Alexander

ON ST. ALEXANDER, BISHOP AND MARTYR,

UPON THE CLAUDIAN WAY IN ITALY.

In the II century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

His memory in the sacred calendars; what sort the Acts are; the time and place of his martyrdom.

Alexander, bishop and M., on the Claudian Way in Italy (S.)

BY J. P.

Baronius in the Roman Martyrology at the XXI day of September announces this holy Bishop and Martyr thus: He is announced in the calendars on this day and on the 26th of November; On the Claudian Way, at the twentieth milestone from the city, the passion of St. Alexander the bishop, who under the emperor Antoninus, overcoming for the faith of Christ chains, cudgels, the rack, burning torches, the tearing of hooks, wild beasts, and the flames of a furnace, at last, slain by the sword, attained a glorious life. His body afterward blessed Pope Damasus translated into the City on the sixth of the Kalends of December, on which day he appointed his festival to be celebrated. In the same words on the same day Usuard had gone before Baronius; except that he does not relate the translation of the relics made by the Pontiff Damasus. But here too the aforesaid Baronius had as guides the author of the Little Roman and Ado at the XXVI day of November, at which day it is thus read in the Little Roman: And of blessed Alexander, bishop and martyr, who suffered on the XI of the Kalends of October, and was translated by Pope Damasus on the VI of the Kalends of December, when he dedicated a festival to him.

[2] Ado also commemorates St. Alexander today in these few words: on which day Ado gives On the same day, the passion of St. Alexander the bishop, under the emperor Antoninus. But at the aforesaid XXVI day of November he not only recalls the memory of the translation, but also prefixes to it a very prolix History of the passion, which I likewise transfer hither, because the censure passed upon our Saint's Acts by Tillemont, to be cited below, regards that alone. On the same day, these are Ado's words, of the Blessed Alexander, bishop and martyr, under the emperor Antoninus. To which blessed Bishop, since he was most famous in miracles, there was at a certain time brought a dead man: whose parents, when the holy Man exhorted them to believe in Christ, promised that they would do so if that dead man were raised. Then the holy Man, having made a prayer and turned to the body, said: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, arise. And he, rising at once, began to cry out: Hear, my parents and all the people: Led by two Egyptians most foul of countenance and full of wrath, I was set in a most dark place where there was a pit: and suddenly, a certain young man coming, flashing with exceeding splendor, that whole place trembled, and that most shining young man cried out: Send back the boy, for he is called by Alexander the servant of God. And behold, I have been brought back into my body. Now, lord Alexander, baptize me in the name of thy God, that I may see no more what I have seen today. He was called Luceius, with whom a hundred and twenty-five others were baptized.

[3] a prolix History And when report was spreading the fame of blessed Alexander everywhere, Antoninus sent Cornelianus the governor to produce bishop Alexander before him: who found him on the Lord's day in the church, teaching and celebrating Mass: and, as the emperor had ordered, seized him and led him to Rome. And there followed him Crescentianus the presbyter, Bonifacius and Vitalio. But the governor, having bound his hands behind him, presented him to Antoninus: by whom, being questioned, when he pleaded most constantly for Christ, he was ordered to be beaten with cudgels and most grievously struck, then to be shut up in prison. And as he was being led away by the soldiers, Antoninus cried out after him: A truce of four days is granted thee by me, that, laying aside the worship of thy vanity, thou mayest come of thine own accord. To whom the holy Martyr answered: Reckon the four days already past; what thou desirest, accomplish today.

[4] of his passion He therefore being sent to prison, blessed Crescentianus, sitting under a tree, began to weep, and, drowsy with sadness, to sleep. To whom appeared an angel of the Lord, and said to him: I have already been with Alexander, and have loosed his chains and comforted him: and now do not sit under this tree, lest perchance you be reported to the tyrant. Blessed Alexander, therefore, being brought out of prison, is again set before Antoninus, and, hung upon the rack at the impious man's command, burning torches were applied about his sides, and his body was scraped with hooks. Then, taken down from the rack, he was led to the temple of Apollo. Having entered which, as soon as he prayed, some part of the temple and the image of Apollo fell. But Antoninus, attributing this deed to magic arts, sitting on the tribunal, condemned the holy Bishop to the beasts. And when none of them had touched him, he ordered a fiery furnace to be prepared and the blessed Man to be cast into it. But when the holy Martyr, with hands outspread, prayed to the Lord in the midst of the furnace, all the fire was so quenched that not a trace of the heat remained.

