ON THE HOLY FORTY-SIX SOLDIERS AND COMPANIONS: FORTY-SIX SOLDIERS, MARTYRS, AND ANOTHER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE, AMONG WHOM THEODOSIUS, LUCIUS, MARK, AND PETER, AND PROBABLY ALSO MAXIMUS THE MILLENARIUS,
ABOUT THE YEAR 269.
SYLLOGE.
Forty-six martyrs, and others, at Rome. (SS.)
Martyrs, one hundred and twenty-one, at Rome. (SS.)
Theodosius, martyr, at Rome. (S.)
Lucius, martyr, at Rome. (S.)
Mark, martyr, at Rome. (S.)
Peter, martyr, at Rome. (S.)
Maximus Millenarius, martyr, at Rome. (S.)
BY B. B.
§ sole. Memorial in the sacred calendars and the Passion from Mombritius. They were crowned under Claudius II, who was called Gothicus. Of other holy Soldiers, 121 martyrs, among whom St. Maximus, a count of a thousand, buried in the same place.
Of the holy Martyrs whom we have reckoned in the title of this sylloge few things have come down to us; but their passion is certain, Memorial in the sacred calendars, and their memory is observed in the most ancient sacred calendars. Usuard and the Roman Martyrology (in both there are exactly the same words) announce on this 25th day of October: At Rome the birthday of forty-six Soldiers, who, baptized together by Pope Dionysius, were soon beheaded by order of the emperor Claudius and buried on the Via Salaria, where also other Martyrs, one hundred and twenty-one, were laid: among whom were four soldiers of Christ, Theodosius, Lucius, Mark and Peter. And du Sollier observes Martyrologium Usuardi, 25 Oct.: The announcement is double or composite, originally excerpted by Bede from the Acts of St. Xystus, as he testifies.
And in very truth the genuine Bede has thus Migne Patrologia vol. XCIV, col. 1081.: On the same day at Rome, on the Via Salaria, the birthday of forty-six soldiers, who were baptized together by Pope Dionysius, and soon beheaded by order of the emperor Claudius. Where other martyrs also, one hundred and twenty-one, were laid, among whom were the soldiers of Christ Theodotius (sic), Lucius, Mark and Peter. It is written in the Passion of St. Xystus. Others adduce the Acts of St. Lawrence, others those of St. Hippolytus, but they speak of the same things, as will be declared below. The first part of Usuard's announcement is found in the Little Roman: At Rome on the Via Salaria, 46 Soldiers, who, baptized by Pope Dionysius, were beheaded by order of Claudius; the greater Hieronymian ones, but not likewise the lesser, pass over these, but name Maximus and 120 other anonymous soldiers, whose names God knows. Wandelbert, but on the day before this day, treats of the 46 Soldiers at Rome Migne, Patrolog., vol. CXXI, col. 615.:
On the ninth (before the Kalends of November) forty and six shine in triumph At Rome, renowned in soldiery and holy contest.
Ado took the number from Bede, and the elogium from the Acts of St. Lawrence, which he wove, as is his custom, at sufficient length: On the same day at Rome (etc., as in Bede, then he continues thus) whose bodies blessed Justin the presbyter and John collected by night, and buried in a crypt with a multitude of Christians, on the Via Salaria in (at) the slope of the cucumber, on the 8th before the Kalends of November; where other martyrs also, one hundred and twenty-one, were laid. Among whom were four soldiers of Christ, Theodosius, Lucius, Mark and Peter. These, seeing armed men coming to them, begged that they might be beheaded first. It is written in the Passion of the holy martyrs Sixtus, Lawrence and Hippolytus Domenico Giorgi, Martyrol. Adonis page 545. Rome 1745.. Similarly Rabanus, Usuard and Notker keep the number determined by Bede, probably because St. Maximus is counted in, since the Hieronymian ones, mentioning him separately, mark only 120 other anonymous ones, as we have seen a little above. But of this matter we shall treat expressly below. There are therefore altogether one hundred and sixty-seven Holy Martyrs mentioned, and distributed in two classes. The first comprises forty-six, all anonymous, the latter one hundred and twenty-one, of whom five are designated by their own names: SS. Maximus, Theodosius, Lucius, Mark and Peter. Of each class we shall speak separately. First, however, a double slip of Filippo Ferrari in the catalogue of the Saints of Italy must be noted: the one that he assigns SS. Theodosius, Lucius, Mark and Peter to the first troop; the other that he says these four suffered with 152 others at Rome, and that indeed in the title or rubric; while in the text he says that the first forty-six soldiers together with 120 other Christians were ordered to be slain. For these things are in no way consistent with one another: if the four designated by their own names are added to the 46 anonymous soldiers, they will be together fifty, who joined with the 120 other martyrs will come together to 170 in all in number. Add that the 46 Holy soldiers were crowned thirty years before the others.
