ON ST. ASTERIUS, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP, AT AMASEA IN PONTUS,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Asterius, bishop of Amasea in Pontus. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ Sole. The cult, formation, times, orthodox faith, biographers and writings of St. Asterius.
More than once in our Acts discourse has fallen on Amasea or Amasia, At Amasea in Pontus metropolis of Pontus in Asia Minor. The testimonies of the ancients concerning it have been gathered by Christoph Cellarius Notitia orbis antiqui, volume II, page 277 and following, edition of 1773.. Among which ancients Strabo stands out, who sprang from there. The beginnings of the Christian religion and the fortunes of the city in the ecclesiastical hierarchy have been explained by Michel Le Quien Oriens Christianus, volume I, column 521 and following.. Its other changes, chiefly civil, are to be found in the Geography of Carl Ritter Die Erdkunde, volume XVIII, book III, page 154 and following. and in the Asia Minor of Charles Texier Asie Mineure, page 603 and following.. The town has changed neither site nor name, but huts generally hold the place of the former palaces, as in almost all Asia. Yet Amasea has not lost all its splendour, since it still has twenty thousand inhabitants. Before the beginning of this century few European travellers seem to have visited it, but many Arabs and other men of this kind. For the last seventy years several, with no less spirit than zeal for science, have betaken themselves to this city, which they found not wholly empty of Christians: for next to forty-eight villages occupied by the Muslims, they saw five inhabited by Christians. From that time it is no longer obscure where Amasea was formerly placed and still exists; and so as much as one could once distrust the geographical maps of Asia Minor, and hold them suspect, so much is it now permitted to trust the more recent ones and safely follow them. Wherefore we think that nothing need be added for better knowledge of the site of Amasea, metropolis of the former province of Helenopontus.
[2] flourished St. Asterius the bishop, There flourished there in the fourth century St. Asterius, notable for virtues and for the praise of human and divine letters. In no Greek sacred calendars, as far as we know, is his name found; nor is this surprising: for these generally contain martyrs, and of the number of confessors only those who pertain to the patriarchal see of Constantinople, so that very few others, and those patriarchs of other sees, have found a place there. Only one Calendar so far pertaining to the patriarchate of Antioch [Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova Collectio, volume IV, Arabic codices, page 34 and following.] has been published, but it is very sparing in reporting holy confessors. No more abundant is the Alexandrian one long since printed by Ludolf Compare ibid., page 14 and following, Calendar of the Copts.. Wherefore from those three kinds of calendars nothing can be concluded against the holiness and cult of St. Asterius, perhaps once observed at Amasea. Bianchini [Demonstratio historiae ecclesiasticae, table III, century II, numbers 14 and 52; compare Indiculus, pages 2016 and 2119.] thought he had brought forward two very ancient indications of public veneration, namely one mosaic image of St. Asterius at the Lateran, another at Ravenna; and he said twice that St. Asterius of Amasea is presented: into which error Guénebault fell Dictionnaire d'iconographie, column 80.. For it is certain that the former image by no means represents St. Asterius of Amasea, but (as is plain from the painted-in names of the companions, Paulian, Telius, Anastasius etc.) the soldier of the same name, who with Bishop Domnio underwent martyrdom at Salona: the bodies of which eight soldiers Pope John IV, himself a Dalmatian, translated to near the Lateran baptistery Ciampini, Vetera monumenta Musiva, volume II, page 106.. Nor does it seem that greater credit is to be given to the Ravenna image.
