Theonestus and Companions

ON SS. THEONESTUS AND COMPANIONS: THEONESTUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, AND HIS COMPANIONS TABRATA AND TABRA, ALSO MARTYRS,

MORE PROBABLY TOWARDS THE END OF THE FOURTH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Theonestus, martyr in Istria. (S.)

The companions, martyrs in Istria. (SS.)

BY B. B.

§ I. The memorial of SS. Theonestus and companions in the sacred calendars. Their two sets of Acts.

On this day the Roman Martyrology announces: At Altino, of St. Theonestus, bishop and martyr, who was killed by the Arians. Memorial in Martyrologies and Catalogues. The same is repeated by Chastelain Martyrologe Universel.. Earlier Galesini much more at length in this way Martyrologium S. Romanae Ecclesiae.: At Altino, of St. Theonestus, bishop and martyr. He, while the Arians were in tumult, an outstanding champion of the Catholic faith, punished by them with exile, took refuge at Rome with Pope Damasus; thence setting out for Milan with the pope's permission, he turned aside to Bishop Ambrose, and called back many Arians from the opinion of impiety by his disputations. Afterwards, having traversed Gaul and Germany, and many peoples being formed by him in the faith of Christ and true piety, he came at last to the city of Altino; where while he was duly instructing the people, a great force of men averse to the faith being stirred up, he was crowned with martyrdom. Usuard is silent; but in the auctaria in Sollerius the Saint about whom we are inquiring is three times mentioned, namely from the Lübeck-Cologne edition: Likewise on the same day, of St. Theonestus, bishop and martyr; from Greven: On the same day the commemoration of St. Theonestus, bishop and martyr, and his companions; finally from Molanus: At Altino, the birthday of Theonestus, martyr and bishop, who began the preaching of the right faith at Mainz, and saw Alban slaughtered by the Arians. In volume XIII of the work which is entitled Ecclesiae Torcellanae antiquis monumentis illustrated by Flaminio Corner or Cornaro there is found a Venetian Menology, in which are announced the Saints who have veneration either in the city or in some church of the city. There at the 30th day of October is read: At Altino, of St. Theonestus, bishop and martyr, who was killed by the Arians. And a note is added: St. Theonestus and his fellow martyrs are treated at Venice on the 22nd day of November in the church of the nuns of St. Lawrence, to which, as Dandolo notes in his Chronicle, some of their relics were translated. "The Martyrology of Wolphard (the lesser) (on which compare Potthast, Bibliotheca Historica medii aevi, p. 438) has, as I noted from the original Codex 1871 when I was at Munich: X Kalends of December (22 November) Cecilia, Theonestus, Tabratha … Tabrus is." So wrote back to us the Reverend Dom Falk, parish priest of Mombach, near Mainz. St. Theonestus is also praised by Ferrari Catalogus Sanctorum Italiae. and Peter de Natalibus Catalogus Sanctorum et gestorum eorum., on this same day, namely the XXII of November. Mention of this holy Martyr I have not found either in Maurolycus, or in the Menology of Basil, or in the Calendar of Constantinople, and others of that kind. Compare Peyronet Catalogus Sanctorum et Sanctarum.. So on two different days the memorial of St. Theonestus and companions is reviewed in the various calendars, namely the XXX of October and the XXII of November. Several agree on the former day with the Roman Martyrology, on which day for this reason we have preferred to give place to their Acts in our Work.

[2] The deeds, first from Italian writers: — Peter de Natalibus, The history of St. Theonestus flowed from a twofold source, one Italian, the other German. The Acts we give from Heinrich Canisius, surely of little credit and in many things full of blunders and inconsistent, as will be made plain from our commentary and annotations; but older ones are wanting. Among the Italians first in order, if we regard abundance of narrative, comes Peter de Natalibus, bishop of Jesolo. He has thus Catalogus, book X, chapter 97: On the holy martyrs Theonistus, Tabra and Tabrata. Theonistus the bishop, Tabra and Tabrata, deacons and martyrs, suffered at the city of Altino, in the time of the emperor Theodosius the first. This holy bishop with his aforesaid disciples, and St. Alban his fellow bishop, and Ursus the cleric, of whom it was spoken above in their passion on the eleventh day before the Kalends of July, went out from Philippi, from the island of Nausica, in the time of the aforesaid emperor, and they came to Rome, and having prayed there, they went away to Milan, and there they were honourably received by St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor, and the aforesaid Augustus, then staying there. Thence they passed over to the Gauls, preaching. And when they had reached the city of Augsburg, St. Ursus, seized by the pagans, suffered martyrdom through many kinds of torments. Theonistus with the others came to King Rosimund, a Christian, who sent him to Paulinus, bishop of Trier; and thence by boat they went to Mainz, where while Alban was preaching, seized by the pagans and beaten with scourges, he was at last beheaded with the sword. Theonistus with Tabra and Tabrata, butchered with much beating, were put into a boat with holes in it. They, God leading, reached unharmed with the boat a certain harbour. And while they were drying their soaked garments, they were taken again by the Goths, and sent back in the same boat with holes in it, and were driven forth again on the deep sea; but by the power of God the little boat being restored, the saints were again brought without danger to shore, and by divine admonition came to Altino. And when they had reached Oderentum, and were preaching Christ the Lord, they were held by the pagans, and led out of the city, and afflicted with blows. And while they were on the bridge, and Theonistus was praying with bent knees, Col. [ ] his knees were fixed as in soft wax; whose traces appear there to the present. Released thence by the pagans, they came to Altino; and there again seized by unbelievers they received capital sentence. Their trunks, rising, taking up their heads in their own hands, carried them, and laid them down between the Eridanus and the Sile, where they were also entombed by the faithful. They suffered on the tenth day before the Kalends of December (XXII of November). Now Peter composed his Catalogue after the middle of the fourteenth century. Certainly in a note, written, unless I am mistaken, by the hand of our Bolland, on the preliminary leaf of the copy that our museum has, which was printed at Vicenza in the year 1495 (this is the first edition of the Catalogue), these words are read: Peter de Natalibus began the Catalogue of Saints in the year 1369 on the day of St. Barnabas, still parish priest of the Holy Apostles at Venice; he finished it in the year 1371, on 16 May made bishop of Jesolo. So it is reported in a manuscript codex of Dom Giovanni Angelo, duke of Altemps, in Taddeo Donnola in the treatise on the place of martyrdom of St. Felix, bishop of Spello, published at Venice in 1620. Let us note in passing that SS. Theonestus and his two companions, whether held, or released, and seized again, finally butchered, are said to have been so treated by pagans, gentiles, unbelievers; there is no explicit word about Arians.

[3] Filippo Ferrari, More trustworthy things, yet not sufficiently approved in every part, are supplied by Filippo Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at the 22nd day of November, under the title: On St. Theonestus, bishop, Tabra and Tabrata, deacons, martyrs at Treviso. Theonestus, bishop of Philippi, with Tabra and Tabrata, deacons and his disciples, harassed by the Arians, came to Rome to Pope Damasus, in the reign of Theodosius; by whom kindly received, when he had stayed there for some time, departing thence he set out for Milan, where he was generously treated by St. Ambrose and led to the emperor Theodosius. And when, desirous of martyrdom, he had traversed various places, suffering many things, at length, sailing and being driven to the Adriatic shores, he settled at Altino; and when they were preaching the Catholic faith freely there, a conspiracy being formed against them by the Arians, they were seized, and at the marble Bridge of the Sile they were beheaded, Tabra being beheaded first, then Tabrata, lastly Theonestus, on the 10th Kalends of December. Whose bodies, carried by some religious men, who went out of the city of Treviso by night, into the church of St. John the Baptist at the river Sile, were entombed, afterwards translated to the cathedral basilica of St. Peter, and there honourably laid up. All of which Ferrari testifies that he drew from monuments of the church of Treviso, from Peter in the catalogue, book 10, chapter 97, and others, and he adds the following

annotation, in which he gives among other things the reason why he has in part departed from Peter: Many things, he says, from the manuscript acts of the church of Treviso and in Peter in the catalogue we have passed over, especially about Ursus the cleric who suffered at Augsburg, since we have found nothing of the kind at Augusta, either Praetoria or Vindelicorum. For the Ursus who is venerated at Aosta is not a martyr but a confessor. That too about Alban crowned at Mainz we have omitted, since he, according to Bede (let it suffice to have pointed out here that that Bedan martyrology which Ferrari here praises is wholly spurious), having suffered under Diocletian and Maximian, is one of the Theban soldiers, as also Ursus, who suffered at Solothurn in Switzerland, not a priest or companion of St. Theonestus the bishop. Nor does it matter that the breviary of the church of Mainz, with Pietro Galesini, following Peter of Jesolo in the place cited, make St. Alban a priest and companion of St. Theonestus the bishop. For Bede is to be believed rather than these, who, as they have been deceived in Ursus, martyred, as they say, at Augsburg, so seem to have blundered in Alban; for since Alban was a companion of Theonestus, the martyr who suffered at Vercelli, and of Ursus crowned at Solothurn, they mixed Theonestus the bishop in the Acts of St. Alban in place of Theonestus the soldier. So far Ferrari; how rightly, we shall discuss below.