[2] and the passion from Mombritius, Bede professes, as has already been said, that he drew the information on the first troop from the Acts of St. Xystus, which others attribute to the Acts of St. Lawrence or St. Hippolytus, but all look to the same thing. Surius attaches the passion of St. Hippolytus to the famous Deeds of St. Lawrence on the 10th of August; Mombritius published it separately Vol. II, fol. XIIII.. We set down his text. After the martyrdom of St. Hippolytus and his companions has been narrated, the Acts add: In the night came Justin the presbyter and collected the bodies and buried them in the same place. And a little after: The body of Tryphonia, formerly wife of Decius, whom he had baptized with her daughter Cyrilla, he buried in the crypt where he had buried St. Hippolytus, on the fifteenth before the Kalends of November. After this, thus of the 46 Holy Martyr soldiers: From that same day blessed Justin the presbyter began to search diligently whether anywhere the bodies of the Saints were hidden, * since he had promised a reward to the soldiers; and they, hearing that Tryphonia, wife of Decius, and her daughter Cyrilla had become Christians, came with their wives, forty-six in number, to blessed Justin the presbyter, and threw themselves at his feet, asking that they might receive baptism. Then Justin gathered all the clergy, and inquired whom he should consecrate bishop in the place of the blessed martyr Pope Sixtus. And thereupon they ordained a venerable man named Dionysius, whom Maximus, bishop of Ostia, consecrated. Then blessed Justin offered the forty-six Soldiers for baptism to the venerable man Dionysius, bishop of the city of Rome, and he baptized them in the name of the Trinity. When King Claudius heard this, filled with indignation he sent and seized the daughter of Caesar Decius (Cyrilla) and the Soldiers of Christ, and ordered them to be led to sacrifice to demons. All of whom, despising the king's command, laughed at him; and he ordered them to be received into custody; but Cyrilla to be presented to him. To whom he spoke thus: Is it thus your pleasure, that you do not follow our command and the rite of your illustrious parents, and forsake the royal nurture? Cyrilla answered: I am a Christian, a handmaid of Christ, and I forsake the demons, who will lead you on to eternal punishment, that you may perish with them. To whom Claudius said: Consent to us, and sacrifice to the gods, and take a husband in keeping with your birth. And Cyrilla said: I have already taken a husband, who has taught me wisdom, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom I have once been given. Claudius, filled with wrath, ordered her throat to be cut; and when she had been killed with the sword, he ordered her body to be thrown into the street and left to the dogs. Which most blessed Justin the presbyter collected by night and buried with her mother, where he had placed the body of blessed Hippolytus, on the 5th before the Kalends of November. At the same time Claudius ordered an armed force to be shut up in the palace of Sallust, and those who had received baptism to be presented to him. And he commanded the force to lead them outside the walls of the Salarian gate at the town of Fidenae; and there they cut off the heads of all of them. And all were beheaded for the name of Christ, fifty-six in number, besides their wives. Whose bodies the most blessed presbyters Justin and John collected by night, and buried in a crypt with a multitude of Christians on the old Via Salaria at the slope of the cucumber, on the 8th before the Kalends of November. Where their prayers flourish down to the present day, with the other one hundred and twenty-one Martyrs, of whom below, where we treat of the latter class.