[5] is given by Then Antoninus ordered the holy Man to be brought out of the furnace and beheaded. And when he was already being led away by the soldiers, a certain young man of Antoninus' staff, Herculanus by name, cried out saying: Antoninus, senseless tyrant, why dost thou continue blind and deaf? Behold, the Servant of God, after the rods, after thy racks and torches and the touch of the hooks, after the ruin of thy temple and thy idol, after the rage of lions and bears overcome, after the fire of the furnace quenched, now goes filled with joy to be beheaded. Who could doubt that he is the true God who so comforts his own? Antoninus, hearing this, said: Unhappy young man, what has befallen thee that thou speakest such words? And in anger he ordered the young man to be held, and, when he had afflicted him with divers torments, made an end of him with the sword.

[6] But as blessed Alexander was being led away, a certain widow met him, Ado. whom the blessed Martyr asked, saying: Lend me thy kerchief. And she gave it him. But the officials said to the woman: Thou hast lost thy kerchief. And so, having made the sign of the Cross, the blessed Martyr stripped himself of his tunic, and, standing in his linen garment, covered his eyes with the kerchief; then, kneeling down, he received the sword on the Claudian Way at the twentieth milestone from the City, and there was an earthquake, and the village and the baths fell; but holy Crescentianus and those who were with him, by the Martyr's revelation, took his holy relics and buried them in the place where by his prayer he had quenched the fire of the furnace. And he placed above a marble inscribed as follows: HERE RESTS THE HOLY AND VENERABLE MARTYR ALEXANDER THE BISHOP, WHOSE DEPOSITION IS CELEBRATED ON THE ELEVENTH OF THE KALENDS OF OCTOBER. For whom Pope Damasus afterward, making a worthy crypt, transferred him thither on the sixth of the Kalends of December: when he also dedicated a festival to him. Moreover that kerchief which had been lent him, with which the Martyr had covered his eyes, as soon as he was beheaded was restored [] to the woman by a certain little boy, who there is no doubt was an angel. Which she received not without great amazement, and, confessing Alexander truly a martyr, believed in Christ.* Thus far Ado, whom Surius copied at the same XXVI day of November.

[7] Of the Acts of the martyrdom, from which most probably, at least for the greater part, Ado drew his epitome, The Acts, whose writer says he was an eyewitness, and which I do not know to have been hitherto published in print, we have four manuscript transcripts: the first is noted as taken from a very ancient manuscript of Saint-Omer, and collated with another manuscript likewise of the most illustrious Du Puy; the second Louis Nicquet, librarian of the Celestines at Soissons, transmitted hither from manuscript codices in the year 1666, and this I shall call the Soissons one; the third is contained in a codex of our Museum marked P Ms. 6; the fourth in a parchment codex likewise among us marked P Ms. 158. These, collated among themselves, agree exceedingly well in all the matters narrated, nay even in the words, if you except a few and those less notable — which scarcely happens otherwise when the same ancient documents, transcribed by different hands, are produced. The author everywhere calls himself Crisentianus, and he is doubtless the same whom Ado called St. Crescentianus. He asserts that he was ordained presbyter by St. Alexander; that he was present with Alexander when he was seized; that he followed when he was led to the emperor; that he stood among the soldiers when he was questioned by the emperor and ordered to be beaten; and he hints that he noted down everything which he himself saw and heard. He adds that he compared his notes with others which a certain Protasius had written at the dictation of Cornelianus himself, the tyrant's chief minister, and that he added from these the things which he did not have — namely, because he had been unable to hear them or to be present. Finally he sets forth on what occasion Cornelianus the governor dictated the history of the martyrdom to Protasius, and how the latter, a collation having been made, repeated it and wished it to be laid up honorably in his own library. Whence indeed I suspect that Protasius himself was secretly a Christian. Certainly, if we must stand by the Acts, he was an outstanding favorer of the Christians.

