα Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ὑπάρχειν ἀληθινὸν Θεὸν· ὅπερ ἐὰν ἀκουσθῇ ἐπὶ τοῦ βασιλέως, οὔτε ἡμῖν οὔτε σοι ἔσται * συγγνωστόν. Τίς γὰρ τολμήσει τοιούτοις ἐπιχειρεῖν εἰ μὴ ὁ παρὰ τοὺς νόμους τῶν Ῥωμαίων πράττων ἀκολάστως; Ὀργισθεὶς δὲ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ, ᾧ τὸ ἐπίκλην Πολέμιος, ἐποίησεν αὐτὸν ἐγκλεισθῆναι ἐν σκοτεινῷ καὶ ἀκαθάρτῳ τόπῳ, καὶ ἐν ἑσπεριναῖς ὥραις καὶ μόνον βραχυτάτης μεταλαμβάνειν τροφῆς τοῦτον. Ὁ δὲ ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Θεοῦ Χρύσανθος πρὸς γυμνασίαν μᾶλλον ἢ τιμωρίαν ἑαυτοῦ ἀπεδέχετο τὸ γινόμενον. Ἠκούσθη δὲ τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐλαλεῖτο· καὶ τις τῶν ἀκουσάντων λέγει τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ· Εἰ βούλει τὸν υἱὸν σου ἐκ ταύτης τῆς ὑποθέσεως ἀποσπᾶσαι, μᾶλλον αὐτὸν ἐν τρυφῇ καὶ ἡδοναῖς διάγειν παρασκεύασον· καὶ τινι εὐειδεστάτῃ κόρῃ καὶ συνετῇ πρὸς συζυγίαν σύναψον, ἵνα, μαθὼν ὅτι ἐστὶν ἀνὴρ, ἐπιλάθηται τοῦ εἶναι Χριστιάνος· καὶ γὰρ ταύτας τὰς σκοτίας καὶ τὰς θλίψεις, ἃς σὺ πρὸς τιμωρίαν αὐτῷ ἐπάγεις, οἱ Χριστιανοὶ πρὸς δόξαν καὶ ἔπαινον ἔχουσιν.

[5] Ἀκούσας δὲ ταῦτα ὁ Πολέμιος κελεύει τρίκλινον σηρικοῖς κοσμηθῆναι ἱματίοις καὶ προσαγαγὼν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ σκοτεινοῦ οἰκήματος ἐνέδυσε πολύτιμον ἐσθῆτα, καὶ ἔθετο ἐντῷ τρικλίνῳ. Ἐπιλεξάμενος δὴ εὐειδεστάτας παρθένους ἐκ τῆς θεραπείας αὐτοῦ καὶ κατακοσμήσας ἐσθῆτι, καὶ κόσμῳ καλλωπίσας συνέκλεισεν ἅμα τῷ Χρυσάνθῳ κελεύσας ἐν πάσῃ τρυφῇ διάγειν, ἀπειλήσας ταῖς παρθένοις ὅτι, ἐὰν μὴ αὐτὸν ἀποσπάσωσιν ἐκ τοῦ Χριστιανικοῦ σκοποῦ πρὸς τὰς ἡδονὰς αὐτὸν καθελκύσασαι, κακῶς ἀπολέσει αὐτάς. Ἤγετο οὖν ἐν παιγνίοις κορῶν ὁ ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀμετάθετον ἔχων τὸν λογισμὸν, τῆς τε ἀπολαύσεως τῶν ἐδεσμάτων καταφρονῶν, ταῖς τε παρθένοις ὡς ἀσπίσι προσέχων *. Ἔκειτο δὲ χαμαὶ εἰς προσευχὴν ἀκίνητος· τὰ δὲ περιλήμματα αὐτῶν, καθάπερ βελῶν τρώσεις, τῷ θυρεῷ τῆς πίστεως ἀπεκρούετο, καὶ ἐβόα πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν λέγων·

[6] Ἀνάστηθι, Κύριε, εἰς τὴν βοήθειάν μου. Εἶπον τῇ ψυχῇ μου· Σωτηρία σου εἰμὶ ἐγώ. Τίς γὰρ τοῦτον τὸν πόλεμον ὃν ἐπήγειρεν ὁ διάβολος, καταπαλαῖσαι δυνήσεται, ἐὰν μὴ ἡ σὴ ὑπερασπίσειε βραβεύουσα δεξιά; Πλανᾶται ὁ δοκῶν ἰδίοις κατορθώμασι κρατεῖν τῆς λαγνείας, ἐὰν μὴ τῷ σῷ ὑετῷ αἱ τῆς σαρκὸς φλόγες ἀποσβεσθῶσιν. Οὐ δυνήσεται ψυχὴ φθάσαι πρὸς τὰς σὰς αὐλὰς, ἐὰν μὴ σὺ ὁδηγήσῃς αὐτήν· ἔστι γὰρ ἡδονὴ θηρίον πονηρὸν ἐν τῇ ὕλῃ του βίου κεκρυμμένον πρὸς τὸ καταπιεῖν ψυχάς. Ἐὰν δέ τις τούτου τὰ δήγματα ἐκφύγη, σοὶ τῷ Θεῷ τὴν εὐχαριστίαν εἰλικρινῶς προσφέρει· ὅτι σὸν ἐστι τὸ ῥύσασθαι . Οὕτω καὶ ὁ μακάριος θεράπων σου Ἰωσὴφ ἐξέφυγε τὰς χεῖρας τῆς μαινάδος, ὡς ἐκ θηρὸς ἀνημέρου, τῇ σῇ συμμαχίᾳ. Ὅν καὶ θρηνῶν ὁ πατὴρ ἔλεγε περὶ αὐτοῦ· Θηρίον πονηρὸν κατέφαγεν αὐτόν· θηρίον πονηρὸν ἥρπασε· τὸν Ἰωσὴφ καὶ οὐκ ἤθελε

τὸ καθόλου παρακληθῆναι περὶ αὐτοῦ. Ἀληθῶς οὗτος ἦν Ἰακὼβ, Κύριε, ᾧ οὐδὲν ἔκρυβες. Ὅτε δὲ ἔλεγον οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ· Ἐπίγνωθι εἰ χιτὼν τοῦ υἱοῦ σου ἐστὶν, οὐκ ἐγνώρισας αὐτῷ, ἀλλ᾽ ἔκρυψας ἵνα πατρικοῖς δάκρυσι βοηθηθῆ· καὶ γὰρ συνήντησεν αὐτῷ θηρίον πονηρὸν ἡ γυνὴ Πετεφρῆ και καθάπερ λέαινα, οὕτω τοῖς ὄνυξιν αὐτὸν ἐπεσπάσατο· καὶ τὸ δεινότερον ἐνήδρευσεν ἵνα μόνον αὐτὸν εὕρῃ καταμόνος. Ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἦν μόνος διότι πατρικαῖς αὐτοῦ ἱκεσίαις ἐσκέπετο· διὰ τοῦτο συνεχώρησας θρηνεῖν αὐτὸν ἐκ βάθους καρδίας τὸν πατέρα ἵνα δικαίου βοηθείᾳ κουφισθῇ τὸ μειράκιον· ἡδονὴ γὰρ ὑπῆρχε τὸ θηρίον τὸ πονηρὸν, δι᾽ ἧς αὐτὸν ὁ διάβολος καὶ ἡ γυνὴ ἐπολέμει. Ὅπου σάρξ καὶ αἷμα καὶ νεότητος εὐπρεπὴς ἰδέα, ὅπου νεότης, καὶ ἐρεθισμὸς ὀφθαλμῶν· ἐκεῖ καὶ δυναστεία δεσποτικὴ, καὶ προτροπή αἰσχρότητος ἐξουσιαστικῆς· ἐκεῖ κόσμος δελεάζων ὀφθαλμοὺς χρυσίῳ καὶ μαργαρίταις συγκείμενος καὶ λίθῳ τιμίῳ καὶ ἀρωμάτων εὐωδίᾳ· ἐκεῖ περιλήμματα τῆς καταπόσεως τοῦ θανάτου πρόξενα· ἐν τούτοις πᾶσι μόνον εὗρεν ὡς ἀρνίον καὶ κατέσχεν ἡ λέαινα. Ἀλλὰ τοῦτον ἡ σὴ χεὶρ, Κύριε, ἐκ στόματος τοῦ θηρίου ἐῤῥύσατο· καὶ γὰρ τοῖς ἀναγγέλλουσι τῷ Ἰακὼβ ὅτι “Ὁ υἱός σου ζῆ” εἶπεν . “Μέγα μοί ἐστιν εἰ ὁ υἱός μου ζῇ” “Θαυμαστόν,” φησί, “τοῦτο· εἰ τὸ θηρίον ἐκεῖνο το πονηρὸν ἐξέφυγε καὶ ζῇ· διότι Θεὸς ἦν, “φησὶ,” μετὰ Ἰωσήφ, καὶ πάντα ὅσα ἐποίει *, Κύριος εὐώδου ἐν χερσὶν αὐτοῦ.” Καὶ τὰ νῦν κἀγὼ, Κύριε, σοὶ ἐξομολογούμενος ἱκετεύω, καὶ τὴν παρὰ σοῦ βοήθειαν κατὰ τούτων τῶν ὄφεων αἰτοῦμαι, ἵν᾽ ὥσπερ οἱ ὄφεις κοιμίζονται πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἐπαοιδοῦ ἐπιλαλιὰν, οὕτω καὶ αὗται ἀποκοιμηθῶσιν ἐμοῦ εὐχομένου· ὅπως μηδεμιᾶς ἡδονῆς πόλεμόν μοι ἐπεγείρωσιν· ὅτι σε ἐγνωκα ἀληθινὸν Θεόν ὅς ἐν ἀνθρώποις τοῖς εἰς σὲ πεπιστευκόσιν ἐπισκιάζεις δύναμιν ἀκαταμάχητον.

[7] Καὶ πληρώσαντος τοῦ Χρυσάνθου τὴν εὐχὴν, ἐν τοσούτῳ ὕμνῳ συνέπεσον αἱ παρθένοι, ὡς, ἐὰν μὴ ἐξηνέχθησαν ἐκ τοῦ τρικλίνου ἔξω, οὐδαμῶς διυπνίζοντο. Μετελάμβανον οὖν τροφῆς ἔξω. Ἐν δὲ τῷ εἰσελθεῖν ὅπου ἦν ὁ Χρύσανθος προσευχόμενος ὕπνῳ βαρεῖ κατεφέροντο. Μηνύεται ταῦτα τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ ὑπὸ τῶν τὴν φροντίδα ἀναδεξαμένων, καὶ λοιπὸν ἐθρήνει αὐτὸν ὡς νεκρόν. Λέγει αὐτῷ τις τῶν φίλων αὐτοῦ· Οὗτος τὴν μαγικὴν ὑπὸ τῶν Χριστιανῶν μεμάθηκε, καὶ κατὰ ἁπλουστέρων κορῶν εὐχερῶς ἐνίσχυσε ταῖς ἐπῳδαῖς. Ἀλλὰ πεπαιδευμένην τινὰ καὶ συνετὴν ἀπόστειλον πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ δυνήσεται αὐτὸν πρὸς τὸ σὸν θέλημα καὶ πρὸς τὰς ἑαυτῆς ἡδονὰς ἑλκυσαι. Λέγει ὁ Πολέμιος· Καὶ ποῦ εὑρήσω τοιαύτην κόρην ἥτις τοῦτο δυνήσεται ποιῆσαι; Ἀπεκρίθη ὁ φίλος αὐτοῦ· Ἔστιν ἐν ταῖς παρθένοις τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς μία περικαλλὴς, εὐειδής τε προσώπῳ λίαν, ἀστεία τε καὶ συνετὴ, καὶ πᾶσαν ῥητορικὴν πεπαιδευμένη, καὶ ὁ καιρὸς αὐτὴν καλεῖ πρὸς γάμον. Προφθάσωμεν οὖν, καί ἡμεῖς αὐτὴν αἰτησώμεθα· καὶ γνωρίσωμεν αὐτῇ περὶ τοῦ παιδὸς, ἵνα αὐτὸν ἀποστάσῃ τοῦ ἐπιτηδεύματος, καὶ αὐτῷ συναφθῇ. Πληροῦνται ταῦτα· καὶ συντίθεται αὐτοῖς ἡ παρθένος τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ὀνόματι Δαρεία .

[8] Τότε καλλωπισθεῖσα ἐσθῆτι λαμπρᾷ καὶ κόσμῳ πολυτελεῖ, εἰσῄει πρὸς τὸν Χρύσανθον ἐκλάμπουσα * μετὰ παῤῥησίας καὶ λόγοις παρακλητικοῖς κολακεύουσα καὶ πολλὴν πιθανολογίαν ἀπάτης αὐτῷ προσφθέγγεται, γλυκύτητι ῥημάτων τρέψαι αὐτὸν βουλομένη τῆς προθέσεως. Ὁ δὲ Χρύσανθος τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ βοηθείᾳ τοῦ πονηροῦ τὰ βέλη ἐν τῷ ὅπλῳ τῆς πίστεως ἀπεκρούετο, καὶ ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ τὸ ἅγιον ἐπικαλεσάμενος Πνεῦμα ἤρξατο λέγειν πρὸς αὐτὴν· Εἰ ἐμοὶ θνητῷ ἀνθρώπῳ, θαυμασία παρθὲνε, διὰ τὴν πρόσκαιρον συνουσίαν τοσαύτην σου τῆς εὐπρεπείας τὴν κοσμότητα παρέσχες, τοσαύτην γλυκύτητα τῶν μελιῤῥύτων λόγων προσήνεγκας, ὥστε τὴν πρόθεσιν τοῦ σκοποῦ τῆς ἐμῆς ψυχῆς ἀνακόψαι ἑτέρῳ πόθῳ κρατουμένην, καὶ καταναγκάσαι βούλει μου τὸν νοῦν εἰς ἃ οὐ βούλεται· πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἐπιποθοῦσα τὸν ἀθάνατον βασιλέα τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Υἱὸν δυνήσῃ, εἴ γε βουληθείης, εὑρεῖν; Εἰ γὰρ τὴν ψυχήν σου σὺν τῷ σώματι καθαρὰν καὶ ἄσπιλον αὐτῷ φυλάξεις, καὶ καθάπερ τῷ σώματι, οὕτω καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ καλλωπισθῇς, καὶ ὥσπερ ἔξωθεν διαλάμπεις, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἔνδοθεν διακοσμηθῇς· ἔσονται σοι πρόξενοι ἄγγελοι, νυμφαγωγοὶ ἀπόστολοι, φίλοι μάρτυρες, ὁ Χριστὸς νυμφίος, ὅστις σοι παστὸν κατασκευάσει ἐν οὐρανῷ ἀφθάρτοις λίθοις καὶ μαργαρίταις κατηρτισμένον, δώσει σοι κτῆσιν ἐν παραδείσῳ τρυφῆς αἰωνίου, φερνιεῖ σοι φερνὴν ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆς αἰωνίου· ἀνακαινιεῖ σοι ἄνθος ἀμαράντινον νεότητος.

[9] Πρὸς ταῦτα Δαρεία κατανυγεῖσα φησίν· Οὐδεμία ἔρωτος αἰτία, ὦ νεανία, τούτῳ τῷ σχήματί με κοσμηθεῖσαν ἤγαγεν ἐνθάδε ἀλλὰ τοῦ πατρός σου οἰκτείρασα τὰ δάκρυα τοῦτῳ τῷ σχήματι πρόσειμί σοι. Ὅθεν ἐπιποθῶ καὶ τῷ πατρί σε ἀποδοῦναι καὶ εἰς τὴν τῶν θεῶν ἀνακαλέσασθαι λατρείαν. Χρύσανθος ἔφη· Εἰ ἐπίστασαι τίνα ἅπερ μοι ἀληθῆ τῷ λόγῳ ἀποδείξειας, θήσω τὸν νοῦν, καὶ μετὰ ἀκριβείας ἀκροάσομαί σου, ὥστε πρὸς τὸ κοινῇ συμφέρον ἡδέως ἀκούσεις καὶ λαλήσεις. Δαρεία εἶπεν· Ὑπὲρ πάντα τὰ συμφέροντα καὶ ἀναγκαῖα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἔγνωμεν οὐδὲν οὕτω χρησιμώτερον ἢ τὸ θεῖον ὑπερυψοῦν και τὰς μεγίστας δυνάμεις τῶν θεῶν μηδαμῶς δι᾽ ἀπείθειαν εἰς ὀργὴν κινεῖν. Χρύσανθος ἔφη· Ὦ σοφωτάτη παρθένε, ποίαν ἡμᾶς δοκεῖς τοῖς θεοῖς θεραπείαν παρέχειν; Δαρεία εἶπεν· Ἐκείνην δι᾽ ἦς καὶ αὐτοὶ ἡμῶν γενήσονται φύλακες, Χρύσανθος εἶπεν· Τίνι τρόπῳ δυνήσονται ἡμῶν ὑπάρχειν φύλακες, οἵτινες ὑπὸ κυνῶν φυλάσσονται ἵνα μὴ διὰ νυκτῶν ὑπὸ κλεπτῶν διαρπαγῶσι, καὶ ἵνα μὴ ὑπό τινων καταβληθῶσι, σιδηρώ καθηλοῦνται, καὶ μολύβδῳ ἀσφαλίζονται; Δαρεία εἶπεν· Εἰ τὸ ἄπειρον πλῆθος τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἠδύνατο ἄνευ τῶν εἰκόνων τούτων ἐκτελέσαι τὴν λατρείαν , οὐκ ἂν ἦν ταῦτα ἀναγκαίον τὰ ἐκτυπώματα παριστᾷν ἢ καταρτίζειν Αὗται δὲ αἱ εἰκόνες ἐν μαρμάρῳ γλύφονται καὶ ἐν χρυσῷ καὶ ἀργύρῳ καὶ χολκῷ χωνεύονται, ὅπως τοῖς ἰδίοις ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁ θεραπευτὴς κατανοῇ ἐκεῖνον, ὃν διδάσκεται τῇ διανοίᾳ θρησκεύειν καὶ φοβεῖσθαι. Ἀπεκρίθη Χρύσανθος· Ἐπιζητήσωμεν οὖν τίνος * ὑπάρχουσιν αἱ εἰκόνες αὗται, ὅπως ἴδωμεν εἰ τούτοις ἀξίαν τὴν τιμὴν τῆς θρησκείας ὀφείλομεν ἀπονέμειν. Θέος οὐ δύναται νομισθῆναι οὔτε πιστευθῆναι ὅτι μὴ πάσης ἁγιωσύνης καὶ δικαιοσύνης καὶ πάσης ὑπερέχοι δόξης.

[10] Τί οὖν χρήσιμον ὁ Κρόνος ὁ δρεπανηφόρος ἔσχεν, ὅς τὰ ἴδια τέκνα τικτόμενα ἀνῄρει, ἵνα μὴ λέγω, κατήσθειν, καθὼς οἱ ἐκείνου θεραπευταὶ συνεγράψαντο; Ἢ τί ἀγαθὸν ὑπάρχειν ἐκ τοῦ Διός ὑπολαμβάνεις, ὅστις ὅσας ἡμέρας ἔζησε, τοσαύτας παρανομίας, τοσαύτας μοιχείας, τοσαύτας μαιφονίας διεπράξατο, πατρὸς ἐπίβουλος, παίδων φθορεὺς, ὑπάνδρων μοιχὸς, ἀδελφῆς ἀνὴρ, τύραννος βασιλείας, μαγειῶν εὑρετὴς, λεγεὼν δαιμόνων, πολυμορφώσεως ἐργάτης, πρόξενος θανάτου, καὶ τῶν ἐγκλημάτων ὧν καὶ ἀκοῦσαι ἀθέμιτόν ἐστιν ἔνοχος καὶ ἀρχηγός; Τὸν τοιοῦτον Θεὸν ὑπάρχειν μὴ πιστεύσῃς. Παρ᾽ εκείνων τῶν ταῦτα περὶ αὐτῶν συγγραψαμένων λάβε τὴν μαρτυρίαν ὅτι θεοὶ μὲν μνημονεύονται καὶ βασιλεῖς τεχθέντες ἀναγορεύονται καὶ τῷ ἰδίῳ τεθνήκασι καιρῷ ἐν ᾧ οἱ μάταιοι καὶ ἄφρονες ἄνθρωποι θεοὺς ἐνόμισαν δυνατοὺς ἐν παρατάξει πολέμων. Ἐπειδεῖξον τί ἐν τῷ Διὶ ἀληθινὸν ὑπῆρχεν ὅς πάσης σεμνότητος μέχρι θανάτου ἔμεινεν ἐχθρὸς, ὥστε καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν ἀέρα μιᾶναι ἐν τῷ Φρυγί μειρακίῳ, καὶ τὴν γῆν, καθὼς ἔφημεν, ἐν ταῖς ἰδίαις ἀδελφαῖς ἐκοίνωσεν· ἤ τί ἐν τῷ Ἑρμῆ θεότητος δοξεῖς εὑρεθὲν, οὗ τῆς κεφαλῆς τὸ εἶδος γρύλλωμα ἐμήνυσε τέρας, ἐν δὲ τῇ κορυφῇ αὐτοῦ μόνον εἶχε τρίχας καὶ πτερύγμα. Οὗτος ταῖς μαγείαις τὰ ἀπόκρυφα ἐν γῇ χρήματα διηρεύνα καὶ ταῖς ἐπῳδαῖς ῥάβδῳ τῶν ὄφεων τὸν θυμὸν κατέπαυε.