[3] reproved too severely by Pagi and others. The Surian Acts of St. Lawrence, to which the passion of St. Hippolytus and many others is attached or mingled, Pien did not value so highly as to think them worthy of insertion in our work Acta SS. on the 10th of August, vol. II, p. 512.; in their place he set down an elogium from the martyrology of St. Ado; for Baronius too they stand in need of correction; for Noris they were written by a writer of a later age, ignorant of what he was committing to letters; for Pagi it is altogether certain that the Acts of St. Lawrence are supposititious Ibid., p. 511.. Stilting used a gentler style in the Acts of St. Justin, presbyter and martyr, on the 16th day of September Acta SS., vol. V of Sept., p. 471.: Since, he says, many things are also read of St. Justin in the Acts of St. Lawrence, published in Surius on the 10th of August, which our Pien declined to publish because they are at any rate disfigured with fables; I shall bring over here from them what pertains to St. Justin; for most of these things are such that we can believe them to be true, as many other things true and confirmed by the authority of the holy Fathers are read in the same Acts. There then follow among other things what we have reported from Mombritius, with the style changed according to Surius's custom. Stilting's opinion is approved in a more recent volume of our Acts on the 18th of October Vol. VIII of Oct., p. 319., in the commentary on St. Tryphonia, but at the same time nearly all the things that pertain to her are held to be apocryphal and plainly fabulous, and in particular it is declared at length that St. Tryphonia is altogether wrongly called the wife of Decius, and that she was not even a concubine Ib. and p. 20 and 21.; and hence neither was St. Cyrilla, whose mother was St. Tryphonia, the daughter of that emperor. Mombritius, cited at the preceding number, is therefore to be emended, at least in this regard, and with him Surius also. The other things that pertain to St. Cyrilla will have to be approved or rejected on the 28th of this month, on which her birthday is celebrated. But as regards the 66 Soldiers, our Martyrs, I do not see why credit should be denied to Acts that are confirmed by the testimony of nearly all the Martyrologies. Whence Pagi himself admits that those martyrdoms are true At Baronius's year 269, n. VII. Annales ecclesiast., vol. III, p. 165.; yet their day, he says, is uncertain, nor was any persecution stirred up against Christians or soldiers in the reign of Claudius. Pagi proves neither; I think the day is to be retained, as being marked in the Acts and the sacred calendars cited above; of the year I shall speak at the following number.
[4] They were crowned under Claudius II, If they were truly crowned under Claudius II, their passion is certainly to be ascribed to the year 268 or the two following, since he was named Augustus on the 24th of March 268, and was carried off by plague about the month of May 270 Art de vérifier les dates, p. 346.. But, Pagi objects, there was no persecution in the reign of Claudius. Stilting replies Vol. V of Sept., p. 475.: he indeed states this roundly; but he alleges no reasons by which it could be established. Tillemont however … admits that some more probably suffered under Claudius II. Compare the Acts of St. Tryphonia Vol. VIII of Oct., p. 319, n. 5.. Surely if complete authority is accorded to the testimony of Trebellius Pollio, no one would easily say that Claudius raged against the Christians. For what, he exclaims In Claudio, Hist. Augusta, from the recension of Erasmus, p. 292. Cologne, 1527., is not admirable in him? what not conspicuous?… In whom the virtue of Trajan, the piety of Antoninus, the moderation of Augustus and of great princes so existed, that he took no example from others, but even if they had not existed, he would have left an example to the rest… For what great thing did that man not have at home and abroad? He loved his parents. What wonder? He loved also his brothers. Now it may be worthy of wonder. He loved his relatives; a thing in our times to be compared to a miracle. He envied no one, he prosecuted the wicked… He indulged fools, as though ignoring them. He gave excellent laws. After this he rightly protects himself from the mark of flattery: Let no one think that I speak to curry favor with Constantius Caesar (that is, Chlorus, who was the great-great-grandson of Claudius, and in whose time Trebellius wrote [Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, vol. III, p. 197. Biographie universelle, under Pollion.]); but both your conscience and my life are witness that I have never thought, said or done anything to curry favor. I speak of the emperor Claudius, whose life, probity
