ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF OSTIA: CENSURINUS AND CYRIACUS AND MAXIMUS AND ARCHELAUS AND AUREA AND FELIX AND MAXIMUS AND TAURINUS AND HERCULANUS AND VENERIUS AND STOROCINUS AND MENNAS AND COMMODUS AND HERMES AND MAURUS AND EUSEBIUS AND RUSTICUS AND MONACHIUS AND AMANDINUS AND OLIPPIUS AND CYPRIUS AND THEODORE, MARTYRS — CENSURINUS PREFECT, CYRIACUS (OTHERWISE QUIRIACUS) BISHOP, MAXIMUS PRESBYTER, ARCHELAUS DEACON, AUREA A WOMAN, THE REST SOLDIERS, AND THEODORE TRIBUNE,
AT OSTIA IN LATIUM.
In the year CCLII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Censurinus, prefect, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Cyriacus, otherwise Quiriacus, bishop, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Maximus, presbyter, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Archelaus, deacon, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Aurea, a woman, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Felix, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Maximus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Taurinus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Erculanus, or Herculanus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Venerius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Storocinus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Mennas, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Commodus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Hermes, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Maurus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Eusebius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Rusticus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Monachius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Amandinus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Olippius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Cyprius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Theodorus, tribune, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
BY J. S.
§ I. To Herculanus, who is announced today in the Roman Martyrology, the ancient Martyrologies join Taurinus: the rest are commemorated on other days both among the Greeks and among the Latins: the relics of certain of them translated elsewhere.
[ ] While on the occasion of St. Herculanus the martyr, whom the Roman Martyrology today announces without any companions at Portus Romanus, Taurinus is joined as a companion to Herculanus in the ancient Fasti, I attentively survey the ancient Fasti and especially the Hieronymian, I clearly gather from the consent of many transcripts which bear the name of St. Jerome — with the agreement also of a most ancient fragment which Bucher published — that St. Taurinus is to be joined to Herculanus as his companion, as Castellan too observed in the addenda to the Universal Martyrology pag. 979. For these two occur today in nearly all the Hieronymian Martyrologies, and are attributed in most of them to Portus Romanus, and therefore Rabanus announced them thus: At Portus of Rome, the birthday of Taurinus, Eraculanus — read, Erculanus or Herculanus. Further, when I had laid aside all doubt concerning Taurinus, I proceeded to the other names which are read joined with the aforesaid two in certain Transcripts, namely to Aristosus, who is found in three or four copies; to Heros, who is in the Corbie codex alone; and to certain others plainly torn from their own place, or repeated on this day.
[2] But I believed that none of them belongs to Herculanus and Taurinus: but in the Acts many others are added: and I persuaded myself of this the more firmly when I turned over the Acts of all those whom I have reckoned in the title: for I did not before know that Herculanus belonged to those Martyrs of Ostia, because he was announced alone at Portus Romanus, and because from the ancient Fasti no one seemed to be joined with him save Taurinus. But after the Acts, which seem ancient and of good note, had been diligently read through and sifted, I clearly perceived that Taurinus and Herculanus, or Erculanus as the name is expressed in the Acts, are the Companions of many other Martyrs, and did not suffer at Portus Romanus, but in the neighboring city, that is, at Ostia. There is also a clear reason from the aforesaid Acts why these two are read as commemorated in the Martyrologies at Portus Romanus, and apart from their other Companions, namely because these two were buried at Portus Romanus, as is said below in the Acts at num. 18, while all the rest were buried at Ostia or near Ostia.
[3] their names expressed in the Menæa, But now, before I dispute more about the credit of the Acts, I briefly observe that I have read all the Martyrs whom I have reckoned in the title as inscribed in the Latin and Greek Fasti, but nowhere without errors, so that I am wholly persuaded that not a few errors can be emended from the Acts to be given. In the Greek Menæa the praised Saints are found at the XXX of January, as has been observed by us in the same place among the Prætermissi: but the names of several are dislocated, and Taurinus alone is there omitted. On the contrary a certain Sabaïnus is added, as St. Aurea's servant, of whom in our Acts there is no mention. But that Sabaïnus appears in the Acts of St. Aurea, given by us at the XXIV of August, and is there called Sabinianus. But there our Pinius already observed that those Acts of St. Aurea are exceedingly faulty, and stained with fables and errors. And from the reading of these it will sufficiently appear that the Acts of St. Aurea, of which various copies are enumerated in the same place in the Preliminary Commentary num. 9 and 10, seem indeed to have been composed from these, but to have been enlarged by some impostor with many fictions, that St. Aurea's martyrdom might be adorned with many additions.
