Serapion

ON ST. SERAPION, BISHOP AND MARTYR, AND COMPANIONS PERHAPS TO BE ADDED,

AT CATANIA IN SICILY.

Probably in the year 304.

A Collection from the Hieronymian Calendars and other sources.

Serapion, martyr, at Catania in Sicily (St.)

Companions perhaps to be added, at Catania in Sicily

BY J. S.

No small doubt has been thrown upon me by those things which are read in the ancient calendars, and equally in the more recent ones, on this and the preceding day concerning certain Sicilian saints announced at Catania in a manner exceedingly various. Euplus announced together with Serapion in several calendars For in some Euplus and Serapion are joined together; in others Euplus alone is set down; in others Serapion without Euplus, either alone or with anonymous companions; and in others, finally, still other martyrs are added to Euplus and Serapion. First I bring forward those martyrologies in which the two who are named before the rest are joined together. The Hieronymian calendars, in Florentinius, have: In Sicily, in the city of Catina, the birthday of the holy Euplus and Serapion \ the bishop. The Epternach calendar, there in the notes called most ancient: In Sicily, of Euplus and Serapion the bishop. The Corbie calendar, likewise praised there: In Sicily, in the city of Cathenae, the birthday of SS. Euplus and Serapion the bishop, but there is added Magnus. In just the same way the shorter Corbie calendar among us, tom. VII of June; but there is added: Magnus and Secundinus. The Reichenau calendar among us: And in Sicily, of Euplus and Serapion. The Rheinau calendar in the same place: In Sicily, of Eupolus \ and Serapion. The same two are likewise joined in the first of the martyrologies which Martène published, tom. 6 of the Amplissima Collectio, p. 646, but without the place: And of SS. Euplus and Serapion. And in the same place, in the Auxerre calendar, in this manner: And in Sicily, in the city of Catena, of S. Euplus and B. Serapion the bishop.

[2] From these things I cannot wonder that Euplus and Serapion were similarly joined among the martyrologists of later centuries. although Euplus is probably the same as St. Euplus the deacon, Yet I do wonder why they joined them rather on the preceding day, as I noted there among the things passed over, than on this very day, the twelfth of September, on which they are commemorated among the ancients. Someone will now ask, for what cause I have judged that Euplus is to be separated from Serapion, since those two are so often joined together among the ancients. I answer that I can scarcely doubt that St. Euplus is the same as St. Euplus or Euplius the deacon, whose genuine Acts have already been given at the twelfth of August, on which that saint is venerated. Florentinius in the notes offers such a conjecture: It is not improbable that Serapion the bishop was the companion of Euplus the deacon in the same city of Catania in his contest; and although they completed their martyrdom on different days, those who wrote the Martyrology were nevertheless unwilling to separate them. Whence on the birthday of St. Serapion they added Euplus his deacon with a repeated veneration. This conjecture is not inapt; for since Euplus suffered in the general persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, it could easily happen that on the occasion of Euplus the search of the persecutors was renewed, and the bishop of Catania himself was seized, and crowned one month after his deacon.

[3] It is certainly quite probable that St. Serapion was bishop of Catania, [but Serapion was bishop of Catania; nor do they seem to have suffered at the same time] since in most of the Hieronymian codices he is called bishop, and is everywhere said to have suffered at Catania or at least in Sicily. Besides, the place is vacant for him in the catalogue of the bishops of Catania in Rocco Pirro, tom. 2 of Sicilia sacra, p. 4; for no bishop is reckoned between Everius, whom Pirro believes to have sat about 260, and Severinus, whom he fixes about 312. But it cannot with reason be doubted that under the reign of Diocletian — under whom, before the general persecution broke out, the Church was quiet enough — some bishop presided over the church of Catania. Therefore it is probable that this was St. Serapion, of whom we treat. But that he did not suffer on the same day as St. Euplus the deacon seems to be proved from the Acts of St. Euplus, in which no mention is made of St. Serapion, and from which it clearly appears that St. Euplus was taken and suffered without companions. Further, it is probable that Serapion suffered later, because in all the calendars, when they are commemorated together, he is placed after Euplus; nor does any other reason occur why the bishop should be placed after the deacon, unless because he seems to have suffered later, and because Euplus was perhaps the first crowned in that persecution at Catania.

[4] Perhaps St. Serapion had companions in his martyrdom: Let us now see in what manner in other calendars either Euplus alone or Serapion alone is announced separately. Rabanus has Euplus alone thus: And in Sicily, in the city of Cathena, the birthday of Euplus. In Martène, tom. 3 of the Anecdota, col. [ ], in an ancient calendar of the monastery of Lyre, Serapion alone is set down in this manner: Of St. Serapion, martyr. The Brussels Usuardine codex, with which the Hagenau codex in Sollier agrees: In Sicily, the passion of St. Serapion the bishop and of thirteen others. These very words are in the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum. Greven: Likewise of Serapion the bishop. The Florentine codex: Likewise of St. Serapion. From these there can be a suspicion that Serapion suffered with certain companions, whose names we for the most part do not know; for the twin Corbie codex, cited at no. 1, in one of which Magnus, in the other Magnus and Secundinus, are joined, does not suffice for us to believe with certainty that they were companions of Serapion.

[5] he certainly seems to have been a martyr, not a confessor: We have seen that Euplus is joined by several as a companion to Serapion; and therefore someone could suspect that this Euplus was really a companion of Serapion, and distinct from Euplus the deacon, who is venerated on the twelfth of August. But this again is very uncertain and less probable, because Euplus is everywhere placed before Serapion the bishop, as I observed before. Wherefore concerning Serapion alone I judge it sufficiently proved that he suffered on this day, because he is called bishop and is announced at Catania, where he probably was bishop. And I probably judge him to have been crowned in the same year 304 in which St. Euplus the deacon suffered, for the reasons given before. For the rest, the opinion of Ottavio Gaetani, Ferrari, and other moderns, who think that Euplus and Serapion were confessors, I do not believe sufficiently probable, since I find no foundation for that opinion, or at least none sufficiently solid.

\* Serapionis

\* Eupli