[4] the Hagiologium Italicum of Flaminio Corner, So Ferrari cut away several things from the narrative of the bishop of Jesolo, and corrected or changed others; him in turn Corner contracted and amended in the Hagiologium Italicum, where at the same day, the XXII of November, in this way [Hagiologium Italicum, in quo compendiosae notitiae exhibentur Sanctorum Beatorumque ad Italiam seu ex nativitate seu ex obitu seu ex corporis possessione spectantium, ex probatioribus monumentis et scriptoribus collectae, etc., volume II, page 305, Bassano, 1773.]: On the holy martyrs Theonestus, Tabra and Tabrata at Torcello and Treviso. — Theonestus, bishop of Philippi, with Tabra and Tabrata, deacons, harassed by the perfidy of the Arians, came to Rome, where he was kindly received by St. Damasus the pope; and departing thence, when he had traversed many places of Italy, he settled at length at Altino, situated on the estuaries of the Adriatic sea. And when he was preaching there freely the doctrines of the Catholic faith, a crowd of Arians, rushing on him and his companions at the marble Bridge, crowned them as martyrs by the cutting off of the head. Although the Hagiologium Italicum does not bear the name of the author on its front, yet it is known from elsewhere that it was written by Flaminio Cornaro (otherwise Corner or Cornelius), senator of Venice. His intention was not only to contract and render in better style the catalogue of Filippo Ferrari, but also to amend it; he added moreover more than seven hundred new notices Compare Biographie universelle, under Cornaro..

[5] the Chronicle of Andrea Dandolo and the Italia sacra; Finally the holy martyrs are also praised by Andrea Dandolo, but with a shorter elogium than the writers recited so far. Thus he reviews them in the Chronicle Book IV, chapter XIV, part I. in Flaminio Corner Ecclesiae Torcellanae antiqua monumenta, part I, page 46, Venice, 1749.: Theonistus, champion of the faith, expelled from Philippi, wandering with his disciples Ursus, Alban, Tabra and Tabrata, Ursus at Augusta of Raetia, and Alban at Mainz were martyred; Theonistus with the others coming to the city of Altino were beheaded by the Arians on the marble bridge crossing a branch of the Sile. What is added pertains to the relics, of which we treat more widely in its place. It is to be noted that the words from Philippi, which I have just marked, are not read in Muratori, who first published the Chronicle of Dandolo Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, volume XII, page 1, Milan, 1728., which I do not think has since appeared through new labours Compare Potthast, Bibliotheca historica medii aevi, page 263, Berlin, 1862.. For the rest the Muratori reading varies quite notably in other things too, so that it is worthwhile to write it out entire In the place above, volume XII, page 58.: Theonistus, champion of the faith, expelled, wandering with his disciples Ursus, Alban, Traba and Trabata, Ursus at Augusta in Raetia, and Alban at Mainz were martyred. Theonistus with the others coming to Altino, a city of Venetia, were beheaded by the Arians on the marble bridge, crossing a branch of the Sile. I would not doubt that Corner (the same who wrote the Hagiologium Italicum) drew his reading from Coleti's appendix or volume X of Ughelli's Italia sacra, where at column 10 you have the excerpt of Dandolo recited in the same words. But when Coleti was writing (the appendix was printed in the year 1722) the edition of Muratori had not yet come to light (printed at Milan in the year 1728). So it may be inferred that Coleti, or another whom Corner followed, used a codex different from the Muratori ones, or at least not received by the distinguished prefect of the Modena Library. Otherwise he would have to be said to have deliberately, without warning the reader, not only changed, but also corrupted the passage. But these things will come into use when we must treat of the episcopal see of St. Theonestus. For the rest, among the testimonies of certain age, the Chronicle of Dandolo holds first place, as being nearly twenty years older than the Catalogue of the bishop of Jesolo, composed, as we have seen, about the year 1370; for Andrea Dandolo, made doge of Venice on the 4th of January in the year 1342, lived and reigned to the year 1354, as it is in Muratori Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, in the place above, page 3.. Tiraboschi refers the beginning of Dandolo's magistracy to the year 1343, and adorns with great praises his Chronicle, in which is contained the history of the Venetian republic from the first times of the Christian era to the year 1342, or the penultimate of the writer's life [Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana, volume V, pages 333–336, Modena, 1775.]. He observes that in weaving his history Dandolo used a style not a little rough, perhaps to comply with the custom of his age, and so that the narrative might be more easily accessible. In certain letters that survive, among which one or two sent to Petrarch, the diction is much more polished Ibid., page 336..

[6] Then from the Germans: — Rabanus Maurus, Thus far from Italian writers; now let us come to the Germans. First in order of time occurs Blessed Rabanus Maurus, who at the 21st day of June reports many things of St. Theonestus in the elogium of St. Alban: At Mainz the birthday of Alban, martyr, who under the emperor Theodosius, proceeding from the island of Namsia with St. Theonestus and Ursus, came to Milan, and going out from there, by the Lord's help reached the Gauls and remaining in the service of God, ready for martyrdom for the name of the Saviour. After Blessed Ursus had received martyrdom in the city of Augsburg, Theonestus with Alban reached Mainz, and while he was preaching the word of God there, Alban his disciple completed martyrdom, and was buried there near the city. So Rabanus in the Martyrology, which Canisius made public Thesaurus monumentorum, volume II, part II, pages 314–352., written before the middle of the ninth century, as Papebroch more probably judges Acta Sanctorum, volume IV of June, page 86.. So his testimony is far older than the others enumerated above from Italy, since none of these goes above the fourteenth century. All the same words, except that for Theodosius is put Diocletian, are found in the supposititious martyrology of Bede, inserted in the older editions of his works of Basel and Cologne, and also separately printed by the Plantin press at Antwerp in 1564. But it is known that the genuine Martyrology of Bede was found and published by our predecessors Henschenius and Papebroch [See ibid., volume II of March, from the beginning. Compare J. A. Giles, Complete Works of Venerable Bede, volume IV, part III and following, London, 1843.]. So the former is wholly spurious, and taken for by far the greatest part from Ado, whose elogia the compiler partly contracted, where more diffuse, partly increased or added of his own where lacking or briefer. The saints whom he added to Ado are generally taken from the Martyrology of Rabanus; others he received from elsewhere, with no regard had to Bede, and he did not hesitate to take on saints two hundred and three hundred years later than his age In the place above, volume II of March, page VII.. For the rest the genuine Bede is blank at the XXI of June, nor in the Auctaria either of Florus or of others is any mention of St. Alban added Ibid., page XXXIII.. St. Theonestus himself too does not appear either at the XXII of November or the XXX of October or in any other place of Bede's composition. Compare Papebroch in the Acts of St. Alban Volume IV of June, page 86 and following.. And from these things it follows that Ferrari wrongly relies on the Bedan martyrology, to attack the Acts of St. Theonestus and his companions. See above, n. 3.

[7] Sigebert of Gembloux, Next to Rabanus follows Sigebert of Gembloux, who at the year CCCCXXV notes: At this time Theonistus the bishop was driven by heretics from the city of Philippi, with his disciples Alban, Ursus, Tabraham and Tubraham, of whom Alban at Mainz in Gaul, and the others in various places of Italy, are martyred for Christ Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, volume VI, page 307.. And these words are so read in the genuine and original Chronography of Sigebert, as is plain from the learned and accurate recension of Bethmann. Now Sigebert, born in the year 1030, died in the year 1112. He composed the Chronicle, not indeed with a continuous pen, but neither in such a way that, having finished what preceded himself, he at once committed to writing the events of his time as he learned they were done. He seems rather to have written the whole work only in the last ten years of his life Ibid., page 273.. So his testimony pertains to the end of the eleventh century, and so is nearly three centuries older than Dandolo and the bishop of Jesolo.

[8] the Breviary of Mainz of the year 1507, After these we add the lessons from the ancient Breviary of Mainz, of which our museum possesses two copies, one of the year 1507, the other of the year 1570. It will help to have recited from each both what is found in these about St. Alban on the XXI day of June, and what about St. Theonestus on the XXX day of October, sacred to our holy Martyr. In the former Breviary, corrected and amended with the highest diligence, as is set at the end … printed at Lyon by François Fradin, in the year of the saving incarnation of the Lord 1507, on the day before the Ides of November, these are the lessons on St. Alban on the XXI of June, six in number: In the time of Honorius, most impious king of the Persians, a great dispute having arisen at Carthage between the Christians and Arians, six hundred and seventy bishops came together. Among whom Theonestus, a religious man, expelled from Philippi for the faith of Christ, came to Rome for the sake of prayer with his disciples Alban, Ursus and Thabratan. Having stayed there a little while, for the sake of preaching, traversing Tuscany, Liguria, he went to Milan, and there, kindly received by Ambrose, he disputed many things against the Arians, and at length advancing he came to Augsburg, and there suffering many things from the unbelievers, he left his colleague Ursus, who, held by the unbelievers, in the same

place was crowned with martyrdom. — Theonestus, crossing the Alps, reached as far as King Sigismund; but he, being truly Catholic, learning the cause of his journey, sent through his legates to him * Blessed Paulinus, bishop of Trier, with whom having stayed a little while, he at length sent him away in peace. — Theonestus, taking up his proposed journey, came to the city of Mainz, which is situated on the shore of the river Rhine. Over this church there then presided Blessed Aureus the bishop. But he, driven from his see by the Arians, moved to other places; and afterwards returning to the same place, with his sister Justina, he was crowned with martyrdom there. — So St. Theonestus, hearing of the great multitude at Mainz, began with his companions to expound to them earnestly the truth of the Catholic faith, that recognizing the true God they might return to the unity of mother Church. — When several days had been spent in the earnestness of preaching, the pagans, seeing themselves in all things conquered and confounded, seizing Alban, because he confidently preached the word of God, and leading him outside the city, cut off his head with the sword; which he at once clasping in his own hands carried to the place where now, the Lord being propitious, his body rests together with his head; and from that time until now very many and innumerable wonders, the Lord working, are done through his intercession. In these are to be seen very many things about St. Theonestus, and few only about St. Alban. Nor surely are all of them trustworthy, indeed several are manifestly apocryphal; for example that king of the Persians Honorius, the council of Carthage, in which St. Theonestus is said to have taken part, and other things which you will find refuted by Papebroch in the Acts of St. Alban at the 21st day of June Volume IV of June, page 86 and following.. In the same Breviary only this on our holy Martyr at his day: Of Theonestus, XXX of October, as a feria, as of one martyr, with the following collect: grant, we beseech, almighty God, that we who commemorate the praiseworthy triumph of Blessed Theonestus your martyr and bishop, worthily following in imitation of him, may merit to be partakers of his joys. Through the Lord. I have thought it worthwhile to write these things here a little more widely also for this reason, that this Breviary is among the first that were printed for the use of the church of Mainz, and at the same time reaches back to the incunabula of the art of printing. Yet there exist older Breviaries. Certainly there are at hand for us, to omit others, the Breviary of Passau of the year 1505, of Cologne of the year 1498, of Regensburg of the year 1496, of Basel of the Friars Preachers of the year 1492, and the Cologne Matutinale of the year 1481.