[4] The Roman Martyrology has our Martyrs at the XXIII of August, and the same announced in the Roman Martyrology: but the names of only three of the chief ones are expressed in this manner: At Ostia on the Tiber, of the holy martyrs Quiriacus the bishop, Maximus the presbyter, Archelaus the deacon, and their Companions, who suffered under the prefect Ulpian in the time of Alexander. This announcement is not without error, as I shall prove below. Meanwhile I observe that all the Martyrs set down in the title are comprehended under the name of Companions. Among these Companions is also Aurea, who in the same Fasti at the XXIV of August is thus commemorated by Baronius from faulty Acts: At Ostia on the Tiber, of St. Aurea, virgin and martyr, who, with a stone tied to her neck, was plunged into the sea: whose body, cast up on the shore, blessed Nonnus buried. There are several errors in these words, as will become clear below from the Acts. Finally, among the Companions of the said Martyrs are Herculanus, placed today separately in the Roman, and Taurinus added to him in the Hieronymian Martyrologies, of whom I have now discoursed enough. Further, the announcements of the Martyrology which have been given brought it about that our Elders discussed SS. Quiriacus, Maximus, and Archelaus at the XXIII
of August, but of St. Aurea at the XXIV, where also her faulty Acts were given. But from these Acts, compared with those to be given below, it clearly appears that in both the same Aurea is treated of, since in both she is joined with the same Martyrs, and is said to have suffered in the same city. Nor is there any doubt that Herculanus is the same in the Martyrologies and in the Acts, since he is commemorated in the Martyrologies in that place in which he is said in the Acts to have been buried.
[5] The men of Parma claim for themselves the bodies of some of these Martyrs, the bodies of some are said to be kept at Parma. and indeed their cathedral church was formerly dedicated to Herculanus. Let us hear Ughelli tom. 2 of the Italia Sacra col. 142: That Paschal II consecrated in memory of the Mother of God assumed the church once dedicated to St. Herculanus, an old marble inscription relates: "This church, once dedicated to St. Herculanus, Paschal II Supreme Pontiff himself consecrated with solemn rite, for the favor of the people of Parma, to the Virgin assumed, on the VI of the Kalends of October MCIV." That in it repose, so the pious devotion of the people of Parma and ancient memory relate, the bodies of SS. Herculanus their patron, who at Portus Romanus on the day V of September was crowned with martyrdom, … of Quiriacus, Maximus, Archelaus the martyrs, of Aurea the virgin &c. Of the same Orlendi makes mention in the Sacred and Profane World part 2, book 2, chap. 10, num. 2. Of these some things have already been said at the XXIII of August in SS. Quiriacus and his Companions; and certain other things at the XXIV in St. Aurea, who is called a Virgin along with the Roman Martyrology and the corrupt Acts given there, although from the Acts to be given here her virginity is not established. Finally, in both places some things were collected from the ancient Martyrologies concerning these Martyrs, which I have judged should here be passed over, because they contribute little to the history of the martyrdom.
§ II. The time of the martyrdom: the credit of the Acts proved, chiefly from their agreement with the history of the time.
[ ] These Martyrs suffered under Gallus in the year 252: The time of the martyrdom, of which the faulty Acts speak variously, is most clearly expressed in our Acts. For these Martyrs are read to have suffered under the emperor Gallus, who in the year 252 stirred up a most savage persecution, and to have been crowned on the Nones of September. And so they suffered neither under Alexander, as Baronius believed by conjecture along with certain faulty Acts; nor under Claudius, as other Acts equally corrupt and interpolated have it; but under Gallus and Volusian, and in the year already named, 252, in which that most grievous but short persecution against the Christians raged, especially at Rome, where the emperor Gallus was then living, and in its neighborhood. That the persecution was begun in the year 252 writers everywhere agree, and indeed that it was begun toward the end of the month of June Pagi maintains in the Critique at this year num. 10. Since moreover Gallus perished in the following year before the month of September, and received the empire after the month of September of the year 251, it seems on every side most certain that our Martyrs suffered in the year 252. And now I begin to show that the praised Acts, of which the transcript is noted to have been taken from a manuscript of the most serene Queen of Sweden in quarto, are genuine.
