ON SS. TIMOTHY AND FAUSTUS, MARTYRS AT ANTIOCH,
From the Martyrologies.
CommentaryTimothy, martyr, at Antioch (S.)
Faustus, martyr, at Antioch (S.)
BY C. S.
Memory in ancient and more recent The Roman Martyrology assigns twin Martyrs on this day to Antioch in these words: At Antioch, of the holy martyrs Timothy and Faustus. The ancient classical Martyrologies gave light to the author of the Roman, in which the memory of the same Saints is recorded on the same day, although in certain of their transcripts there is some variation in the name of Faustus. The older Hieronymian, edited by Francis Florentinius, omitting the word of the Martyrs, mentions them thus: At Antioch the birthday of the holy Tymothy, Faustus. Similarly the genuine Usuard of our Sollerius: Likewise at Antioch, of Timothy and Faustus. In the ancient Gellonense, in d'Achery's Spicilegium, volume 2, the arena of their struggle being besides omitted, they are announced in the first place in this manner: The 6th of the Ides of September. Of Timothy, Faustus. But Peter Galesinius expressed the laurel of martyrdom also, saying, At Antioch, of the blessed martyrs Timothy and Faustus; and in his Annotations he cites Usuard and a Manuscript codex.
[2] Martyrologies, some of which vary in the name of Faustus. And these indeed agree well enough among themselves: but other transcripts vary in the name of Faustus. In the first place the most ancient Epternach copy commemorates Timothy alone, as Florentinius observes in his Annotations, where he not improbably suspects that Faustus was removed from the text by the copyist, because in the second class of Alexandrian martyrs, which is subjoined, he had found Ælius Faustus, and who therefore could seem to him to be wrongly repeated in the Antiochene class. The Hieronymian of Corbie in the praised Spicilegium has Faustinian for Faustus: At Antioch, the birthday of the holy Timothy, Faustinian. Belinus in the Venetian edition of the year 1498 reads Faustinus: and the same variation occurs in the Usuardine codex which Sollerius called the greater Antwerp codex, as also in the enlarged Barberini Bede, prefixed among us to volume 2 of March. But that Faustus is to be read with the Roman Martyrology, the purer Hieronymian texts together with the Usuardine persuade us.
[3] Peculiar is the announcement in Maurolycus, who has joined three others to the aforesaid Martyrs; [Maurolycus wrongly joined three companions: our Florarium wrongly calls them confessors.] for he has it thus: At Antioch, of the holy Timothy and Faustinus, Amphion, Severus and Severian, martyrs. Whence he himself learned of these companions, unknown to all the other martyrologists, I do not perceive: yet it is most probable that they belong to the Alexandrian martyrs, of whom we have treated on this same day. Faulty also appears the announcement of our Manuscript Florarium conceived in these words: Likewise at Antioch, of the holy Tymothy and Faustus, confessors: by which both, or at least one of them, is called a confessor: which from the very announcement of the ancient Martyrologies is less probable. Perhaps the author of the Florarium, when he had seen that they are commemorated in the Hieronymian and Usuardine texts without the title of Martyrs, believed them confessors. For the rest, concerning these Martyrs, or concerning the time in which they suffered, besides what has been said I have found nothing.