[8] Having obtained Acts of a martyrdom of this kind — such as, unless they are found greatly corrupted, spurious or interpolated, are wont to be highly esteemed by the learned — when examined, do not seem, for reasons, I began to examine more attentively the circumstances of times and persons, of places likewise and the like, in which those readily go astray who strive to obtrude fictions for truths: and among them I have found nothing so grave that I could solidly elicit from it, much less show, that the Acts are certainly fabulous. Next I considered the style and the order of writing, and judged it simple enough that it ought not to be believed to have been notably changed or embellished by a more recent pen. But what of the matters themselves narrated by the biographer? Let us first hear the opinion of Tillemont upon Ado's epitome related above. He, in tom. 2 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, Note 7 on the persecution of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,

pronounces of our Saint and his passion as follows.

[9] brought by Tillemont against Ado's History Nothing about St. Alexander the bishop is ascertained by us except from the Martyrologies. But Ado at the XXVI of November speaks so fully of him that we judged it should be noted. For the things which he relates of him may be taken for Acts, and indeed rather long ones — we could wish that it might be added by us, good ones as well. But there seems in them nothing but prodigies and Metaphrastic deeds, without any likelihood of truth or antiquity. From what he hands down the Saint seems to have been bishop in a certain city near Rome, but in which one Baronius could not find. According to Ado he was brought to Rome to be questioned by the emperor and afflicted with torments. For this reason we reckon him among the Roman martyrs. They allege, however, that men went, in order that his head might be cut off, twenty miles thence on the Claudian Way, no reason being brought for a thing so little credible, etc. Thus he, when he had read Ado only — likely to have pronounced less absolutely if he had been permitted to inspect the Acts themselves, which we shall exhibit entire.

[10] alleged, For what seemed to him little credible about the place of the martyrdom, the reasons would have made more credible — reasons passed over indeed by Ado, but sufficiently set forth by the biographer, who, since he almost everywhere shows himself an eyewitness and a partaker of the things narrated, and professes that he received from the governor's own dictation what he could not, being present, see or hear, would have offered even to Tillemont a greater likeness of antiquity. There remain therefore, besides the lighter difficulties presently to be mentioned, only the prodigies and Metaphrastic or marvelous deeds (which ought to have sounded the same to Tillemont, since Ado is certainly older than Metaphrastes), which are no less frequent in the Acts than in Ado's epitome, and which cannot but inspire apprehension concerning their genuineness. But not even on this one head could Tillemont have denied them a likeness of truth, related as they are by such an author. Nay, you say, fabulists put on a mask of this kind so as the more easily to gain credit, and not seldom interpolators, under the protection of an eyewitness, mingle fabulous deeds with true Acts: I do not deny that this has sometimes happened, nor would I venture to warrant that it has not happened here; nevertheless, before the mark of so base an imposture is branded upon any biographer, it must not be rashly presumed, but proved by weighty reasons. Indeed, in default of these, learned men skilled in true criticism embrace and commend various Acts as genuine and authentic, even though no less filled with prodigies than ours. I do not wish, lest I run further than is fair, to demonstrate this here by examples: nevertheless, since our Saint's Acts are now for the first time, so far as I know, published entire in print, it has seemed not amiss to compare briefly in the Annotations the chief prodigies contained in these with the prodigies which are read in others, so that the reader himself may discern whether those rather than these are to be repudiated on that head. And before the rest I shall use the Acts of SS. Theodotus and the seven virgin martyrs, and of SS. Tarachus, Probus and Andronicus, which are approved by Tillemont and others, and of which the first you have among us in tom. IV of May, pag. 149, the second among the Selecta published by Ruinart in the year 1713, pag. 423.