[3] long since numbered among the saints in the East, But it is beyond controversy that from most ancient times St. Asterius was held among the saints. Photius: I have read, he says, an exhortation to penance of St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea: Ἀνεγνώσθη τοῦ μακαρίου Ἀστερίου ἐπισκόπου Ἀμασείας, ἐκ τοῦ προτρεπτικοῦ εἰς τὴν μετάνοιαν Bibliotheca, codex CCLXXI, volume IV, column 202, Migne edition.. The same Photius, according to the Photian edition of Andreas Schott, in the excerpts of the second sermon, namely on St. Stephen the protomartyr, added the praise of blessedness to the name of St. Asterius; but this praise seems to be absent from later editions. To the sermons of St. Asterius published by him Combefis prefixed the title: Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἀστερίου ἐπισκόπου Ἀμασείας. But this was perhaps made up by the editor himself. Of better stamp seems the title of the sermon on St. Euphemia, martyr, published by the same Combefis, in which μακάριος Ἀστέριος Combefis, Bibliothecae novum Auctarium, column 208.. Which is easily understood: for a century before Photius, namely when in the year 787 the second council of Nicaea was being celebrated, Pope Adrian wrote: Blessed Asterius they hold as a Saint in the whole East Letter to Charles the Great, in Labbe, Councils, volume VII, column 953,. And indeed in Session VI of that Synod, where his doctrine is vindicated, he is numbered among our holy fathers ἁγίοις πατράσιν ἡμῶν who have discoursed to us on the saving will of God Labbe, Councils, volume VII, column 486.; and already
before in Session IV Ibid., columns 207 and 739. his Sermon on St. Euphemia, under the title of Blessed Asterius, bishop of Amasea, had been approved, and after its recitation Theodore, the most holy bishop of Catania, said: The blessed doctor and zealous for God (ὁ μακάριος και θεοφόρος διδάσκαλος Ἀστέριος) Asterius, like a shining star, has enlightened the minds of us all: so that the Catholic and holy Church seems not to have received the venerable images apart from what is fair and right, but fittingly and timely to have acquiesced in the counsels of the holy fathers Ibid., columns 214 and 741.. Surely the word τοῦ μακαρίου does not mean wholly the same as τοῦ ἁγίου. Yet when the dead are called μακάριοι, their heavenly beatitude is indicated: so that, if the cult and ecclesiastical honour itself is not expressed by this word, at least what is chief in the glory of the saints is declared by the praise τοῦ μακαρισμοῦ [Suicer, Thesaurus ecclesiasticus e Patribus Graecis concinnatus, volume II, under the words Μακάριος and Μακαρισμός; Stephanus, Thesaurus linguae Graecae, volume V, under the same words, Didot edition.].
[4] and for this reason entered among those excepted from the Urban decrees. Wherefore, since in the cases excepted from the Urban decrees there come servants of God held among the saints by the common consent of the Church, or by an immemorial course of time, or by the writings of the fathers and holy men In Benedict XIV, De Beatificatione, book II, chapter XVII, number I., there is no doubt that Asterius of Amasea can and ought to keep the name of blessed and holy. Rightly therefore Baronius, in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology, at the 16th day of September, called Asterius, bishop of Amasea, a Saint. After Baronius Combefis often said St. Asterius. Likewise Cotelier published the homilies (if indeed they are genuine) of St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta, volume II, page 1.. Likewise he who in volume XL of Migne's Greek Patrology saw to the publishing of the Works of St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea. Similarly he was called a Saint by Antoine Pagi Critica Baronii, at the year 403, number XIV., Louis Du Mesnil Doctrina et disciplina Ecclesiae, volume II, book XVIII, page 434. and Orsi Della Istoria ecclesiastica, volume IX, book XX, page 239 and following.. Orsi had been preceded by Tillemont, who not only called him a saint, but tried to show that he did this rightly and deservedly Mém. ecclés., volume X, page 408, edition of 1705.. Not otherwise D. Ceillier Histoire générale des auteurs sacrés, volume VIII, page 487 and following. and those who followed him; among whom Richard and Giraud Bibliothèque sacrée, under Astère (saint)., and Johannes Alzog Grundriss der Patrologie, page 282.. Because he believed that St. Asterius was never venerated with a liturgical office, Chastelain Martyrologe