[7] the persecution was then most savage, as the Acts have it, Of Gallus's persecution Eusebius writes thus in book 7 of the Ecclesiastical History chap. 1: Decius having been slain together with his children, when he had not yet completed the second year of his reign, Gallus succeeds in his place… Dionysius (at that time bishop of Alexandria) in his letter to Hermammon writes thus of the emperor Gallus: But neither did Gallus understand Decius's fault; nor did he foresee what at length had ruined him. Nay rather he stumbled upon the same stone set before his eyes: who, when his reign was in a prosperous state and all things were succeeding to his mind, persecuted the holy men who offered prayers to God for his peace and safety. With them therefore he at the same time drove away the prayers which were wont to be made for him. Thus Dionysius concerning Gallus. With this the beginning of the Acts most exactly agrees. And what is added in the Acts about the savagery of the persecution in the City of Rome can be confirmed from the Letters of St. Cyprian, who not only speaks of the persecution as raging, but also foretold it in the Letter to the Thibaritans. This is in the latest edition the 56th, and among other things has thus: For you ought to know and to believe and hold for certain that the day of oppression has begun to be over our head… A heavier and fiercer fight now threatens, for which the soldiers of Christ ought to prepare themselves with uncorrupted faith and sturdy valor, considering that they therefore daily drink the cup of the Blood of Christ, that they too may be able to shed their blood for Christ.
[8] and it is proved from St. Cyprian: an edict also was set forth: But that these things are said of Gallus's persecution is gathered from Letter 54 to Pope Cornelius, on giving peace to the lapsed. For since St. Cornelius fell in Gallus's persecution, and since Cyprian advises that peace or communion should be given to those who lapsed in Decius's persecution, this Letter was written before Gallus's persecution and after the end of the Decian one. Further, in this letter to Cornelius he thrice repeats that he is divinely warned by visions of a most grievous persecution at hand. I transfer a few words hither: It has seemed good to us, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the Lord admonishing by many and manifest visions, since the enemy is foretold and shown to be threatening, to gather the soldiers of Christ within the camp, and, the cases of each having been examined, to give peace to the lapsed, nay rather to furnish arms to those about to fight. And below: We, as befitted faith and charity and solicitude, have brought forth what was in our conscience: that the day of the contest has drawn near, that a violent enemy is quickly rising against us, that a fight is coming, not such as it has been, but far heavier and sharper. This is frequently shown us from on high, of this we are often warned by the providence and mercy of the Lord &c. In the following letter to Cornelius he mentions an edict set forth, by which the people were ordered to celebrate sacrifices, so that we cannot doubt that Gallus's edict either preceded or accompanied the persecution, as is also asserted in the Acts.
[9] I pass over many other things which St. Cyprian wrote in various places about the same persecution, in this persecution one was first attacked, and transfer hither only what he mentions to our purpose in the last letter to Cornelius, then an exile for the faith. He wonderfully commends the free confession of the faith made by Cornelius and the Romans, and says that the whole Roman Church confessed with one mind, and subjoins this: The adversary had leapt forth to disturb Christ's camp with violent terror. But with the same onset with which he came, with the same he was driven back and conquered; and as much fear and terror as he brought, so much fortitude and strength did he find. He had believed that he could again supplant the servants of God, and, as recruits and raw men, as though less prepared and less wary, shake them after his wonted fashion. Attacking one first, he had tried, as a wolf to separate a sheep from the flock, as a hawk to part a dove from the company of the flying. For he who has not strength enough against all, seeks to beset the solitude of individuals. But beaten back by the faith and vigor alike of the united army, he understood that Christ's soldiers now watch sober and stand armed for battle, that they cannot be conquered but can die; and that by this very thing they are unconquered, because they do not fear to die; and that they do not fight back against their assailants, … but readily deliver up both their souls and their blood &c. These things suffice to make it plain that no less true things are said in the Acts about Gallus's persecution than about Gallus himself and Decius; and this so exact an agreement of the Acts with the history of that time wonderfully commends their credit.