and all that he did in the commonwealth have given him such fame with posterity that the Roman Senate and People honored him with new honors after his death: to him a golden shield, or as the grammarians say, a shield of gold, was set up in the Roman senate-house by the judgment of the whole Senate, as is still seen even now. Nevertheless there is no reason to doubt that many things were said by Trebellius in flattery. Trebellius plays the panegyrist rather than the historian, says Eckhel Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, p. 471.. But in truth let Claudius have been excellent as a pagan prince, and not unequal to Trajan and Antoninus; yet since under these there were martyrs, why not also under him? He prosecuted the wicked; were not the Christians held as such everywhere among the heathen? He was most devoted to the Senate, and the senate in turn to him; but who is ignorant how perversely this body thought, and always thought even under Constantine and his successors, of the followers of Christ? Nor was Claudius so mild as to shrink altogether from blood and dire vengeance. He seems to have been aware, nay even a sharer, of the slaughter inflicted on his predecessor Gallienus Tillemont, ibid., and Gallienus having been cut down (as Eckhel has it In the place cited.) by a conspiracy of the generals, of which even those who have extolled all his deeds to the skies do not dare plainly to deny that he (Claudius) at least was aware. Trebellius hints still more In Claudio. In the place cited.: Who (Claudius), even if he was not the author of the plan, yet, being himself about to reign, for the good of the human race drove Gallienus from the helm of the state. And below, where he writes of the Gothic war Ibid., p. 295.: Claudius, having led up an army, seized all who had lifted up rebellious spirits, and sent them in chains to Rome also for the public games… Nor was only victory over the enemy but also vengeance taken beforehand. And let these things be said in order to demonstrate that not even the so flattering words of Trebellius Pollio oppose the opinion that establishes that martyrs suffered and were crowned in the reign of Claudius.
[5] about the year 269. When, says Baronius at the year of Christ 269 Annal., vol. III, p. 164 et seq., Claudius, having been created emperor, had betaken himself to Rome, and had heard that the affairs of the Christians had grown strong through a long peace, and that very noble men and very illustrious women professed the Christian religion, he was incensed. And Tillemont: From the martyrologies, he says Hist. des Empereurs, vol. III, p. 201., we learn that Claudius was very hostile to the Christians; nor is this difficult to believe in a prince who was anxious to be pleasing to the Senate, and to act in a different manner from Gallienus, by whom peace had been restored to the church. He repeats the same, but somewhat more developed, in the Ecclesiastical History Mémoires, vol. IV, p. 344.. Whence it becomes not improbable that the 46 Holy Soldiers obtained the triumph of martyrdom under Claudius II, called also Gothicus, because he brought a horrible slaughter on the barbarians of this name, and hence about the year 269, as I have written in the margin, about the middle of that emperor's principate. Paolo Aringhi has the same, Book IV, chapter 35 Roma subterranea, vol. II, p. 106.: Under the same Claudius likewise in this very cemetery forty-six Soldiers together, after the contest of a noble martyrdom was consummated, were deposited, as their manuscript Acts * declare in these words: Then Bl. Justin offered, etc., as at n. 2. So Aringhi, where he treats of the Cemetery at the slope of the cucumber Roma subt., p. 105., so called either because it was situated under a certain slope which offered the shape of a cucumber to those looking at it; or surely because fruits of that kind were accustomed to be sown there by the farmers, or finally, that nothing may be concealed from the reader, on account of the form of that same fruit sculpted on some stone or building, from which the place thereafter drew its name, as has happened in very many other places in the City; and especially in those that were variously named by the ancients, as for example “the Capped Bear, the Ox Heads, the Bull's Head, at the Pear Tree, at the Pomegranate, between the Two Laurels” and other names of this sort, which, derived from the ancients, have come down to our own times. And let this be said (for I have found nothing else anywhere) of the first class of Holy Martyrs.