Universel, page 909. called him venerable, among the ἀημέρους, indicating however that he was called blessed in the Acts of the second council of Nicaea, and holy in the Breviaries of Vienne, Paris, Sens and Lisieux, at the 16th day of September, on which St. Euphemia is venerated, whose (unless it be of another Euphemia) martyrdom St. Asterius described from a painting Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume V of September, page 283.. Our predecessors [Acta Sanctorum, volume III of July, pages 275, 631 and following; volume V of July, page 128.] have three times named him holy; but at the 16th day of September, at which in our Work the Acts of St. Euphemia, martyr, were declared, Stilting intervened Ibid., volume V of September, page 264., chastising Tillemont, who denied the title of holiness to the Venerable Bede, Ado of Vienne and Ennodius of Pavia, who by so many and such great authorities are to be called holy or blessed, and called Asterius of Amasea holy with a kind of affected zeal. But the comparison with SS. Bede, Ado and Ennodius is to the praise of St. Asterius and his cult, much less does it harm them. Then Stilting errs, contending that the title of μακαρίου is not read in the Greek Acts of the second council of Nicaea, but only in the Latin version. That we treat of St. Asterius today has no other cause than that Butler went before by his example: relying perhaps on this reason, that in some Greek calendars today, as has been noted in the Passed Over, a saint of the same name is mentioned, namely Asterius, martyr. Whence it has come about that in the later French and German hagiological books the 30th day of October seems to be dedicated as it were to the memorial of St. Asterius: which is also wrongly affirmed by Moroni Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione ecclesiastica, under Asterio (santo).. Guénebault likewise errs Dictionnaire d'iconographie, under Astère (saint)., reporting that the feast of St. Asterius of Amasea is referred by Baillet to the 9th day of November: on this day Baillet spoke of St. Theodore the Recruit, a citizen of Amasea, in the Topography of Saints, under Amasée, mentioning only St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea, at the end of the fourth century.
[5] He had as master a Scythian slave, From the sermon on the servant of the centurion whom the Lord healed, the argument of which sermon Photius has preserved for us, we have learned of the upbringing and formation of St. Asterius. He was namely a disciple of a certain slave, Scythian by race, whom a Syrian man, a citizen of Antioch and teacher of Greek grammar, had bought for himself. But let St. Asterius himself be heard, exhorting Christians to clemency towards slaves in Photius [Bibliotheca of Photius, codex CCLXXI, works, volume IV, column 214 and following.]: I saw, he says, a Scythian, recently entered on adolescence, learning the Greek language rather quickly. Then when his master formed him in liberal studies, he advanced so far, and learned all the arts, that he became renowned among both Greeks and Romans: for he also professed jurisprudence. The master who had bought him was a Syrian, a citizen of Antioch; who also taught children grammar. Indeed this pious (φιλάρετος) writer Asterius declares that he was a disciple of this purchased Scythian: where or in what studies he does not express. How widely the word Scythian extends Compare Ortelius, Thesaurus geographicus, under Scythae., everyone knows. Tillemont thought that that slave was a Goth by nation [Mém. eccl., volume X, page 408. Compare Histoire des Empereurs, Philippe, article IV, volume III, page 125, Brussels edition.], and probably taught law at Beirut, where in the public school the Easterners applied themselves to the Roman laws. Whether St. Asterius betook himself there, the same man omits, but he indicates that it cannot be doubted that he studied law and pleaded forensic cases. For in homily I published by Combefis, which is on Dives and Lazarus, distinguishing the voluntary and approved poor from the poor by necessity and wicked: Surely indeed, he says, whenever I have gone to the governor's tribunal, I have seen all the house-breakers and kidnappers, and footpads and thieves, and the murderers themselves, to be needy and ignoble men, without hearth or home Bibliothecae novum Auctarium, volume I, page 15.. That he was very well versed in the art of oratory according to the Asiatic form, as in those times, appears from the surviving orations.