[11] Τοῦτο δὲ τῇ τῶν δαιμόνων ἐνεργείᾳ ἐπετέλει οἷς ἧπαρ ὑῶν ἐφ᾽ ἑκάστης προσέφερε θυσίαν καὶ ἀλεκτρυόνα. Τίς δὲ ἐν τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ ἁγιωσύνη, ὃς τῇ τῶν γειτόνων ἀναιρέσει κοπωθεὶς, αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν νεύματι θείῳ ζῶντα πυρὶ παρέδωκε καυθησόμενον; Καὶ κατεκάη ὁ τάλας σὺν τῷ Ῥοπάλῳ ᾧ ἐπεφέρετο καὶ τῇ δορᾷ. Τίς δὲ ἐν τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι ἁγιότης μετὰ τῶν διονυσιακῶν κρυφίων καὶ τῶν μεθῶν καὶ τῆς αἰσχύνης καὶ δελφικῶν μαντειῶν καὶ τῆς ἀσωτίας Καὶ λοιπὸν πρὸς τὴν βασίλισσαν Ἥραν καὶ τὴν ἄσεμνον Ἀφροδίτην ἐπανέλθωμεν, καὶ εὑρήσομεν αὐτὰς διαπληκτιζομένας πρὸς ἀλλήλας , ἐριζούσας τίς αὐτῶν τὴν πλησίον ὑπερβάλοι ἐν τῷ μίσει *. Βοῶσι πάντων τῶν ποιητῶν καὶ ῥητόρων καὶ ἱστοριογράφων αἱ βίβλοι τὸ κριτήριον τοῦτο δὴ τὸ τοῦ Πάριδος καὶ τῆς ἐξουθενηθείσης μορφῆς τὴν ὕβριν· εἰς τί μὲν ἐκείνη ἠγανάκτησεν, τί δὲ ἐκείνη ἐγαυρία, εἰ μὴ διὰ μίαν ἡδονὴν μιασμοῦ ἡ τοῦ Ποιμένος σύγκρισις ταύτην ἐδόξασεν, ἐκείνην δὲ ἔψεξεν; Τούτων οὖν πάντων τῆς τιμῆς τοῦ Θέιου ἐκπεπτωκότων, ποίῳ Θεῷ τὰ πρεσβεῖα ὁ ἄπειρος ἐκδικεῖ λαόσ; Περὶ δὲ τῶν ἐλαχιστοτέρων σιωπήσωμεν· μία γὰρ κεφαλή ἐστιν ᾗ ἀκολουθοῦσι πᾶσαι αἱ ἁρμονίαι τῶν μελῶν. Εἴ τις οὖν τῶν ματαίων Θεὸς ὴ θεὰ εἶνάι καυχᾶται, τοῦ Κρόνου καὶ τοῦ Διὸς, Ἥρας καὶ Ἀφροδίτης οὐκ ἔστι μείζων. Εἰ οὖν οἱ τὰ πρωτεῖα κατέχοντες οὕτως ἄθλιοι εὑρίσκονται καὶ αἰσχροὶ, πόσῳ ἀθλιώτεροι αὐτῶν ὑπάρχουσιν οἱ σεβόμενοι αὐτούς;

[12] Ἀπεκρίθη Δαρεία· Ἐπειδὴ τὰ τῶν ποιητῶν πλάσματα οὐδεμιᾶς ἀρετῆς * ὑπάρχει, ἐπὶ τοὺς φιλοσόφους μετέλθωμεν, ὧν ἡ ἐμπειρία πᾶσαν κακοήθειαν ἐκκόπτει, καὶ τῇ ἀρετῇ τοὺς αὐχένας ὑποτάσσει· οἳ δηλαδὴ διαφόρῳ ἑρμηνεία τὸν τοῦ κόσμου πρύτανιν ἐξηγοῦνται, καὶ τῶν θεῶν τὰς προσηγορίας ἀλληγορικῶς διερμηνεύουσι· τὸν μὲν γὰρ Κρόνον χρόνον λέγουσιν ὑπάρχειν, τὸν δὲ Δία ἐπίτασιν θερμότητος τὴν Ἥραν ἀέρα καὶ καλοῦσι τὴν δὲ Ἀφροδίτην τὸ πῦπ, τὸν Ποσειδῶνα τὴν θάλασσαν, τὴν μεγάλην Δήμητραν τὴν γῆν, καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς τῶν θεῶν τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ συνιστῶσι, περιβλήμασι καλύπτοντες. Χρύσανθος ἔφη· Ἐκείνων τὰ ἐκτυπώματα εἴωθε καταρτίζεσται τῶν μὴ δυναμένων παρεῖναι ποτέ· τὴν δὲ γὴν ἀδύνατον μὴ παρεῖναι, καὶ τὸ πῦρ πάντοτε ἐνώπιόν ἐστι, καὶ ὁ ἀὴρ φανερῶς πᾶσιν ἠνέῳκται. Τίνος οὖν χάριν διά τινῶν ἐκτυπωμάτων ἀνθρωπομόρφων ταῦτα θρησκεύειν ἐψηφίσασθε ἀγνοῶ. Διὰ τί δὲ μᾶλλον εἰκόνες θρησκεύονται καὶ οὐχὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια; Μή τις ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν ἢ τοῖς ἄρχουσιν ὃς ἑαυτὸν κελεύει καταφρονηθῆναι καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ εἰκόνα τιμᾶσται; Εἰ οὖν τοῦτο οὐδεὶς προστάσσει, οὐδ᾽ ἀνέχεται λοιπὸν ἀνάγκη λογίσασται ὅτι αὗται αἱ εἰκόνες οὐκ εἰσὶ στοιχείων, ἀλλὰ φθαρτῶν καὶ νεκρῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ οὐχὶ τεῶν ἐκτυπώματα.

[13] Δαρεία εἶπε· Τοὺς ἐμοὺς λόγους ἡ σὴ ἀπόδειξις ἐβεβαίωσεν. Ἐδίδαξα γὰρ ὅτι οἱ

ἀπειρότατοι τὰς εἰκόνας σέβονται· ἡμεῖς δὲ αὐτὰ τὰ πράγματα ὧν ἐκεῖνοι θεραπεύουσι τὰς εἰκόνας, σέβοντες προσκυνοῦμεν. Καλῶς, φησὶν ὁ Χρύσαντος· εἰς σύνεσιν τῆς ἐμῆς ἀποδείξεως φθάνεις. Παρενέγκωμεν οὖν πάντων τῶν στοιχείων τοὺς θεραπευτάς, καὶ σεβέσθω εἶς τὴν γῆν, ἀλλ᾽ ὤς θεὰν μόνον, ἱκεσίας θυσίας τε καὶ πᾶσαν λατρείαν ἀξίαν ἣν αὐτῇ προσῆκε προσάγων, μὴ γεωργῶν αὐτὴν, ἀλλὰ σχολάζων ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀρότρου καὶ τῆς δικέλλης. Ἄλλος δὲ ἀρνούμενος αὐτὴν ὑπάρχειν θεὰν μόνον τὴν γεωργίαν τοῦ ἀρότρου καὶ τῆς δικέλλης τὴν σπουδὴν ἐπιδειξάτω ὤς γεωργὸς, μηδεμίαν δὲ τιμὴν ἀπονέμων ὡς θεραπευτής. Τίνι μᾶλλον εὐθαλεῖς τοὺς καρποὺς ἀποδίδωσιν; Οὐχὶ ἐκείνῳ τῷ ἐκτὸς θρησκείας αὐτὴν γεωργήσαντι; Εἰ γὰρ, ὡς φασὶ, θεὰ ὑπῆρχε, τοῖς θεραπευταῖς ἔδει ἀποδιδόναι πᾶσαν ἀγαθωσύνην. Ὁμοίως τῷ Ποσειδῶνι εἷς λατρευέτω ὡς Θεῷ, ὅς ἐστι θάλασσα. Ἐν καιρῷ χειμερινῷ πλέων καὶ τὰ ὄψα ὡς εὐλαβὴς θεραπευτὴς προσδοκάτω. Ἄλλος δὲ ὡς ἄψυχον στοιχεῖον πάσης θείας τιμῆς λογιζέσθω ἀνάξιον· καὶ οὗτος, εἰ μὴ τῷ εὐθέτῳ καιρῷ ἑαυτὸν τοῖς κύμασι μὴ καταπιστεύσῃ, καὶ τὰ ὄψα οὐ θρησκεύων, ἀλλὰ ἁλιεύων ζητείτω· τίνα ἐκ τῶν δύο ἀφόβως εὐπαθεῖν τῇ τῶν ἰχθύων ἑστιάσει καὶ περισσεύειν δοκιμάζεις; Οὐχὶ ἀναμφιβόλως ἐκεῖνον μᾶλλον, τὸν ταῦτα εὐλόγως διοικήσαντα; Ἐντεῦθεν λοιπὸν καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων στοιχείων ἐστὶ πιστεῦσαι ὅτι οὐδὲν τοῖς αὐτῶν λατρευταῖς παρέξουσι διότι οὐκ ἰδίᾳ κινήσει, ἀλλὰ θείῳ νεύματι ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων χρείαις ἐξυπηρετοῦνται. Κελεύσματι δὲ Θεοῦ τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου θέρμῃ συλλαμβάνει ἡ γῆ, καὶ τῇ τῶν οὐρανίων ποιότητι τὰ βλαστὴματα τρέφονται καὶ τῇ εὐκρασίᾳ τῶν καιρῶν ἁδρύνονται. Ἐκεῖνος μέντοι μόνος ἄξιός ἐστι θεραπείας καὶ προσκυνήσεως, ὁ ταῦτα παρέχων, οὐχὶ δι᾽ ὧν παρέχει. Οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ τὰ γράμματα μανθάνοντες ταῖς δέλτοις ἤ ταῖς βίβλοις τὴν εὐχαριστίαν προσφέρουσιν, ἀλλὰ τῷ διδασκάλῳ *. Ὡσαύτως καὶ οἱ ἀσθενοῦντες ῥυσθέντες τῆς ἀνάγκης οὐ τοῖς φαρμάκοις ἤ τοῖς σιδήροις τὴν τιμὴν ἀπονέμουσιν, ἀλλὰ τῷ ἰατρῷ.

[14] Ταῦτα τοῦ Χρυσάνθου διαλεγομένου, ἐπίστευσεν ἡ Δαρεία, καὶ συνεβουλεύσαντο ἀμφότεροι προσποιήσασθαι τὸ ὄνομα τῆς συζυγίας, διαμένειν δὲ ἐν τῷ φόβῳ τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ ἐν τῇ πολιτείᾳ τῆς παρθενίας. Ὡς οὖν ὁ Χρύσανθος τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς ἐξουσίας ἔλαβε διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τῆς συζυγίας ποιεῖ βαπτισθῆναι τὴν Δαρείαν ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ γίνεται ἁγιωτάτη παρθένος Χριστοῦ, τὸ περιβόλαιον εἰληφυῖα τῆς παρθενίας · ὥστε ἐν ὀλίγῳ καιρῷ πάσας τὰς θείας ἀπαγγέλλειν Γραφάς. Ἦν μέντοι συνοικοῦσα τῷ Χρυσάνθῳ οὐ σωματικῇ συναφείᾳ, ἀλλ᾽ ἁγίου Πνεύματος κοινωνίᾳ. Καὶ ὅσον διὰ Χρυσάνθου πλῆθος ἀνδρῶν, τοσοῦτον διὰ Δαρείας γυναικῶν πλῆθος ἀναριθμήτων πρός τὴν χάριν τοῦ Χριστοῦ συνήρχοντο.

Chrysanthus, educated in human letters, Polemius, a most illustrious man of the city of Alexandria, honored and of the first rank, coming to the city of Rome with his son Chrysanthus, was received by the Roman senate, and, made illustrious with great honors by the emperor Numerian ^a, received a seat in the Roman senate-house ^b. He, when he had imbued his only son Chrysanthus with all liberal studies, handed him over also to the studies of the philosophers. For he was of ardent genius ^c. Of what prudence and of what intelligence he was, the outcome of events teaches: for when with curious mind he was examining all the volumes of books, he came to the letters of the Gospels, and fixing the course of his curiosity, he said to himself: So long it became you, Chrysanthus, to loosen the reins of your cares through the darkness of books, until you should attain to the light of truth. It is not of prudence that I should return to the darkness from the light. We have lost what we have labored for, if we lose the fruit of labor: and the fruit of labor is this, which we read is given by God to those who seek: for thus we read that God has commanded men: “Seek and you shall find.” What we have sought, we have found; if we let it go, we shall be to be compared to the foolish and the most stupid. Let us hold fast, then, what is to be held fast by the mind, and let us leave all that is to be rejected. For there is soon a loss of laborious inquiry, if I do not hold manfully what I have found. Long have I labored in seeking; I have found gold and silver; I have found precious stones. If I sought in order that I might find; I have found in order that I might hold. Now I will not suffer what I have found to be snatched from me; I will hold it, use it, enjoy it; for this is the sum of my laborious inquiry; and if I lose it, I shall seem to have lived without cause, to have acquired without cause ^d.

[3] he is taught divine things and preaches Christ. And saying these things he began to inquire who was an expounder of the divine Scriptures; and just as he had before heard grammarians and orators as masters, so he desired to acquire rustics and fishermen as teachers: for he had read that the Apostle said: “Where is the wise man, where the scribe, where the disputer of this world?” And because through the wise the world displeased God, it pleased God through the unwise to save those who believe in him. As he turned these things over within himself daily with his mind, and daily searched for servants of Christ, one met him who said that he knew a certain man named Carpophorus, a man learned in all things, a Christian and a saint, but that, the savagery of the persecution raging, he was placed in a certain mountain cave, and was scarcely visited by a very few * of the faithful. Hearing these things Chrysanthus began to be more fervent, and, prayers being poured out, thrown at the knees of the man relating this, even with tears he begged that he might merit to come to his acquaintance. It came about, God providing, as he asked by the desire of faith, and he came to St. Carpophorus, a presbyter of the fifth ^e region, with whom he stayed a few months. So imbued with all divine letters, he began to be diligently instructed, so that at once after seven days from his baptism he preached Jesus Christ the Son of God with public voice.

[4] By his father's order he is thrown into prison; Then his relatives, noble and powerful men, seizing his father Polemius, began to accuse him, saying: At the peril of your patrimony and of your head this young man cries out against our gods and goddesses with vain outcries, and says that some Christ or other is true God. If the emperor should hear him pursuing these things, there can be no safety for you or for us. For who would dare presume these things, unless one who believes that he acts with impunity without the king or without Roman law? Then his father Polemius in anger had him shut up in a dark and squalid place, and refreshed with very little food at the evening hours. But the man of God Chrysanthus said * that this was brought upon him for his exercise rather than for punishment. And when public talk had disclosed this deed, ^f one of those who heard said to his father: If you are trying to snatch your son from this presumption, rather occupy him with delights and pleasures and give him in marriage to some most elegant and most prudent girl; that when he has learned to be a husband, he may forget to be a Christian: for this darkness and these afflictions, which you believe you bring upon him as a punishment, the Christians consider to happen to them for praise and perpetual glory.

[5] then handed over to some young women Hearing these things Polemius ordered dining-rooms to be prepared, spread with silken coverings; and taking him away from that squalid and foul dwelling, he clothed him in precious garments, and placing him in the dining-room, he chose five ^g most beautiful virgins from among his maidservants, and arranged them with most careful clothing and ornaments, and setting them with him, he ordered banquets to be served daily with most abundant feasts. And he threatened the girls, saying: Unless with your jests and embraces you separate him from his Christian intention, I will have you die by various punishments ^h. Amid these things mockeries were carried on. The man of God despised the delights as dung; and the virgin girls he dreaded as vipers. And he lay in prayer, immovable in mind, and their embraces and kisses, like blows of arrows, he received on the shield of faith, and cried to the Lord, saying:

[6] he takes refuge with the Lord Arise, O Lord, to my help; say to my soul: I am your salvation. For who prevails to conquer this battle stirred up by the devil, unless your right hand has fought for him? He errs who thinks to obtain perfect chastity by his own strength : for unless these bodily flames are extinguished by your rain, the mind cannot reach where it is going ⁱ. For lust is an evil beast, which in the forest of this world is roused (through the flesh and the devil) to devour souls . He who has escaped its bite will give thanks to you, O God, for it is yours that he has escaped. As your most blessed servant Joseph escaped the hands of the harlot, as of a savage wild beast, by your help ^k, whom his father mourned, saying: An evil beast has devoured him; an evil beast has seized Joseph; and he would not at all be consoled over him. Certainly this is Jacob your servant, from whom nothing was hidden. Why then ^l, when his sons had said to him: Recognize whether this is the tunic of your son, did you not make it known to him that they were deceiving him? But you dissembled for this reason, that you foresaw that the patriarchs were addressing their father in a prophetic discourse. Finally an evil beast met him, and as a lioness, so it seized him with its claws; and what is worse, it lay in wait to find him alone and only . But he was not alone, for by his father's tears it had already been entreated. For this reason you permitted him to mourn and to send out a groan from the bottom of his heart, that you might lift him up with just helps. For lust was the evil beast through which the devil and the woman were wrestling against him. There flesh and blood, there youth and beautiful appearance, there puberty and the provocation of the eyes, there the power of dominion, there the delight of obscenity, there the ornaments of the persuader, eyes; there a head furnished with gold and gems; there exhaling fragrances; there an embrace already next to being devoured and to death. Amid all these things the lioness found him alone and held him. Now (but) your hand, O Lord, freed him when he was already placed before her mouth. Whence also to those announcing that his son was alive, Jacob said: It is wonderful to me if Joseph my son is alive. As if he were to say : It is wonderful to me if he has so escaped that evil beast as to live. But he escaped and lived. Why? Because God, it says, was with Joseph; and all that he did, God blessed in his hands. And I, O Lord, confess you, and beg help from you against these vipers, that, as serpents fall asleep at the voice of the charmer, so these may fall asleep in my sight * and rouse no war of lust in me, for I have learned that you are the true God, who work in men believing in you a strength that cannot at all be conquered.

[7] and is wonderfully freed. And so when Chrysanthus had completed his prayer, the virgins were seized by (so) heavy a sleep that unless they had been carried out of the dining-room, they could not at all be roused; and outside they woke up and took food.

And as soon as they had gone in where Chrysanthus was praying, they were overcome by an excessive slumber. These things were announced to his father by those to whose care he had been committed, and he began to weep for him as if dead. Then one of his friends said to him: This man has learned magic from the Christians; and therefore he has prevailed against these very simple girls by enchantment. But if you send to him some learned woman, she will be able to bend him to your pleasure and to hers. Polemius said to him: And where am I to find such a woman, who can accomplish this? (His friend) answered him: There is among the virgins who serve the goddess Vesta ^m a certain virgin, more elegant than all beauty and so wise that those very orators cannot meet her. She has now reached the years for marriage, as far as her age shows; and she deserves that whatever noble may get her as wife. Let us therefore obtain her, as is the custom, by supplication, and let us deal with her, so that she may both give you back your son and take him as her husband. All things were done that were necessary for this counsel, and they came to the consent of the virgin.