[9] likewise of the year 1570, In the other Breviary of the same church of Mainz, sent to press at Cologne in the year of the Lord 1570 by the order and authority of the Most Reverend father and most ample prince and lord Dom Daniel, of the holy same see of Mainz Archbishop etc., on the feast day of St. Theonestus, that is, the 30th of October, the Office is ordered in this way: Of Theonestus, martyr and bishop, as a feria. Chapter: justum deduxit. The same collect as above, except that in place of imitationem is put conversationem. There follow two lessons: Theonestus the bishop, at the city of Philippi in Macedonia, called out by the perfidy of Huneric, Arian king of the Vandals, and driven by the same into exile with very many other Catholic bishops, with Alban the priest, Ursus, Thabraamus and Thabrathamus reached Rome. Appointed by the pontiff for the Gauls for the sake of evangelizing, he soon ran through Tuscany and Liguria teaching. Thence reaching Augsburg, he left there his Blessed Ursus crowned with martyrdom. Nevertheless continuing his proposed journey, beginning the preaching of the right faith at Mainz, which perhaps then was bereft of its shepherd, he saw Alban too slaughtered by the Arians. — Theonestus, attempting to go further of his own accord, was placed by the same enemies of the faith in a little boat with holes, without any nautical equipment, with the disciples who survived, committed to the waves of the Rhine, that he might perish; but by divine power all were carried unharmed in the boat to the shore. From here returning through the middle of Gaul to the sea, they enlightened most places of Italy with sound doctrine. At length at Altino, while they were everywhere applying themselves faithfully to the office of preaching, they were seized, and they too were punished with loss of the head. Their bodies, at once roused, are recorded to have carried their heads, taken up in their own hands, some paces to the place where they were laid up. In these there is nothing of Honorius king of the Persians, nothing of Carthage, nor of the council held there. Milan too and Ambrose are passed over, likewise St. Aureus. It is plain that these lessons are more correct and amended than the former; but whether they are trustworthy in all things we shall inquire in the course of this commentary. Let it suffice in this place to have noted that it is wholly wrongly asserted that Blessed Ursus was crowned at Augsburg, since his blessed death took place at Aosta of the Salassi. For the rest at the 21st day of June, on which St. Alban too is venerated in this Breviary, the lessons are silent about St. Theonestus, except that his name is brought forward once only, namely in the opening: Alban the priest with Theonestus, his bishop of Philippi, Huneric the Vandal raging against the Catholics, came to Rome in exile. From then on the narrative proceeds about St. Alban alone. Wholly the same in the revised edition of this Breviary of the year 1611.

[10] and Trithemius. Finally, not to omit him either, Trithemius in the Compendium or Breviary of the first volume of the annals or histories (by Fabricius it is called of the chronicles) on the origin of the nation and kings of the Franks through 1189 years, from Marcomir to King Pepin, has thus: In the sixth year of Pharamond, of the Lord's nativity CCCCXXV, the eighth Roman indiction, St. Theonestus, bishop of Philippi in Greece, cast out of his church by the violence of heretics, with Alban the priest, Ursus the deacon, and Abraham the subdeacon, came into Italy, and then into the borders of Germany. Of whom Alban suffered at Mainz for the faith of Christ Works of history of Johannes Trithemius, page 35, Frankfurt, 1601.. Freher asserts Ibid., page 62. that the Breviary was completed in the year 1514, the fifty-fifth of the age of Trithemius (he had been born in the year 1462). Trithemius himself testifies in the dedicatory letter to Lorenz, bishop of Würzburg, that he wrote Annals in three volumes. But, he says, the history turned out too long; wherefore I thought it worthwhile to extract from those three volumes of Annals as many shorter books. Hence the Compendium of the first book; and this only, says Freher again Ibid., page 63., of those most clear and most elaborate Trithemian annals of German affairs remains to us … We hope (certainly we wish) that those whole works, or at least a good part of them, exist and lie hidden somewhere, and that they will some day come out of their hiding places. Which hope so far has been vain. For the rest the Compendium is not thought of so much merit as the other compositions of the same writer, especially the Chronicle of the house of Hirsau. For it is far from that. Let us hear Fabricius: But, he says Bibliotheca mediae et infimae latinitatis, volume III, page 155., as Labbe rightly says, nearly all these things are false and collected from the lying trifles of writers of no good fruit. However that may be, Trithemius could have drawn his notice of St. Theonestus partly from Rabanus and Sigebert, partly from other less limpid sources.

[11] Besides the monuments enumerated, we have And these are the monuments that it has been possible to collect among both Italians and Germans. Among the older ones in order of time the first place goes to the Martyrology of Rabanus, written about the middle of the ninth century; Rabanus is next followed by Sigebert of Gembloux, who finished the Chronicle at the close of the eleventh century. After these we have Andrea Dandolo, who died in the year 1354; Peter, bishop of Jesolo, whose Catalogue was brought to an end at the decline of the fourteenth century, about the year 1371. Of the same, if not of a higher age, I judge the older Breviary of Mainz, printed in the year 1495 and 1507, another written by hand surely lighting the way, prepared for the use of the choir and of others bound to the canonical hours, and probably not only a few years earlier. From these monuments, compared with the Acts and among themselves, we must bring out what can probably be determined about the life and deeds of St. Theonestus. But first we must discourse on the Acts themselves of St. Theonestus and his companions.

[12] The more diffuse Acts written by Goswin in the eleventh century, Canisius published two sets of Acts of St. Alban and companions: one more diffuse, which you might rather call a panegyric and that very wordy; the other briefer, which are partly a compendium of the former, partly original. The more diffuse end at the death of St. Alban, which happened near Mainz; the briefer pursue the deeds of St. Theonestus from his departure from Germany to his martyrdom not far from Altino in the dominion of the Venetians, and so would more correctly be entitled the Acts of SS. Theonestus and companions. Of the writer and age of the fuller Passion it is sufficiently known, although Canisius thought otherwise: Who, he says Thesaurus, volume IV, page 154., is the author of these acts is not established; he adds however: But if there is place for conjecture, he seems to be Sigeard, monk of the monastery of St. Alban, who in the year 1297 wrote the acts of St. Alban, as Trithemius attests. Both are mistaken. Canisius's conjecture was already refuted by Serarius: The best (codex) of my manuscripts, he says Moguntiacarum rerum volume I, page 124., clearly and specifically declares its author to be Goswin, and prefixes two prefaces of his, one to Siegfried I, archbishop of Mainz, the other to Bardo, abbot of St. Alban, which I would give here, if it were worthwhile. Papebroch afterwards gave them Acta Sanctorum, volume IV of June, page 88 and following.. And from these Serarius further gathers that Goswin wrote about the year of the Lord MLXXII; which, he says, afterwards too the same manuscript confirms at that very year; certainly before the year MLXXXIV in which Siegfried the bishop departed from the living Moguntiacarum rerum volume cited, p. 491., to whom the other letter of Goswin was written. For the rest it is not plain whether Goswin was a canon of Mainz, as Fabricius prefers Bibliotheca latina, book VII, p. 79., or a monk. He himself speaks thus of himself to Siegfried: Although from the profession of sacred order I owe it to the Christian religion to serve God and all his orthodox saints with humble devotion; yet to you, my Father, and to the church over which you preside by Christ's appointment, I attach myself by a special law of servitude, and bend the neck of my mind to the yoke of humility under your hand See Serarius, page 124; Papebroch, in the place above.. These words indeed at first view seem rather to indicate a canon of the metropolitan church than a monk. But it is to be noted from Serarius Page 47.: Among all the monasteries the first and pre-eminent was that which among the ancients is called the episcopal or Greater or St. Martin's monastery, but today the Metropolitan college of canons. So nothing stands in the way of our holding with Papebroch that Goswin was probably a monk of that Greater monastery or of St. Martin, but not of St. Alban, as some have wrongly wished. It certainly follows that the history of St. Theonestus contained in these Acts was committed to writing at least in the eleventh century.