[6] He succeeded Eulalius, the Catholic bishop of Amasea. How he took up the Christian religion and sacred orders is not known. He seems to have succeeded Eulalius, not driven from the see of Amasea, but dead. By which distinction Tillemont Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume X, page 410. and D. Ceillier Histoire des auteurs sacrés, volume VIII, page 487. are more easily understood. The people of Amasea, whose government he undertook, was most tenacious of genuine doctrine; for when the emperor Valens had banished Eulalius and had substituted for him an Arian bishop, the latter could hardly deceive fifty men; and these too went back to Eulalius, when in the year 378 Gratian had allowed Catholic bishops to seek their sees again [Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, book VII, chapter II, column 1419, Migne edition.]. This disaster and triumph of Eulalius was reported by Tillemont, adding that St. Asterius was probably substituted for him. Ceillier, however, the disaster being passed over, affirms without any doubt that St. Asterius immediately succeeded Eulalius, and yet brings forward no ancient document.
[7] He had seen the persecution of Julian the Apostate, In the homilies of the blessed man there occur two indications by which his times may be defined. In the oration on Avarice, when he had in general recalled apostates, made deserters of Christ through avarice, he proceeds thus: Examples of earlier times the memory and hearing of this our age have preserved and taught; but they are recent and of our age. For when that Augustus (Julian the Apostate), suddenly laying aside the character of a Christian which he had long worn by pretence, the curtain being drawn and the whole scene laid bare, both himself shamelessly sacrificed to demons, and invited others to the same crime with various prizes offered: how great a rush was made from the Church to the altars? How many through the bait and enticements of honours swallowed down, together with it, the hook of transgression? Who now indeed wander about the cities as branded men, held in hatred and mockery by all, as traitors of Christ the Lord for a little silver; struck off the roll of Christians, as Judas from that of the apostles; known by the name of transgressor, as horses by their marks, who, having allowed themselves merely to be drawn to the worst challenge of all sins, soon followed the teacher of impure and execrable impiety In Combefis, column 55.. Now the persecution of Julian raged in the years 362 and 363, when Eulalius was still alive and held the see of Amasea. Hence it is manifest that St. Asterius was among the living in that age.
[8] and the fall of several men of consular rank. The second oration was spoken in the year 400, or after the consulship of Eutropius. For explaining the wicked manner of attaining the consulship worthy of divine vengeance: Where are the consuls and fasces? he exclaims. Enumerate and recall those who existed yesterday and the day before (from the year 392 to the year 399). Was not this one (Fuffinus the consul), like some criminal, beheaded in a sudden riot of an armed multitude, and shown off after his death with greater pomp than when, lifted high on a chariot, he exulted for his magistracy and honour? And another (Timasius), having himself gained honour with the office of praetor, in the furthest bounds of Egypt and Libya, in sandy places devoid of all moisture and human cultivation, fleeing the punishment of condemnation, most wretchedly perished? What shall we say of him (Abundantius), who himself also, ex-consul and ex-praetor, living now in the land of Colchis, owes his life and breath to the humanity of the barbarians of that region? And that ex-prefect (Tatian), that man invincible, as was thought, and of a lion's heart, what catastrophe of life received him! First he saw his son (Proculus) beheaded; then he himself too was condemned by capital sentence, and with the noose already put to his throat, by the clemency of the prince he was taken from the hands of the executioner, that, an old man, spending what little remained of his age in sorrow and calamity and sense of evils, and full of disgrace and ignominy, he might depart from life by such an end of the great consulship. And he (Eutropius the eunuch) who in the preceding year (399) contrived deeds wholly gigantic and even greater, whose sex was called in doubt,
and who, fleeing his master's rods, aspired to the consular ones, and possessed as much land as it is not easy even to name; who now is buried in a little earth, and how little has someone, moved with pity, bestowed on him! Is it not therefore truly, according to that wise Ecclesiastes, if there are any such things: "Vanity of vanities?" and even the greatest dignities, some empty visions and showings of dreams? which, when they have delighted for a brief time, afterwards flee away; and when they have flowered for a while, suddenly wither In Combefis, Sermon against the feast of the Kalends, column 75.. And from this passage it appears that Blessed Asterius in speaking used no little freedom, and imitated not a little St. John Chrysostom.
