ON SS. SMARAGDUS AND COMPANIONS: THE ANTIOCHENE MARTYRS SMARAGDUS, MARIANUS OR MARIANA, AND ARCHELAIDAS,
AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME.
Critical sylloge
REMEMBRANCE FROM THE HIERONYMIAN MARTYROLOGIES
Smaragdus, martyr at Antioch. (S.)
Marianus or Mariana, martyr at Antioch. (S.)
Archelaidas, martyr at Antioch. (S.)
V. D. B.
I have already often pointed out in our work that the Martyrology which is called Hieronymian was compiled from many calendars or synaxaries of individual churches; [In the Hieronymian lists there are announced today, with corrupted forms of the names,] so that the collector wrote down at each day in his lists the names which he found in those calendars at the same days, not caring that those names had already been written at other days, so that the same saints recur several times on different days. Moreover, if that collector came upon calendars in which the form or order of the names was somewhat disturbed, he thereby created several groups; so that he even doubled the names of the saints on one day. But there is no danger of our striking on this rock today, since the Hieronymian entries are very brief. Which is the more opportune because the Syriac Martyrology of Wright, of how great usefulness it is could be seen on the preceding day at St. Thrasea and her companions, offers no names today and is thus useless to us for disentangling the Hieronymian lists. In these, then, one reads first according to the Lucca codices of Fiorentini: At Antioch of Syria Marandus, Maurianus, Arcelladus; according to the Corbie codex of d'Achery: At Antioch of Syria Marandus, Mariana, Arcelludus; according to the Echternach codex of St. Willibrord or the Antwerp one: At Antioch the feast of Zmaragdus; and after some names interposed: Mariana, Artheladus; according to the Reichenau codex of Solier: At Antioch Smaragdus, Marianus; the Augsburg codex, likewise of Solier, has only the name Arceladus; the Labbe codex of the same, omitting Smaragdus, mixes Arcelladus and Mariana with other names; the shorter Corbie codex, similarly of Solier, is framed in these words: [Sts. Smaragdus, Marianus or Mariana, and Archelaidas, who suffered at Antioch at an uncertain time] At Antioch of Syria, Mirandus; and finally the other Corbie codex of Martène: At Antioch of Syria, Nicander.
[2] Now it is manifest that the head of this group was called Smaragdus; Marandus, Mirandus and Nicander are corruptions of the copyists. Whether Marianus or Mariana is then to be read is very obscure; Maurianus certainly is a corrupted form. Arcelladus or Arceladus, Arcelludus, Artheladus seem to be so many errors, and the true name Archelaidas or Archilaidas; which forms are found in old inscriptions [Cf. the Greek Thesaurus of Stephanus, Didot edition, under Ἀρχελαἳδας and Ἀρχιλαἳδας]. For aspirations in foreign names are generally absent from the Hieronymian lists; so that for example Euticius is almost always written in place of Eutychius. Then we taught at the preceding day at St. Thrasea that the ending -as in the same kind of names is there generally changed to -us. Of Antioch of Syria, which is also called on the Orontes, there is nothing for us to add: for in the East after Jerusalem and Alexandria no city was more celebrated. Since many martyrs suffered there, and at different times, no indication appears by which to determine under which emperor Sts. Smaragdus, Marianus or Mariana, and Archelaidas shed their blood for Christ. Nor do these martyrs seem to have been very celebrated, since from the Syriac Martyrology of Wright, copious in Antiochene martyrs, their names are absent at all the days of the year. Nor do these names appear in other calendars on any other than the present day; so that there is no fear that they have already been reviewed once or twice.