[6] Of other martyrs of whom mention is made in the aforesaid passion, Of the other or latter class, namely of the other 121, it will be permissible to be briefer, since we have this from nearly the same sources, and the Acts have been illustrated by our predecessors on the 29th of January. Mombritius adds, in the place recited above at n. 2: Where their prayers (those of the 46 Holy Soldiers) flourish down to the present day, with the other one hundred and twenty-one Martyrs, among whom were four soldiers of Christ, Theodosius, Lucius, Mark and Peter. The four, seeing armed men coming to them, each of them begged * to be beheaded first. For so joyfully did they hasten to die for Christ, to reign (with) our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages. Aringhi somewhat differently, citing in the margin a Vallicellan codex Ibid., vol. II, p. 106.: These, seeing armed men coming to them, said, all asking, that the first might be beheaded by the first, burning with the intent to die joyfully rather than to live badly. Which reading comes near to that of Surius; yet not entirely. This was to be noted for the reason that Surius seems to deny that they were soldiers: he writes in the Margin: 46 Soldiers are beheaded; and a little below: 120 Martyrs. Ferrari in the Saints of Italy has the same. But they are explicitly written Soldiers in the Older one of Fiorentini and the Corbie one of d'Achery, and that rightly indeed, as will be seen at the following number.
[7] 121 in number, Surius, since he numbers only one hundred and twenty martyrs in the second troop, has followed, I would think, the Hieronymian ones, which, as I noted from du Sollier at n. 1, name Maximus and add 120 other anonymous ones; the classical martyrologists, as they are commonly called, reckon 121 in all. And in very truth of the two more distinguished Hieronymian ones, the one, published by Fiorentini and illustrated with a learned and erudite commentary, has: 8th before the Kalends of November. At Rome, of Maximus and of 220 other Soldiers, whose names God knows; the other, namely that of Corbie, made public by d'Achery Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 1 – 23., repeats the same without changing even one tittle. In both there is nothing of the 46 Champions of the first class; the same holds in a third Hieronymian of lesser bulk, which Fiorentini calls his oldest, where all are similarly reckoned, with the Anonymous ones separated however from Maximus, in this manner: At Rome the birthday of Maximus, and in Sardinia at Porto Torres of Gavinus. Likewise at Rome of 120 soldiers. From which it is easily understood how, in the classical martyrologies, as they are called, one has been added to the number of the anonymous ones, namely added to these on account of the suppression of St. Maximus. But there are also many other Hieronymian ones, which du Sollier calls the Lesser Mart. Usuardi Præfatio, p. VIII.; and these vary wonderfully among themselves, where they make mention of our Saints. It will be helpful to set down the principal ones. Passing over that of Rheinau, which, as it has been put into print among us Vol. VI and VII of June, at the end., lacks the last three months of the year; that of Reichenau alone mentions on the 8th before the Kalends of November, that is, the 25th of October, Maximus at Rome; that of Augsburg announces: At Rome 46 martyrs or one thousand one hundred and eighty-four. Of Saturninus, Maximus, etc.; that of Labbe: At Rome the birthday of the forty-three holy martyrs, or of two hundred and twenty-two sol. Of Saturninus, Maximus, etc.; the Shorter Corbie: In the city of Soissons, of the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian. Nothing further on this day; the Martyrology of the Queen of Sweden is truncated; it lacks September from the 8th day, and the whole months of October, November, December. And these things are from those published (except the oldest one of Fiorentini) in our Work, in the place cited. Some Hieronymian ones are also found in the Thesaurus of Father Martène Vol. III, col. 1543 et seqq.; where in that of Auxerre on the same 25th of October: At Rome the birthday of the saints 45 (sic) or of 124 soldiers. Of Crispin and Crispinian; of these two alone mention is made in the very old one of Tours. Finally in d'Achery one reads in that of Gellone Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 35.: At Rome the birthday of the forty-six saints, or thousands one hundred and twenty-four, of Saturninus, Maximus, etc. Concerning which the following are to be noted: first, that those of Augsburg, Gellone and Labbe mention both troops together and Maximus, but with Saturninus interposed; that of Auxerre both troops but with Maximus omitted; that on the contrary that of Reichenau makes mention of Maximus, omitting the troops; finally that the Shorter Corbie, that of Murbach and that of Tours pass over all. Secondly, that in these lesser Hieronymian ones there holds what Domenico Giorgi noted on this day Martyrologium Adonis. Rome 1745., that nothing is more corrupt in the ancient monuments than where numbers are concerned: for they are horribly