[9] He must be distinguished from Asterius the Arian. In the year 431, in which the ecumenical council of Ephesus was celebrated, the blessed man was no longer among the living, since Palladius, bishop of Amasea, subscribed the Acts of this synod. How long before he died is nowhere reported; but from the Amphilochian Question CCCXII of Photius Works, volume I, column 1162, Migne edition. we understand that he reached an advanced old age. In this discourse Photius tries wholly to separate and distinguish the blessed man from an Arian of the same name, a writer of nearly that age. But the orthodoxy of our Asterius shines out even from the fact that he succeeded Eulalius, to govern a plainly Catholic flock. Indeed Photius made manifest the sincere faith of St. Asterius from the homily on the man blind from birth. For after he has shown that the author of this homily and of the sermon on St. Euphemia is the same: He is pious, he says, manifestly in this place, proclaiming the Son equal to the Father and coeternal. Wherefore let him not be an Arian, who subjects the explanation of the figure to elegance of words Photius, Bibliotheca, works, volume IV, codex CCLXXI, column 218.. But not only the argument of this homily survives: Combefis published it entire Bibliothecae novum Auctarium, column 105 and following., and indeed there are proclaimed in it of the Son such things as no Arian would ever say. Moreover in the sermon on SS. Peter and Paul he condemns in open words the ludicrous παίγνια of Arius and the depraved attempts παρεγχειρήματα of Eunomius, and clearly professes that the Son of God the Father is himself also God Ibid., page 145..
[10] He discoursed on sacred images No less Catholic was his view of sacred images, so that the Sermon on the painting of the martyrdom of St. Euphemia was recited in the second council of Nicaea with the highest praises, as we have already pointed out. Yet in the same council the iconoclasts brought forward testimony from the blessed man's homily on Lazarus and Dives [Ibid., page 6. Compare the Second Council of Nicaea, Session VI, in Labbe, volume VII, column 487.], the force of which the patriarch Nicephorus strove to dissolve. Hear him in the Antirrhetics: In the second place, he says, they bring forward Asterius, bishop of Amasea, in the Sermon which is prefaced with his name, on Dives and Lazarus, saying in these words: "Do not paint Christ. For that one humility of his incarnation is enough for him, which he freely took up for our sake. Rather bear about the Word, which is without body, carrying it in your soul by spiritual reason." And these are the words of St. Asterius, as they are read in the excerpts of St. Nicephorus brought to light by Combefis Ibid., column 267.. They come out however a little differently in the edition of the Antirrhetics of St. Nicephorus which we owe to the care of Cardinal Mai Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, volume V, page 69 Greek, page 80 Latin.. But what, it is said there, puts to the greatest shame the madness of all those, the wretches do not understand. For they always have in their mouth and cite the master Asterius commanding: "Do not paint Christ." To these St. Nicephorus tries subtly to reply, invoking however, besides more difficult explanations, the sermon of the same author on the painting of the martyrdom of St. Euphemia, and also the sermon of the same or of another Asterius on the woman freed from the flow of blood, in which discourse words are spoken of the statue of Christ erected by her. The same passage of St. Asterius was explained by St. Theodore the Studite in a letter to his son Naucratius In Sirmond, Works, volume V, page 438.. Epiphanius the deacon in the second council of Nicaea Labbe, Collectio Conciliorum, volume VII, column 487. observes that St. Asterius is treating there of the duty of the rich to do good to the poor; and that he does not there approve the excessive expenses of the rich in procuring for themselves garments interwoven with gospel histories: by which expenses they are prevented from giving necessary alms. And this indeed Epiphanius says rightly; but St. Asterius inserted in that argument of his some things which a man accustomed to seeing images of Christ would never have said. Wherefore those subtle answers, by which some try to remove the authority not of St. Asterius alone, but of the council of Elvira and of the letter of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus to John, bishop of Jerusalem, have long since not been approved by most learned Catholic men.