[13] and briefer, which seem to us to be of the same age, So we know with sufficient likelihood the age and writer of the more diffuse Acts, but not so of the briefer, which we have said consist of two parts. In the former the Life is described from the beginning of the pilgrimage (namely when St. Theonestus with his disciple Alban and some others went out from Macedonia), until they reached Mainz, where Alban fell by a glorious death. Now since this former part flows from the source which is the origin of the more diffuse Acts, it is no wonder that the two Passions so far nearly agree in things, indeed in blunders and errors too, differing only in words; so that it seems not doubtful that one lit the way for the other. Nor would I easily determine whether the more diffuse is older than the briefer, or this precedes in age. Indeed I do not see what prevents Goswin from being held the author of both, since both style and the series of the narrative agree. However that may be, each Life, as regards the first part, if not of the same author and age, is at least of equal merit, certainly not very brilliant. But what of the second part, in which is described the journey of the holy Martyr and his two companions from Mainz to Altino, where they were killed by the Arians for the right faith? Here now no comparison can be made with the more diffuse Acts, as they end in the death of St. Alban, slain near Mainz. Surely if the former part was written by Goswin, there seems no reason, unless perhaps because the names of the emperors vary, why we should attribute the latter to another author. For the rest the diction is the same, nor is anything discovered from elsewhere by which a different hand of the writer is shown. If these things are admitted, it will be established by whom and at what time the abridgement, or the Acts of St. Theonestus, came to light. But this is only conjecture.

[14] Canisius and Basnage partly supporting. Canisius, who first published both Acts, notes here about the author of the compendium: Moreover since in the manuscript parchments of Windberg there are other briefer ones … by an uncertain author, I wished to give those also In the place above, page 154.. As regards the age, the same Canisius and with him Basnage ascribe to both in the margin the year 1297, and so think that the two Passions are of equal antiquity. Nor does it harm their authority that they are mistaken in defining the age of the more diffuse Life, from which, as we have seen, they take away nearly two hundred years, assigning it to this more recent age; for it is manifest that if they had ascribed to it the year 1072 (which we have noted above, number 12, to be little distant from the truth), they would have ascribed the same to the other, briefer Life as well. So, to sum up briefly, the more diffuse Acts, which are rightly called of St. Alban and companions, as ending in his death, are sufficiently established to have been written by Goswin the monk about the year 1072; the briefer, which are also commonly called of St. Alban, yet should by far better right have been called of St. Theonestus, as they fully comprise his deeds, are not improbably attributed to the same author, though more by conjecture than from certain arguments and suitable testimonies. And so much for the age and writer. Now of the merit or weight.

[15] The work of Goswin moves by its authority, In the preface to Siegfried Goswin himself teaches us whence he collected his matter: I, he says Volume IV of June, p. 88., betook myself to the pen, and what I had learned on the hoary good faith of my elders as authority, I gathered into one with the pen serving. And in the other preface to Bardo Ibid., p. 89.: They will be written more neatly if what antiquity has narrated about so great a martyr, what the devotion of the faithful has sprinkled on leaflets, so far as the cruelty of heretics at that time allowed. By these latter words it is hinted openly enough that a brief history of the Passion (the heretics allowed nothing else) was written at about the very time of the martyrdom. So Goswin's sources were old leaflets or an ancient Passion and besides other things handed down to memory by the elders, since, he says, nearly all history and chronicles recount things heard rather than seen. There is praised in Trithemius in the Chronicle of Hirsau, about the year of Christ 892, Rupert the monk, most learned on every side, who among other things wrote the Life of St. Alban too in verse. Surely nothing would prevent someone from thinking that Goswin used this too, were it not to be suspected that Trithemius confused that Rupert with another far younger, who flourished in the thirteenth century or later. Indeed all doubt would be removed if from the said Life were excerpted the verses which Serarius recites from a certain Dom Latomus:

In a schism under such a throne, from the pontifical Theonestus is driven cast out and seeks Rome, etc.

For it is known that leonine verses began to be cultivated at the highest in the twelfth century Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume IV of June, p. 89..

[16] Papebroch notwithstanding. But, says Papebroch in the Acts of St. Alban at the XXI day of June Ibid., whatever or whenever Goswin found written, he was a very unhappy historian in connecting them, as also a topographer and chronologist. That this censure is excessive and exaggerated will soon, I think, be plain from § II of our commentary, where we shall inquire what certain, what doubtful things have come down to us about St. Theonestus, and what are falsely attributed to him. For the rest, although Papebroch regards the more diffuse life, yet what he objects also partly attacks the briefer, into whose first part most errors have flowed down from the other. The second part is of better stamp, as I have already said and as will appear more clearly from what follows. Wherefore we have judged that these briefer Acts, as we pointed out at the beginning of number 2, can not absurdly be subjoined to the commentary, both because they are ancient enough, and because better ones are wanting, and finally because by cutting away in the first part some things that disturb the chronology, and likewise by amending the wrongly marked site of one or another place, for example Augsburg, we obtain a narrative from beginning to end not badly consistent with itself. To define further the antiquity of the common source of the Acts published by Canisius, it has seemed good to join to them what is read under the name of St. Theonestus in a Passional of the tenth century Compare Pertz, Archiv, volume VIII, page 508., a manuscript of the Royal Library of Brussels under number 7984, which was once in our college at Molsheim, since this rivulet ascends to the times of Rabanus Maurus.

* read eum ad

§ II. On the place and time of the martyrdom. Where St. Theonestus was bishop.

[From what has been brought forward it is proved that St. Theonestus was a martyr.] And first indeed it is established from all of them concerning the martyrdom. So Sigebert, Dandolo, the prelate of Jesolo, the Breviaries of Mainz. Rabanus is silent, because he does not pursue the pilgrimage of the holy men beyond the death of St. Alban, killed at Mainz; nor therefore can you infer anything from his silence against the martyrdom. Other more recent writers, whom we have cited above, proclaim him a martyr with one mouth. Whence Coleti in the Supplement Italia sacra, volume X, column 10.: As it is certain that St. Theonestus attained the palm of martyrdom at Altino, so it is certain that he was not bishop of Altino, of which we will say more widely below. Papebroch opposes in the Acts of St. Alban. As for, he says Acta Sanctorum, volume IV of June, page 89., St. Theonestus, master of Alban of Mainz … he is venerated on the XX (rather XXX) day of October, and there he probably died by a dry death, perhaps also entombed in a chapel of his name. (Compare below, n. 27.) But Theonestus the bishop with his companions Tabra and Tabratha, probably brought from Africa to Altino, in the March of Treviso, at the time of the Vandal persecution, as also many others to various places of Italy, died there with the same, and when the city had been overthrown by the Huns, translated to the cathedral church of Torcello, is venerated there on the XXII of November. So for Papebroch the one Theonestus died by a dry death, the other died, surely by natural death. And he so pronounces because he does not trust Goswin, who patched together the life of St. Alban at the decline of the eleventh century: But, he says, whatever or whenever Goswin found written, he was a very unhappy historian in connecting them (and likewise, as he adds below, topographer and chronologist), since he fused into the same person two Theonestuses and two Albans, dead in places plainly distant and at very different times. I would think these things were said too confidently by the learned predecessor, indeed by mere conjecture. Certainly the other writers, whether before or after Papebroch, with unanimous voice assert that St. Theonestus was the master of St. Alban, and was killed near Altino for the right faith by a bloody death. Papebroch moreover slips beyond doubt where he ties the feast of the holy man to the XX of October, since in all it is marked either on the XXX day of the same month or the XXII of November. Expressly Corner or Cornaro, in the Venetian Menology Volume XIII, page 396.: At Altino, of St. Theonestus, bishop and martyr, who was killed by the Arians. There agrees without hesitation Giuseppe Cappelletti Le Chiese d'Italia, volume IX, page 517, Venice, 1855., whose work appeared comprising twenty-one volumes in these later years. Volume 1 came to light in the year 1844, the last in the year 1870.

[18] [The time of the martyrdom uncertain; perhaps at the end of the fifth century, under Huneric, king of the Vandals,] If in truth, as in some cited documents, and as is expressly asserted in the Acts, St. Theonestus with his companions was in Africa in the age of Huneric, the time of the martyrdom can be defined fairly probably. Let us hear Serarius: For if, he says Moguntiacarum rerum volume I, page 176., as the history has, he came to these shores while Huneric the Vandal was raging, when would this have happened rather than when that impious tyrant, wholly raging with the Arian heresy, called all the Catholic bishops who were in Africa to Carthage, ordered them to dispute with the Arians, stripped them of churches and all goods and cast them into exile? This happened in the year CCCCLXXXIV, as is plain from Victor of Utica, books II and III on the Vandal Persecution, the beginning of book III on the Vandal war, Nicephorus, book XVII, chapter LXI, Evagrius, book IV, chapter XIV, and others; since Huneric succeeded his father Genseric in the kingdom in the year CCCCLXXVI, and poured out that calamity on the Catholics in the seventh year of his reign. So either Huneric is to be wholly removed from that history, or the killing both of St. Theonestus and of St. Alban and the other companions is to be put off to after the year CCCCLXXXIV. From more accurate calculations Genseric died on the 24th day of January in the year 477; Huneric succeeded his father on the same day, and held the sceptre until the 11th day of December in the year 484, nor did he rage against the Catholics before the year 483 Art de vérifier les dates, page 357.. Since however they suffered not in Africa, but some in Germany, others in Italy, it is plain that SS. Alban and Ursus could not have been killed, except in the later or

even the advanced first year of the Hunerician persecution, since they had to cross from the shores of Africa to the Alps, seeing that Ursus was killed at Aosta, and thence to go on to Mainz, where St. Alban fell; a journey which surely, in such circumstances, could easily have consumed several months. As regards St. Theonestus and his two surviving companions Tabra and Tabratha, since they carried off the palm at Altino, they had to return from Germany into Italy, crossing the Alps anew, or to make for the sea by the rivers of Gaul: so that their triumph may not absurdly be tied to the year 484, which we know was the second and so the last of the aforesaid persecution.