[10] Besides, the style of the Acts is simple and free of exaggerations, which perhaps Cyprian said of St. Censurinus, and the whole history of the martyrdom is so related that the end rightly agrees with the beginning. Some discourses indeed are found in the Acts, but these are both short and such as by no means depart from probability. Nor can we wonder that Gallus himself speaks with Censurinus in order to turn him from the faith, if only we consider Censurinus's prefectorial dignity. Nay rather, a not improbable suspicion may arise that Censurinus is designated by St. Cyprian when he says: Attacking one first &c. For I do not judge that Pope Cornelius himself is signified by those words, since he calls him a sheep, not a shepherd, as he would doubtless have named Cornelius. And so, since it is established from the Acts that Censurinus was tried by the emperor in a private conversation, and since Gallus probably wished to attack first some man of eminent dignity, that the example of an outstanding man might move more, this suspicion does not seem inept. Yet it seems to stand against such a suspicion that Censurinus at num. 3 is said to have ministered to the Saints in prison. But it is uncertain whether he did this in the time of Gallus's persecution: for it may also have been done when Decius was persecuting the Church, and in that case Censurinus may have been the first whom Gallus consigned to prison for the faith. But the matter is uncertain, since Cyprian named no one; and therefore it cannot be said with certainty whether Censurinus confessed first or after others under Gallus.
[11] who held a prefecture. It is equally uncertain what prefecture Censurinus held, although any of them would suit the Censurine family, which was ancient and powerful at that time, as is gathered from Trebellius Pollio in the book On the Thirty Tyrants, last chapter, where of Censorinus, raised to the empire by the soldiers and afterward slain, he has this: Censorinus, plainly a military man, and of ancient dignity in the senate, twice consul, twice prætorian prefect, thrice prefect of the city, four times proconsul, three times of consular rank, twice prætorian legate, four times ædile, three times quæstor, having also discharged an extraordinary embassy to Persia, and likewise to Sarmatia. If that Censorinus under the reign of Claudius II, or about the year 269, had administered so many prefectures, it can seem no wonder if our Censurinus, who probably was of the same family, was prefect of the city or of the prætorium; yet this cannot be said for certain, since there were also many other prefectures of lesser dignity and lesser power. The prefects of the city of that time are almost unknown, and therefore it can the less be known whether the Saint was prefect of the city. Gallus's words to him in the Acts at num. 5: Lest … thou lose the fame by which hitherto thou art proclaimed by all to have governed the commonwealth most nobly, hint at some distinguished prefecture; but they do not make us certain of a Prefecture of the City administered by Censurinus. The Greek Menæa assert that he was Prefect of the prætorium; but they are not of such authority as to make the matter certain. Wherefore I judge that nothing certain is to be laid down about either prefecture, and I subjoin the Acts illustrated with the due annotations.
ACTS
by an anonymous author,
From a manuscript codex of the most serene Queen of Sweden in quarto.
Censurinus, prefect, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Cyriacus, otherwise Quiriacus, bishop, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Maximus, presbyter, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Archelaus, deacon, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Aurea, a woman, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Felix, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Maximus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Taurinus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Erculanus, or Herculanus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Venerius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Storocinus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Mennas, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Commodus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Hermes, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Maurus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Eusebius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Rusticus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Monachius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Amandinus, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Olippius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Cyprius, soldier, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
Theodorus, tribune, martyr at Ostia in Latium (S.)
BHL Number: 1723
By an Anonymous author.
CHAPTER I.
The persecution of Gallus having arisen, Censurinus the prefect is arrested, is interrogated, and, constant in the faith, is sent to Ostia: there, committed to prison, he is visited by others: the guards of the prison converted by a miracle.
[ ] A grave persecution being stirred up by the emperor Gallus, After a the most impious emperor Decius b, having administered the principate of the Roman summit not two full years, was taken away from human affairs, Gallus received the empire; and when his reign flourished in the beginning, and all things fell out for him according to his wish, he himself drove away alike his prosperity and his peace, in that he resolved to persecute the holy men who continually made supplication to God for the peace of his realm. For he blazed out with such fury against the Christians that, an edict having been set forth, he ordered their name to be utterly wiped out of the earth c. The monstrousness of this persecution procured very many martyrs for Christ the Lord at Rome; of whom some, torn by the bites of wild beasts, some plunged into the channel of the Tiber, some burnt with fire, some slain with the sword, and not a few carried off into exile, most victoriously consummated the contest of holy faith which they had undertaken against the devil. Nor was he punished less, if anyone was found to have hidden any of the Christians lurking with him; but, being subjected to the same torments which had been decreed for the Christians, he is believed also to have obtained a share of their reward d, the Lord promising and saying: He that receiveth a just man in the name of a just man shall receive the reward of a just man.