[11] rather according to the diversity of discipline and customs The words of the council of Elvira are these: (Canon XXXVI.) It has been decided that there ought not to be pictures in church, lest what is worshipped and adored be painted on walls Ibid., volume I, column 974.; and these others of St. Epiphanius: I found there (in the village of Anablatha) a curtain hanging at the doors of the same church, dyed and painted, and having an image as of Christ or of some saint; for I do not well remember whose image it was. So when I had seen, and had detested, that in the church of Christ against the authority of the scriptures the image of a man was hanging, I tore it, and rather gave counsel to the keepers of the same place, that they should wrap a poor dead man in it and carry him out Works of St. Epiphanius, volume III, column 390, Migne edition.. Weighing these words of St. Epiphanius or even of St. Asterius, Petavius [De theologicis dogmatibus, volume VI, De Incarnatione, book XV, chapter XIV, number 8, page 326, Antwerp edition, 1700.], Natalis Alexander [Historia ecclesiastica, volume III, century III, page 141 and following, edition of 1778], Tillemont Mém. ecclés., volume X, page 517. and others note that images or the like are not necessary for divine worship, and that it rests with the Church to judge whether they are to be removed or permitted, or even prescribed, according to the requirements of times and places. Whence it came about that in those early times different things were done in different places, and even in the same places the same things were now approved, now avoided. Surely no one now denies, even among learned non-Catholics, that from nearly apostolic times at Rome and in some other churches sacred images were in use, not only of martyrs, but also of the Mother of God with the boy Jesus: a matter made most manifest by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in his Commentary on select Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary drawn from the Roman catacombs [Immagini scelte della B. Vergine Maria, tratte dalle catacombe romane, Rome, 1863.].
[12] than according to certain dogmas and divine institutions. But although some very clear and very ancient examples survive, it is easily found that the old Christians generally used much restraint in venerating images; and that they often signified Christ by the figures of Moses, Jonah, and the good Shepherd, and even Orpheus, Pan and other biblical and mythical figures, avoiding the imitation of the likeness of Christ himself. Indeed, although our salvation proceeds from the passion and cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it was only long after peace was restored to the Church that Christ began to be presented suffering, and indeed at the beginning with glory rather than with ignominy, standing for example before Pilate washing his hands and testifying to his innocence. The cross itself (an αδιάφορον sign and common in many things to pagans with Christians) is not always openly indicated. But when it is very ancient, it is increased with curls and other ornaments, or somewhat distorted, so that it can be understood only by the initiated. Surely it is not surprising that St. Asterius, judging according to the usage and discipline of Asia Minor, was pleased by painted martyrdoms, but less by a painted image of Christ. And now too the Greeks and other Easterners, although there is no natural difference between painting and sculpture, approve painted images, but disapprove sculpted ones, except on the pediments of churches. Indeed at Rome too, besides the statue placed at the entrance of the church of St. Augustine, hardly any sculpted images of the Blessed Virgin Mary are in use, which north of the mountains are very frequent. So this whole business pertains to usage and discipline, rather than to doctrine and divine institutions. Nor do most Protestants, especially in England, seem averse to these things; indeed we have seen an image of the head of Christ recently painted on a cross, placed on a table or altar, in the former basilica of Trier, which was changed with such great art and so much expense into a Protestant church [Compare De Rossi, Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1st series, Index, under Immagini; Garrucci, Veteri ornati, Index, under Cristo; Hefele, in the Ecclesiastical Lexicon of Wetzer and Welte, under Christ (images of); and Conciliengeschichte, volume I, page 170, edition of 1873; Martigny, Dictionnaire des Antiquités chrétiennes, and others in various places.]. And we have discoursed on these things in order that what St. Asterius said about sacred images may be better understood.