[19] but rather under Pope Damasus, And so it would be, if the mention of Huneric were held genuine. But what then? First of all, besides the two Acts and likewise the two Breviaries of Mainz (these manifestly drawn from the Acts), the other monuments cited above, whether Italian or German, are silent about Huneric. Moreover his age cannot be reconciled with other chronological marks noted in each Passion, from which it follows that SS. Theonestus and companions flourished under Pope Damasus, Ambrose, bishop of Milan, the contemporary emperor Theodosius; likewise under Paulinus, bishop of Trier, and finally under King Sigismund or another such. Now the first three held office towards the end of the fourth century, and so nearly a hundred years before Huneric: namely Damasus from the year 366 to the year 384 Ibid., page 245 and following.; Ambrose from the year 374 to the year 397 Tillemont, Mémoires, volume X, pages 853 and 856.; Theodosius from the year 379 to the year 395 Art de vérifier, etc., page 352 and following.; Paulinus of Trier is a little older, as one who died about the year 360 [Gallia christiana, volume XIII, column 376. — Acta Sanctorum, volume VI of August, page 668.], nor could St. Theonestus have dealt with him, if he first met, as is asserted in the Acts, the other three men cited above. Sigismund lived a whole century and more later, king from the year 516 to the year 524, in which, by order of Clodomir, he was killed with his wife and children Art de vérifier les dates, page 660.. So with Huneric struck out, and Damasus, Ambrose and Theodosius retained, the pilgrimage of our saints would have to be placed between the year 374, in which Ambrose was made bishop, and the year 384, in which St. Damasus died. Further, since from the series of the narrative the martyrdom does not seem to be much removed from the return from the region of Mainz into Italy, the death of St. Theonestus and his two companions can be placed about the year 384, yet rather a little before than after this year. That Paulinus of Trier is read in the Acts as a contemporary of St. Ambrose probably arose from confusion with Paulinus of Nola, who it is established dealt with the holy prelate of Milan both at other times and especially about the years 387 and following Tillemont, Mémoires, volume X, page 254.. For the rest it is not inconsistent that the writer of the Acts held in good faith as contemporaries in pastoral dignity and office the cited prelates of Milan and Trier. For, as Fiorentini attests, Mersaeus in the annals of the archbishops of Trier "teaches that St. Paulinus was consecrated by St. Martin of Tours and loved and cultivated by St. Ambrose Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume VI of August, page 672." These things however suit St. Paulinus of Nola much better See Tillemont, work soon cited, volume XIV, page 11.; but in no way the bishop of Trier of the same name, since he, as I have said, died about the year 360, and so about fourteen years before Ambrose was given the mitre.

[20] about the end of the fourth century; And these are the things which it has been possible to draw from the Acts concerning the time of the martyrdom, surely of little firmness. Amid so great darkness I would for my part prefer, Huneric being struck out, the mention of whom is found in fewer and more recent monuments, to hold to other chronological marks of the same Acts, and to ascribe the death-day of St. Theonestus and his two companions to about the year 384. For the rest the times from the death of Valentinian I (the year 375) were most disturbed, after whom Justina, his wife, thoroughly infected with the doctrine of Arius, had the greatest part in administering the empire both under Gratian and under Valentinian II, both of whom took power at a very youthful age, since the former was killed in the 24th year of his life, 383 of Christ, the 16th of his reign; the latter strangled in the year of Christ 392, the 20th of his life, the 8th of his reign. So it is not surprising that the Arians, made fierce by the favour of Justina, should more easily have raged against the orthodox in various places, especially from the year 383, in which Valentinian succeeded his murdered brother, to the year 388, in which Justina ceased to live Compare Art de vérifier les dates, page 351 and following..

[21] which is also assumed by most. With this manner of interpreting the Acts as regards the time of the martyrdom most of the monuments cited above agree, whether Italian or German. Thus Galesini reports that the holy champions flourished under Damasus and Ambrose; Peter de Natalibus, in the reign of Theodosius the first; Ferrari names Damasus, Ambrose, Theodosius; the Hagiologium Italicum records that they were kindly received by Pope Damasus; Dandolo has no chronological mark. And these are the Italians. Among the Germans Rabanus, the most ancient of all those who are known to make mention of St. Theonestus, expressly asserts that he came to Milan under the emperor Theodosius. So all these agree on the time of the martyrdom set forth by us above, namely about the year 384. So besides the Acts (which, as we have seen, are not consistent in their marks of time, indeed are found wholly incoherent) and the two Breviaries of Mainz manifestly composed from the Acts, there is nothing to suggest that the holy men were punished with exile in the age of Huneric, and suffered at the close of the fifth century, or after the year 484. Sigebert alone marks the martyrdom towards the beginning of the same fifth century. For he has thus at the year of Christ 425: At this time Theonistus the bishop, etc., and so either under Honorius, who died in the year 423, or under his successor Valentinian III, in whose reign Africa passed to the Vandals through the perfidy of Count Boniface. Nor would it be an absurd conjecture that from here there crept into the Acts the mention both of the Vandals and of Huneric, who in the Windberg manuscript is written Honorius, perhaps by a blunder of the amanuensis, certainly by a historical lapse. Cappelletti holds to Sigebert, bringing forward nothing by which this opinion of his is made firm: In the pontificate of Hilary, bishop of Altino, in the year 425, there underwent martyrdom, by the work of the Arians, Theonestus, bishop of Philippi, Tabra and Tabrata, his disciples Chiese d'Italia, volume IX, page 517.. So much for the death-year, as far as from the compared various monuments it has been possible, if not to determine, at least to conjecture something with some probability.

[22] That he went out from Philippi our documents report quite concordantly, The second question is from where St. Theonestus went out and with what dignity distinguished he came into Italy and Gaul. That the holy man set out with some companions from the Macedonian city of Philippi all say except Rabanus, who, like the Brussels manuscript soon to be published by us, says that he went from the island of Namsia to Milan. Peter de Natalibus alone joins city and island: From Philippi, he says, he went out, from the island of Nausica, manifestly looking back at the Martyrology of Rabanus. But an island either Namsia or Nausica is nowhere found nor exists. There is surely a corruption of the word beneath. Whence Papebroch Acta Sanctorum, volume IV of June, page 87.: An island "Namsia" or "Nansia" or "Nausea" (and similarly Nausica) no one knows; although we could presume from the kinship of the name that one should read "the island of Naxia" (which is one of the Cyclades, called "Naxus" by the ancients), from which "Paul, bishop τῆς Ναξίων πόλεως of the city of the Naxians" is found in the Council of Constantinople, Session 5, subscribed to Menas the patriarch, passing sentence against heretics. If this conjecture is accepted, nothing will stand in the way of St. Theonestus, departing from Philippi, which is seen not far from the sea-coast, and sailing by a straight course through the Aegean sea, having put in at Naxos, and thence set sail towards Italy. In this way the narrative of Peter de Natalibus is found not absurd, and is easily reconciled with the reading of Rabanus; so that the latter begins the pilgrimage from the island, the former from Macedonia, from where the holy Martyr came to Naxos. For the rest, standing by our documents, it is much more likely that St. Theonestus did not spring from the aforesaid island, but from Philippi, and going out from there committed himself to the journey described in the Acts. It will help to have added from Cellarius briefly Notitia orbis antiqui, volume I, page 848, Leipzig, 1773.: Philippi, a city renowned for many reasons, not only for its founder, King Philip, to whom the place seemed convenient for waging war against the Thracians, but also for the battle on the Philippian plains, in which Cassius and Brutus fell, and for the divine letter of St. Paul πρὸς Φιλιππησίους to the Philippians. Today the city is wholly destroyed. Yet not contemptible ruins are to be seen. The name to some extent persists in the village of Filibedjik [See Heuzey, Mission de Macédoine, part I, pages 33–34. In Renan, Saint Paul, page 140.].

[23] and that he was bishop there. That St. Theonestus was distinguished with episcopal dignity no one will easily deny who has consulted the documents pertaining to his life. But what was his see? It is not established; yet, all the documents being compared, the more probable opinion is of those who hold that he presided over the church of Philippi. So Peter in the Catalogue; so Ferrari and the Hagiologium Italicum, the Acts and the two Breviaries of Mainz. Likewise Sigebert: Theonestus, he says, bishop … driven from the city of Philippi. Rabanus is silent about the grade of dignity; by Galesini, in the royal Brussels manuscript and in the Roman Martyrology he is called bishop, but with the see passed over. For the rest everyone knows that the chair at Philippi was established by St. Paul; in which first sat Epaphroditus, whom the Apostle of the gentiles himself expressly mentions in his Letter. Le Quien reviews only eighteen prelates of Philippi; no memory of others has been found so far. Among them, he who comes fifth in order, Porphyrius, was present at the council of Serdica; the sixth, Flavian, subscribed that of Ephesus; the seventh, Sozon, vigorously contended in the Robber Synod for the Church of God. After him is marked eighth in order Demetrius, about the year 553, bishop of Philippi. After him none, says Le Quien, occurs to me thereafter until the times of Photius, when among the metropolitans and archbishops there is read to have sat "Nicholas of Philippi." Others sat later, as John in the twelfth century, Nestorius in the sixteenth century. The Response of the patriarch Dionysius on the errors of the Calvinists, which he gave in the year 1672, was subscribed with others by "Germanus of Philippi" Le Quien, Oriens christianus, volume II, column 70.. Today the title is an archiepiscopal one in partibus Moroni, Dizionario, under the word Filippi.. From the beginning the church of the Philippians was suffragan of the see of Thessalonica; in the ninth century it was erected into the metropolis of Second Macedonia Ibid.. From this notice it appears that in the monuments used by Le Quien no mention of St. Theonestus is found.