[8] St. Daria meets St. Chrysanthus. Then a virgin named Daria, radiant with gems and gold, suddenly went in steadfastly to Chrysanthus, radiant as the sun, and as if under the appearance of consolation she addressed him with such elegance of speech, and interwove so much art of her genius, that unless he had been harder than stone, he would have been made softer than a feather ⁿ. But Chrysanthus, relying on the Lord's help, drove back the arrows of the devil with the shield of his faith, and requesting the Holy Spirit in the midst between himself * and her, gave this beginning to his discourse: If to me, a mortal man, in hope of a temporal marriage, you present such great elegance of your beauty, and show such great sweetness of honeyed speech, that you believe that you can call back my mind even from the intention of my purpose, occupied as it is with other loves, and force my mind to wish what it does not wish; how much more will you be able, if you wish, to obtain the Son of the immortal King, who loves and desires you? For if you keep your soul for him in the integrity of your body; as you are beautiful in body, so you will be more beautiful also in mind, and as outwardly you shine with gold and gems, so inwardly you will be adorned in your heart. There will be ^o for you, close at hand, Angels as praisers, Archangels as groomsmen, Apostles as friends, Martyrs as co-heirs, Christ as bridegroom, who may build for you a bridal chamber in heaven furnished with eternal pearls, may hand over to you the possessions of paradise, may bestow on you an everlasting dowry, may establish for you incomparable revenues, and may renew in you daily the flower of most delightful youth!

[9] To these things Daria, pierced with compunction , answered: No signs of a wanton mind, and she is instructed by him on the gods, O young man, have brought me to you with these garments; but, having pity on your father's tears, I desire both to give you back to your father and to call you back to the worship of the gods. Chrysanthus answered: If you know any things that true reason may make manifest to me, I will set my mind to listen diligently, so that in alternate disputation you may gladly both hear and speak [p]. Daria answered: Among all the things that we know to be necessary for human advantages, I have recognized nothing so useful and so primary as to worship the divinity and by no means to rouse the supernal powers of the gods to anger through contempt. To this Chrysanthus: O most prudent virgin, what worship do you think we ought to show to idols ? Daria answered: That which may make them our guardians. And Chrysanthus: How, he said, how can they be our guardians, who, unless they are guarded by dogs, are carried off by thieves in the night, and who, lest they be thrown down by any shock, are bound fast with iron bonds and lead? Daria answered: If the ignoble crowd could believe in the power of our gods without these images (and recognize their sanctity from most celebrated worship *), there would be no necessity for showing a likeness. But these images are cast and fashioned in bronze or in marble and in gold and silver, that the worshipper may attend with his eyes to him whom he is taught to worship and fear with his mind [q]. Chrysanthus answered: Let us inquire therefore whose these images are, and let us see whether we ought deservedly to show them the honor of worship: for God cannot be estimated or believed to be other than he who surpasses all sanctity and all majesty.

[10] Saturn, Jupiter etc. What good things, then, had scythe-bearing Saturn, who killed his own sons as often as they were born, not to say ate them, as his worshippers write? What good things do you think were in Jupiter, who as many days as he lived perpetrated so many unheard-of incests, so many adulteries, so many homicides; castrator of his father, corrupter of boys, adulterer of married women, husband of his sisters, usurper of power, inventor of magicians, arbiter of transformation, mass of demons, marker-out (procurer) of death and perpetrator of all unheard-of crimes? That he was such you would not believe, if these things have been written of him by those on whose testimony the gods are recorded, and they are nevertheless read to have been born and to have died as kings, at a time when rude men thought those to be gods whom they had found to be strong in battle [r]. For what divine could there be in Jupiter, who was so opposed to all chastity down to his death that he polluted the very air with the blood of Ganymede *, and defiled the earth, as I have said, with his sisters? What of divinity also do you think is found in Mercury [s], whose capital appearance indicates a sycophantic monster, since on his crown we see at once both hair and wings? He by his sorceries found money hidden in the earth, and by his enchantments soothed the angers of serpents with his rod.

[11] crimes, All these things he perpetrated by the patronage of the demons, to whom he sacrificed daily a pig's fig-fed liver and a cock. And what sanctity is there in Hercules, who, wearied with the killing of all his neighbors, even himself at the nod of a god gave himself alive to the fires to be burned, and burned, the wretch, with the sword he was carrying and the skin… [t] What sanctity in Apollo with the mysteries of Dionysus, in drunken bouts, confusions and Delphic divinations and the luxuries of drinking-cups? Now if we come to Queen Juno and to most chaste Venus, we shall find them disputing sharply among themselves for this reason, that one surpassed the other for shameful uses. The writings of all poets and orators and historians cry out the judgment of Paris and the injury of her slighted beauty. For why was the one indignant, why the other glad, except that the one, more apt for the uses of unchastity, is chosen by the judgment of the Shepherd, the other is refused? These honors of divinity being thus stamped out, for whom does the ignorant crowd claim the privilege of divinity? [u] Let us be silent on the other lesser ones: for there is one head, which the whole fabric of members follows. For whatever god, whatever goddess is boasted to be, will not be preferred to Saturn, Juno, Jupiter and Venus. For if (therefore) those holding the privileges * are proved to be so wretched and base; how much more wretched are those whom their inferiors proclaim to be worshippers.

[12] and of the images To these things Daria answered: Since the figments of the poets are supported by no power, let us go to the philosophers, whose minds cut away all vices and bow their necks to virtues. Who, although they seem to dispute with various interpretation on the fabric of the world, nevertheless distinguish these names of the gods by allegorical interpretation: by Saturn finally (for) they show time… [v] Jupiter they call fiery substance, Juno air, Vesta fire, Neptune the sea, the Great Mother the earth, and the other persons of the gods and goddesses they assert to be covered with these and similar veils. Chrysanthus answered this: Those, he said, are customarily represented in their effigy by some image, who can at some time not be present; [x] but the earth, since it can never be absent, and fire, which is in the present time, and air, by which all things lie openly before the eyes, why they should justly be thought to be worshipped through these effigies, I do not know. Nor do I at all consider (grasp) why their image should be worshipped rather than the truth. For who is there among kings or judges who would order himself to be abandoned and his image to be venerated? But if reason suffers this in no way, it remains that these effigies are not of the elements, but rather that they are proved to be images of the deceased and of dead men rather than of gods.

[13] vanity, To this Daria answered: Your assertion has furnished a proof for my words. For you have taught that, if the ignorant worship images, we should adore the things themselves of which they worship the images [y]. Very well, said Chrysanthus, you come to the conclusion of the definition. Let me bring before your eyes, then, worshippers of all the elements with different wills; and (therefore) let one worship the earth as a goddess, but only as a goddess, with sacrifices and oblations and all the worship with which it is fitting to venerate a goddess; but let him cease from the cultivation (use) of the plow and the hoe. Let another on the contrary, denying that she is a goddess, show on her only the cultivation of the plowshare and the hoe, and not worship her by venerating her as a priest, but by working as a peasant. To which of the two is she to be believed to bring forth fruit more? Without doubt to him who has cultivated her only as earth; not to him who has venerated her with most vain superstition as a goddess. For if (however) she were a true goddess, she would rather bring rich fruits to him who honored her with the title of religion. Similarly also if one were to venerate Neptune, that (who) is the sea, with divine worship, and either sail at an unseasonable time or (and) await his abundance as if a religious worshipper; and another were to judge him unworthy, as a lifeless element, of all reverence of divinity, and were to trust himself to the waves only at a fixed and opportune time, so as to seek very great abundance not by adoring but by fishing; which of these two do you think sails more happily or abounds in feasts of fish? Without doubt him who has provided for these things rationally [z]. This is also to be believed of the other elements, that they furnish nothing to those who worship them, because not by their own motion but by divine command they serve the uses of men. For by the command of God lands conceive by the heat of the sun, bring forth by the mildness of the air, are nourished by the clemency of the sky and by rains , and grow warm by the quality of the seasons * [aa]. He however is worthy by worthy reason to be honored who furnishes these things, not the things that are furnished. For neither do those who learn letters give thanks to tablets and books rather than to their teacher; and the sick, freed by a physician, do not think that honor is to be paid to the instruments and medicines rather than to the physician himself.

[14] and believing in Christ she is baptized and is joined to Chrysanthus. As Chrysanthus went on with these and similar things, Daria believed; and as it were by a feigned will, holding counsel between herself and Chrysanthus, they took on the name of marriage, so that both should continue in the fear of God and the glory of chastity. And when Chrysanthus received the freedom of his former will, he had Daria baptized within his house, and she was so made a most sacred virgin of Christ that within a few days she took in all the divine scriptures and to holy virginity

she fitted the veil of sanctity [bb]. She was however joined to Chrysanthus not by bodily heat, but united by the fervor of the Holy Spirit. And as many men through Chrysanthus, so innumerable women through Daria flowed together to the grace of Christ.

ANNOTATIONS.

Whether of the number of those who were called honorary, such as it is certain existed when the empire was already declining or failing. Honorary senators, says Pitiscus Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanarum. Under Senatus., were so not in office but in name. Some call Cassiodorus such (who flourished in the middle of the sixth century). Of his father, an honorary Senator of both Romes, Ausonius sings at the end of the fourth century:

A double curia and each senate held me, Without a duty, a sharer in the name.

Ἔστιν ἐν ταῖς παρθένοις τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς μία: there is among the virgins of Minerva one. And a little lower: ἡ παρθένος τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ὀνόματι Δαρεία: the virgin of Minerva, Daria by name. The older Latin versions, as also ours, render: Who serve the goddess Vesta. Is it right? Surius, adhering to the Greek, puts not Vesta but Minerva. This is certain, that the two names do not properly suit the same divinity, but rather are referred to distinct goddesses. Two Vestas, says Robert Estienne in the Thesaurus of the Latin language, are mentioned by the ancients; one the mother of Saturn (to Lorenzo Guazzesi, his wife), the other the daughter of the same goddess… Yet the poets confuse them, putting one for the other. When they say that she is the Earth, the mother of Saturn is to be understood; but when they name her Virgin, her daughter, whom they would have to be fire. And more briefly the above-mentioned Lorenzo Guazzesi, where he treats of the Vesta of the Etruscans: The mythologists, he says Raccolta d'opuscoli scientifici et Filologici, vol. XVIII p. 252. Venice 1738, show us two Vestas; Mother and Daughter; for the one they worshipped earth, for the other fire. Ops, who is the elder Vesta, was the wife of Saturn etc. From these things it is assuredly clear that Vesta is not to be confused with Minerva, sprung from the brain of Jupiter. Baronius, who, if he saw the Greek Acts, certainly did not consult them, adheres to the Latin, which alone have so far been put in print, as do Lipsius, Moroni and others generally. Wherefore they try to explain how it could have come about that Daria, a Vestal virgin, should have been given in marriage to St. Chrysanthus. And first Baronius observes Martyrologium Romanum, 25 October, note a. that the Vestals, after their service of chastity had been completed, were accustomed to marry, which all the heathen writers profess. Whence he concludes that it is not to be wondered at if you hear that Daria, the time for marrying being fulfilled, was given as a wife to Chrysanthus, as her Acts signify. It is confirmed from St. Ambrose, who in Book I on Virgins, chapter IV Patrologia Mignian., vol. XVI col. 193.: Who, he says, will hold out to me the virgins of Vesta and the priestesses of Pallas? What sort is this chastity, not of morals but of years, which is prescribed not by perpetuity but by age? More wanton is such integrity, whose corruption is reserved for an older age. Then from this place Baronius thinks that the difficulty arising from the name of Minerva is solved. That in some Acts, he says, Daria is called a virgin of Minerva is nothing new: for since the Vestals had the Palladium in their keeping, the same are found to have been called virgins of Pallas or Minerva. St. Ambrose calls them priestesses of Pallas. Lipsius also on this verse of Propertius:

If anyone should wonder at the extinguished fires of Pallas

notes: Where the poet ascribes the very worship of the fires to Pallas. As in some of our martyrologies “Daria is written” to have been “a priestess of Minerva,” who to others is simply a Vestal. From which last words it appears that the Greek Acts also were not examined by Lipsius. Finally the fact that Daria together with Chrysanthus was ordered to be overwhelmed with earth seems to Baronius to have a certain symbolic relation with that punishment which was customarily inflicted on Vestals, and that all the more because they are said to have suffered on the Via Salaria; and outside the Salarian gate, which is also found to be called the Colline, there was that infamous place called the Wicked Field, because Vestals who failed were buried there. Of the place of the martyrdom there will be further discussion in the Annotations to Chapter II. And so these three things seem to Baronius to suffice for the vindication of the Latin Acts; namely that it was permitted to Vestals, after a fixed lapse of years, to marry; that the virgins of Vesta were sometimes called priestesses of Minerva; that St. Daria with Chrysanthus was overwhelmed alive with earth, and that on the Via Salaria. But from the whole context of our Acts it is clearly hinted that Daria came to Chrysanthus in the first flower of youthful age, nay not much past the years of puberty. And that cannot stand with the discipline or condition of the Vestals. For they (they were six in number) were admitted, or to use the solemn word, taken, at no less than six and no more than ten years of age; and they had to remain for the space of thirty years chaste and free from marriage, performing the rites according to custom; in which time they had to learn for ten years, to work at the rites for ten, to teach for ten [See Pitiscus's Lexicon Antiqq. Under Vestales. Also Lipsius De Vesta et Vestalibus Syntagma. Works vol. III, p. 606 et seqq. Antwerp 1637.]. From these things Lipsius infers In the place cited, p. 608.: And so they were bound for only 30 years, and after that time it was permitted to marry, at a still not very bad age. For suppose one entered from the 7th year (this was permitted); then in the 37th year it was lawful to seek a husband and enjoy life … although it was observed in antiquity that those marriages were generally unlucky and not very joyful. Hence St. Daria, when she met St. Chrysanthus, would have been at least thirty-seven years old, which surely not a single person would have suspected in reading the Acts. But perhaps Daria came as a sacrilegious or corrupted woman, or at least to be corrupted? I would not think so, adhering to the context of the Acts. For a fixed penalty, established from antiquity, was laid down against delinquent Vestals. Heavy punishments, says Dionysius of Halicarnassus Antiquitatum Roman., Book II, § LXVII. Works vol. I, p. 122. Oxford 1704., have been established for their offenses, of which the investigators and avengers according to the laws are the pontiffs themselves; beating with scourges those who sinned lightly in other respects (as if through their fault the sacred fire was extinguished); but killing those who suffered defilement by a most foul and most wretched kind of death. For they are carried out alive on a bed, no otherwise than dead women, with funeral pomp, their friends and relatives bewailing them and accompanying them. And having been carried as far as the Colline gate, within the walls, in an underground chamber prepared (for this), they are buried with all the funeral adornments; without any monuments, without funeral rites, finally without all those things that are customarily given to the shades of the deceased. Plutarch and others have similar things. See Lipsius and Pitiscus in the places cited, likewise Moroni, who cites many more recent writers whom he used to compose his treatise on the Vestals Dizionario. Under Vestali.. The penalty of their corrupters John Zonaras describes in Book VII of the Annals in these words Vol. II, p. 29. Bonn 1844.: And those who have violated them, with their neck inserted in a fork in the forum, are beaten naked with scourges until they expire. Nothing similar in our Acts. St. Daria, taught the faith by Chrysanthus, is baptized, takes on the name of marriage, through her innumerable women to

the grace of Christ flow together; she is thrown into prison together with her putative husband; then, placed in a public brothel, she converts a wanton young man and very many others; after this she is ordered to be tortured on the rack, but the sinews of the torturers stiffen by divine power; finally both are put down alive in a sandpit and overwhelmed with stones. In these things there is surely nothing that savors of the punishment established against defiled Vestals; nay, in the whole course of the passion it is not insinuated by even one word that St. Daria was called guilty of breaking faith with Vesta, or at least was reproved for this crime by the judges. The one thing that bears any likeness to the punishment of the Vestals is this, namely that the holy Virgin was put down alive together with St. Chrysanthus in a sandpit on the Via Salaria, and that there both together were overwhelmed with earth and stones. Which kind of death is found in the Acts of the Martyrs inflicted on many other champions of the Christian faith, who had nothing in common with Vesta. For the rest, who would infer from this slight likeness that all the other things we have noted above on the discipline of the Vestals are to be thought of no account? We have seen a little before what Baronius thinks, from whom Lipsius does not depart far. We read, says the latter De Vestalibus syntagma. Works vol. III, p. 618., in the Acts of the Martyrs of Daria, who had married Chrysanthus, formerly a Vestal, ordered with her husband “by the emperor Numerian to be put down in a sandpit on the Via Salaria, and to be overwhelmed there alive with earth and stones.” In which they seem to have wished to punish her as a Vestal, with her Corrupter; certainly to have had regard to the old penalty. I would not altogether oppose that they had regard to it, if it were certainly established that St. Daria was called and held a Vestal by the original writer of the Acts. But that the matter stands otherwise appears both from what has been said above, and from the Greek codices, where Daria is written παρθένος τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς; and from Ado (with whom here the menologion of Basil agrees) on the 1st day of December, who, no mention being made of Vesta or of Minerva, relates thus: He (Polemius) joined his son to a certain virgin of elegant beauty, who was certainly from among the most noble Romans; and from the printed Menaea, where on the 19th day of March (on which day we said in the Prelim. Comm. that memory is kept among the Greeks of our Holy Martyrs) Daria is called Athenian, ἡ δὲ Δαρεία ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν. And below: Polemius joined to him (Chrysanthus) a beautiful girl established in the flower of her age, ὡραίαν, whom he had summoned from Athens, ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν μεταπεμψάμενος, Daria by name, etc. See below the place in the Menaea themselves, which we give in full. Someone will assuredly suspect that Δαρεία ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν, Παρθένος τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς are variant readings and that one arose from the other. Finally in the Menaea it is in no way supposed that Daria was a Vestal; nay, since she is said to have been summoned from Athens, to the end that she might be betrothed to St. Chrysanthus, it is clear that she had not been initiated into the rites of Vesta at least from the tenth year of her age, in which year, if not sooner, this nevertheless had to be done. Add that not foreign but Roman virgins were devoted to the ministry of Vesta. It was necessary that those who were reckoned among the Vestals should be freeborn, and suffering from no defect of body, born of parents still living, Romans and inhabitants of Italy Moroni Dizionario. Under Vestali, vol. XCVI, p. 131.. There remains the other observation of Baronius and Lipsius. The latter insinuates, the former asserts, that the Vestals were also called priestesses of Minerva. You have the words of both recited above, together with the place from Book I of St. Ambrose on Virgins. I would not think that this opinion can be proved from profane writers. This is certain, that there was preserved in the keeping of the Vestals the Secret, as Livy says, pledge of the empire. But what that was is not agreed among the learned. It comes under various interpretation, says Lipsius In the place cited, p. 610.; although most draw it to the Palladium. Now a palladium was generally, by the witness of the same Lipsius, a small effigy of Pallas: and this of which there is question was held to have fallen from heaven and to have been handed to Ilus. And it was three cubits in size, in the attitude as of one walking; in its right hand it held out a spear, in its left a spindle and distaff; and it was said to have been saved by Aeneas from burning Troy and carried into Italy. For more, if you please, see Lipsius in the place cited. I would not therefore deny that in some sense the Vestals could have been called, on account of the Palladium kept by them, priestesses of Minerva; but whether that holds in the Acts of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, I for my part would not think. For almost the whole discipline of the Vestal virgins opposes the idea that St. Daria, if she was dedicated to Vesta, could have come to Chrysanthus, and acted and died with him, as is read in the Acts. Certainly the kind of martyrdom suffered by St. Daria is as far removed as possible from the disgrace or punishment of the Vestals which we have described above from the most approved authors; and the kind of death endured by St. Chrysanthus has nothing in common with the penalties established against the corrupters of Vestals.

p. Surius: Therefore let us discuss these things for the common utility.

q. Mombritius: That the worshipper may attend with his eyes to him whom he is taught to worship and fear with his mind. Surius: That the worshippers may learn with their own eyes whom they ought to embrace in thought, venerate and fear.

r. That he — had found. An obscure passage, and hence a variant reading in the Latin codices. In the Greek text all is clear. Surius renders thus: Would you then believe him to be God who has been such? And that he was such the writers themselves testify. Who record that those whom foolish and senseless men call gods were both kings, and brave and vigorous in waging wars, and that they perished in their time.

s. The form of whose (Mercury's) head imitates a pig and a monster, and on its crown it has only hair and wings. He by magic arts tracked down money hidden in the earth, and by enchantments and a rod extinguished the poison of serpents, and that with the help of demons, to whom he daily slaughtered either a pig or a cock. Surius. For the rest, the word ficatum or ficotum, which is had in our Latin text, is the same as jecur.

t. There is added in the Latin manuscript: And although he killed the lion, cut down the hydra, bound the infernal dog, yet he himself, reduced to ash, nowhere appeared at all, but perished. They are missing in the Greek.

u. The Greek text has: All these therefore, since they have fallen from the honor of divinity, to what other God will the ignorant crowd ascribe that honor?

v. Our Latin interpreter adds of his own: Since Χρόνος, which is his word in Greek, we can understand as nothing other than time.

x. There is no one who does not see that these things are to be taken as an argument, as it is commonly called, ad hominem. For the rest, Chrysanthus, disputing with Daria, could not yet have thoroughly grasped Christian theology.

y. And let us offer to each the honor of majesty more wisely than others show it. These things again are added in the Latin Acts. For the rest, the passage answers badly to the Greek; Surius renders thus: Your arguments, said Daria, confirm my reason. For I taught that the images of things are worshipped by the most ignorant men, but that we adore the things themselves. Shrewdly, said Chrysanthus, you try to confirm your opinion by our arguments, etc.

z. Our interpreter adds: Not him who has believed with most vain rite that these things are to be hoped for.

aa. From the Greek thus: By the command of God the earth conceives by the heat of the sun; by the benefit of rains the plants are nourished, and by the working of the seasons succeeding one another they ripen.

bb. Surius: Who, having taken up the veil of virginity, was a most holy virgin; and in a slight space of time she learned all the divine scriptures.

