ON ST. SINOTUS, MARTYR AND PROBABLY BISHOP
OF CAPUA IN CAMPANIA OF ITALY,
Toward the end of the first century.
SYLLOGE
Sinotus, M., and probably bishop of Capua in Campania of Italy (S.)
BY J. S.
The various Martyrologies distinguished by the name of St. Jerome, in which on this day are announced SS. Januarius the martyr and his Companions, St. Sinotus in several Calendars mingled with the martyrs of Benevento, have among these St. Sinotus, though with the name corrupted in certain of them. So the codices out of which Florentinius compiled his edition of the Hieronymian Martyrology, together with the Corbie codex praised by the same author in his Annotations, to which is to be added another and more contracted Corbie codex published by us after the seventh tome of June.
Rabanus too in his Martyrology has mingled Sinotus with the martyrs of Benevento. Nevertheless Florentinius in his Annotations shrewdly observed that that Martyr, who is announced under the name of Sesontus and Senotus in his codices, does not belong to the class of the Beneventans, but is owed to Capua, because he is expressly attributed to that city in the Epternach codex, which he everywhere calls the most ancient Antwerp codex, and in the codex of the queen of Sweden. For from these Martyrologies he rightly infers that the word Capua had dropped out in the other codices; and this appears certain enough, as I shall show by other arguments also, when I have enumerated the Martyrologies in which St. Sinotus is announced separately.
[2] in others more correctly separated from them and attributed to Capua: The Epternach codex in Florentinius has it thus: On the VII Ides of September, at Capua, the birthday of Sinotus. The codex of the queen of Sweden: At Cappua, the birthday of St. Senotus. There are added also other codices published by us after the seventh tome of June, where the Rheinau Martyrology has the same Saint thus with a corrupted name: at Capua, of Sineria. The Reichenau: At Capua, of Sinocia. The Labbean, in the first place, where this Saint is commonly set, has Zenotus, without the city added. Similarly the Murbach codex in Martène, tome 3 of the Anecdota, col. [ ], has Senotus. And in the same author, tome 6 of the Ample Collection, col. 645, there is read in the Trier Martyrology: The birthday of St. Sinotus the martyr. And so this holy Martyr is sufficiently known in the most ancient Martyrologies, and is attributed to the city of Capua, although his memory afterwards almost perished, as it is agreed happened to other Capuan martyrs as well.
Yet even without the aid of these Martyrologies Michael Monachus had in some fashion drawn Sinotus out of obscurity in his Sanctuarium Capuanum: for he brings forward reasons sufficiently apt, and such as remove all doubt concerning the sanctity and martyrdom of Sinotus, when the ancient Calendars are added to them.
[3] That writer, on page 132 of the work praised, relates these things: In the church of St. Priscus of the diocese of Capua there survives an ancient part of the basilica which St. Matrona had built in honor of St. Priscus. for he is shown to have been a Capuan martyr, It is a round work, vaulted, and is called the OLD TRIBUNE. That tribune has a semicircle in front (or let us say an apse), in which there are sixteen images of Saints in mosaic work. In the middle of the semicircle, on the right, St. Peter is seen, and on the left St. Priscus, who was the first bishop of Capua. Between these Saints is beheld Sinotus, in the habit of an old man, and bearing a crown before him in his hand. Whence the author gathers that he was a Martyr, which the crown indicates, and a bishop, which he believes to be hinted by the aged habit. For since of those sixteen Saints only eight are represented as old men, and of those eight seven are known to have been bishops, concerning the eighth, that is concerning Sinotus, the conjecture is easy that he likewise was a bishop. This conjecture is the more probable because all the rest, who are represented in a manly or youthful habit, lacked the episcopal dignity, or at least all of those who are sufficiently known.
[4] Moreover from the place in which St. Sinotus is set, namely after St. Priscus the first bishop of Capua, and probably the second bishop of that city. and before St. Rufus, who likewise was among the first bishops of the city of Capua, he gathers not only with probability that Sinotus was a Capuan bishop, but also that he presided over that church in the second place, that is, between Priscus and Rufus. All these things are probable, and therefore I would not deny what the praised Monachus, who had asserted that St. Sinotus was like the rest of the Capuan bishops in habit, countenance, and gesture, wrote on page 134 in this manner: St. Sinotus, hitherto unknown, comes forth into the light. He is recognized as a bishop from his aged countenance and from the company of so many bishops: from the place assigned him before Rufus he is recognized as the second bishop of Capua: and from the crown which he lifts up he is recognized as a martyr. Ughellus, in tome 6 of Italia sacra, from these considerations sets St. Sinotus in the second place among the prelates of Capua. But if to anyone the episcopate of St. Sinotus seems indeed probable from what has been said, yet not altogether certain, he will not have [ ] opposing him. But at least his martyrdom and his death at Capua seem, both from what has been said and from the Martyrologies, certain and beyond doubt. This, however, is to be fixed with some latitude toward the end of the first century. For the Saint could have suffered under Nero, in whose time I showed on the first of September that St. Priscus probably suffered. He could also have suffered under Domitian, or in the time interposed between the two persecutors, through some governor hostile to the Christians. For this reason I have fixed the time of the martyrdom broadly toward the end of the first century.