ON ST. PRISCUS, MARTYR,
AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
From the Menæa and other calendars of the Greeks and Latins.
Commentarythe kind of martyrdom by which Priscus came to the crown is, I believe, more rightly set forth in the Basilian Menologium.
[2] Wherefore I transfer hither the Saint's elogium from it, from the translation afflicted with various torments, at length he is beheaded. which is found in the last Urbino edition. Priscus, martyr of Christ, kindled with the love of God and burning with the highest desire of the divine baptism, having laid aside the impiety of his fatherland, becomes a Christian. Wherefore, wandering far and wide, he freely preached Christ, kindling the minds of all the Christians to undergo martyrdom; and baptizing also many of the Greeks whom he had instructed and converted to Christ. And when he was doing these things, he is denounced by the idolaters to the governor of the region, on the ground that he offered insult to the greatest gods, and, the mandates of the emperors being neglected, was the author to all of worshipping and adoring a crucified God. Wherefore the governor blazed with vehement anger, and began to shout to his soldiers that they should at once bring in the sorcerer Priscus and torture him. Being seized therefore, he is most grievously beaten: then, being hung up, he is combed on the sides and stabbed by thrusts with daggers: at last, being beheaded, he passed over to God. Thus far the Menologium, with which as to the kind of martyrdom the manuscript Constantinopolitan Synaxary sufficiently agrees, which is kept at Paris in the College of the Society of Jesus; but certain other things are added bearing on our purpose.
[3] He is venerated at Constantinople with SS. Martin and Nicholas, And so I transfer hither the Greek text itself with our Latin translation: Μνήμη τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Πρίσκου, Μαρτίνου καὶ Νικολάου. Οὗτοι διαβληθέντες τοῖς ἕλλησιν, ὡς τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον, Θεὸν ἀλήθινον κηρύττοντες, ξέονται ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν τὰς πλευρὰς ἕως βάθους, καὶ μετὰ ξιφῶν κατακεντοῦνται, καὶ τέλος τὰς κεφαλὰς ἀφοτέμνονται. Τελεῖται δὲ ἡ αὐτῶν σύναξις ἐν Βλαχέρναις. The memory of the holy martyrs Priscus, Martin, and Nicholas. These, being accused before the Gentiles of preaching the Crucified as the true God, are by them deeply scraped on the sides, then pierced with swords, and at last beheaded. And their assembly is celebrated at Blachernæ. From these we have it that St. Priscus with two other Saints is venerated at Constantinople in Blachernæ, which place is one of the suburbs of Constantinople. Nevertheless I do not think that those three Saints suffered together; but that the compiler of the Synaxary by an error attributed to all three together what was to be reported of Priscus alone, who alone is set down in all the other calendars. The occasion of joining them all seems to have arisen from the cult of all three together; and the cult seems to have been paid to the three together because their relics were kept in the same church.
[4] where he has also a church dedicated to himself and to St. Nicholas. Of this church built by the emperor Justinian, Procopius in book 1 On the Buildings of Justinian, chapter 6, has this: Next he built a new church to SS. Priscus and Nicholas; which the people of Byzantium delight to frequent, partly from the worship and admiration of the Saints there present (through their relics), partly enticed by the pleasure which they take from the sight of the church's elegance. Namely the emperor, force being brought against the waves of the sea, laid foundations far out in the deep, upon which he set the edifice. This he says after relating the building of the church of the Mother of God at Blachernæ, so that the order suggests that the church of SS. Priscus and Nicholas was likewise at Blachernæ. Of that church Du Cange in Constantinopolis Christiana, book 4, page 130, has gathered several things, and does not doubt that it was that of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, as indeed it must not be doubted. Wherefore neither do I doubt that it is St. Nicholas, that great prelate of Myra, who is recorded with St. Priscus in the Synaxary; and he is probably set in the last place because he was a confessor, not a martyr. But the Martin who is placed between the two seems altogether to be St. Martin, Pope and martyr, whose body was translated to Constantinople and laid in the church of the Mother of God at Blachernæ, as is said in the Menæa at the 20th of September in Martin's elogium. Of Pope Martin mention is again made in the Menæa at the 22nd of September, so that he seems to have been venerated on various days in different churches. Whatever be the case, I treat here only of St. Priscus, but more will be examined of Martin at the 12th of November, and of Nicholas at the 6th of December.