[13] He extols the authority of St. Peter over the universal Church. Likewise the cult of the holy martyrs and the veneration of their relics the pious bishop commends in more than one homily. And in the sermon on SS. Peter and Paul he magnificently proclaims the deeds and authority of St. Peter: which authority he extends to the universal Church spread through the whole world: So when the Saviour, he says Combefis, Auctarium novum, page 146 and following., by a death freely assumed, was about to sanctify the human race, as a kind of special deposit and property, he commends to this man the universal Church spread through the whole world, when he had asked that three times: "Do you love me?" And when he with much eagerness had added as many professions to the several questions, he received the care of the world, as one flock, one shepherd, with the words he heard: "Feed my lambs": and the Lord gave nearly in his own place the most faithful disciple as father and shepherd, and master, to those who were to come to the faith. So when he had heard that word, he by no means thought that his life was to be spent in idleness; nor did he choose to live outside the hazard of dangers: rather, going all round the whole world, he revealed Christ to the blind; made a guide to those who were straying, calling forth those who had tasted piety, attacking enemies, consoling those of the household, enduring persecutions, bearing the hardship of prisons, meeting dangers in many ways for the sake of the gospel.
[14] His namesakes, biographers It remains for us briefly to speak of the name and writings of the blessed man. The name of Asterius in the fourth and fifth centuries was by no means singular among pagans and Christians. Wherefore Photius Photius, Bibliotheca, works, volume IV, codex CCLXXI, column 218. put some effort into separating a few Asteriuses, Tillemont a greater effort Mémoires ecclés., volume X, page 407., yet confining himself to six Christians; but more widely
ranged Fabricius Bibliotheca Graeca, volume VIII, page 612 and following, Hamburg edition, 1717., who reviewed twenty-three, besides the one of Amasea: to whom the new editor Harles added two others Volume IX, page 518, Hamburg edition, 1804.. Yet the number is not completed by these. For there have been omitted some martyrs of whom it has been spoken in our Acts. Into the deeds of St. Asterius of Amasea Combefis inquired not without praise, and published a kind of Life, together with his Works. With greater care and a singular love Tillemont applied himself to the same matter Mémoires ecclés., volume X, page 406 and following.. He was closely followed by D. Ceillier Histoire générale des écrivains ecclés., volume VIII, page 487 and following.. We omit the briefer memorials of Butler and others. We think that it is for bibliographers rather than hagiographers to weave a catalogue of the works of St. Asterius. This the reader will find carefully made in Oudin Commentarius de scriptoribus, etc., volume I, column 893 and following. and in Fabricius In the places cited above.. Moreover Louis Dupin [Nouvelle Bibliothèque des auteurs ecclés., volume III, page 77, Paris edition, 1693.] explained the arguments of the homilies at length. More at length D. Ceillier; indeed Tillemont also contributed some care to this matter.
[15] and writings. The first five homilies with the version of Philip Rubens were published at Antwerp in the year 1615 by Jan Brant, to which François Combefis subjoined six others in the year 1648, in the first volume of the Auctarium novum of the Library of the Fathers. Homily XII on St. Stephen is in some places attributed to St. Proclus, but it is rather of St. Asterius. To these add six sermons of which Photius has preserved only the arguments; and a seventh, that is, the encomium of St. Basileus, martyr, bishop of Amasea, who suffered under Licinius, about the year 320, on the 26th day of April; which encomium Ἀστερίου ἐπισκόπου Ἀμασίας is reported in the Typicon of St. Sabas to be read on his feast Cotelier, Monumenta Graeca, volume II, page 515.. Cotelier in the year 1681 published seven homilies on psalms VI and VII Ibid., page 1 and following., omitting the homily on psalm IV, published by Savile among the works of St. John Chrysostom. Tillemont doubts whether they are the offspring of St. Asterius of Amasea. Indeed Louis Dupin and Oudin ascribe them to Asterius the Sophist and supporter of the Arians. Other sermons too are attributed to St. Asterius, but with less credit. All the writings of the holy bishop published so far have been reprinted in Migne's Greek Patrology Volume XL, column 163 and following.. Several other editions and also a French version are mentioned by bibliographers; but (unless I am mistaken) they all omit the Bassano edition of the year 1782, in which the homilies of St. Asterius, jointly with the works of St. Prosper of Aquitaine, in two volumes of medium form, or quarto, came again to light.