ON SS. MACEDONIUS AND THEODULUS AND TATIANUS, MARTYRS.
AT MEROS IN PHRYGIA SALUTARIS.
IN THE YEAR 361 OR 362.
A Historical Collection.
Macedonius, M., at Meros in Phrygia Salutaris (St.)
Theodulus, M., at Meros in Phrygia Salutaris (St.)
Tatianus, M., at Meros in Phrygia Salutaris (St.)
BY J. S.
The memory of these martyrs, celebrated very briefly in the Menaea and with a eulogy in the Sirletian Menology, Baronius inserted also into the Roman Martyrology at this day. The saints commemorated in the sacred calendars: they suffered at Meros, At Meros in Phrygia, he says, the passion of the holy martyrs Macedonius, Theodulus, and Tatianus, who under Julian the apostate, by the governor Almachius, after other torments, being placed upon fiery iron gratings, exulting completed their martyrdom. The praised Menology brings forward somewhat more, presently to be recited more fully from Socrates, and more correctly, with the ancient writers, calls the governor Amachius, but omits the place of the contest. This Baronius set forth rightly when he said at Meros in Phrygia. That city indeed is not famous among the ancient geographers, but Merus — in Greek Μῆρος — becomes sufficiently known from ecclesiastical registers, because it was an episcopal city in Phrygia Salutaris under the metropolis of Synnada, as may be seen in Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, tom. 1, col. 839, where some bishops of that city are given.
[2] Valesius in his notes on Sozomen, book 5, chapter 11, says which some have wished, from an error, to have been otherwise named Comopolis, that Merus was called by another name Comopolis, and praises for that opinion Constantine Porphyrogenitus in book 1 On the Themes, chapters 1 and 4. Valesius has been followed by Tillemont, tom. 6, in the Persecution of Julian, art. 1, treating of these martyrs; by Ruinart in the Genuine Acts of the Martyrs, p. 580, where he gives the Acts of these martyrs from Socrates; and by several others. But if we attend even a little to the passage of Porphyrogenitus indicated by Valesius, we shall at once be able to see that Comopolis is not the proper name of the town of Merus, but that the Greek word κωμόπολιν in Constantine signifies a town like a village — in French un bourg — and therefore that the words of Constantine in chapter 4, καὶ ἕως τῆς κωμοπόλεως Μηροῦ, were not to be rendered in Latin and as far as Comopolis of Merus, as they are read in Latin in Banduri, but were to be expressed in this manner: And as far as the little town Merus. Similarly in chapter 1 the Greek words of Constantine, ἀπὸ τῆς κωμοπόλεως τῆς ὀνομαζομένης Μηροῦ, are ill expressed by these Latin words, from Comopolis, which is called Merus; but they are to be expressed in this manner: from the little town which is called Merus. I wonder that learned men could be so easily deceived in this matter, since the word κωμόπολις was in use not only among the Greeks of the middle age, but also among the more ancient, for a little town, or a village not unlike a town. For that word is compounded of κώμη, village, and πόλις, city. Wherefore Merus was a modest town, as Suidas also affirms, and was situated, on the testimony of Constantine, chapter 1, in Phrygia Salutaris, which is a province of Greater Phrygia. But the name Comopolis was never proper to it.
[3] under Amachius, prefect of Phrygia, in the year 361 or 362: The occasion of the martyrdom, and the martyrdom itself, of the holy Macedonius, Theodulus, and Tatianus, Socrates has briefly narrated, book 3, chapter 15; Sozomen, book 5, chapter 11; and Suidas at the word Amachius. Their account agrees in almost everything. In one point, however, Suidas dissents from the others; for Amachius, under whom the saints suffered, he says was prefect of a small city of Phrygia, by which he doubtless designates Merus. But Socrates and Sozomen affirm that Amachius was governor of the province; and this is more likely. Concerning the year of the martyrdom there can with reason be doubt; for since the occasion of the martyrdom was the opening of a temple of the idols, and this happened after the death of the emperor Constantius, when Julian was already reigning alone, we can doubt whether the saints were crowned in the year 361, in which Constantius died on the third day of November, or in the following year 362. Indeed Julian entered Constantinople, on the testimony of Socrates, on the third day before the Nones of November of the year 361. The prefect of Phrygia therefore, to whom the death of Constantius, who died in Cilicia, seems to have been already known at that time, could about the same time see to it that the temples of the idols were cleansed out, and therefore the martyrdom of our saints could have happened before the end of the year 361. But it is uncertain whether the prefect Amachius made such haste to restore idolatry; and for this cause I have fixed the martyrdom in the year 361 or 362.
[4] These things being premised, receive the martyrdom from Socrates, to which it is not necessary to add more. the occasion of the martyrdom, and the martyrdom, are set forth. At the same time, he says, at the city of Merus in Phrygia, Amachius, governor of the province, ordered the temple to be opened, and the filth which by length of time had been heaped up in it to be carried out; and finally he commanded that the statues placed there should be polished. This deed of his struck a grievous grief into the minds of the Christians. And so a certain Macedonius and Theodulus and Tatianus, inflamed with zeal for the Christian religion, could by no means bear that indignity. But burning with a certain incredible love of virtue, they rush by night into the temple and break all the statues in pieces. At which deed the governor, being gravely moved, when he wished to punish many in that city who were altogether guiltless, the authors of the deed offered themselves of their own accord; and for the defense of the truth they chose rather themselves to fall than to allow others to be killed in their stead. The judge therefore, seizing them, orders that they expiate by sacrificing the deed perpetrated by them; and if they should not do so, he threatens punishment. But they, as men endowed with a noble spirit, despising his threats, showed themselves ready to endure any torments whatsoever, and chose far rather to die than to be defiled with sacrifices. When therefore the judge had tortured them with every kind of torment, at last he ordered them to be placed upon a gridiron and burned with fire laid beneath. But then they gave the last proof of their fortitude, addressing the governor in these words: "If you desire, Amachius, to taste roast flesh, turn us to the other side, lest perhaps we seem to your taste but half roasted." In this manner they ended their life.