[2] There was at that time a certain man of prefectorial power, secretly a Christian, Censurinus the prefect is denounced to him as a Christian: by name Censurinus, who, being unable by reason of the place of his office to be absent from the imperial services, attended to these in appearance only, but in truth served the Lord unfeignedly: since he gave his labor day and night to fastings, prayers and almsgivings, and, ministering to the Saints placed in prison e, he held back many of them whom the sharpness of the punishments seemed to have overcome, so that they should yield to the executioners, and by his encouragements brought it about that they persevered in the faith of Christ. And when he had been denounced for this before the emperor, he was asked by him whether these things were so.
[3] But he, nothing doubting, answered that he was a Christian, and being interrogated freely confesses the faith and that, despising the idols, he worshipped one God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. The emperor said: Since thou hadst said that thou worshippest one God, how hast thou now named three? Blessed Censurinus answered: The Christian faith confesses of these three whom thou hast heard, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, a division in persons in such wise that yet it does not divide the unity of substance, which in the same persons is so always the same that, although the Father is one, the Son another, the Holy Spirit another, yet none of those persons is anything other than the others are; but all three persons are one God eternal, incomprehensible, immortal, almighty, having neither beginning nor any end.
[4] The emperor said: And how do you say that Christ, whom you confess to be your God, before the emperor, was both born and suffered, died and was buried, if, as thou now assertest, your God neither began in a beginning nor is shut in by an end? Censurinus said: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man alike, begotten indeed of the Father before the ages, and yet not inferior to him who begot, but in the end of the ages born of the Virgin Mary, he deigned to be made a partaker of our nature, in which he might be able to suffer and die for our salvation. For by a certain justice of God the human race was handed over into the power of the devil, the debt of the first parents binding all their posterity, this One only excepted, into whom his Mother poured no succession of this stain; because his sacred birth was utterly free from all carnal delight, on account of which f all are born with original sin who are procreated from the union of both sexes; for whom by this reasoning the blood of Christ was shed, who had no sin at all; so that, because the devil deservedly held those whom, guilty of sin, he bound by the condition of death, he should deservedly release them through him whom, guilty of no sin, he undeservedly visited with the penalty of death.
[5] and, invited to sacrifice to the idols, constantly refuses: But that substance of Christ's Divinity did not endure the injury of death itself, but only the nature of the humanity assumed, and in body only g was he laid in the sepulchre; rising from which on the third day, after some days, while the disciples looked on, he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, whom we await as coming thence at the day of judgment, that he may judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. The emperor said: Cease now to occupy the time with empty talk of this kind, and come and sacrifice to the gods, lest thou both lose thy place of familiarity with us and lose the fame by which hitherto thou art proclaimed by all to have governed the commonwealth most nobly. Censurinus answered: Truly thou showest thyself to be of those of whom the Apostle says that they turn away their ears from the hearing of the word of God, thou who not only despisest to hear the pious deeds of Christ, but hast even reckoned the most wholesome suggestion concerning them to be empty talk; but unless thou come to thyself, that very word which thou hast cast away will judge thee in the last day, as in the Gospel the Lord threatens his despisers; from whose veneration neither thy favor nor the desire of any human good will shall ever bend me to the worship of idols, since all the gods of the gentiles are demons, but our Lord made the heavens: and unhappy are they, as the sacred h Scripture says, who have called the works of men's hands gods; because the idol that is made is accursed, both it and he that made it.
[6] being cast into prison, he is visited by Maximus, Archelaus and Aurea; Then the emperor, being angry, ordered him to be led to the city of Ostia i, situated at the fifteenth milestone from the city of Rome, and there to be bound with chains and consigned to custody. Now there were in the city of Ostia Maximus the presbyter and Archelaus the deacon, and with them a certain handmaid of God named Aurea. These by the merit of their assiduous service of God obtained so great a grace of virtues that signs and very many marvels were daily wrought through them in the name of the Lord Jesus. When therefore blessed Censurinus had been placed in custody, the aforesaid servants of Christ, Maximus the presbyter and Archelaus the deacon, together with holy Aurea, obtained from the guards that they should be allowed to converse with him.