Those who come nearer to his times (according to the opinion more probable to us on the death-year of the blessed Prelate) are these: Porphyrius about the year 347, in which the council of Serdica was celebrated; Flavian, subscribed in the year 431 to that of Ephesus, and finally Sozon, manfully contending in the Robber Synod or conventicle of the said city in the year 449 for Flavian against the impious Dioscorus [Le Quien, work cited, columns 69, 70; compare Cabassut, Notitia conciliorum, page 263 and following, Louvain, 1776.]. Further it is manifest that from this omission of St. Theonestus among the eighteen prelates of Philippi, when no memory of others survives, nothing can legitimately be inferred against the opinion which we have seen rests on most documents.

[24] Perhaps he was captured by the Vandals, Our Serarius raises a difficulty from the Acts of Canisius, in that mention is made in them of the king of the Vandals. The things, he says Moguntiacarum rerum volume I, page 175., that seem more embarrassing in these histories are not to be concealed. And first indeed there occurs the place where St. Theonestus acted as bishop and from which, expelled with St. Alban, he came to Mainz. For the city of Macedonia, Philippi, is named. But how could Huneric, king of the Vandals, have cast them out from here? Did he not reign only in Africa? Did Macedonia at any time come into his power? Or is there in Africa some other city of Philippi? What may be answered are two things. One, that Africa and Macedonia are indeed cut off by a great and vast space of land and sea, nor was the kingdom of Huneric himself or of his father Genseric extended as far as Macedonia; yet that it could have happened that they snatched from Philippi the Bishop, and very many others both ecclesiastics and laymen, and banished those snatched to other shores. Although Genseric was king only of Africa, yet he was accustomed with the hostile fleets of his Vandals to harass nearly all places of the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Ionian seas, to carry on robberies, slaughters and plunderings everywhere. For thus of him Victor of Utica (read Vita), book II (rather book I at the end) Migne, Patrologia Latina, volume LVIII, column 202., On the Vandal persecution: "What he did in Spain, Italy, Dalmatia, Calabria, Apulia, Sicily, Sardinia, Bruttium, Lucania, Epirus or Hellas, those there who have suffered will better narrate with pitiable lament." Since Macedonia then pertains to Hellas, or at least to its neighbourhood, and Philippi is not far from the sea, Genseric could have captured St. Theonestus with St. Alban and others, and brought them to his Africa, and at length punished them cruelly with exile. So Serarius, and not improbably in the opinion he prefers, namely that one should not depart from the Acts, where it is reported that St. Theonestus with his companions was exiled to Africa under Huneric. But since for us this part of the Acts is apocryphal, and so that African journey supposititious, the difficulty raised by Serarius vanishes. Compare n. 19.

[25] for certainly he was not bishop in Africa, The cited writer subjoins another solution in these words: The other thing however that can be said is that these were not "Philippenses", but "Ippenses" or "Hipponenses". For in Mauretania Caesariensis there is ἴππα, and in the province which is specifically called Africa a twofold ἱππὼν is placed by Ptolemy, Βασιλικὸς namely, where St. Augustine was bishop … and Διάῤῥυτος, where St. Theonestus could have been. And in the same is κίπιπα, whence "Cipipensis." But because on account of St. Paul's letter the Philippians are better known to most, "Philippensis" could easily have been written for one of these. This conjecture of Serarius is at once struck down, since, as we have said, no credit is to be given to the Acts in this part. Moreover Papebroch is to be heard in the Acts of St. Alban, martyr of Mainz: Serarius, he says Acta Sanctorum, volume IV of June, p. 90., conjectures that Theonestus was bishop of "Hippa" or "Cipipa" or even "Hippo" in Africa; which … is not without difficulty, because, although Ptolemy names "Hippa" and "Cipipa", and we know that Augustine was bishop of "Hippo", yet we cannot prove that those cities were episcopal, when Victor of Vita enumerated all the churches of Africa, whose Catholic bishops in the year CCCCLXXXVI (it should have been said CCCCLXXXIV) came together at Carthage, to dispute with the Arians, the chairs too being named which perhaps were then vacant; so that those three places, if they were all episcopal, must have had Arian prelates in that year, and so Theonestus, if he came driven from one of them, must have suffered under Genseric, father of Huneric, several years earlier. But Theonestus presided nowhere in Africa either under Genseric or under his successor Huneric. Certainly among the bishoprics of that land (which he reviews in long and accurate order in volume I of Africa Christiana) Morcelli mentions neither Ippa or Hippa nor Cipipa; he mentions however both Hippos, namely Diarrhytus and Regius. Of the former at the time of the Conference of Carthage the prelate was Marianus, and he came fifth in the Roll of the bishops of the proconsular province, who, a meeting being appointed by King Huneric in the year CCCCLXXXVI (it should again have been said CCCCLXXXIV), set out for Carthage and thence were driven into exile Morcelli, Africa christiana, volume I, page 180, Brescia, 1816.. The subscription in the Notitia has thus: Marianus hippzaritensis. Morcelli points out that the name of the town of Hippo Diarrhytus is pronounced in many ways by the Africans. For they called it both "Hipponem zarytum" and "Hipponezarestum" and the town "Ipponizaritense" and the like, as the common people are wont, when they do not know the force of the word Ibid.. So in this see there is no place for St. Theonestus. Over Hippo Regius St. Augustine presided from the year 397 to the year 430. Before he died he had appointed as his successor Heraclius; nor yet is it likely that he held the bishopric at Hippo, says Morcelli Ibid., page 183., since that city after the death of Augustine "deserted by its inhabitants was burned by the enemy" as Possidius attests. We know of no other who sat there thereafter except Servandus, of whom the cited Morcelli writes Ibid.: After a long interval of six centuries, he appears as archbishop given to the people of Hippo by Gregory VII, supreme pontiff; and he adds: Three hundred years later again names of bishops of Hippo were heard; who however were titular, and were never in Africa. From what has been brought forward so far it is manifest that St. Theonestus sat neither at Hippo nor elsewhere among the African prelates under the Vandals.

[26] nor at Altino, Ughelli makes St. Theonestus bishop of Altino, reviewing thus, where he treats of the patriarchate of Aquileia in general Italia sacra, volume V, column 8.: Prelate of Altino too was Thernestus, martyr, killed by the Arians in the year 425. Whose birthday, according to the Roman Martyrology, is kept on the 30th of October. But Coleti openly contradicts in the Appendix or tenth volume of the Italia Sacra Ibid., column 10.: After Hilary (who he shows flourished in the year 422), he says, some place Theonestus in the chair of Altino, among whom Ughelli … was killed for the Catholic faith in the year 425, of whom likewise the Roman Martyrology at the 30th day of October. But as it is certain that St. Theonestus attained the palm of martyrdom at Altino, so it is certain that he was not bishop of Altino. Of him our Dandolo writes thus in the Chronicle …: "Theonestus, champion of the faith, expelled from Philippi" we have recited the entire passage of Dandolo above, number 5, noting that in the Muratori edition of the Chronicle the words expelled from Philippi are wanting. Nor does Corner think otherwise, who although in several places he speaks of St. Theonestus, does not even suggest that he occupied the chair of Altino, but affirms that, brought from Philippi, he was crowned with martyrdom at Altino. Compare Cappelletti Le Chiese d'Italia, volume IX, page 517., who asserts that St. Theonestus suffered under Hilary, bishop of Altino, in the current year 425. (See above, n. 21, where we have said that the opinions on the year of the martyrdom are different, and that it seems to us more probable that it happened towards the end of the fifth century. The same writer weaves the Catalogue of all the bishops who sat at Altino and, after the transfer of the chair, at Torcello, from the year 381 to the year 1829. There is no mention of Theonestus among these Ibid., page 610 and following..

[27] around which city he suffered. The place of the martyrdom is beyond controversy Altino, as follows from the documents both German and Italian. Dandolo, having recalled the passion of Ursus and Alban, proceeds thus: Theonestus with the others (Tabra and Tabrata) coming to the city of Altino, were beheaded by the Arians on the marble bridge crossing a branch of the Sile. Peter in the Catalogue reports that the holy men first came to Oderentum (namely Otranto), and were there held by the pagans and led out of the city and afflicted with blows. Thence that they passed over the bridge where they prayed with bent knees, and released by the pagans, came to Altino, and there again seized by unbelievers received capital sentence. Similar things are recited by the Acts, but with words corrupted here and there: The crowd .. pursuing them as far as the marble bridge, which is over the Rhine river Silea, surely for over a branch of the Sile. Ineptly the writer of the Acts, or the transcribing amanuensis, having turned ramum into renum, more ineptly brought in the Rhine river. Moreover the Acts narrate that the martyrdom took place on the bridge itself, while from the other documents it is held that the holy men, having crossed the bridge, were beheaded not far from there. See the maps of Spruner pertaining to Italy, in which number 1 presents that region as it was in the ninth century and the two following. In the inset is drawn the Venetian Island state (der Inselstaat Venedig) and there is marked the river Sile, rising above Treviso, which, before it is brought to Altino, is split in two, or divided into two branches Historisch-geographischer Hand-Atlas, Gotha, 1846.. Of the circumstances of the glorious contest itself very few have become known. We read indeed in Peter's Catalogue: Their trunks, rising, taking up their heads in their own hands, carried them, and laid them down between the Eridanus and the Sile, where they were also entombed by the faithful. About the head carried in the hands the Acts of Canisius agree, but for St. Theonestus alone; according to the later Breviary of Mainz and the Brussels Passional the two companions did the same. Dandolo is silent about those things that immediately followed the death, but subjoins: The bodies Paul the bishop brought to Torcello under Primigenius the patriarch. Ughelli reports in the Italia Sacra, volume I, column 1364, that this was done in the year 635, in which Altino ceased to be a city. Most worthy of note are the things that Rev. Dom Falk, parish priest of Mombach, already cited by us, reports about the cult of St. Theonestus in the region of Mainz, and lower down along the course of the Rhine in the small town of Kaub, of the duchy of Nassau, now of the diocese of Limburg Mainzer Journal, beginning of the year 1881.. That some St. Theonestus was in these regions, and that he was the same who died a martyr at Altino, cannot be called in doubt. So far however nothing has come to light by which the conflicting marks of times and places which occur in the most ancient Acts may be corrected

What is written by the same Most Reverend Dom about the seal of the small town of Kaub itself, showing some Saint adorned in episcopal garb and led by angels in a little boat with holes, would give hope of certain light, were we not at the same time warned that this is St. Nicholas, patron of the church of the same name Ibid..