disfigured by copyists. And the corruption here clearly arose both from the word milites written out with only its first letters, or mil., and hence written by the copyists as mille, millia; and from the fact that, as I shall say more plainly below, in the Acts of St. Maximus other soldiers, about one thousand in number, are read to have suffered with him. It is to be noted thirdly that to the original number 120 four others were added in those of Augsburg and Gellone, which mark Maximus, but pass over Theodosius, Lucius, Mark and Peter, whom accordingly they will have thought should be added to the troop, wrongly indeed, since they were comprised in it, among whom, as is in the Acts, Theodosius, etc.; that of Labbe adds only two, unless there is question there of the 260, or as is falsely noted somewhere, 262, shot with arrows at Rome under the same Claudius; that of Auxerre numbers 124, which however, to be consistent, ought to have increased the class by one more, since it mentions Maximus no more than the other four. From these things it is easy to conclude by what reason in the classical martyrologies, Maximus being suppressed, the anonymous ones are reckoned at 121. For the rest, the author of the increased number in the classical ones seems to be Bede, whom Ado, Usuard, etc., then followed.
[8] among whom St. Maximus, a count of a thousand. Moreover the opinion of Fiorentini seems to me very probable, which he sets forth in the place cited in these words: I would scarcely doubt that the very illustrious martyr of Christ Maximus, leader or count of a thousand, is here in question; who, a Christian from boyhood, led others, whom he could, to take up the faith of Christ. Fiorentini adds that the passion of St. Maximus and his companions is had from the Acts of St. Marcellus the pope. A fragment of his contest is also recited by Aringhi Romæ subterran. Book IV, chapter XXXV. Vol. II, p. 106. from a Vallicellan codex, which he likewise asserts is found in the Acts of St. Marcellus the pope, and it is as follows: Maximus, who was a count of a thousand, a Christian from his infancy, sprung from Christian parents, had one hundred and twenty of his soldiers, converted, baptized by St. Marcellus. Hearing which, Maximian, the same Maximus having been seized, together with the said hundred
and twenty soldiers, condemned to dig sand; and after nine months, when the tribune Mark had learned (that) Count Maximus had converted the rest of his soldiers who remained of the thousand, who had come to visit him; he had Maximus sent to prison; then, being brought out, he ordered him to be beaten with clubs; and while he was being beaten, the tribune was blinded. Hearing this and taking it ill, the emperor Maximian had Count Maximus beheaded, with the one hundred and twenty soldiers condemned to the sand. And the rest of the thousand soldiers who had been converted he ordered to be put into a sandpit and burned with flames. Whose bodies St. Marcellus together with John the presbyter buried at the slope of the cucumber, at the second milestone from the City. Nothing of the kind occurs in the Acts of St. Marcellus published by Mombritius, as also by our Bolland on the 16th of January; yet there is no doubt that Bosio read these things in his codices, from whom Aringhi drew his own. And let this said here of St. Maximus and his companion soldiers suffice, since their birthday is celebrated on the 29th day of January, on which Bolland treated Vol. II of January, p. 946. of the holy martyrs Severa, Virgin, Maximus and Secunda her parents, Mark and Calendinus their sons, the brothers of Severa, and about a thousand other soldiers; where the passion is ascribed to the beginning of the fourth century, and the Acts or martyrdom are recited from Peter de Natalibus, with which agree the things we have reported above from Aringhi. Baronius, says Bolland, recounts the same from Peter Vol. III, p. 289. At the year 298., with the errors expunged. And so for this reason the memory of those 121 is read inscribed on this day in most sacred calendars, because they were deposited in the same place as the above-mentioned 46 Soldiers, although crowned with martyrdom at a different time; the latter indeed under Claudius II about the year 269, the former under Diocletian and Maximian Herculius, at the beginning of the fourth century. Perhaps also the Christians formerly held assemblies on this day at the slope of the cucumber, at which honor was paid to all the Holy Martyrs resting there together, and in particular to both our classes of Holy Soldiers, chiefly the first, which it seems can be gathered in some measure from the lesser Hieronymian ones; but why in the two greater ones (the older one of Fiorentini and the Corbie one of d'Achery) Maximus and his companions should be marked, and our 156 passed over, is plainly unknown to me. Aringhi reckons as buried in the same cemetery 260 other martyrs pierced with arrows by order of Claudius II, of whom in the Roman martyrology and in our work, on the Kalends of March, and also 23 others beheaded, whom the Roman mentions on the 5th of August. For the rest see Aringhi, Book IV, chapter XXXV.