* Vat. Ανὴρ τὶς Πολέμιος ὀνοματι τῶν συγκλητικῶν ἐκ πόλεως etc.

* Al. νεανίας.

* Vat. ὀίαστε συνέσεως και

* Vat. φωνὰς

* Vat. τῶν θείων τούτων γραφῶν

* Vat. καθ᾽ ἑαυτόν

* Vat. συγγενῶν

* Vat. καὶ ἐνεκάλουν αὐτῳ

* Vat. τυγχωρησις οὔτε σύγγνωσις.

* Vat. προσειχεν

* Vat. ῥύεσθαι.

* Vat. δυνάμει και.

* Vat. τὸν Ἰωσηφ.

* Vat. αὐτον.

* Vat. οὕτως.

* Vat. καὶ συνεχώρησας ἐκ βάθους καρδίας θρηνῆσαι τὸν πατερα.

* Vat. ἰκεσία.

* Vat. ἄκακον τὸν Ἰωσηφ.

* Vat. αυτου.

* Vat. θαυμαστόν, φησι, εἰ τὸ θηρίον

* Vat. ἀυτὸς ὡς.

* Vat. εὐρητώμεν.

* Vat. Δαρια.

* Vat. φαιδρῶς splendidly, cheerfully καὶ λόγοις.

* Vat. ἡ σοφωτάτη.

* Vat. τρόπῳ.

* Vat. ὑπερμαχειν και εῖναι φύλακες.

* Vat. ἐκτελεῖν τὰς λατρείας.

* Vat. ἔχουσιν αὖται αἱ εἰκονες μόρφας.

* Vat. Γανυμιδι

* Vat. οἰκείαις

* Vat. μαχομένας καὶ.

* Vat. καὶ.

* Vat. rightly μυσει, in crime.

* Vat. ἄξια.

* Vat. πρὸς.

* Vat. τὶς.

* Vat. μαγίστωρι.

* Vat. καὶ νύμφη.

* Vat. ἀφθαρσίας.

* and most faithful M.

* hearing him they approached his father, saying

* unless he who impudently opposes the laws of the emperors. Sur.

* thought.

* to overcome lust.

* lies hidden.

* that he might sleep alone with her alone. Sur.

* Another reading: persuasive things.

* as a lamb.

* from the mouth of the beast

* Gen. XLV.

* Gen. XXXIX.

* at my entreaty.

* ἐν τῳ μεταζυ meanwhile.

* moved.

* θεοῖς to the gods.

* these things are lacking in the Greek.

* δρεπανηφόρος elsewhere less well translated: furcifer.

* ἐπίβουλος; more correctly in Sur.: plotter.

* maker of manifold forms. Sur.

* λεγεών legion, also, leader, attendant.

* Gr. defiled the air on a Phrygian youth.

* Another reading: Dionysiac.

* ἀσεμνον shameless.

* first.

* πρύτανιν government.

* Ἀφροδίτην Venus.

* άρχουσιν to princes.

* φθαρτῶν of corruptible things.

* ὄψα fish.

* τὰ οὐράνια rains.

* ἁδρύνονται they ripen.

* on account of the name of marriage.

* by his father.

CHAPTER II.

SS. Chrysanthus and Daria are handed over to Claudius the tribune; and he, divinely moved, believes in Christ with all his household and undergoes martyrdom. After this St. Chrysanthus is led to prison and St. Daria to a brothel; finally after new torments both are thrown into a pit and, overwhelmed alive with earth and stones, are presented with the heavenly palm.

Πολλαὶ δὲ παρθένοι καταλείψασαι τοὺς μνηστῆρας ἑαυτὰς ἀνέθεντο τῷ Χριστῷ ὡσαύτως καὶ νεανίσκοι, διαπτύσαντες τοῦ βίου τὰς ἡδονὰς καὶ ἀγαπήσαντες τὴν ἁγνείαν ἑαυτοὺς ἀφιέρωσαν τῇ ἐν Χριστῷ σωφροσύνῃ. Ἀθρόως δὲ ἀναφύεται τις στάσις ἐν τῇ πόλει, καὶ κρατοῦσιν οἱ δῆμοι Κελερῖνον τὸν ὕπαρχον δημοσίᾳ. Καὶ οἱ νέοι ἐβόων· Τὰς μνηστευομένας ἡμῖν διὰ Δαρείας ἀπωλέσαμεν οἱ ἄνδρες τὰς γυναῖκας. Αἱ γυναῖκες ἐβόων· Τοὺς ἄνδρας ἀπόλλυμεν διὰ Χρυσάνθου, καὶ τέκνα οὐκ ἑτι ἕξομεν. Καὶ ἦν διάφορα τὰ ἐγκλήματα, καὶ ταραχώδης ἡ σύγχυσις. Καὶ κελεύει ὁ ἔπαρχος εὐθέως συλληφθῆναι αὐτοὺς καὶ διαφόροις βασάνοις τιμωρηθῆναι, ἐὰν μὴ τὰς προσηκούσας θυσίας τοῖς θεοῖς προσενέγκωσι. Τὸτε παραδίδοται ὁ Χρύσανθος τριβούνῳ τινὶ Κλαυδίῳ. Ὁ δὲ Κλαύδιος παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν ἑβδομήκοντα στρατιώταις λέγων· Ἀπαγάγετε αὐτὸν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως εἰς τὸν ναὸν τοῦ ἀηττήτου Ἡρακλέους, ἔνθα, εἰ μὴ βούλοιτο θύειν , ποικίλοις βασάνοις αὐτὸν τιμωρήσασθε ἄχρις οὗ πεισθῇ *.

[16] Τότε οἱ στρατιῶται ὑγροῖς αὐτὸν νεύροις δεσμοῦσιν, ὅπως ταῦτα ξηραινόμενα διαδύνωσιν ἄχρι τῶν ὀστέων αὐτοῦ σφιγγόμενα. Παραχρῆμα οὖν ὡς ἐδέθη, καὶ συνεσφίγγη πάντα τὰ δεσμὰ διελύετο, ὡς μὴ φθάνειν ὀφθαλμοὺς κατανοῆσαι τὴν ὀξύτητα τῆς διαλύσεως τῶν νεύρων. Ἀντιμηχανώμενοι δὲ οἱ στρατιῶται τὰ νεῦρα συέσφιγγον διαφόροις τρόποις δεσμεύοντες αὐτὸν καὶ ξένοις ἐφευρήμασιν. Ὡς δὲ ἐπαύοντο αἱ χεῖρες τῶν δεσμοῦντων, ταχύτερον λόγου τὰ δεσμὰ διελύετο. Τότε θυμωθέντες οἱ στρατιῶται ἐμβάλλουσιν αὐτὸν εἰς ποδοκάκην καινὴν κάτοζον καὶ τρίτῳ κεντήματι τὰς κνήμας αὐτοῦ ἠσφαλίσαντο. Ἑστηκότων δὲ τῶν στρατιωτῶν εὐώπιον αὐτοῦ καὶ ὀνειδιζόντων αὐτὸν, συνεσάπη τὸ ξύλον τῆς πέδης, καὶ εἰς κόνιν μετεβλήθη. Ἄραντες δὲ οἱ στρατιῶται κατέχεον αὐτοῦ * οὖρον λέγοντες· Τὰ φάρμακά σου ἄρτι ἀπώλεσας. Ἀντὶ δὲ δυσωδίας εὐωδία διεδόθη ὥς τινος τῶν εὐόδμων περιχυθέντος. Καὶ ἄραντες αὐτὸν ἐκεῖθεν, δέρουσι μόσχον, καὶ περιβάλλουσιν αὐτὸν γυμνὸν, καὶ περισφίξαντες, ἔστησαν ἐν τῷ ἡλίῳ. Δι᾽ ὅλης δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐν τῷ σφοδρῷ καύματι καὶ ἐν τῷ ἐκκαίοντι ἡλίῳ οὐδ᾽ ὅλως ἐξηράνθη ἡ δορὰ, οὐδὲ ἐλυμήνατο τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄνθρωπον. Καὶ περιθέντες αὐτῷ κλοὶα καὶ ἁλύσεσι δεσμεύσαντες, ἐνέκλεισαν ἐν σκοτεινῷ τόπῳ παραχρῆμα δὲ διελύθησαν αὐτοῦ τὰ δεσμὰ, καὶ φῶς ἔλαμψεν ἐν τῷ οἰκήματι, ὥς λαμπάδων τινῶν ἔνδοθεν καιομένων.

[17] Τότε μηνύουσι οἱ στρατιῶται τῷ τριβούνῳ Κλαυδίῳ πάντα τὰ γενόμενα, καὶ παραγενόμενος ἐπὶ τὸν τόπον καὶ θεασάμενος τὸ φῶς, ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὸν ἐξελθεῖν πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· Τίς ἡ τοσαύτη βία τῆς σῆς γοητείας ὑπάρχει ὥστε σε τοιαῦτα διαπράττεσθαι; Χρύσανθος ἔφη· Εἰ ὑπῆρχεν ἐν σοὶ κἂν σπινθὴρ φρονήσεως, συνῆκας ἂν ὅτι οὐ μαγειῶν περιεργίᾳ, ἀλλὰ θείᾳ δυνάμει βοηθοῦμαι. Ἀλλ᾽ οὕτως εἰς ἐμὲ ὁρᾷς ὥσπερ εἰς τοὺς θεούς σου, οὓς θρησκεύεις ἀδίκως. Εἰ γὰρ οἱ ὀφθαλμοί σου ὀρθῶς ἔβλεπον, ἔγνως ἂν ὅτι οἱ θεοί σου οὐ βλέπουσι· καὶ τὰ ὦτά σου εἰ ἀλήθειαν ἤκουον συνῆκας ἂν ὅτι φωνὴν κραυγαζόντων οὐκ ἀκούουσιν· εἰ ἐν τοῖς ἐγκάτοις σου αἴσθησις φρονήσεως ὑπῆρχεν, ἔγνως ἄν τούτους μηδὲν ἔχειν ἔνδον πλὴν χοὸς καὶ μολύβδου. Τότε κελεύει αὐτὸν Κλαύδιος ὁ τριβοῦνος ῥαβδοις τύπτεσθαι· καὶ παραχρῆμα ἐκομίσθησαν ῥάβδοι τραχεῖαι σὺν τοῖς σκόλοψιν αὐτῶν. Ὡς οὖν ἔτυπτον οἱ στρατιῶται, ἐν μὲν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν τραχεῖαι ὑπῆρχον αἱ ῥάβδοι· κατενεχθεῖσαι δὲ εἰς τὸ σῶμα τοῦ ἁγίου ὡς πάπυρος ἐγίνοντο ἁπαλαί.

[18] Ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ τριβοῦνος κελεύει ἀνεθῆναι αὐτὸν, καὶ ἀνορθωθῆναι, καὶ ἐνδύσασθαι καὶ στραφεὶς πρὸς τοὺς στρατιώτας εἶπεν· Αὐτὸι ἀκριβῶς γινώσκετε ὅπως πάσας τὰς τῶν μάγων καὶ ἐπκοιδῶν κατελαβόμην κακουργίας νῦν δὲ ἐξ ὧν ὁρῶ, οὐδὲ μία ἀνθρωπίνη κακαουργία ὑπάρχει ἐν τούτῳ, ἀλλὰ θείας ἀρετῆς δύναμις· καὶ γὰρ τὰ δεσμὰ τῶν νεύρων ἑκοντὶ διαλυθέντα ἐσχόλασαν· τοῦ ξύλου ἡ ἀγριότης αἰφνιδίῳ διαλύσει, διεσάπη· τῆς δορᾶς ἡ ὑγρότης ἐν τῷ καύσωνι τοῦ ἡλίου δι᾽ ὅλης τῆς ἡμέρας διέμεινε νεαρὰ ὡς ἀπεδάρή· τῶν ἁλύσεων τὰ δεσμὰ ἀόρατος δύναμις ἔλυσε· τῆς σκοτίας ὁ τόπος φωτὶ κατηυγάζετο· αἱ ῥάβδοι ἐν ταῖς τῶν κρατούντων χερσὶ τὴν οἰκείαν ἐπιδείκνυνται στεῤῥότητα, ἐν δὲ τῷ τύπτειν ὡς πάπυρος ἁπαλύνονται. Ὡς δὲ ἁγνεία φαίνεται ἐν τῷ πράγματι, καὶ δικαιοσύνη ἀληθεία δοκιμάζεται, τοῦτο λοιπὸν περιλείπεται, ἵνα πάντες ἡμεῖς τοῖς γόνασι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τούτου προσπεσόντες συγγνώμην αἰτήσωμεν τῶν προγεγονότων ἀνομιῶν, καὶ παρακαλέσωμεν, ἵνα ποιήσῃ ἡμᾶς τοιοῦτον Θεὸν σέβεσται ὅστις τοὺς σεβομένους αὐτὸν ἐν παντὶ πολέμῳ νικηφόρους ποιεῖ. Καὶ γὰρ πάντας τοὺς ἄρχοντας ἡμῶν καὶ τοὺς βασιλεῖς καὶ ὅσοι ἐπαναστῶσιν αὐτῷ, οὐχὶ οὕτω νικήσει καθάπερ καὶ ἡμᾶς; Ταῦτα εἰπὼν ὁ Κλαύδιος σὺν κᾶσι τοῖς στρατιώταις τοῖς γόνασι τοῦ ἁγίου Χρυσάνθου προσπεσὼν παρεκάλει λέγων· Ἐπ ἀληθείας ἔγνωμεν ὅτι ὁ Θεός σου Θεός έστιν ἀληθινός. Ὅθεν παρακαλοῦμεν, ποίησον ἡμᾶς ἐπιγνῶναι αὐτὸν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν αὐτοῦ γνῶσιν οἵῳ βούλει τρὸπῳ προσάγαγε. Χρύσανθος ἔφη· Πρὸς Θεοῦ ἐπίγνωσιν εἰ προσελθεῖν ἐπιποθεῖτε, μὴ τοῖς ποσὶν, ἀλλὰ τῇ καρδίᾳ ποσεύθητε πρὸς αὐτόν. Καὶ γὰρ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου ἡμῶν πλησίον γίνεται ὁ Θεὸς, ἐὰν αὐτὸν ὅλῃ τῇ καρδίᾳ καὶ τῇ πίστει ἐπιζητῶμεν.

[19] Πολλῷ δὲ λόγῳ κατηχήσας αὐτοὺς, πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πίστιν ἐχειραγώγησεν· ἐπίστευσε γὰρ ὅ τε Κλαύδιος ὁ τριβοῦνος καὶ Ἱλαρία ἡ αὐτοῦ γυνὴ, καὶ οἱ δύο υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ Ἰάσων καὶ Μαῦρος, καὶ πάντες οἱ φίλοι αὐτοῦ, καὶ πᾶσα ἡ θεραπεία αὐτοῦ· ἐπίστευσαν δὲ καὶ οἱ αὐτοῦ στρατιῶται μετὰ πάντων τῶν οἰκείων. Καὶ ὀμοθυμαδόν ἅπαντες ἐφωτίσθησαν τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ, καὶ ἦσαν προσκαρτεροῦντες τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ τοῦ Χρυσάνθου μετὰ πόθου, καὶ ἀκούοντες τοῦ λόγου τῆς πίστεως τῆς εἰς τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰσουν Χριστὸν * μετὰ φόβου. Ἐδέοντο δὲ καὶ ηὔχοντο ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ πάντα παθεῖν.

[20] Ὡς οὖν οὗτοι πάντες ἐπίστευσαν τῷ Κυρίῳ, ἦλθεν εἰς τὰ ὦτα Νουμεριανοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως· καὶ κελεύει Κλαύδιον τὸν τριβοῦνον προσδεθέντος λίθου τῷ τραχήλῳ αὐτοῦ ῥιφῆναι εἰς τὸ μέσον τῆς θαλάσσης πάντας δὲ τοὺς στρατίωτας ἐξεταστθῆναι, καὶ τὸν μὴ βουλόμενον ἀρνήσασθαι ἀποκεφαλισθῆναι. Τοσαύτην δὲ χάριν παρέσχεν ὁ Κύριος τοῖς πιστεύσασιν, ὥστε τοὺς δύο υἱοὺς Κλαυδίου ἄνευ ἐπερωτήσεως ὁμολογῆσαι τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ ὐπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ ἥδιστα ἀποθανεῖν ἐτοίμως ἔχειν. Τούτους ζηλώσαντες πάντες ὁμοψύχως οἱ πιστεύσαντες, ἐν μιᾷ ὥρᾳ ἐν τῇ ὁμολογιᾳ τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἐτελειώθησαν. Ἦν δὲ ἐν ᾧ τόπῳ τὰς κεφαλὰς ἀπετμήθησαν, τύμβος ἀρχαῖος· τοῦτον ἐκκαθάραντες διὰ νυκτὸς οἱ Χριστιανοὶ ἅπαντα τὰ σώματα τῶν ἁγίων κοινῇ κατέθεντο, οὐ μακρὸν τῆς πόλεως, ἐν ὁδῷ τῇ καλουμένῃ Σαλαρία Ἦν δὲ Ἱλαρία ἡ γυνὴ τοῦ τριβούνου συναγαγοῦσα τὰ σώματα τῶν δύο υἱῶν αὐτῆς Ἰάσωνος καὶ Μαύρου, καὶ ἐν δυσὶ σοροῖς ἕκαστον καταθεμέμη.

[21] Ἐν δὲ τῷ πυκνότερον αὐτὴν ἔρχεσθαι καὶ θυμιᾷν καὶ προσεύχεσται ἐν τῷ τοπῳ κατεσχέθη ὑπό τινων, καὶ ἑλκομένη, παρεκάλεσεν ἐνδοῦναι αὐτῇ τοῦ εὔξασθαι. Ὡς οὖν ἔκαμψε τὰ γόνατα ἐκπετάσασα τὰς χεῖρας εἶπε· Δέσποτα Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ, ὃν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας ὁμολογῶ, νῦν με τοῖς ἐμοῖς τέκνοις *, συναρίθμιον ποίησον, οὓς ἐκ τῆς ἐμῆς γαστρὸς εἰς τὸ σὸν προσεκαλέσω μαρτύριον. Ταῦτα εἰποῦσα, καὶ ἐγχρονίσασα ἔτι τῇ προσευχῇ ἐν τῷ ἐξιλεοῦσθαι τὸ θεῖον, ἀπέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα. Οἱ δὲ κρατήσαντες αὐτὴν συμπαθήσαντες ἐπὶ τῷ αἰφνιδίῳ θανάτῳ αὐτῆς, καταλιπόντες τὰς δύο παιδίσκας τὰς σὺν αὑτῇ ἐπορεύθησαν. Καὶ ἐκεῖναι ἔθαψαν αὐτὴν ἐπιμελῶς, καὶ ὑπεράνω ᾠκοδόμησαν μαρτύριον βραχύτατον· αὐτῆς γὰρ ὑπῆρχεν ὁ τόπος· καὶ ἔξω αὐτοῦ οἱ ἅγιοι κατετέθησαν ἐκεῖ· τὸ γὰρ οἰκητήριον αὐτῆς ἐκεῖ ἦν.