[28] Comparison of manuscripts. This one thing then remains, that we should indicate the copies with which the Acts of the Canisius edition have been collated by us. They are two. One presents the briefer Acts of Canisius transcribed from the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître, and this we shall presently mark with the letter B. It is inscribed: Martyrdom of St. Theonestus, bishop of Philippi, and companions. 30 Oct. The other came to us from the manuscript of St. Saviour at Utrecht, and the inscription made on it is: Life of St. Theognestus, archbishop and martyr. 21 June. It will be marked with the letter C. Both copies are found today under n. 8926 among the manuscript codices of the Royal Library of Brussels, with many other similar documents once collected from all sides for the use of the Bollandist Work. There is preserved in the same Library under n. 98–100 a manuscript parchment Passional in folio, of the thirteenth century. Among other things it presents a Passion of St. Alban, Martyr of Mainz, folio 12 verso — 15 recto; but this you may rightly call hybrid, since it grows together from a first part which is nothing other than the briefer Passion of Canisius (which we shall presently give) as far as the words: But Augustus having heard of the faith of the holy man, having one page for the four that make up half of the more diffuse Acts of St. Alban in Canisius; there are then sewn on entire four pages which make up the remaining part of the same more diffuse Acts. So no light is brought from it. Nor can the copy be of more use here for reconciling the disagreeing manuscripts among themselves which Papebroch once copied at Florence from a parchment manuscript Legendary of Carlo Strozzi, Senator of Florence, and which is found in the first place in the Brussels codex 8926 just cited. That this narrative is the most recent of all is plain even from this alone, that it ranges more intemperately in additions wholly foreign to the subject, without any inquiry into causes. A few things however taken from this Italian rivulet we shall report among the annotations.

PASSION OF ST. THEONESTUS AND HIS COMPANIONS [Martyrdom of St. Theonestus, bishop of Philippi, and companions B. Life of St. Theognestus, archbishop and martyr C.]

from the Windberg manuscript, collated with the Rouge-Cloître and Utrecht Codices.

Theonestus, martyr in Istria. (S.)

The companions, martyrs in Istria. (SS.)

BHL Number: 8111, 8112, 8113

FROM THE PRINTED TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS.

St. Theonestus, driven from his see of Philippi, In the times of the most pious king Honorius of the most impious king Honoric B. of the emperor Honorius C., of the Persians and Medes and M. omitted C., of the nation of the Vandals Wandalorum g. B. among the nation of the Vandals C., while there had arisen esset B, C. a very great dispute alt. max. C. between Christians and Arians et arianos C., over the faith of the Holy Trinity, a most savage persecution against inter B. the Christians exorta B. arose. Where while ex fide-ubi dum omitted C. at Carthage Carthagini B. so that at Carthage C. a synod was being gathered cong. syn. C. of faithful as well as Arians tam-arianorum omitted C., by the aforesaid Honorius Honorico B. six hundred and seventy bishops of six hundred and seventy bishops C. came together there [ibid. conv. omitted C. so great a persecution arose that very many bishops, driven from their sees, were condemned to exile added C.]. Among whom ^b a very outstanding man Theonestus among whom was Theognestus the archbishop C., expelled from Philippi, and deprived of his own see omitted C., for the contest serto B. of the faith and of the undivided holy sanctaeque T. causa B. Trinity pro-Trinitatis omitted C. for the sake of pilgrimage peregrinationis gratia B. came to Rome, together with his disciples Alban and Ursus venerable men Alb. and U. C., venerable men, and omitted B. Tabra and Tabratha [Trabahan and Trabatham B. Thebaham and Trabracham C. — Carrying out the Apostolic precept: While we are on pilgrimage, we are chastised by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with this world added B.].

[2] he came into Italy with his disciples, and first goes to Rome. But And C. when he had already stayed for some time aliquamdiu B, C. at the thresholds of the apostles Peter and Paul, together with the permission of the most blessed pope [having stayed for some time at Rome at the thresholds of the apostles, with the permission of the Lord Pope C.], who at that time shone as vicar of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles vicar of B. P. prince of the apostles B. qui-claruerat omitted C., traversing Tuscany Tuschiam C. and Liguria, and advancing beyond ultro B, C. Italy, he went to the city omitted C. of the Milanese Milan C., which at that time was the metropolis quae-erat omitted C.; where finding the most holy Ambrose, kindly received by him where by Blessed Ambrose C. was added C., they both omitted B, C. preached many things there also C. against the Arians contra ar. multa B. omitted C.. But they sed ip. omitted C., with the Lord God B. helping, armed with the faith of the Holy Trinity, according to the truth virtutem B. in all things Armati-omnibus omitted C. came forth victors.

[3] At Milan he deals with St. Ambrose. While these things were so, the most blessed man sed-beatissimus omitted C. Ambrose autem added C. went to the emperor omitted B. Theodosius, most Christian, announcing to him denouncing to him B. announced to the most Christian emperor Theodosius C. the arrival of Blessed most blessed B. Blessed Theognestus C. Theonestus, and his immense labours ejus C. and contests, which he had for the faith of the Catholic religion and of the undivided Trinity which he endured for the Catholic faith C., saying to him ei B. that these things omitted B, C. were not yet enough, unless he were willing freely to bring forward even himself to martyrdom for the love of Christ etiam-amore omitted C. to offer himself freely to martyrdom C.. For which reason and on this account C. he wishes seek added B, C. the Gauls, where omitted B. he by him B. was kindly received, commending him to the most high King of the poles, that he would deign to direct his way in peace. And omitted B. he departed from there in peace B. ubi-inde omitted C..

[4] Thence he passes into Gaul. But where added B. while through the narrows of valleys and through the because of the narrowness of valleys and through the slopes B. cliffs of mountains in place of at-montium: but Theogenestus departing from St. Ambrose, while C. he strove to cross the Apennine Apenninas B. Alps mereretur tr. C., he came to the city of Augusta of Raetia Rethiae B. Retiae C.. Where also omitted C., suffering many things from the faithless and added B., he left his colleague Ursus there omitted C.. Who, held by the unbelievers, was crowned with martyrdom in the same place. There and there B. was martyred in the place where C. even today the Lord works many wonders through him ipsum C.. But the reverend man Theonestus, crossing the aforesaid Alps, reached as far as to added B. King Sigismund [The reverend Archbishop Theognestus, having crossed the aforesaid Alps, came to King Sigismund C.]. But he the king, however, C., being truly vir B. Catholic, learning the cause of his journey dum-dinoscens omitted C., making excellent use of him, through his legates per suos leg. omitted C. sent omitted B. sent back C. him to Blessed Paulinus, bishop of the people of Trier Treverorum B. Trevirorum C., who at that time was a true soldier and champion of the Catholic and atque B. apostolic faith, and drove out the savagery of the Arians Arianorumque B., and magnificently conquered them quidevicit omitted C..

[5] He stops at Trier. And And he B. he said to them who himself also receiving him with his companions, said to them C.: "For what purpose quid B. have you come to us venistis ad nos B., dearest and atque B. most desired brothers? For Maximian and Valerian recently died for the faith of Christ [went to the contest B. in place of ut-obierunt: Already recently for the faith of Christ Maximinus and Valerius went to the contest C.], and were crowned with martyrdom by the impious sunt mart. cor. B. mar. cor. sunt C.. Would you too wish to hasten to the crown of martyrdom do you wish B. to martyrdom … do you wish, my brothers C.?" They say to him: "Who is against us, if God is for us if God is for us who is against us, B, C.? For we do not fear what man may do to us. Or nam B. does not the Lord himself recall in the Gospel, saying: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather eum pot. B. fear him who can has power B. destroy soul and body in gehenna an-gehennam omitted C.." And he: "A good purpose, he said, you have. May God deign to supply you with perseverance perseverantiam ministrare B. with the victory of martyrdom."

[6] At Mainz he preaches the right faith, with St. Alban, who is killed there. And when they had stayed with him ipsum B. for some time, saying farewell to them [in place of Bonum-vale dicens eis: praising their purpose and keeping them with him for some time C.], he sent them away in peace. And from there taking up the way and they the journey B. in place of inde-arripientes: who C., they came into added C. to the city omitted B. of Mainz Maguntiam B, C., which is situated on super C. the river Rhine Rhenum B., which also est B. is omitted B. the metropolis of Hither Gaul omitted B. quae-Galliae omitted C., where also omitted C., when a flood confluxus B. of Arians and Goths Aranorum atque omitted B. Gothorum B, C. arrived, and they ipsisque C. set forth to them the truth of the faith he set forth the power of the faith B., that they might acknowledge the glory of the Holy Trinity, and confounded their madness vesaniam C. in public defended B. they added C., seizing Alban and leading him outside the city for. civ. educ. B. they led outside the city C., by the stroke of one striking his head was cut off where his head was cut off with the sword C.. And he himself at once added B. soon seizing the head itself C., seizing his his own B. head, carried it in his own hands to the place added C., where now, the Lord being propitious prop. D. omitted C., his body rests together with the head, where in which place C. from that time until now very many and innumerable, the Lord showing mercy, through

his intercession per-intercessionem omitted B. through his merits, God showing mercy C. miracles are done.