[7] [Censurinus's chains being loosed by divine power, the soldiers who guarded the prison,] But while they were speaking together and praising the Lord in hymns and prayers, suddenly by a divine nod the chains were loosed with which St. Censurinus had been bound. At which the guards, being exceedingly astonished, conferred among themselves what that power might be by which this sudden loosing of the chains was invisibly wrought. Now of these guards there were seventeen in number k, whose names are these: Felix, Maximus l, Taurinus, Erculanus m, Venerius n, Storocinus o, Mennas [p], Commodus, Hermes, Maurus, Eusebius, Rusticus, Monachius [q], Amandinus [r], Olippius [s], Cyprius [t] and Theodorus the tribune.
[8] astonished at that miracle, and by the exhortation And while they stood astonished at the miracle of the chains loosed in an unwonted manner, blessed Maximus the presbyter, breathed upon by divine inspiration, and understanding that they had been prevented by a regard from on high and in their spirit, began to instruct them with saving doctrine, saying: Hear me, brethren, concerning him of whom the Prophet says that he has come as a light of the gentiles, that he may be their salvation unto the ends of the earth, that he may say to them that are bound: Go forth; and to them that are in darkness: Be ye revealed [u]? Who applied to the blind sight, to the deaf hearing, to the dumb speech, and to all the infirmities of men fitting reliefs; who put demons to flight, walked upon the sea, raised the dead, and by many other works which no other could do proved that he had truly come down from heaven according to his omnipotence, and had fulfilled through his flesh the dispensation of human salvation. Who strengthens us in his Gospel to bear the injuries and the punishments of persecutions for his name, saying: Blessed are you when they shall revile you and persecute you and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: be glad in that day and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven. And elsewhere he says: You shall be hated by all for my name's sake; but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved; and likewise he promises, saying: He that shall lose his life for me, keepeth it unto life eternal.
[9] Hence his Apostle Peter says: Dearly beloved, think not strange the burning heat which is to try you: nor be you dismayed as if some new thing happened to you; but as often as you communicate with the sufferings of Christ, rejoice in all things, that when his glory shall be revealed you may also be glad with exceeding joy: if you be reproached for the name of Christ, you shall be blessed, for the name of the majesty and power of the Lord resteth upon you. the presbyter Maximus being the more stirred up, And that we receive more in the reward of suffering than what we endure here in the suffering itself, the apostle Paul proves, saying: The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in you. Likewise the Prophet says: The eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee. But you, brethren, will be the better capable of these things if, believing with your whole heart that all which has been recounted of Christ is true, you thereafter also prepare your mind to receive more fully the faith which we have toward God.
[10] Then all the soldiers together who were guarding blessed Censurinus, desire to be instructed so as to receive the faith. casting themselves at the feet of blessed Maximus the presbyter and of those who were with him, said with tears: O the life we must bewail, which we have hitherto passed, in which no one ever showed us that way of salvation which you, walking securely and happily, have so drawn near to God that, as he is almighty, so you too through his grace have the power of effecting every good! For behold, at the mere nod of your will, those chains have leapt apart with such swiftness as no haste of men could so quickly
have loosed them. Wherefore we desire to be instructed how we ought first to receive the knowledge of him, and thereafter to abide in his service, in whose name you are endowed with the wonderful grace of working such great miracles.
[11] St. Maximus answered: Since by God's bounty you have begun to open the eyes of your mind to the true light of the Christian faith, and a fast and instruction of three days having gone before, let it not now irk you to purge those same eyes more fully, even by a three days' fast, from the filth with which it was unavoidable that they should be darkened by reason of the most foul rites of idolatry. And when the three days are completed, in the name of the holy Trinity, namely of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, you shall receive sacred baptism, by which, being washed from all the contagions of sins, by the spiritual generation which is wrought through that same baptism you shall be made sons of God. At these words the soldiers, promptly undertaking the fast, were catechized for the whole three days in the faith of the Lord.
[12] Which being completed, they received the grace of baptism through blessed Maximus, [they receive the Sacrament of baptism, and then those of confirmation and the Eucharist.] and blessed Aurea received them from the sacred font. Blessed Cyriacus the bishop also, coming, confirmed them with the word of faith, and sealed them with the sacred Chrism, and they all partook of the most holy mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord: and they began to lead the life of the primitive Church, namely, having cast away all commerce with the world, to abide with one mind in the fear of the Lord and in holy conversation: and moreover, having in some measure an equal grace in signs and miracles, they daily made their life pleasing to all.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. In the Acts of Aurea and in Ferrarius Mennas.
q. In the Acts of Aurea Monaxius, in the anonymous manuscript Maprilis, in Ferrarius Monasius, in the Menæa Momochreus.
r. In the anonymous manuscript Saturninus.
s. In the Acts of Aurea Olimpius, in the rest Olympius.
t. In the anonymous manuscript Corporius, in the Menæa Cyprus.
u. The sense will be clearer if there be added here: Namely of him who &c.