[22] Ὁ δὲ Νουμεριανὸς ἐκέλευσε τὸν Χρύσανθον φυλάσσεσθαι ἐν φρουρᾷ βαθυτάτῃ * ὅπως αὐτὸν σὺν τῇ Δαρείᾳ διαφόρως κολάσεται. Καὶ ἐνέβαλον αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ τοῦ Τουλιανοῦ φυλακῇ. Ἦν δὲ αὕτη βαθυτάτη καὶ βορβορώδης καὶ πλήρης δυσωδίας, ἐπειδὴ τὰ κανάλια ἐκεῖθεν διήρχοντο, καὶ ζοφώδης δὲ λίαν, ἔνθα ἦν ὁ Χρύσανθος διδηροδέσμίος γυμνός. Ἡ δὲ Δαρεία παραδίδοται ἐν ἑταιρείῳ. Ἀλλὰ τοῖς διαφόροις αὐτῶν παθήμασι διαφόρῳ χάριτι ὁ Κύριος ἐβοήθει. Καὶ γὰρ τῷ Χρυσάνθῳ ἡδύσματα καὶ φῶς θεῖον ἐχορηγεῖτο· τῇ δὲ Δαρείᾳ λέων ἐκπεφευγὼς ἐκ τοῦ σταδίου, εἰσελθὼν εἰσ τὸ οἴκημα ἔνθα ἦν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον προσευχομένη, ἥπλωσεν ἑαυτὸν ἐν τῷ μέσῳ.

[23] Ἁγνοοῦντες δὲ τὸν λέοντα εἶναι ἔνδον οἱ τῆς πόλεως ἀπέστειλαν πρὸς αὐτὴν ἄσωτόν τινα ὃς ἐν τῷ * μύσει περιβόητος ἐτύγχανεν. Ὡς δὲ εἰσῆλθεν, ἐπιπηδᾷ αὐτῷ ὁ λέων, καὶ ὑποστρώσας αὐτὸν ἐπάτει τοῖς ποσὶν ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ. Ἦν δὲ ἀτένιζων τῇ παρθένῳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὡς τὶ κελεύσειε ποιῆσαι. Γνοῦσα δὲ ἡ ἁγία Δαρεία εἶπε τῷ λέοντι· Ὁρκῶ σε κατὰ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἄνες αὐτῷ ἀκοῦσαι παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ λόγον.

[24] Ὁ δὲ λέων, καταλιπὼν αὐτὸν, ἀνελθὼν ἀνέπεσεν ἐν τῇ εἰσόδῳ, ἵνα μὴ ἕτερὸς τις δυνηθῇ εἰσελθεῖν. Καὶ λέγει ἡ Δαρεία· Ἰδοὺ τοῦ λέοντος ἡ ἀγριότης ἀκούσασα τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Χριστοῦ εὐλαβήθη τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ σὺ ἄνθρωπος λογικὸς ἐν τοσαύταις αἰτίαις διάγεις, ἄθλιε, καὶ ἐν οἱς πενθεῖν σε ἔδει, ἐν τούτοις καυχᾶσαι. Ἐκεῖνος δὲ προσπεσὼν αὐτῇ, ἤρξατο βοᾷν καὶ λέγειν· Κέλευσόν με ἐξελθεῖν ἀβλαβῆ, κἀγὼ κηρύξω πᾶσι τὸν Χριστὸν Θεὸν ὑπάρχειν ἀληθινὸν, ᾧ σὺ λατρεύεις, καὶ ούκ ἔστι παρὲξ αὐτοῦ Θεός. Καὶ ἐκέλευσεν ἡ Δαρεία τῷ λέοντι συγχωρῆσαι αὐτῷ ἐξελθεῖν. Καὶ μεταστάντος τῆς εἰσόδου τοῦ λέοντος, ἐξῆλθε καὶ περιέτρεχεν εἰς τὴν πόλιν, καὶ ἐβόα λέγων· Γνῶτε πάντες Ῥωμαῖοι Δαρείαν θεὰν ὑπάρχειν. Παραγενομένων δὲ τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ σταδίου συλλαβεῆ τὸν λέοντα, θείᾳ δυνάμει ἐκεῖνος ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ἁρπάζων πάντας αὐτοὺς ἔστρωσε χαμαὶ ἀβλαβῶς συνέχων πρὸ ποδῶν τῆς Ἁγίας.

[25] Ἡ δὲ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτοὺς· Ἐὰν πιστεύσητε εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν, δυνὴσεσθε ἀβλαβεῖς ἀναχωρῆσαι· εἰδ᾽ οὺ, οἱ θεοὶ ὑμῶν ἀντιλάβοιιτο ὑμῶν. Ἐκεῖνοι δὲ μιᾷ φωνῇ ἐβόων· Ὁ μὴ πιστεύων τὸν Χριστὸν ἀληθινὸν εἶναι Θεὸν καὶ ζῶντα, μὴ ἐξέλθοι ζῶν.

Καὶ ταῦτα εἰπόντες, ἐξεπορεύοντο βοῶντες· Πιστεύσατε, δῆμοι Ῥωμαίων μὴ εἶναι ἄλλον Θεὸν εἰ μὴ τὸν Χριστὸν, ὃν Δαρεία κηρύσσει. Ὁ δὲ ἔπαρχος Κελερῖνος ἐκέλευσε πῦρ ἀναφθῆναι πρὸς τὴν θύραν τοῦ οἰκήματος ὅπου ἦν Δαρεία σὺν τῷ λέοντι. Ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ λέων τὸ πῦρ ἐφοβήθη, καὶ ἤρξατο ὠρύεσται. Πρὸς ὃν ἔφη ἡ Δαρεία· Μὴ φοβοῦ· οὐ μὴ κατακακῇς, οὐδὲ συλληφθήσῃ πώποτε, οὔτε ἀναιρεθήσῃ, ἀλλὰ ἰδίῳ θανάτῳ ἀποθανῇ. Ἔξελθε οὖν ἀφόβως, καὶ πορεύου ἐν εἰρήνῃ· ὅτι ὁν ἐτίμησας ἐν ἐμοὶ, αὐτὸς ῥύσεταί σε. Καὶ κλίνας τὴν κεραλὴν ὁ λέων ἐξῆλθε, καὶ διελθὼν τὴν πόλιν ἐπορεύθη μηδένα ἀδικήσας. Οἱ δὲ ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ ῥυσθέντες ἐβαπτίσθησαν πάντες.

[26] Ἐμηνύθη ταῦτα Νουμεριανῷ τῷ βασιλεῖ, καὶ ἐκέλευσε τῷ ἐπάρχῳ ὅπως τὸν Χρύσανθον καὶ τὴν Δαρείαν, εἰ μὴ βουληθῶσι θύειν, διαφόροις βασάνων αἰκισμοῖς πικρῶς ἀναλώσῃ. Ὡς οὖν κατηνάγκαζεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Κελερῖνος πρὸς τὸ θύειν πολλὰ λέγων καὶ ἀκούων παρ᾽ αὐτῶν, ἐκέλευσε τὸν Χρύσανθον κρεμασθῆναι ἐν τῷ ἑρμηταρίῳ. Κρεμασθέντος δὲ αὐτοῦ, τὸ ξύλον ἐφθάρη, καὶ τὰ δεσμὰ διεῤῥάγη, καὶ αἱ λαμπάδες ἐσβέσθησαν. Ὅσοι δὲ ἥπτοντο τῆς ἁγίας Δαρείας, συνεσπῶντο τὰ νεῦρα τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ ὠρύοντο ἐκ τῶν πόνων. Θεασάμενος δὲ ταῦτα ὁ ἔπαρχος Κελερῖνος ἐφοβήθη, καὶ πορευθεὶς δρομαίως πρὸς τὸυ βασιλέα ἀπήγγειλεν αὐτῷ τὸ γεγονός. Ὁ δὲ Νουμεριανὸς, ταῦτα ἀκούσας οὐ θείαν δύναμιν , ἀλλὰ περιεργίαν τινὰ λογισάμενος ἐκέλευσεν αὐτοὺς ἔξω τῆς πόλεως ἀπαχθῆναι τῇ ὁδῷ τῇ καλουμένῃ Σαλαρία, καὶ ὀρυγῆναι βόθρον, καὶ ἐμβληθῆναι ἐκεῖ ἀμφοτέρους, καὶ λίθοις καὶ γῇ καταχωσθῆναι. Ἀπαχθέντες δὲ οἱ ἅγιοι Χρύσανθος καὶ Δαρεία κατήχθησαν ἐν τῷ βόθρῳ, καὶ ψαλλόντων αὐτῶν καὶ προσευχομένων τῷ Θεῷ κατεχώσθησαν. * Καὶ γέγονεν αὐτοῖς ἥ τὲ κοινωνία τοῦ μαρτυρίου καὶ ἡ ταφὴ καὶ ἡ κόλασις ἀδιάζευκτος, καὶ καθὼς γεγόνασιν ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ, σύζυγοι πνευματικοὶ, οὕτω καὶ τὴν μετάστασιν τοῦ βίου ἔσχον ἐν ὁμονοίᾳ. Καὶ προσεδέξατο αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς θυσίαν ζῶσαν, καὶ ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἀπειλήφασι τοὺς στεφάνους.

[27] Ὡς οὖν χάριτι Θεοῦ πολλαὶ δυνάμεις καὶ ἰάσεις ἐν τῷ τόπῳ ἐγίνοντο, κατήντησεν ἡ ἐνιαύσιος ἡμέρα τοῦ πάθους αὐτῶν, καὶ ἀνείκαστον πλῆθος ἀνδρῶν τε καὶ γυναικῶν καὶ παιδίων , συνήχθη εἰς τὸ μνημόσυνον αὐτῶν. Ἦσαν δὲ ἅπαντες ὁμοθυμαδὸν συνηγμένοι ἐν ἑνί σπηλαίῳ· καὶ (γὰρ) ἡν τὸ σπήλαιον πλησίον αὐτῶν. Τοῦτο οὖν ἀκούσας ὁ Νουμεριανὸς ἐκέλευσεν ἀνοικοδομηθῆναι καὶ ἐμφραγῆναι τὴν εἴσοδον τοῦ σπηλαίου . Παραχρῆμα δὲ γέγονε τοῦτο· καὶ λαξεύσαντες κύκλῳ ἄνωθεν τὸν τόπον, ἐπαφῆκαν κατ᾽ αὐτῶν γῆν, καὶ μετασχόντες πάντες τῶν θείων μυστηρίων τῆς κοινωνίας ὁμοθυμαδὸν τὸν στέφανον τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἀπειλήφασι μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων· ἐν οἷς ὑπῆρχε Διόδωρος ὁ πρεσβύτερος, Μαριανὸς διάκονος καὶ πλεῖστοι κληρικοὶ. Πλῆθος δὲ ἀναρίθμητον λαοῦ, ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα ἢ τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἐκζητῆσαι περιττὸν ἡγησάμεθὰ · ἀδύνατον γὰρ ἦν.

[28] Ταῦτα ὡς ἐπράχθη * ἀνεγραψάμην ἐγὼ Οὐιρῖνος προτροπῇ ὑπείξας Στεφάνου τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου πάππα, καὶ ταῖς πέριξ πόλεσιν ἐξαπέστειλα, ὡς ἂν τὰ περὶ τῶν ἁγίων τῶν δε μαρτύρων ἐπιγνῶσιν ἅπαντες, καὶ δοξάσωσι τὸν ἐν τῇ καλῇ τούτους καὶ σεπτῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου ὁμολογίᾳ Χριστὸν στεφανώσαντα, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνον. Ἀμήν.

St. Chrysanthus, seized, And so when many virgins, abandoning the love of their betrothed, gave themselves to Christ; and young men, abandoning the pursuit of pleasures and carnal commerce, bound themselves to chastity ; a sedition was stirred up in the City, and a public complaint was presented to Celerinus ^a, who administered the praetorship of the City. The young men cried out: We are losing our betrothed through Daria; the husbands cried out: We are losing our marriages; the women cried out: We have lost our husbands through Chrysanthus and now we have no sons. And there was a varied and seditious confusion of complainants. They were therefore ordered by the prefect to be both bound and killed with various punishments, if they should despise the ceremonies of the sacrifices. Chrysanthus was therefore handed over to the tribune Claudius, who handed him over to seventy soldiers, saying: Lead him outside the city to the shrine of invincible Hercules, where if he will not sacrifice, deal with him with various punishments, until he consents.

[16] is tortured. Then the soldiers bound him with raw sinews, that as the sinews gradually dried the force of the binding might reach to the bones; but as soon as he had been bound, all the fastenings in his hands were so loosed that his eyes could not catch sight of the speed of their loosing . And as if the bindings were wrestling against themselves, different soldiers bound him in different ways with new and exquisite devices. But as soon as the binder's hand had left the bond, quicker than a word whatever he had tied was loosed. Then the soldiers in anger put him in a new stocks ^b, very knotty, so as to confine his legs at the third hole. And so while they stood before him and insulted him, the wood of the whole stocks so rotted away that it was turned into ash. Taking up Chrysanthus, the soldiers poured human urine over him, saying: Now you will lose your sorceries. But as soon as he was drenched with the most stinking urine, the stinking liquid itself was so turned into a nectarean odor that you would think he had been drenched not with human urine but with rose-water ^c. Taking him away from that same place, they flayed a calf, and bound him naked in the fresh hide, and placed him in the sun; but through the whole day in the excessive heat and most blazing sun, it could not be dried by any heating at all, but continuing in the same greenness in which it had been, the hide could in no way hurt the servant of God ^d. Likewise they placed iron chains on his neck, and binding at once his hands and feet, they shut him up in a very dark place. But at once the bonds were loosed from his hands, and such light shone in the place that many shining lamps were thought to be there.

[17] Claudius the tribune urges him to renounce Christ; All these things were announced by the seventy soldiers to their tribune Claudius. And he, coming to the place, saw an immense light, and ordering him to come out to him, said: What is this so great power of your sorceries, that you accomplish these things … ^e? To whom Chrysanthus answered: If there were in you even a spark of prudence, you would know that I am helped not by the devices of sorceries, but by divine supports; but you regard me in such a way as you regard the gods, whom you are proved to worship by an unjust judgment: for if your eyes looked wisely, they would see that your gods do not see; if your ears took in the truth, you would notice that they cannot hear the voices of those who cry out; if your inward parts took in the understanding of any prudence, you would consider that these have nothing in their inward parts other than clay and lead. Then the tribune Claudius ordered him to be beaten with clubs. But as soon as the very hard rods were brought *, they began to grow soft in the hands of those beating him like a feather ^f. Finally, while the rods were being held, they were as solid as if they were of iron, but while they were striking, they were rendered as very soft and light as if they were of papyrus ^g.

[18] but in vain; wherefore he himself and many others Then Claudius the tribune ordered him * to be raised up and clothed in his garments, and turning to his soldiers, he addressed them all with this speech, saying: You well know that I have detected both the enchantment and the conjuring tricks of magicians. Here there are no human arts at all, where the power of divine mighty works appears: for the bonds of sinews have given way, loosed of their own accord, the strength of the wood has rotted by a sudden failure; the greenness of the hide in the excessive blaze of the sun has remained in the same freshness as when it was taken from the calf; his invincible uprightness has also unloosed the fastening of the chains, the place of darkness has shone with excessive illumination, the clubs stiffen in the hand of the holder, and grow soft in the blow of the striker. In the look of the sufferer ^h sincerity itself, and in his word also reasonable truth, is proved. What remains, except that all, thrown at the knees of this Man, should ask pardon of our crime, and beg him to cause us also to worship such a God, who makes his worshippers victors in every battle? For behold both us and the judges and all who have come against him he has never failed so to overcome, as you have proved. And so when he had spoken these and other things, Claudius himself with all the soldiers, thrown at the knees (of St. Chrysanthus), prayed, saying: In truth I have proved that your God is the true God. I ask therefore that you make me know him, and that I may by some means attain to the knowledge of his worship. To whom Chrysanthus said: If you desire to come to the knowledge of God, you must go not with your feet but with your heart: for God is made present to each in the measure that each has sought him with faith of mind and integrity of heart.

[19] they are baptized As Chrysanthus went on with these and similar things ⁱ, Claudius the tribune believed, Hilaria his wife believed; his two sons Jason and Maurus also believed; all his friends and household believed; all those seventy soldiers believed with their people, and all were baptized on the same day; each day they heard with the greatest desire the teaching of the truth from St. Chrysanthus, and receiving the word of Christ with all reverence and fear, they wished to bear even (all) adversities for the name of God ^k.

[20] and they are crowned with martyrdom; When all had believed in God, and the emperor Numerian ^l had heard (this), he ordered the tribune Claudius, with a huge stone bound (on his neck), to be thrown headlong in the midst of the sea; and all the soldiers to be heard one by one, and whoever denied that he was a Christian to be let go; and that he who would not deny the truth should have his head cut off ^m. And the Lord granted so great a grace to those who believed that first Jason and Maurus, sons of Claudius, even without being questioned said that they worshipped Christ, and for the confession of his name gladly met death. All, imitating these, with one mind within one hour consecrated their martyrdom to the Lord. There was, moreover, in the place where they were beheaded, an ancient grave-mound ⁿ; cleaning this out during the night, the Christians buried all the bodies together in one not far from the City, on the road which is called Salaria ^o. And the bodies of her sons St. Hilaria collected, the widow * of the martyr Claudius, and embalming them separately, that is, those of Maurus and Jason, she placed them in separate sarcophagi [p].

[21] She, while she was praying with assiduous service at the confession of the Saints, was held. As she was being dragged, likewise there dies Hilaria, wife of Claudius the tribune she asked those who were dragging her, saying: I beg you, permit me first to complete my prayer, and I will come wherever you wish. And so when she had halted her step, she received the Sacrament of the Lord [q] and spreading out her hands said: Lord Jesus Christ, since I confess you with my whole heart, now associate me with my sons,

whom from my womb you have called to your martyrdom. And saying these things she cast herself down in prayer, and while she prayed she gave up her spirit. Then those very men who had held her, grieving over her sudden death, left her two maidservants who were with her. And they buried her most diligently, and over her they built a very small church; for the place in which she had died was the garden of the same Hilaria, and from the time the Saints had suffered, she had set up a small dwelling for herself there [r].

[22] St. Chrysanthus in prison Meanwhile (Numerian) ordered Chrysanthus to be held in infernal custody in the Tullian prison [s], from which a horrible stench rose up, because the filth of the houses, conveyed through the channels of the sewers, constantly ran down there [t]. And in this drain, as we have said, the custody was deep and muddy, and so dark that the light-giving air showed there neither sign of day nor any trace of light [u]. Into this dwelling, then, Chrysanthus, bound in iron, was sent; and Daria was sent into the public lodging of harlots; but to these different sufferings of the Saints Christ came to meet them with a different kind (of aid): for to Chrysanthus divine light and holy fragrances were furnished. And to Daria * a lion [v], escaping from a cage of the amphitheater, was directed, which, entering that little chamber in which Daria lay prostrate in prayer, the lion itself also prostrated itself beside her face down, so that it seemed itself also to be adoring him who was showing his presence to the entreating Virgin.

[23] St. Daria is led to a brothel; Not knowing that the lion was within, then, they sent in to her a certain most base man, who was held most notorious in the crime of corruption. As soon as he had gone in, the lion leaped upon him, and throwing him down under its feet, began to look at the face of Daria, the virgin of Christ, as if asking what she would order about him. Blessed Daria, understanding this, said to the lion: I adjure you by the Son of God, for whom I gladly embrace the suffering of martyrdom, that you do not hurt him in anything; but allow him to receive my discourse without terror [x].

[24] where, defended by a lion, a wanton young man Then the lion, leaving him, placed itself in the very entrance, so that neither might he, being released, seize the chance of fleeing, nor another be able to enter [y]. Then Daria said to him: Behold the ferocity of a lion, having heard the name of Christ, gives reverence to God; and you, a rational man, exercise yourself in such great crimes that you even glory in this for which you, wretch, should be mourned. Then he, prostrating himself before her, began to cry out, saying: Order me to go out from here sound, that I may cry out to all that Christ, the Son of God, whom you worship, he alone is the true God. Then Daria ordered the lion * to remove itself from the entrance. And when he had gone out he began to cry out and to run through the whole city, saying: Know, all of you (Romans), that Daria is a goddess. And so when various hunters and various peoples went to capture the lion, God granted this power to the lion, that it took them all, and as if holding them with a hand, set them so seized without any hurt before the feet of St. Daria [z].

