ON SS. NARCISSUS AND CRESCENTIO, MARTYRS,
AT ROME,
From the Martyrologies and the Acts of St. Laurence.
Perhaps under Valerian.
PrefaceNarcissus, M., at Rome. (S.)
Crescentio, M., at Rome. (S.)
J. S.
Exceedingly obscure is the memory of the two Martyrs whom on this day Baronius commemorates in the Roman Martyrology in these words: These holy Martyrs inscribed in several Fasti, Likewise at Rome, of the holy martyrs Narcissus and Crescentio. He praises for these Bede and other ancient authorities. But by "Bede" in Baronius is understood a Martyrology printed indeed under the name of Bede; but less ancient, or, if it has anything of Bede's, augmented in many parts. The first martyrologist who announced these Martyrs together is the author of the Little Roman published by Rosweyde, who, after announcing at Rome St. Justinus the presbyter, of whom we treat today, goes on thus: Likewise of Narcissus and Crescentianus. Ado, wont to follow him and to augment from elsewhere, has it thus: At Rome in a sandy crypt, of the holy martyrs Narcissus and Crescentio. Usuard followed Ado in these words: Likewise at Rome, of the holy martyrs Narciscus and Crescentio. Notker has the like. Most of the more recent martyrologists have adopted the words of the more ancient. But Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy wove a more prolix elogium. Yet he added two conjectures by no means certain. The first is expressed in these words: Narcissus and Crescentio suffered in the same year, and in the same persecution, as holy Laurence. This is read neither in the Acts of St. Laurence nor, so far as I judge, in any ancient monument. The other conjecture of Ferrarius is this: They were crowned with martyrdom on the XV Kalends of October. Of this conjecture I find no other foundation than that they were first announced on that day by the author of the Little Roman, and thereafter by others. But that conjecture frequently deceives, since that author not seldom fixed days at his own pleasure.
[2] The Acts of St. Laurence in Surius on the X of August have the following: they are known in the Acts of St. Laurence; That same night (St. Laurence, a little before his martyrdom) went away thence: he sought out where the Christians were gathered, whether in houses or in crypts. And he came into the quarter which is called Canarius, and found many Christians gathered in the house of a certain Narcissus, a Christian: and entering into it with tears, he washed their feet, and gave them of the treasures which blessed Sixtus the bishop had handed over to him to be distributed. And he found there also Crescentio, a blind man, asking him with tears and saying: Place your hand upon my eyes, that I may see your face. Blessed Laurence, weeping, said: May our Lord Jesus Christ, who opened the eyes of the man born blind, enlighten you: and the sign of Christ being impressed upon his eyes, he saw the light and blessed Laurence, as he had asked. Concerning the martyrdom of SS. Narcissus and Crescentio nothing is had in those Acts, so that from them it cannot be gathered whether they suffered under Valerian, like St. Laurence, or rather afterwards under Claudius II, like St. Justinus the presbyter, often mentioned in the same Acts, or even under Aurelian or later.
[3] and everything pertaining to them is greatly uncertain: There are found in the Hieronymian transcripts various Martyrs who are announced under the names of Crescentius, Crescentio, and Crescentianus. That some one of these is the same as today's Crescentio is not unlikely, as our Sollerius has already observed on the IV of August, where Crescentianus is given with others from the Hieronymian copies. That Roman Crescentianus can be the same as today's Crescentio: for today's man too is named Crescentianus in the Little Roman. The same author, who transferred Justinus the presbyter from the IV of August to this day, could have done the same with Crescentianus. There are also given two classes of martyrs on the X of August, and in each is found a Crescentio. If these are really two, either can be the same as today's. But enough of uncertain conjectures. Piazza on this day attributes the bodies of SS. Narcissus and Crescentio to the church of St. Praxedes, on what foundation I do not know. Baronius in his Annotations on the Martyrology writes this: There was at Rome a noble cemetery called by the name of Crescentio, on the Salarian Way, not far from the cemetery of Priscilla, as the Vatican tables indicate, in which we read through the names of the cemeteries. I add no more, because everything seems to me greatly uncertain.
[4] as it is uncertain to us where the body of St. Narcissus now is. In the Martyrologium Hispanicum of John Tamayo de Salazar there is celebrated on this day the translation of St. Narcissus, the Roman martyr, whom that author intrepidly declares to be today's. At Seville, he says, in Bætica, the deposition of the sacred pledges of holy Narcissus, martyr, who suffered at Rome, which in the monastery of the Brothers of the Most Holy Trinity Discalced, enclosed in an elegant casket, are venerated with magnificent worship. Thus far I judge everything to be true. But in his Annotations Tamayo too easily designates the Narcissus whose Acts we are now investigating. But that Saint, whose body the Religious Discalced Fathers of the most holy Trinity received in the year 1641, does not seem to be today's Narcissus. Certainly I cannot gather this from the Chronicle of the praised Order, written in Spanish by Alexander of the Mother of God, who in part 3, page 112, narrates in what manner various bodies of Saints were obtained from the cemetery of St. Callistus at Rome by Fr. John of the Annunciation, procurator general of his Order. Among these bodies is reckoned the body of St. Narcissus the martyr, and it is said to have been given, together with the body of St. Callistus, to the Seville convent of the same Order. But it is not added whether the body was found with that name, or whether the name was afterwards imposed. And if the name was really found, it will still not be certain that the one the people of Seville possess is today's. I have before me a Letter of Fr. Maximilian Ledent, given to our Papebroch in the year 1673, in which this is read: A certain one of ours writes from Venice that there is there a nobleman who received from the catacombs called those of St. Calepodius the sacred body of St. Narcissus, martyr, whose feast falls on the XVII of September.