CHAPTER II.
The guards of the prison are baptized: a dead man having been recalled to life, Censurinus's Companions are arrested: the martyrdom of them all and their burial.
[ ] [When Gallus had heard that a dead man had been raised at Ostia, he orders the Saints to be arrested:] Meanwhile it also came to pass that a dead man a was raised by them: the renown of which deed spread far and wide the fame of the virtues which the Lord wrought through them. And when the Emperor heard this too, being filled with fury, he said: They practise the magic art, and it must be repressed with a severer discipline. And, summoning Ulpicius b Romulus, the vicar of the city, he sent him to the city of Ostia, that he should take pains to recall from this profession whatever Christians he should find there; and that if any should either consent without force, or, compelled by the infliction of punishments, should yield, they should obtain riches and honors: but that those unwilling to acquiesce should perish by divers torments.
[14] but these, being arrested, constantly profess the faith, And Ulpicius Romulus, coming to the city of Ostia, ordered holy Cyriacus the bishop, Maximus the presbyter, Archelaus the deacon and Aurea the handmaid of Christ, together with blessed Censurinus and the Soldiers converted by them, to be arrested and presented to him. And when they stood before him, they are asked by the judge whether they were Christians. But they testify with a most clear voice that they truly were so. To this the judge said: Our lord the emperor has commanded that, departing from this worship, you should honor the gods whom he himself worships. But they said: When the emperor shall not command against God, we ought by the sanction of law to obey him: but when his commands struggle against the divine precepts, know that it is determined by us and confirmed by our fathers' laws that we obey God rather than men. Since therefore God commands that we worship no god beside himself, we shall never listen either to thee or to thy emperor, that we should venerate profane images with any ceremonies.
[15] and being cruelly beaten with scourges, The judge, being angry, ordered them to be thrust back into prison. They are led therefore from the tribunals to chains, and on another day soon after are called back from chains to the tribunals: and when the judge asked whether they still remained in their own opinion, they, in the confidence of an eternal reward, constantly and bravely confess Christ: and then, rejoicing to be adorned with confession, they testified that they would never sacrifice to idols. Then, at the judge's bidding, being stripped for the lash, they are so tormented with scourges on this side and that, while the people looked on, that they were thought likely to have the end of their life amid the very blows. You might have seen amid these things the most valiant Soldiers of Christ exulting after the example of the Apostles, because they were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus.
[16] To whom the judge, insulting, said: Where is now he whom you worship? they console themselves with the hope of an eternal reward, Why does he not free you from these punishments? The holy Martyrs said: And why callest thou that a punishment in which thou seest us rejoice? For these stripes, or whatever bitterness has been heaped upon us for the name of Christ, we feel to afford us not pains c but delights. But even if we suffer anything grievous or harsh, we are commanded to endure it with strong patience, the Scripture saying: Be patient until the coming of the Lord: behold, the Judge standeth before the door. Who himself also elsewhere says: Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his works. Whence also, being set in persecutions, we patiently await the day of vengeance; which yet, before it comes, we desire that our very persecutors be converted, lest that vengeance find them in their guilt; and if this shall come to pass, the greater the injury of our persecution has been, so much the juster and heavier will be the vengeance for that persecution.
[17] Against these things the judge, in no wise pricked in conscience but persisting in his cruelty, at last are beheaded, commanded them to undergo a capital sentence. But they, being led to the arch which was before the theatre, persevering in their contests according as they had been instructed from the divine Scriptures, and holding the eye of their mind fixed on God, place their sacred necks beneath the swords and receive death for piety without fear: and they were beheaded d on the Nones of September.
[18] And blessed Eusebius the presbyter gathered their bodies, they are buried by Eusebius the presbyter. and Taurinus indeed and Erculanus he buried at Portus Romanus, but holy Theodorus he laid in his own mausoleum, and for all the rest, with holy Cyriacus the bishop, he built monuments at the city of Ostia: whose bodies being buried in peace, their name shall live for ever, since, glorifying the Lord by their frequent sufferings and torments, they loved not their lives unto death for the name of him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth God through all ages of ages.