[25] and converts very many others. Then Daria addressed them all, saying: If you promise that you will believe in Christ, you will be able to go away unharmed, but otherwise, I do not know whether your gods will help you. Then all those with one voice cried out: Let him who does not believe that Christ is true God not go out of here alive. And saying these things they began to go out, all crying with one voice: Believe, peoples of Rome, that there is no other God besides Christ . Then the prefect, Celerinus by name, ordered a copious fire to be lit at the entrance of the little chamber in which Daria was with the lion. When it saw this being done, the lion began to be terrified and to give a roar. To which blessed Daria said: Do not fear; you will neither be burned in the fire, nor be captured , nor can you be killed; but you will die by your own death. Go out in safety and go *, for he whom you have honored in me, he himself frees you. Then with its head bowed the lion went out through the midst of the crowds of the peoples. No one captured it, and it hurt no one [aa]. And those who had escaped unharmed from its mouth were all baptized.

[26] At last both gain the palm of triumph; All these things were announced to the emperor Numerian, and he ordered Celerinus the prefect that both, that is, Chrysanthus and Daria, if they should not consent to the sacrifices, should be punished with various tortures of torments. And so when he was compelling them to sacrifice, and was saying and hearing various things, he ordered St. Chrysanthus to be hung on a huge rack and tortured. And when Chrysanthus was placed on the rack, all the wood of the rack was shattered, and all the bonds were broken; and the torches that were to be applied to his sides were put out. Whoever therefore (moreover) had put a hand to St. Daria, their sinews grew numb and for pain they gave a groan of the heart and a moan. Seeing these things, therefore, Celerinus the prefect was exceedingly terrified, and hastening in very swift course to the emperor, he narrated all that had been done. Then the emperor Numerian, imputing (these things) not to divine powers but to sorceries, ordered them to be led to the Via Salaria [bb] and to be put down in a sandpit, and there both together, that is, Chrysanthus and Daria, to be overwhelmed alive with earth and stones [cc]. Then most blessed Chrysanthus with the blessed virgin Daria were put down in a pit, applying themselves to psalms and prayers *, and they became companions in blood in their passion, as they had also been spouses in mind; as if in one couch, so continuing in one pit. Such was the passion, which brought burial on the servants of God rather than punishment. And God received a living victim, by whose grace this came about, that those who together as youths continued in virginity, together should attain to the crown, living without end [dd].

[27] afterwards many others, who had come to their tomb, are crowned. And so when God was bestowing many benefits on those coming to their burial place, it came about that on their birthday an infinite multitude of people flocked together; men and women together, and likewise infants and unmarried girls and youths. This having been made known to the ears of Numerian, he ordered a wall to be raised in the entrance by which they had gone into the crypt. When this had been accomplished, he threw down upon them a mountain of sand [ee]. All together therefore, while they received the Sacraments of communion and celebrated the glory of the Martyrs, themselves also attained to martyrdom [ff]; among whom was Diodorus the presbyter and Maurinus * the deacon and very many of the clergy [gg] and a multitude of the people, neither whose number nor names have been collected [hh].

[28] All these things, just as they were done, we wrote, Varinus and Armenius, brothers [ii], made presbyters by St. Stephen, Roman pope in the apostolic see [kk], and we have directed them * to all the churches in the East and the West, By whom the Passion was written. that the whole world may know that the Lord has received his martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria with many sons in the triumph of martyrdom and the crown of perpetual glory [ll].

ANNOTATIONS.

Cippus, an instrument in the form of a ring, by which the feet of the condemned and of slaves were bound:

You are tortured by the sinew, when you are held in the stocks; And the limbs are strengthened by the sinews by which the bones are bound.

In the glosses: ποδοκάκκη, ξύλινος δεσμός, stocks; a wooden bond. Whence Suidas: ποδοκακκη. So the stocks in a prison were called, either with another κ inserted, because it was as it were ποδῶν κακωσις, or by syncope, as Didymus says, as if ποδοκατέχη. See Pitiscus's lexicon of antiquities. It signifies also the prison itself: For he afflicted the better and richer citizens with insult and injuries: shutting up some, uncondemned and unjudged, in the vilest stocks, etc. Balderic. See Du Cange's Glossary.

This passage Surius, contrary to his custom, renders less faithfully: Forthwith therefore, bound, he was so pressed that the eye could not see the torment of the sinews: for the soldiers joined the sinews with wonderful artifice and new methods: but when the hands of those binding had come to rest, quicker than a word the bonds were dissolved. For which reason the soldiers in indignation threw him into prison and bound him with a threefold fetter.

I have subdued, and yet I have not found this power in sorceries. Yet commanding all as I wished, I have bent them to my pleasures. I have taken you, a noble and wise man, for this one part, that, despising the superstition of Christian rashness, about which a murmur of the Roman people and a sedition has been stirred up, I may give you back to your family, and that you may mildly offer due sacrifices to the almighty gods. There are found in the Vatican copy: Καὶ πάντας δὲ τούς μάγους, καὶ τοὺς φαρμάκους, καὶ ἐπαοιδούς ἐγὼ κατεδάμασα καὶ τοσαύτην δύναμιν ἐν μαγέιαις οὐχ᾽ ἑυρον, καὶ πάντων μὲν ἐκείνων κατεκράτησα, καὶ τὴν εκείνων πανουργιάν πρὸς τὸ εμόν ὑπεταζα θελήμα. Νυνι δὲ σε οἶδα ἄνδρα ἐμφᾳνῆ καὶ σοφρὸν πρὸς τοῦτο δὲ μόνον τὸ πραγμα συνέλαβον, ἵνα ἀπολείπῃς τὸ τῶν χριστιανῶν τολμηρόν ἐπιτήδευμα δι᾽ οὗ θρυλλος Ῥωμαίων καὶ στάσις γεγένηται, καὶ προσκυρώσεις ἑαυτόν τῳ γένει σου καὶ τοὺς παντοδυναμοῖς θεοῖς τὰς ὁφολομένας ἐκτελέσῃς θυσίας, which in Surius are rendered in these words: All the magicians and enchanters I have subdued; nor have I found any such power of magic. All have been conquered by me; all their malice has given way to my will. But since I see you an illustrious and wise man; I require nothing else of you, except that you abandon the bold institution of the Christians, by which tumult and sedition are stirred up among the Roman people, and show yourself worthy of your family, and make due sacrifices to the almighty gods. How it comes about that these words are missing in the Coislin, I cannot say.

p. From these and the following things it is understood how all these are commemorated together in some martyrologies. Cf. Prelim. Comm., § I, n. 4.

q. These three words, she received the sacrament of the Lord, are lacking in the Greek; and the version of Surius is better: But when Hilaria, the wife of Claudius, was entering that place rather often, she was seized by certain persons. As she was being dragged away: Allow me, she said, to complete my prayer… When therefore, with knees bent and hands spread out, she had raised her eyes to heaven, etc.

r. A little more briefly and accurately in Surius: And they diligently buried her, and over her built a small monument: for the place was her own (Hilaria's); and because the Saints had been placed near it, from that time she had established a dwelling there for herself.

s. The Tullianum was the lower part of the prison, which is also read to have been called Robur. This part, added by King Tullius and hence obtaining its name, Sallust describes thus Bellum Catilinarium.: There is a place in the prison which is called the Tullianum, where, when you have gone up a little to the left, it is sunk about twenty (Pitiscus, in the Lexicon of Roman antiquities under the word Robur, reads twelve) feet into the ground. Walls fortify it on every side, and above it a chamber joined with stone vaults, but its appearance is foul and terrible with neglect, darkness and odor. In the Acts of St. Peter there is talk of the custody or prison of the Mamertine, where is now found the edifice or church of St. Peter in Carcere, and, by the witness of Baronius Martyrol. Roman., 14th of March., having underground descents, it is visited by Christians, on stated days especially the 4th of July, for the sake of religion, in a crowded assembly. Above it in the year 1539 a church was erected by the sodality of Carpenters in honor of St. Joseph, their patron. Baronius adds that this place bears the appearance of that prison which is described by Sallust, Varro and in the Acts of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, whence many, he says, have been led to that opinion, that they have thought that the Tullian prison is that very one we call Mamertine. But certainly, he goes on, there are very many things that draw me away from the opinion of the aforesaid and compel me to think that the Tullian prison was placed in another part of the Capitol (for this is beyond controversy, that it is to be sought on the Capitoline citadel), near the place which our ancestors also are found to have called the Tullian prison, where there is also a church, an ancient title, called of St. Nicholas in the Tullian prison, which name has persisted until now. To these things Alessandro Donati replies De urbe Roma, Book II, chapter XIX. In Graevius, vol. III, col. 623. that in Roman antiquities many err in many things, taking up names which, when they had gained strength among the ignorant crowd, were used also by scribes and writers without their examining the matter more accurately. And he cites many examples: thus the tower of Nero is even today confused among the people with the tower of Maecenas; and the equestrian statue of M. Antoninus the crowd until these times would have to be Constantine's. Then Ugonio reports an old inscription from the temple of St. Nicholas, where only the title of prison is placed, the word Tullian being absent. It is not of our purpose to pursue these things further. Let it suffice to have noted from Pitiscus's Lexicon of Antiquities: A sharp controversy has arisen among antiquaries whether the Tullianum is that very prison (of the Mamertine), or another at the Area Montanaria, where is the edifice of St. Nicholas in Carcere. Biondo, Volaterranus, Fulvio, Marliano, Fauno, Panvinio and others affirm without any hesitation that the Tullian prison, so called from its author Servius Tullius … is the same which in the Acts of the martyrs is called the Prison of the Mamertine, situated under the Capitol; which opinion Ugonio on the stations of the city of Rome, and the more recent Donati, defend. Nevertheless someone not of great name and authority has determined the opposite; and him Baronius on the Roman Martyrology at the 14th day of March, and in the Apology (which he inserted in the second edition of the same Martyrology), defends against Ugonio with many arguments brought forward. Yet, as is easily conjectured from the Roman Itineraries, the opinion adverse to Baronius still prevails today in the City. Indeed Platner and Bunsen, who recently published a distinguished description of the city of Rome in the German language, determine thus without any doubt [Beschreibung der Stadt Rom., vol. III, sect. I, p. 259. Stuttgart and Tübingen 1837.]: The prison of ancient Rome, called the Mamertine or Tullian Prison, is still visited at the foot of the Capitoline hill, at the entrance of the Via Marforio (Vicus Mamertinus). It has been changed into a church, whose name is St. Peter in Carcere. There then follows a minute description of the Tullian prison; and it is added Beschreibung der Stadt Rom., vol. III, sect. I, p. 261 et seq. that a certain mention of the aforesaid edifice of St. Peter is first found before the middle of the fifteenth century. Again of the church of St. Nicholas in Carcere Ibid., vol. III, sect. III, p. 474.: It is numbered among the ancient Roman deaconries. Yet there is no mention of it in the Liber Pontificalis. So far as is established for us, its first notice is referred to the year 1100, in which, under the pontificate of Paschal II, there is found a cardinal Deacon of that church. It has the name of St. Nicholas in Carcere from a neighboring custody, formerly built by Appius Claudius the decemvir, which in the Middle Ages they confused with the Mamertine or Tullian, and hence it was called St. Nicholas in the Tullian prison. Whoever wishes to know more on this question may go to the authors cited, especially Platner and Bunsen.

t. This cause of the stench in the Tullianum is nowhere found in the more approved authors. Nor is there need to have recourse to such things: for both the sunken place itself, and the filth heaped up in it, and the air closed in, suffice for an intolerable stench to arise.

u. The whole description of the prison is rendered more accurately in Surius: But the emperor Numerian ordered Chrysanthus to be kept in a very deep prison, that together with Daria he might be afflicted with various (rather but differently, διαφόρως) torments. He was thrown therefore into the Tullian prison, very deep (we add the rest word for word), muddy, full of stench, because sewers ran down there, and very dark; here Chrysanthus was held, bound with chains and naked.

v. From the Greek more briefly translate with Surius: And to Daria a lion, which had escaped from the stadium, was a help. For entering the house where she was and was praying as a suppliant, it stretched itself in the middle.

x. One reads in the Greek: I adjure you, said St. Daria, by the Son of God, to allow him to hear my discourse.

y. Surius: And the lion, leaving him, watched the doors, lest anyone else should enter.

z. These things are far removed from the Greek text. And when bold men came from the stadium to seize the lion; by divine power the lion threw each to the ground, and held them before the feet of St. Daria, doing them no harm. So Surius.

aa. In the Greek: Bowing its head the lion departed, and passing through the middle of the city, hurt no one.

bb. Among the ancients there was only one road of this name; afterwards there were two, distinguished into old and new; which distinction occurs in Christian documents published after the age of the persecutions. See Boldetti Osservazioni sopra i cimiteri, Book II, chapter XVII.. On the Old Via Salaria, as Mazzolari has it Vie Sagre. Diario, vol. V, p. 409. Rome 1820., which goes out from the Pincian gate, and running forward on the left skirts the villa of the German college, are seen the cemeteries at the slope of the cucumber, and also of the holy martyrs Hermes, Basilla, Protus and Hyacinth, etc. The new Via Salaria, says Mazzolari again Ibid. page 385., retained the ancient name, and goes out from the gate similarly named and extends toward the Salarian bridge. By the witness of Boldetti In the place cited., there adjoin the new one the cemeteries of St. Anthony the abbot, of SS. Saturninus and Thraso; likewise the cemetery of SS. Felicity, Alexander, Vitalis and Martial, which is also called that of the Jordani or of the seven Virgins, or finally of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, most noble Romans (this indeed is otherwise: for we have seen that St. Chrysanthus certainly sprang from Alexandria, St. Daria rather from Athens), crowned with martyrdom in that place; finally the cemetery of St. Priscilla, which excels the others in size, so that those are not rarely referred to this. Somewhat differently the said Mazzolari, in the place cited: There adjoin the new one the cemeteries of Priscilla, of St. Sylvester the pope, of St. Felicity and SS. Alexander, etc.; of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, of Novella, of Ostrianum, of St. Hilaria, of SS. Thraso and Saturninus. From these things it is understood how it could have come about that St. Saturninus is celebrated in some places together with SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. Thus in the breviary of Regensburg, which I have at hand, printed in the year 1496, one reads on the 30th day of October: On the feast of Saints Saturninus, Chrysanthus, Maurus and Daria. The Office is of the Common, except the Prayer and the Gospel, taken from John, chapter I: John was standing and two of his disciples, etc., with a homily of the venerable Bede: For behold, as the Gospel narrates, dearest brethren, we have heard that John was standing, etc. The Prayer is this: May the prayer of your blessed martyrs, O Lord, Saturninus, Chrysanthus, Maurus and Daria be with us, that those whom we venerate with worthy service we may constantly experience in pious help. Through. For the rest, in the Roman martyrology there occurs on the aforesaid day: At Cagliari in Sardinia St. Saturninus the martyr, who in the persecution of Diocletian was beheaded under the governor Barbarus. But many other Saturnini are also marked in the same martyrology on different days and in different places. To return to the Via Salaria, it has been said above that it began from the gate which at first was called Agonensis, either from the Agonal games or from the hills which they called Agones; then Quirinalis, because by it one went to the Quirinal hill, or because the shrine of Quirinus was nearest; afterwards Collina, from the Quirinal, Esquiline and Viminal Hills; finally in later times it began to be called Salaria, from the road on which it was set. See Panvinio in Graevius Antiquitt. Romm. vol. III, col. 243.. At the Colline gate there was the Wicked Field Ibid., col. 291., of which I have hinted something above, Annot. to chapter I, letter m. I add from Bartolomeo Marliano Ibid., col. 162.: The Wicked Field, in which Vestals guilty of unchastity were buried alive, occupied all that space which extends from the gardens of Sallust nearly as far as the Colline gate; of which Livy says thus: “Minucia the Vestal, judgment having been passed, was buried alive under the earth, at the Colline gate, to the right of the paved road, in the Wicked Field.” The place, accordingly, where SS. Chrysanthus and Daria suffered could have belonged to the Wicked Field or have been part of it. I would not however think that from this it is proved in the slightest that St. Daria was of the number of the Vestal virgins. See the Annotations to chapter I, letter m.

cc. From the Greek it is to be translated thus: And that a pit should be dug, and both thrown into it, and overwhelmed with stones and earth.

dd. They became in passion — living without end. From the Greek to the letter: And there was for them a fellowship of martyrdom and of burial and an undivided punishment; and as in the present life they had been spiritual spouses, so also they obtained their passing in concord. And God received them as a living victim, and they with one mind received crowns.

ee. Zabulum or sabulo is the same as arena.

ff. Τὸν Στέφανον τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἀπειλήφασι, with these words our Vatican copy ends, except that a doxological clause is added, which it has been possible to read only in part, since the leaves of the transcript toward the end are worn away and torn, and most of the lines are thereby halved.

gg. See Prelim. Comm., n. 12 and 24.

hh. Cf. Prelim. Comm. § II, n. 24. I set down only one paragraph from Surius, who comes much closer, as is usual, to the Greek text: Moreover when by the grace of God many mighty works and healings were being done in that place, and the solemn day of their martyrdom was being celebrated by an incredible multitude of men and women and children in a certain neighboring cave; Numerian, hearing of the matter, ordered the mouth and entrance of the cavern to be blocked. Which was indeed quickly done. And when earth was sent down from every side, all, receiving the communion of the divine mysteries, took the crown of martyrdom with the highest joy; among whom was Diodorus the presbyter, Marianus the deacon and clerics, and very many other faithful, whose (number and) names we consider it superfluous to search out, since they cannot be found.

ii. In the Coislin codex Varinus alone is named, and the verb is put in the singular number: ἀνεγραψάμην ἐγὼ Ουιρῖνος, I, Virinus, wrote. But both are named in the Colbert codex: ἀνεγραψάμεθα Οὐηρῖνος καὶ Ἀρμενίος ἀδελφοὶ, we, Verinus and Armenius, brothers, wrote; this reading Surius follows: And all these things, as they were done, we, Verinus and Armenius, brothers, have written. Which is surely an indication that Surius found it so. If however the matter had to be judged from our two codices, one would certainly have to stand by the Coislin, which far excels the Colbert.

kk. This passage indeed is either plainly corrupt or altogether faulty. In the Coislin Greek there is had: I, Virinus, wrote, obeying the desire (will) of Stephen, the most holy pope. Surius agrees: We have written, by order of the most holy Pope Stephen. Cf. above, letter ii. Whence the author of the Latin Acts drew his material (Mombritius also has the same), I would not easily say. I find certain traces in the Colbert codex, whose reading is this: Ταῦτα καθὼς ἐπράχθησαν ανεγραψάμεθα Οὐηρῖνος καὶ Ἀρμένιος ἀδελφοὶ παρὰ τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου Στεφὰνου πάππα Ῥώμης ἐπὶ τῆς καθέδρας αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ πρεσβυτερίου, καὶ ἀπεστείλαμεν, etc. These things, as they were done, we, Verinus and Armenius, brothers, wrote, by the mandate of the most holy Stephen, pope of the city of Rome, sitting in his chair, and (likewise by mandate) of the presbytery, and we have sent, etc. So the passage can be translated; although I do not clearly see what they mean: ἐπὶ τῆς καθέδρας αὐτοῦ. However that may be, no one will ever be able to beat out, even from that Greek text, that those men were made presbyters by Stephen, the Roman pontiff.

ll. In the Greek: And to the surrounding (Ταῖς πέριξ) cities I have sent, that all may be able to know what pertains to these holy Martyrs, and may glorify Christ who has crowned them in a distinguished and venerable confession; to whom be glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen. The Colbert codex has thus: καὶ ἀπεστείλαμεν εἰς τὰς πέριξ πόλεις, ὅπως γνῶσιν ἃπαντες ὅτι τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μάρτυρας ὑησιν (sic) Χρυσάνθου καὶ Δαρείας σὺν πολλοῖς τέκνοις διὰ τῆς ἀθλήσεως καὶ στεφάνων τοῦ μαρτυρὶου προεδέξατο εἴς τὴν αὐτοῦ βασιλείαν, ὧ ἡ δοξα κ. τ. λ. This reading our interpreter has followed, as also Surius: And we have sent to all the cities, that all might understand that the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria (with many sons) have received from the Lord the reward of martyrdom in the heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory and dominion, now and always and for ages of ages. Amen.

* Vat. Διες.

* Vat. τῷ αηττήτῳ Ἠράκλεῖ.