[9] The body of St. Lucius was translated in the seventeenth century from Rome to the church of the Society of Jesus at Reggio in Calabria. This is established first of all from an image engraved in copper, in which the holy Martyr is shown kneeling, on the point of being struck. Father Scipione Tazzari sent this image, with an Italian account attached, Of the translation of St. Lucius to the college of Reggio of the S. J. from Reggio in Calabria through Giuseppe de Luciis, dwelling at Naples, to us at Antwerp on the 30th of August 1694. So in a small note added to the image by our predecessors. At its lower margin one reads, in letters likewise engraved: St. Lucius, martyr, one of the first among the praetorian soldiers, killed for Christ together with 46 fellow-soldiers at Rome under the emperor Claudius. Whose body is venerated at Reggio among the Calabrians in the College of the Society of Jesus, and his feast is kept on the 25th day of October. From what has been said above it is clear that St. Lucius is by no means to be counted with those 46, but rightly with the other 121 Martyrs, among whom, as is had in express words in the Roman martyrology, were four soldiers of Christ, Theodosius, Lucius, Mark and Peter. For the rest, from the account of Father Scipione Tazzari we learn that the holy body was translated from Rome into Calabria in the year 1680, and given to our College by Father Giuseppe Fozi, who had received it from Ambrogio Sanduccio, bishop of Porphyreon, prefect of the apostolic sacristy and assistant of the pontifical oratory or chapel, as is clear (the words are those of the account) from authentic letters in which is contained mention of the first donation as also of the other made to our college by the aforesaid Father Fozi, sent together with a public instrument, written by the hand of the notary, chancellor and secretary of the most reverend apostolic Camera. The sacred body came to us secured with seven seals, and was verified in the archiepiscopal curia of this city, leave also being given to show it to the veneration of the faithful. Janninck had asked whence it was established that this was really the body of St. Lucius of whom there is treatment in the Roman martyrology on the 25th day of October; he asked moreover whether it was found in the cemetery bearing its own name inscribed on it. To this the response is not very clear, nay rather confused: for thus it runs, faithfully rendered from Italian into Latin: This account and instruction were sent from Rome by the aforesaid Father Fozi to Father Antonio Battaglia, then rector of this college, as I learned from his letters, in which he testifies to the same, namely that the body found in the cemetery of St. Priscilla is that of St. Lucius, of the number of the Holy Soldier Martyrs whom the Roman martyrology mentions on the 25th of October, and Baronius at the year 269. I would think that by the first phrase it is hinted that the reply from Rome to Janninck's questions was that the matter is so; but from the remaining words it does not result that the name of St. Lucius was inscribed on it. It must also be noted that our holy Martyrs were deposited on the Via Salaria at the slope of the cucumber: but that the body of Reggio came from the cemetery of Priscilla. Whence a doubt arises whether in our church of the said city the bones are preserved of St. Lucius of whom we are treating, or of another holy cemetery martyr, to whom they added the name of Lucius. There follow in the Account healings and other benefits obtained from heaven, in no small number, at the time of the translation.
Annotations* were, and he promised a reward. Surius.
* that is, manuscript.
* one hundred and twenty. Sur.
* who when they saw. Surius.
* begged … that the first … be beheaded. Sur.