[7] St. Theonestus himself, with two other companions, placed in a boat with holes, But when cum B. the most blessed Blessed Theognestus C. Theonestus wished to board a little boat and to go on further ultroque B. tried added C. with his disciples together with the said T. and T. B. Tabra and Tabrata Trabaham and Trabathan B Tabraham and Tabracam C., crowds of Goths and Arians in place of Goths and Arians: of unbelievers C. surrounding him, cutting into his little boat they bored it through they dug it through B. and boring through his little boat C., and omitted C. putting him into it immittentes in illam B. and his disciples, they wished to plunge them him B. into the depth of the river [they put him with his disciples into it, wishing to plunge them into the depth C.]. Thereupon Then B. Blessed Theonestus with glad spirit and laeto animo et omitted B. cheerful face reached with his little boat as far as the shore ad lit. usq. per. B. unharmed. And when [dum B. in place of hinc-et cum: but when with the help of almighty God his little boat had reached the shore unharmed and his garments C.] he was wiping his garments, and thinking to himself what he ought to do secumque oporteret omitted C.; again a crowd of unbelievers surrounded him circ. e. turb. inf. C., and again added C. holding him they led him again to the bank of the river, and put immiserunt B. him in their ship, which they had bored through before ante B.; and they led it eam B. into the middle of the aforesaid river with the aforesaid men, and let him down [dimiserunt eum B. in place of tenentes-dem. illum: placing him in the same ship which they had bored through, they led him into the middle of the river with his companions, and left them C.] that in the midst of the waves they might destroy him illum perimerent B. they might perish C..

[8] Having entreated the Lord, he is wonderfully preserved, But when omitted B. Blessed Theonestus omitted B. put his cloak into this added B. the hole itself, raising his eyes to heaven and added B., he said: "Lord my God omitted B., who made heaven and founded omitted B. the earth and watered it, and gave food escam B. to all flesh and closed the waters of the violent deep; who created the sea and set a limit to it and said: Thus far you shall come and shall go no procedes B. further; I entreat you, Son of the living God, to make firm this little boat of mine, in which here nunc B. I seem to be endangered by unbelievers, you who in Cana of Galilee made wine from water, who and added B. opened the eyes of the man born blind, who made the deaf to hear, who freed the woman from a flow of seed of blood B., who raised resuscitasti B. the dead and walked upon the waters of the sea; hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me, and give me a portion of eternal salvation, that all nations may know that you are God, blessed together with your Father omitted B. and the Holy Spirit, three and one through all ages of ages. Amen." Then there came [in place of Sed dum-amen: Blessed Theognestus, blocking the hole of the little boat with his cloak, when he prayed longer, there came C.] a voice to him from heaven saying: "Theonestus, do not fear, because omitted C. your prayer has been heard, and your little boat has been restored restituta C. as before the ship to its former integrity C.. For in all things Michael the Archangel added C. will help you, and he will be your guide et-erit omitted C.. Proceed then now added B. by whatever quocunque B. way shall lead you te via B., because the Lord will have mercy on you tui B. [in place of dominus-miserebitur: he will be your guide in all things C. know also that your calling is near added B. and know in, etc. added C.]."

[9] and returning to Italy, in various places he announces Christ the Son of God. And he, reaching the shore, avoiding devitavit et C. the plots of the unbelievers, returning through the middle of Gaul, reached as far as omitted C. the sea [where boarding a ship of merchants, passing through the deep of the sea, he reached as far as Hydrontum, a city of Greece, which is called the region of Pentapolis added B where boarding a ship of merchants, he reached as far as Adronium, a city of Greece, which is called royal and Pentapolis added C.]; where preaching and et C. sowing the word of God Domini C., the Lord deigned to work many magnificent things through him eum B. God worked many and magnificent miracles at his prayer C.. And again and again C. boarding a ship navem C., and coming to Sicily, he won for the Lord innumerable crowds of peoples through his teaching doc. suam B his prayer C., and thence C. coming to Venetia entering C., and announcing the word of truth, he came as far as omitted B. to C. Altino.

[10] Finally at Altino he undergoes martyrdom with two companions. And when he had begun to preach there, then omitted B, C. a very great omitted B. crowd of unbelievers surrounded circum dedit B, C. him with his aforesaid pupils him and his companions B., and as they went out of the city again the crowd of peoples pursued them [is] [in place of iterum-m. qui est: they pursued them B. in place of egredientes-persecuta: and they pursued him going out of the city C.] as far as the marble bridge, which is over the Rhine Raunium B. omitted C. river Silea, and there ibique B. ibidem C. crowned with martyrdom sunt coronati B. coronati sunt C., so that Tabra Tabraham B, C. was beheaded at the head of the bridge sit decollatus B. decollatus fuerit C., and omitted C. holy added B. Theonestus in the middle of the bridge, and Tabrata Tabrathan B. Tabretram C. on the other altera B, C. side of the bridge omitted B., so at least that all were beheaded together [in place of ita-sint: and then the three together were punished with loss of the head B. ita sint omitted C.].

[11] Burial And Blessed Theonestus he himself, T., however B. he himself, however, Blessed Theognestus C. carried his head omitted B. suis C. in his own hands as far as the place where and added C. his body was afterwards buried by religious men together with the head [in place of postea-capite: with the head and bodies of his disciples by religious men placed C.] est positum B.. Where also the bodies of his disciples Tabra and Tabrata Tab. and Tabr. omitted B. together with him ipso B. rested in peace. At whose tomb et corpora-tumulum omitted C. through now at C. their [eorum C. according to the faith of those demanding, very many benefits are bestowed by the power of Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen. the rest is lacking B.] intercession many and multa et omitted C. innumerable miracles almighty God works; our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through all immortal ages of ages. Amen. These things were done on the tenth day before the Kalends of November in the city of Altino, under the emperor Theodosius Augustus in place of omnipotens-Augusto: miracles happen daily C..

ANNOTATIONS.

certain monuments appear, and that nothing else can be done now except to show that at least the sum of the Acts of Canisius is contained in the Brussels Codex of the tenth century, folio 173, which we now do.

* for itinere

PASSION OF ST. THEONESTUS

from the Brussels codex 7984 of the tenth century.

Theonestus, martyr in Istria. (S.)

The companions, martyrs in Istria. (SS.)

BHL Number: 8110

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

HERE BEGINS THE PASSION OF ST. THEONESTUS, BISHOP.

The various pilgrimages and martyrdom of SS. Theonestus and companions. In the time of the emperor Theodosius Blessed Theonestus the bishop went out from the island which is called Namsia, together with his disciples, namely Alban and Ursus, and entered the city of Rome for the sake of prayer. Going out from the parts of Rome, he reached the city of Milan, to St. Ambrose the bishop. Then the most blessed man Ambrose came to the emperor Theodosius, saying: "The most holy man Theonestus has come to us, and with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ wishes to go to the Gauls for the sake of martyrdom." Hearing this the king gave thanks to God, and having given the kiss of peace, allowed him to go. Passing on from there they came to the city of Augusta. And when they had reached the aforesaid city, Blessed Ursus was seized by the men of that city, and there he received martyrdom. So Blessed Theonestus, passing on from there, came with his disciples to King Sisemund. Then King Sisemund sent them through his legates to Paulinus the bishop. Then the bishop said to them: "Why have you come here, since our brothers Maximian and Valerian were killed here." Proceeding from there Blessed Theonestus with his little boat reached the harbour of the city of Mainz and entered the city, to preach Christ there, and in the same city Alban his disciple received martyrdom. Then Blessed Theonestus, passing on from there, deprived of the comfort of two disciples, with two others, Tabra and Tabratha, came into Gothia, and there preached Christ. Then crowds of Goths bored through a little boat and led Blessed Theonestus and placed him in the little boat which they had bored through, and cast him headlong into the deep. Then Blessed Theonestus with glad spirit and cheerful face, with the little boat, the Lord steering, reached unharmed the other bank of the river. And while Blessed Theonestus wished to dry his garments from the waters, the Goths, boarding ships, sailed across the river and seized him, and put him again in the little boat which they had already bored through, and led him far out to sea, and left him to perish there. Then Blessed Theonestus prayed to the Lord that it might be forgiven them, and with his cloak he covered the holes that were in the little boat, and raising his eyes to heaven, he said: "Lord my God, who made heaven and founded the earth upon the waters, and gave food to all flesh, who founded the sea and set a limit to it, and said: Thus far come, and turn back again into yourself, I entreat you, Son of the living God, who in Cana of Galilee made wine from water, who freed the woman from a flow of blood and raised the dead, and walked with your feet on the waters of the sea; hear me and have mercy on me, as you had mercy on Noah in the flood." Then a voice from heaven was heard to him saying: "My Theonestus, do not fear: your little boat has been restored; you will go on to Venetia by way of the city of Odrontum." And at once, the Lord consenting, by way of the city of Odrontum he reached Venetia, and thence the city of Altino, and in the same he preached Christ. Then a great crowd of peoples, not bearing his preaching, surrounded him, to kill him. Then the most blessed Theonestus went out of the city and two disciples with him. And the multitude of peoples pursued them as far as the bridge over the branch of the river Sile, and there seizing Blessed Theonestus with his disciples, they killed them. And he carried his head in his hands. Between the river Rodianus and the Sile there he placed it, and his disciples did likewise, and there he rests with them in peace with the Lord almighty and Christian men *. These things were done in the city of Altino under the emperor Theodosius, on the X Kalends of December, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

* Written perhaps before the translation of the relics, of which in the preliminary Commentary, number 27.