* Vat. καὶ θύσει.

* Vat. τῶν νευρων ξηραινομένων.

* Vat. μεχρι.

* Vat. μαχομενοι.

* Vat. κουπον?

* Vat. περιεκεον αυτῳ.

* Vat. οὐδε οὐδεμία

* Vat. ὅσον αὐτον ἐν

* Vat. ἔχαιρον, καὶ μετὰ ποθου ἐδεοντο

* Vat. ἐν τῷ τόπῳ ἐν ᾧ ἐτιαχηλοκοπηθησαν

* Vat. σαλαβαρεια

* Vat. ὑιοίς μου

* Vat. ἀσφαλεστάτη.

* τῃ

* Another reading: περιεργείαν

* Another reading: ἀπενεχθῆναι

* Another reading: ψάλλοντες αὐτοὶ και προσευχόμενοι

* Another reading: παιδισκῶν

* Another reading: ἅωαντες συνηγμένοι ἕν

* Another reading: τὴν θύραν τοῦ

* λαζευω I polish stones, I cut

* Another reading omits λαοῦ

* Another reading: περισσὸν

* Another reading: καθώς ἐπράχθησαν ἀνεγραψάμεθα κ. τ. λ.

* and of the discipline of Christ.

* ἀθρόως suddenly.

* Another reading: of those seeing.

* Another reading: to look upon.

* with shoots etc.

* to be loosed and.

* ἡ γυνη τοῦ τριβοῦνου wife of the tribune (Claudius)

* to Daria

* that he should allow him to go out

* may your gods free you. Sur.

* and living.

* Gr. whom Daria preaches.

* ever

* in peace

* are overwhelmed

* Marianus

* καὶ ἐξαπέστειλα and I sent

OTHER SHORTER ACTS. MARTYRDOM OF CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA.

From the Royal Vatican Codex, no. 529 (589?), p. 99.

Chrysanthus, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

Daria, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 1788

FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

At that time the emperor Numerian ordered Celerinus the prefect that Chrysanthus and Daria the virgin, if they should not consent to the sacrifices, should be punished with various tortures of torments. But when Celerinus was compelling them to sacrifice, and was saying and hearing various things, he ordered St. Chrysanthus to be hung on a huge rack; and when Chrysanthus was placed on the rack, all the wood of the rack was shattered, and all the bonds were broken; the torches also that were to be applied to his sides were put out. Then most blessed Chrysanthus with the blessed Virgin were put down into a pit, applying themselves to psalms and prayers. And there was in their passion a fellowship of blood as there had been of mind; and as spouses in one couch, so in one pit, continuing with one will, they died. Such was the passion, which brought burial on the servants of God rather than inflicted punishment. And God received a living victim, by whose grace this came about, that those who were together continuing in virginity, together should reach the crown. But when God was bestowing many benefits on those coming to their tombs, it came *, that on their birthday an infinite multitude of people flocked together; men and women together, and likewise infants and unmarried girls and youths. When this had been made known to the ears of Numerian, he ordered that in the

very entrance by which they had gone into the crypt a wall should be raised. When this had been fulfilled, he threw down upon them from above a mountain of sand. All together therefore, while they received the Sacraments of communion and celebrated the glory of the Martyrs, themselves also attained to the crown of martyrdom.

ANNOTATION.

* it came about.

SYNAXARION (FROM THE PRINTED MENAEA, THE 19TH OF MARCH), SS. CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA.

Chrysanthus, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

Daria, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

These lived under Numerian the king (βασιλέως). And Chrysanthus was the son of an illustrious man, Polemon ^b by name, of Alexandria; and Daria sprang from Athens. After Chrysanthus had been taught divine things by a certain Christian, and having received baptism was freely preaching Christ, he was given into custody by his father. And when he would not yield, but remained firm and unshaken, his father joined to him a beautiful girl established in the flower of her age, whom he had summoned from Athens, Daria by name, that by love of her he might be drawn away from the faith of the Christians. But she not only did not persuade him, but was herself persuaded, and, having abjured impiety, she received holy baptism, and virginity was preserved unharmed by both. Wherefore, accused before Celerinus the prefect, they were handed over to Claudius the tribune to be examined. He afflicted them with various torments: and when he saw them surviving these and superior in spirit to all punishments, he was changed and himself believed in Christ, together with his wife Hilaria and his two sons Jason and Maurus and the soldiers who were under him, all of whom afterwards received the crown of martyrdom on the 19th day of March. And Claudius, bound to a stone, was thrown into the deep and drowned; and his sons with the soldiers ended their lives beheaded; and St. Chrysanthus and Daria, cast into a pit ^c, and buried with earth heaped from above, there also received the palm of martyrdom.

ANNOTATIONS.

c. Βόθρον.

POEM OF SS. CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA

(From the Migne Patrology, vol. LXXIV, col. 527 et seqq.).

Chrysanthus, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

Daria, martyr, at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 1789

FROM THE MIGNE PATROLOGY.

Nec meminisse moror præconia clara Chrysanthi, Quem merito mundus famosa laude frequentat. Hunc igitur genitor florentem tempore proto ^b Tradidit in vestem ^c rhetorum sub sorte magistris, Ut puer indolis ^d librorum disceret artes, Quas mundana colit stolido sapientia sensu. Qui fuit, ut fertur, donatus mente sagaci, Ardens ingenio et prudens, ac pectore pubes. Posthac inlustris cum sacra volumina lector Auribus hausisset cœlesti grammate scripta, Protinus antiquæ contemnens dogmata sectæ, Falso * vetustarum calcavit frivola legum, Et dicto citius nactus rudimenta fidei ^e, Flagitium sceleris baptismi deluit unda. Mox publice Christum paganis prædicat ultro, Dira superbarum spernens tormenta minarum. Tum genitor sobolem, naturæ jura resolvens, Truserat in tenebras conclusi carceris atras, Magnopere metuens fisci decreta nefandi; Insuper et capital ^f tremulus formidat acerbum. Sed cum mens juvenis ferret tormenta libenter, Mox aliter genitor concinnans machina ^g scenam, Lubrica mundanis admovit gaudia pompis, Serica purpureis præbens velamina peplis, Quæ moritura facit festo viscere bombix, Induit egregium pretiosa et veste nitente. Tunc jussu patris convivia larga puellæ Deliciasque ferunt epulis luxusque culinæ, Vestibus ornatæ variis et fronte venusta, Talibus ut pompis miles mollesceret audax, Ferrea quis * crebro cedunt præcordia virum. Sed tamen armatus Christi testudine tyro Oscula virgineis despexit lubrica labris, Nec penetrare sinit stuprorum spicula pectus, Sed procul excussit jaculatas fraude sagittas. Non secus ut cecinit sponsali carmine vates ^h. Dulcia sed Christi leniscunt labra labellis, Mellea tunc roseis nigrescunt labra labellis. Venit ad extremum virgo certamen adulta, Daria Vestalis formosa fronte rubescens, Aurea cum glaucis quam comit lunula gemmis. Nititur hæc juvenem muneris ⁱ constringere nexu, Quatinus ad thalami flectat connubia mentem. Hæc falerata ^k fuit facundis freta loquelis; Denique diserti stupuerunt forte magistri Virginis ingenium biblorum ^l famine fultum: Nempe tenax scripti fuerat veloxque legendi. Sed secus evenit fortunæ casus opacæ. Dum pius obposuit fatis contraria fata, Daria quæ dudum servabat numina Vestæ ^m, Credidit Altithrono, cœli qui sceptra gubernat, Facundi Virgo verbis conversa Chrysanti. Tunc simulata thori fingunt consortia fata, Moribus et castis vivunt concorditer ambo, Ut spurcum penitus vitarent pectore nævum, Et maculam ventris pullam de corde fugassent. Post hæc baptismi sacris tingitur undis, Quatinus exuvias spoliaret mente vetustas, Et nova de liquido sumatur gurgite lodix ⁿ. Tum Virgo veterum sprevit documenta librorum, Et sequitur Christi quadratis dogmata biblis. Quis poterit vulgi tantas numerare catervas, Quantas exemplis egerunt credere Christo? Traditur idcirco pœnis torquendus acerbis, Septuaginta viris quem denso milite servant ^o Herculis in fano, ni forsan thura litaret. Tunc miles cœpit dirus vexare negantem Athletam Domini, fretum virtute superna, Udis et crudis nervorum nexibus angens, Torrida flammantis laturum caumata [p] solis. Sed puncto citius laxantur lora lacertis, Omnipotente Deo restes solvente nefandos. Ecce sudes iterum cipporum vincula cludunt, Cruraque cum rigidis nectebant turgida lignis. Ex templo cippum fundit Regnator Olympi, Quamvis hunc stolidi cecata mente ligarent. Lotia tunc lictor crudelis spargere jussit, Sacros humectans artus fœtore putenti: Qui liquor, ut dicunt, atrum fantasma fugabat Dum vernam Domini sperat nicromantia fretum, Sed putor ambrosiam flagrabat nectare suavi. Exin tortores bucula de globo rebyrsa [q] Mandant ut crudo stringantur tergore membra Marthyris, ardentem passuri lumine solem. Torrida sed Titan compressit fulmina fervens, Ut nulla insontis ferant * incendia membra. Tum reciproca concludunt ergastula Sanctum; Arta catenarum constringunt vincla lacertos, Nec non et collum nectunt cum crure gemello. Ecce repente pius nodatos Arbiter artus Eripit et chalibis mox stricta ligamina rumpit. Porro cum Sanctum nodoso vimine miles Cederet infaustus rubro qui sanguine gaudet, Sed mirum dictu, sceptrorum flagra beatus Ictibus argutis Martyr non sensit acerba. Quin immo ut plumæ mollescunt vimina Sancto, Ceu viridis lentescit lene papyrus in amne: Claudius insignis compunctus credidit ultro, Septuaginta viros convertens dogmate claro Fecit baptismo purgari gurgite mersos; Quapropter rubro perfusos sanguinis ostro Miles Ada * ethereum faustus perduxit Olympum, Quos simul obstrinxit felix spelunca sepultos, Lucida perpetuæ visuros præmia vitæ. His convexa poli merito lustrantibus alto Daria cum duro patitur tormenta Chrysanto. Impiger ast ille strictus molimine ferri, Truditur in tenebras laturus [r] carceris atras, Lurida quo putidis fluxerunt stercora cryptis; Nectare sed fœtor cedit ceu luce latebræ. Traditur interea et sceleratis Daria scortis, Prostibulum mechæ penetrans sine crimine sevo; Sed leo de claustris rugibundus mittitur arctis Virgineos artus tutos servare puellæ. Si quisquam cuperet sacrum temerare pudorem, Gestibus obscœnis contractans corpus honestum, Arcam ceu quondam probrosus contigit Oza [s], Protinus oppeteret confusus fronte petulcus, Rictibus et rabidi conrosus dente leonis Ultricem pœnam sentiret morte ferina. Tum demum Augusti, qui Romæ regna regebat, Decreto rubras sumpserunt morte coronas, Et simul in cripta pausant sabulone sepulti, Quos simul in vita vexavit pœna cruenta. Credimus ut faustis glomeratos jure catervis De gremio tumuli, cum tellus sponte dehiscet, Et genus humanum tumbis emerserit atris Suscitet ad requiem mundum hunc qui laxat habenis.

[Nor do I delay to recall the bright praises of Chrysanthus, Whom the world deservedly frequents with famous praise. Him therefore, flourishing in his first age, his father Handed over into the garb, under lot, to teachers of rhetoric, That the boy of good nature might learn the arts of books, Which worldly wisdom cultivates with stolid sense. He was, as is reported, gifted with a sagacious mind, Ardent in genius and prudent, and a youth in heart. Thereafter when, an illustrious reader, he had drunk in with his ears The sacred volumes written in heavenly letters, At once despising the dogmas of the ancient sect, He trod underfoot the false * trifles of old laws, And, quicker than a word, having gained the rudiments of faith, He washed away the disgrace of crime in the wave of baptism. Soon publicly he preached Christ to the pagans of his own accord, Spurning the dire torments of proud threats. Then the father, loosing the laws of nature, had thrust his offspring Into the black darkness of a closed prison, Greatly fearing the decrees of the wicked treasury; Moreover, trembling, he dreads the bitter capital charge. But when the young man's mind bore torments gladly, Soon the father, devising the scene otherwise by a contrivance, Brought near slippery joys with worldly pomps, Offering silken veils with purple robes, Which the silkworm, about to die, makes from its festive entrails, He clothed the distinguished youth in a precious and shining garment. Then by order of the father girls brought ample banquets And delights in feasts and luxuries of the kitchen, Adorned with various garments and of charming brow, That by such pomps the bold soldier might grow soft, To which * the iron hearts of men often yield. But yet the recruit, armed with the shield of Christ, Despised the slippery kisses of virgin lips, Nor allowed the darts of debaucheries to pierce his breast, But shook off far the arrows hurled by fraud. Not otherwise than as the poet sang in a bridal song. But the sweet lips of Christ grow soft with little lips, Then honeyed lips grow black with rosy little lips. There came to the final contest a grown virgin, Daria the Vestal, blushing with beautiful brow, Whom a golden crescent adorns with gray-green gems. She strives to bind the young man with the tie of favor, So as to bend his mind to the nuptials of the bridal chamber. She was trapped out, relying on eloquent speech; Even eloquent masters were perhaps astonished At the genius of the virgin, propped by the utterance of books: For she had been retentive of what was written and swift in reading. But otherwise fell the chance of dark fortune. While the pious one opposed contrary fates to fates, Daria, who had long served the divinities of Vesta, Believed in the High-throned One, who governs the scepters of heaven, The Virgin converted by the words of eloquent Chrysanthus. Then they feign the simulated fates of a consort bed, And with chaste morals both live in concord, That they might utterly avoid the foul blemish in the breast, And drive the dark stain of the belly from the heart. After this she is dipped in the sacred waves of baptism, So that old things might strip the spoils from the mind, And a new coverlet be taken up from the liquid flood. Then the Virgin spurned the teachings of the old books, And follows the dogmas of Christ in the four-square books. Who will be able to number the so great troops of the crowd Whom by their examples they led to believe in Christ? For this reason he is handed over to be tortured with bitter punishments, Whom seventy men guard with dense soldiery In the shrine of Hercules, unless perchance he should offer incense. Then the dire soldier began to harass the denying Athlete of the Lord, relying on supernal strength, Tormenting him with wet and raw bonds of sinews, To bear the scorching heats of the blazing sun. But quicker than a moment the thongs are loosed from his arms, Almighty God loosing the wicked cords. Behold stakes again close the bonds of the stocks, And they bound his swollen legs with the rigid wood. At once the Ruler of Olympus dissolved the stocks, Although the stolid men with blinded mind bound this. Then the cruel lictor ordered urine to be sprinkled, Moistening the sacred limbs with stinking foulness: Which liquid, as they say, put black phantasms to flight, While necromancy hopes for the servant of the Lord, relying on it, But the stench blazed as ambrosia with sweet nectar. Thereupon the torturers, a calf from the herd having been flayed, Command that the limbs of the Martyr be bound in the raw hide, To suffer the sun burning with its light. But fervent Titan held back his scorching bolts, That the limbs of the innocent might bear * no burnings. Then a reciprocal workhouse shuts in the Saint; Tight bonds of chains bind his arms, And they also tie his neck with his twin leg. Behold suddenly the pious Arbiter rescues the knotted limbs And soon bursts the tight ligatures of steel. Further, when the ill-omened soldier, who rejoices in red blood, Beat the Saint with knotty withe, Yet, wonderful to say, the blessed Martyr did not feel The bitter scourges of the rods in their sharp blows. Nay rather the withes grow soft as feathers for the Saint, As green papyrus grows gently pliant in the stream: Distinguished Claudius, pierced with compunction, believed of his own accord, Converting seventy men by the bright teaching, He had them cleansed, immersed in the flood of baptism; For which reason, drenched in the red purple of blood, The fortunate soldier Ada * led them to heavenly Olympus, Whom a happy cave bound, buried together, To see the shining rewards of perpetual life. As these deservedly traverse the vaults of the sky on high Daria with hard Chrysanthus suffers torments. But he, unwearied, bound by a contrivance of iron, Is thrust into the black darkness of the prison, about to bear, Where lurid filth flowed from foul crypts; But the stench gives way to nectar, as hiding-places to light. Daria meanwhile is handed over to wicked harlots, Entering the brothel of the adulteress without savage crime; But a roaring lion is sent from its narrow cage To keep safe the virgin limbs of the girl. If anyone should desire to violate sacred modesty, Handling the honorable body with obscene gestures, As once the disgraced Oza touched the Ark, He would at once meet death, confounded, wanton of brow, And gnawed by the jaws and tooth of the rabid lion Would feel avenging punishment by a beast's death. Then at last by the decree of the Augustus who ruled the realms at Rome, They took up red crowns by death, And together rest in a crypt, buried in sand, Whom bloody punishment harassed together in life. We believe that, justly gathered with happy troops, From the bosom of the tomb, when the earth shall gape of its own accord, And the human race shall have emerged from black tombs, He who loosens this world with reins will raise them to rest.]

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Caumata from the Greek καῦμα, heat, burning.

q. This verse manifestly refers to the kind of punishment of which in the Acts at n. 16: They flayed a calf and bound him (Chrysanthus) in the fresh hide and placed him in the sun etc. The words accordingly: Bucula, rebyrsa (of which the first is good Latin, the second barbarous) signify: a heifer or calf having been flayed, namely in the ablative case. And rebyrsa is derived from βύρσα, in Latin a stripped hide, a skin. Unless rebyrsa is said to be the noun, and Bucula the adjective (but in this sense both words are barbarous). Finally Globo is the same as Grege. The verse again limps.

r. Laturus, the word penalties or something similar is understood.

s. Oza, of whom in Book II of Kings: But after they had come to the threshing-floor of Nachon, Oza stretched out his hand to the ark

of God and held it; because the oxen were kicking and had tilted it; and the Lord was angered with indignation against Oza, and struck him for his rashness; and he died there beside the ark of God. Chap. VI, v. 6 and 7. There is no great likeness between rash Oza and the wicked and foul ravisher.

* falsa? false?

* quibus. to whom.

* feriant? let them strike?

* ad [to]

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS OF THE HOLY MARTYRS CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA FROM THE CITY OF ROME INTO GAUL

(From the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, Century IV, Part I, page 611 and following, and from several manuscripts of ours.)

Chrysanthus, martyr at Rome. (S.)

Daria, martyr at Rome. (S.)

BHL Number: 1793

FROM MABILLON AND THE MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

The translation of the holy Relics.

Marcwardus the abbot, having travelled to Rome The passion of the holy Martyrs being completed, it seems not unfitting, for those who desire to know how and by whose agency their bodies were translated from the city of Rome into Gaul, to append this to the book of their contest. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 844, therefore, while Lothar Augustus was reigning, the son of the most serene emperor Louis ^c, Marcwardus ^d, abbot of the monastery of Prüm, arranging to go to Rome, obtained the leave of the said prince, and letters to the pontiff of the apostolic see, Gregory ^e, in which he was urged by royal authority that the body of some most illustrious martyr of more celebrated fame should be given to him, of whose passion and veneration none of the faithful could be in doubt. For when he had already taken to the road and had learned that the aforesaid Pope Gregory had died and that another had been appointed in his place, Sergius by name ^f, having sent a report to the emperor, and having soon received instructions addressed to the newly created prelate, he at last, after long stretches of the journey, entered Rome.

[2] receives the bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, Being honorably received by the apostolic Pope, he handed him the royal letters. He, favorably assenting in all things to the imperial commands and to his petitions, promised that he would do everything that had been suggested. After this he sent to him by Bishop Marinus a book containing the passions of the saints, and ordered him to commit to writing the passion of St. Chrysanthus and Daria, having promised that he would give him their bodies. On the appointed day, accordingly, he hastened to the Lateran church ^g. And when, being summoned, he had gone in to the Roman Pontiff, the bodies having been placed in a small casket upon the altar, and the orders of clergy standing on either side and singing, he handed over to him with the greatest veneration and honor the bodies of the aforesaid Martyrs, charging him under invocation of the Name of the Lord to attend to their veneration, so that each of them might escape the displeasure of Almighty God: the one for having given them, the other for not having provided due veneration for what was given. He also handed over to him relics of forty-six holy Martyrs, and ordered that these should be laid up in the tomb of the said Saints. Having accordingly received the bodies with the greatest veneration, he hurried past all delay and hastened his departure.

[3] which he translates to Prüm All being therefore safe, on the fiftieth day after they had taken their departure from the City, they came to a possession of the monastery, namely to the cell of St. Goar ^h; where, having stayed for two days, he sent on ahead to the monastery of Prüm those brethren whom he had appointed, with the venerable bodies. The brethren there, having learned of their coming, hastened with the greatest rejoicing, vested in sacred garments, to meet them with candlesticks and crosses. But what miracles God displayed on this stretch of the journey in order to show the merits of his Saints, I shall set forth when their translation has been completed. Having received the relics of the Saints, therefore, with immense devotion and joy, and everyone singing what befitted the time, on the fourth before the Nones ⁱ of July they carried them into the monastery of Prüm; and they lay in the bier on which they had been carried, to the right of the altar, until the eleventh day before the Kalends ^k of November, that is, until a certain part of the ancient temple, having been levelled, could be extended into a longer space, and a worthy place be established for the tomb.

[4] and from here to the monastery of the Eifel. When this time was completed, on the said day the bodies of the Saints were translated, and by the very devout bishop Theganbert ^l, on the eighth before the Kalends of November [m], that is, on the day of their passion, in the place where they are now venerated, namely in a possession of the holy Savior, in the cell which is called the New Monastery ⁿ, they were entombed with the highest honor and the rejoicing of all; where now, through their intercessions, Christ hears those who pray, to the praise of his name, as is proved by the miracles set down below. But before those miracles are brought forward that were done after their entombment, the things which we promised a little above seem to have to be rendered first, at the beginning.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles that took place during the translation and after it.

When therefore, having departed from Italy, they were directing their steps toward the basilica of blessed Goar, A woman tormented by pain in the kidneys is healed; a certain woman, not unknown to her fellow citizens, being held by excessive pain of the kidneys (sic), on hearing of the arrival of the Saints asked to be led out to meet them. And when, supported on either side by two people, she had barely reached the place; as soon as she touched the bier on which the holy limbs were being carried, all pain was so put to flight that, in the sight of all, she ran with free step before the litter. This was the first power of the Saints that shone forth for us: although I later learned, by the account of a faithful man, that while we were still situated in Italy, a certain contracted woman had been raised up in like manner by their prayers.

[6] There was a certain woman not of low birth, the wife of a certain man named Waning, a second woman is delivered, together with her maidservant, whose feet and legs had so swollen that she was almost confined to her bed. She, on hearing the report of the Saints, was brought out to meet them, carried on a horse and with the aid of attendants; and scarcely had she touched the bier when she was made so sound that, over the whole mountain, whose roughness and height in those parts is very great, she was one of those bearing the bier. On the following day, however, when the solemnities of Mass were being celebrated, the little maidservant of the said woman became so contracted during the celebration of the Mass that she who had come on foot was lifted up by another's hands; we do not know, however, what the cause was. But the opinion was that she had refused the service of the Saints, her mistress wishing to make her over to them. Afterwards, then, when she had spent three days in the same church in which she was contracted, and prayer had been made for her, she was restored to health by the prayers of the Saints; and likewise, when she was returning home, she became contracted, and again by the power of the holy Martyrs she recovered her former health.

[7] likewise a third; Likewise a certain woman, when she was held so contracted by weakness of the limbs that she was conveyed in a vehicle, asked to be brought out to meet the Saints. By their prayers she rose so whole that she walked strengthened on her own steps.

[8] a man snatched from death; When, however, we were now resolving that the bodies of the Saints should be conducted to the place where they are now adored, an innumerable multitude went forth to clear the roads along which the relics of the Martyrs were to be conducted. When therefore a certain tree was being cut down, a certain man, not foreseeing its fall, had it fall upon him. When accordingly he was thought dead, the tree being removed, he was, as we believe, by the prayers of the Saints, found so unharmed as if he had suffered no injury.

[9] hearing is restored to a deaf man, Now when the blessed Martyrs had already been entombed, a certain man coming there, whose ears a swelling of perpetual deafness had taken hold of, while he devoutly awaited the suffrage of the Saints in that place, merited through their most holy merits to recover the hearing long denied him.

[10] an arm to another, Likewise a certain man weak in the arm, so that it hung down withered from the shoulder, and condemned besides to deafness, when he approached the tomb of the Saints with faith, both recognized his arm's former function, and his blocked ears recovered their hearing.

[11] and again to another an arm and hand. There was a certain other man who had a hand with the arm so weak that, hanging always downward, it was rendered useless for all the body's functions. When he had come, as was proper, to the memorial of the Martyrs, with a little bundle of flax tied to his withered hand, and placed it upon the altar, immediately, released from its stiffness, its former strength returned.

[12] A woman pays the penalty for her irreverence; A certain woman likewise, desiring to assist with bodily support God and the holy Martyrs and those who served there, taking with her a cart laden with bread and drink and other necessities, was hastening to the place. But when she was now close by, she went on ahead of the cart. And when she saw that the tomb did not at all glitter with gold or silver, she, as stupid and irreligious minds are wont to do, despised and mocked the place; and turning back with hurried step to meet her people, she ordered them to return the way they had come, saying that nothing of holiness was contained there. Then, by the punishment of the Saints, the cart was broken, and the drink poured out, and all the things placed on it were so scattered that they were rendered fit for no use. She herself, then, on the third day, was punished with the penalty of death in vengeance for her contempt.

[13] another is healed of mange, Another woman likewise, when she was oppressed in her whole body by a violent scabies, so much so that it was thought to be leprosy, but was also held in bed by a long-lasting disease, and besides could not be cured by any art of physicians,

when she heard from her neighbors that a candle was being made in honor of the Martyrs, kindled in faith, she bought a small piece of wax and had it mixed into the same candle. When the candle had accordingly been carried to the tomb of the Martyrs, in wondrous fashion, as soon as it was lit with fire, the sick woman, situated far off, felt the power, and rising from her bed recovered her former bodily health.

[14] a second from weakness of the fingers, Likewise another, having her fingers closed and stiff, being admonished by divine prompting to hasten to the memorial of the Saints, led by faith to the place, returned so sound as if she had never suffered any injury.

[15] the wife of a certain nobleman punished. A certain nobleman, led by love of the Saints, wished to visit the place. He exhorted his wife to go along with him; she on the contrary scornfully said that she would rather go about her own works: for what rumor had spread abroad was not true. He indeed carried out the purpose he had begun; but she, remaining in her faithlessness, while hastening to her intended place, was thrown from her horse and broke her arm, so that, remaining thus up to now, she can be cured by no medicine.

[16] A little boy healed; A certain little boy was so lame from his mother's womb that his birth denied him the power of walking. When he was being borne by faith to the tomb of the Saints on his mother's shoulders, he was so healed by the most holy merits of the Martyrs that he who had come carried on another's steps was brought back on his own, following behind his mother.

[17] likewise a woman, A certain woman likewise, when she had her hand and arm so bent and weak that she could not bring anything to her mouth with it, when she had lain long prostrate before the tomb of the Martyrs, was at last restored to her former health by their prayers on the day before Palm Sunday.

[18] When the time returned at which the bodies of the most blessed Martyrs had been carried to the place where they are now adored, and the celebration of the anniversary day was at hand, amid the crowd of the multitude which was then running thither almost innumerable, it happened that a certain woman arrived from the district of Tulpacum * ^a, from the benefice of Odric. She, having an only daughter already five years of age, named Ermenrada, whose eyes the darkness of blindness had covered over, driven by the goads of grief, devoutly brought her with her to be enlightened by the merits of the Saints; and when she asked the custodians that she might be placed in some part of the church to await the suffrage of the Saints, she was permitted to lay her down in a corner of the crypt, where adoration is made at the feet of the Saints. Having been laid down accordingly, when she had lain all that day and night immovable as if rigid, and the morning office was being celebrated, and the night was giving a beginning to the following day; suddenly the divine power was present through the prayers of the Saints, and having recovered the vigor of sight, which all knew to have been denied her for three years, she began to see clearly. When accordingly this miracle was running through the mouths of all, and they were crying out praises to the Lord and his holy Martyrs, the Lord willed also, by a doubled miracle, to double the spiritual gladness for the faithful people, and to show how great was the merit of the holy Martyrs before him.

[19] another For a certain woman named Bertrada, of the household of blessed Maximin ^b, from the estate called [c] Ocgisesheim *, when she was oppressed by excessive infirmity, so that, her sinews being dried up, she was rendered contracted and weak in all her limbs, hearing of the power of the Saints, betook herself in hope of health to this same celebration; and when she devoutly implored the help of the Martyrs, by their favor she merited health. When accordingly the celebration of the Masses was being carried out, the power of the Saints came to her: and she who had come contracted and weak by the aid of others, returned strengthened on her own steps to her own home.

[20] and a third. There was likewise in the village which * is called Sinciacus ^d a certain woman named Gaminildis, of the household of St. Peter ^e, whose face was so far deformed that it struck no small horror into those who looked at it. For with her mouth twisted nearly to her ear and her eyes askew, she had become a kind of monster to those who beheld her. She begged her mistress, named Heritrude, when she was hastening to the church of the Saints, to carry with her a candle that she, being poor, had made after the measure of her head, in order that through the intercession of the Saints the mercy of the Almighty might relieve her deformity. The mistress, assenting to the prayers of her maidservant, carried with her what had been requested. And when she had arrived at the sacred place, she lit the candle during the sacred vigils according to custom. At once the divine power, looking upon the wretched woman far off, took away all the deformity from her face: for her mistress, on returning, found her so sound and free of all deformity that not even a sign of her past infirmity remained in her face. This miracle also was done on the day of their birthday.

[21] A merchant recovers; A certain other man, Freosbald by name, from Bonn, enriched among his people with much money (for he devoted himself to arranging merchandise), was oppressed by a violent weakness of the limbs, so that he was believed to be nothing other than a paralytic: for, destitute of the good health of his whole body, he used the steps of his servants rather than his own. He, on hearing of the power of the Saints which they conferred on the sick by their prayers, asked to be carried to their memorial, so that they might bestow on him, as on others, the help of health. He was accordingly carried there in a vehicle: for, as I have said, he could not come otherwise. When therefore, having fulfilled his vows, he felt the strength he had sought not at all returning into him, he had himself carried back to where he had come from, yet in no way despairing of the power of the Saints, intending to return again at a suitable time. But the holy Martyrs, not forgetful of the faith of the departing man, in order to show that they could help by their prayers not only those present but also those absent, deigned to assist him also with their accustomed power. For while his servants were making the journey with him, the sick man felt the power gradually coming to him by the merits of the Saints. When therefore he had reached * home, and was being set down from the litter, he began to walk with steps and all the members of his body so strengthened that he who had once lain useless, wasted by a long-lasting disease, was rendered fully useful for all things by the suffrage of the Martyrs. And so, praising and blessing God, who through his Saints conferred on him health by divine favor, he enjoys to this day the strength he obtained.

[22] a contracted man is raised up There was likewise a certain man of the household of St. Peter, named Daguinus, at the estate which is called Albiniaca ^f, whom, in the same year in which the holy bodies were entombed, it befell to be so contracted in his shins that he could not walk at all, but crept on knees and hands, remaining lame for a whole year. He, carried to the holy place in a cart, dragged himself creeping about the church for three days, often sitting in the crypt beside the memorial of the Saints. And when on the fourth night, when nocturns had been rung, he was present as usual, they being finished, he was ordered by the custodian to withdraw from the church for the hour. He, obeying his orders, dragged himself into the vestibule of the church. But being prevented by the excessive wind from sitting there, he betook himself to another portico, leading through the church to the hospice of the poor, and threw himself down at the very entrance of the church; where, when he had lain for some time, he saw, as he himself related, two exceedingly comely boys dressed in white go out through the same door and proceed toward the guest-house. There having stayed a little, they returned by the same portico, and on entering the church one of them touched his shoulder and said to him: Rise, because you are healed, and go to your lodging. He at once, awaking sound, gave praises and thanks to God, who through his Saints so cured him that, having come by vehicle, he proceeded to his home on his own feet.

[23] a little boy recovers his sight; There was a certain little boy of the household of blessed Peter, namely of the New Monastery, Berefrid by name, whose eyes the darkness of blindness had so filled that, sight being altogether denied him, he was guided by another's leading. When accordingly the day of the Lord's Nativity arrived, it seemed good to his father, who, like his son, was called Berefrid, that he should be brought to the memorial of the most renowned Saints. When therefore the time arrived at which the night vigils were by custom celebrated, he was laid down in the crypt at the feet of the Martyrs, to await there, through the prayers of the Saints, the power of the Lord Savior. When the vigils there were completed, the same boy was carried back to the hospice of the poor, to return to the tomb in good hope when morning came. But the mercy of the Lord Redeemer, by the suffrages of the holy Martyrs, came to him unexpectedly in his place of rest. For when, day having come, he rose from his bed, he so began to see everything clearly that with unstumbling step, in the sight of all, he hastened to the basilica of the Saints, giving thanks to him who on that day arose in the darkness for the upright of heart, and who had merited, also by the merits of the same Saints, to receive the sight of his eyes.

[24] a man healed of paralysis; Not far from the possession of the aforesaid Monastery is a certain estate, which antiquity chose to call Taberna. In it there was a certain man named Alvold. His sickness of paralysis had so claimed his whole body for itself that, loosened in almost all his limbs, he could scarcely bear the touch of others. In the likeness, therefore, of that paralytic of the Gospel, brought along in the hands of his servants, he was conveyed to the memorial of the Saints; and in a short time the divine goodness so restored him by the suffrage of the Martyrs that, his limbs made firm, exulting and blessing God, he was brought back home to his people, he who had come on the steps of others.

[25] a blind man is granted sight, Another man likewise from the same estate, Hibald by name, condemned by the deprivation of the common light, hearing that by the power of the Martyrs his fellow townsman, his limbs loosened by paralysis, had recovered his former strength, strengthened by hope, asked his brother to bring him there. His brother accordingly, both pitying his brother's blindness and not distrusting the merits of the Saints, began making the journey with him and hastening to the place, and, as a sign of the coming health, pressing on with wondrous agility as though carried by another's service. When they were not far from the place, so that the roof of the church could be seen, restraining a little the step of the one following: Brother, he said, if the power of sight were at your service, you could surely see the roof and walls of the church of the Saints. Here the blind man, by the silent assent of his mind imploring that the divine aid be present to him through the prayers of the Martyrs, began in wondrous fashion, the darkness being put to flight, to see a little, and to point out with his finger the places presented to his mind. Coming therefore to the tomb of the Saints, within a few days he so recovered his former health that he received not only the wholeness of his sight, but even the size of his eyes, which, by the long blindness of the darkness, had been made so small that the pupil could scarcely be seen in them.

[26] likewise a woman. I shall add another miracle not much unlike this. For a certain woman, likewise blind for a continuous year, when she was tormented by the anguish of excessive despair, approaching the place offered a rope she had made to God and the holy Martyrs. She, in case it should not be suitable, asked the custodian that a pattern be given to her, by which, on returning home, she could prepare a fitting one. Meanwhile, as the custodian was delaying, she commanded the one guiding her steps to lead her to the place where the ropes of the bells hung: for she wished to weave her work to the same. And so it was done. And when she was feeling the thickness with her hand, the magnificent power of God shone forth upon the wretched woman, and with wondrous speed the blindness cast over them deserted her eyes: so that in one and the same moment she both seized the rope, and recovered the clarity of sight. Rejoicing therefore and exulting, she ran back to the memorial of the Martyrs, and, as was fitting, paid them praises of thanksgiving, because mercy

divine had deigned through their intervention to look upon her.

[27] Two spouses freed from infirmity; At the time when the relics of the Saints were laid up in the place so often mentioned, there were at the estate called Crupta ^g two people joined in the bond of the flesh, of whom one was called William, the other Engilsuindis, who from the time of their union up to that time had always lived strong in good health. It happened, however, at the aforesaid not dissimilar time, that both were exhausted by infirmity. For from the kidneys the fierceness of the disease so wore down the whole lower body that unless they were carried by the hands of attendants, they could not, even under pressing need, be moved from the spot. When accordingly the frequent report spread the power and miracles of the Saints round about, it filled also the inhabitants of the aforesaid estate. Roused by this fame, having made an agreement, they were all arranging to go together to the place to pray. The two already named, therefore, learning the religious purpose of their neighbors, although they could not go in body, were eager nevertheless to go in spirit. For taking wax and making candles, they determined to send them by their relatives and kinsfolk to the memorial of the blessed Martyrs, so that the mercy of the Redeemer, through the intervention of the Saints, might deign to relieve their infirmity. But as they were making ready, a wondrous divine goodness shone forth upon them. For before they had moved from the spot, sooner than it can be said, the power of God was so present that at one moment they both rose up perfectly sound, and took to the road with the others: and they who had been going to seek health by the mouth of others, merited, by the interceding and most renowned merits of the Saints, to bring their vows themselves.

[28] the healing of a deaf and mute woman, A certain woman from the province of the Ardennes, named Immina, from the estate which is called Binuzfelt ^h, when she had been deaf and mute for a long time, and weak in her hands, had come to the holy place to pray, accompanied by neighbors and with the permission of her mistress, Teotburga by name; having stayed a whole day, as soon as she began to go back, she first obtained the use of one hand and of speech and hearing; then soon after, the health also of the other hand and of her whole body: so that even today her neighbors and kinsfolk testify that for a long time past she had never been as sound as she is now.

[29] likewise of another woman greatly infirm. Likewise another, named Grimilt, who had seen the former woman in the above-mentioned infirmity and, having accompanied her to the holy place, was a witness of her healing, when, having told her husband of the former woman's healing, which she had seen under her own eyes, she asked that she might be allowed to come again to pray, and did not obtain it at that time; at the hour, as was afterwards ascertained, when in the Monastery of the blessed Martyrs the Masses of the Lord's day, at which she had vowed that she would be present, began to be celebrated, she was punished with weakness of the hands and a heaviness of her whole body, so much so that, because she could not walk, she was placed on a carriage and conveyed again to the Monastery. And when she had come, and had prayed for some time at the memorial of the Martyrs, first one hand was set free for her in the church; then, during the midday meal, the use of the other hand and of her whole body was restored. So it came about that she who had before been the teller of another's health, became thereafter both the possessor and the witness of her own.

[30] A stain wiped from a planeta or chasuble; It is the custom of the place that on the day of the Paschal solemnity the clerics celebrating the evening office are vested in sacred garments just as is done at the celebration of Masses. It happened therefore that the custodian, vested according to custom with the others, went forward to light the lamps of the church. But while he was proceeding incautiously, being placed beneath the lamps, the oil of a lamp fell and stained, not without disfigurement, part of the planeta with which he happened to be vested. The custodian, terrified, soon turned his steps back to the sacristy, and having taken it off, laid it in a suitable place, not without faith. This, he said, St. Daria, restore by your prayers, if you are able. On the day after that day the custodian came, so as to send it, as he had laid it by, to skilled women who could mend a flaw of this kind; and looking at it more carefully, he could not find in it even a slight stain which could have been either a matter of comeliness or of damage.

[31] ale rejected, because it had been made on Sunday. There is a certain estate not far from the possession of the Monastery, which is called Wisa ⁱ. Its inhabitants, then, had all agreed together to make their way to the place, and in order not to seem to come empty-handed, having taken a collection, they had filled with ale the vessel which is called a tub, so that they might also pay their vows to God and the holy Martyrs by a gift of offering. When therefore they were now arranging to hasten forth, having taken counsel, they wished first to test the quality of the drink before taking to the road. A little passage ^k being accordingly made, not even a small drop could be drawn off through it. But thinking that this had been done sluggishly by the servant, they chose another and had him take over, so that, having bored the bottom of the tub, he might draw out the drink. Others succeeding this one, when all their labor was altogether frustrated, coming to themselves they realized that the same drink had been prepared on that night which is called Sunday. Recognizing their guilt accordingly, and feeling repentance for the offense, they vowed a vow to God and the blessed Martyrs that they would attempt nothing further of the kind on that night, and that they would give out that very drink to the needy and the poor. As soon as the vow had been made, the drink, finding an exit through all the holes, began to flow out most abundantly. This being distributed to the needy according to the vow, and another having been prepared, as they had arranged, they came to the memorial of the Saints, and there, confessing the fault of their own guilt, and having paid their vows, they returned to their own homes.

ANNOTATIONS.

* multatione by punishment

* id est carrum seu planstrum. that is, a cart or wagon.

* Tulpiacense

* Ocgisesceym Orgesesheim

* Syntziacus

* pervenisset had reached