[11] For the rest, since it rarely happens that Acts drawn up in the first centuries of the faith come down to us so unimpaired as not to labor under some difficulties, to be absolutely repudiated; the matter which seemed little credible and sometimes ones so entangled that they cannot easily be resolved — as Tillemont confesses in tom. 5 of the cited Work, pag. 660, where he proposes some in the Notes on the Acts of St. Theodotus — the Acts of St. Alexander also suffer their own; not, however, grave enough that they should therefore seem to be removed from the rank of the genuine, or to be set after the authentic Acts already praised. They can generally be conveniently explained, or attributed to the copyists, who, as we learn by frequent experience, whether from negligence or because words or sentences were worn away by age or written rather obscurely, have omitted, added, and expressed things at their own discretion: which last I here specially observe, because in our transcripts one or another circumstance is not read which Ado expressed; although otherwise he seems to have adhered closely to our Acts in the matters narrated, and sometimes uses the same words. But these things too will be more easily explained in the Annotations. I subjoin a few things whereby that may become more credible which seemed to Tillemont little credible, because Ado, as exhibiting only an epitome, had omitted to bring forward the reason why St. Alexander had been led outside the City into the Claudian Way, and had there undergone martyrdom.

[12] Crescentianus or Crisentianus the biographer, after he has narrated the manner to him, in which the Saint was seized, and how he himself together with his companions came to Rome, continues thus: At that same time Antoninus was building for himself a mausoleum on the Claudian Way at the seventeenth milestone. And when we had come to Rome, it was told Cornelianus that Antoninus had gone into the parts of Tuscany, in which place he had choice estates, and therefore he frequently went out as though for recreation []. And when Cornelianus had learned this, he hastily passed through the City. And when we had come to the place which is called the Parralian Slope, he there took him down from the beast, and, his hands being bound behind him, led him to the prætorium of Fuscus. But I*, etc. Whence it appears that whatever Ado records of the Saint was done outside the City. Further, three emperors in the second century go by the name of Antoninus: Titus Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and Lucius Verus Antoninus, although the last is more rarely designated by that name.

[13] But nowhere among the ancients have I found mention of a mausoleum built by any Antoninus on the Claudian Way: it is explained. although it is sufficiently established that the same Antonines — Pius certainly and Verus — both had estates and erected buildings in the parts of Tuscany. For Antoninus Pius was brought up at Lorium on the Aurelian Way, where he afterward built a palace, says Julius Capitolinus in his Life. And by the Aurelian Way, on the testimony of Isaac Casaubon on Capitolinus, men made for Etruria; and Lorium, or Loria Villa, where by the consent of all the same Pius died, was distant twelve miles from the City. The same Capitolinus in the Life of Lucius Verus hands down this: He (Verus) built besides a most famous villa on the Clodian Way, in which he himself also for very many days rioted with vast luxury, … and asked Marcus Aurelius … who came … staying five days in the same villa. Traces of this villa, as Aringhi notes in lib. 4 chap. 38 of the Roma subterranea, are extant to these very times at the Sabatine or Bracciano lake, of which presently.

[14] Under the same emperors also the same Capitolinus makes mention of a Cornelianus in the Life of Marcus Antoninus in these words: The time of the martyrdom is fixed broadly in the 2nd century; There was at that time also the Parthian war, which Vologesus, having prepared it under Pius, declared in the time of Marcus and Verus, Atidius Cornelianus, who then governed Syria, being put to flight. Perhaps he is the very man whom our biographer designates. But even on this supposition, not even so, as is plain, can it be determined under which Antoninus St. Alexander suffered. Baronius in the Annals attaches his martyrdom to the year of Christ 154, and accordingly understood Antoninus Pius; Tillemont preferred to defer it to the reign of Marcus Aurelius, who held it first together with Lucius Verus, and after the latter's death alone. For my part, since I have not found sufficient reasons why I should attribute it to one rather than to the other, I thought it should be marked more broadly in the second century, within the years 138, in which Pius began to reign, and 180, in which Marcus died.

[15] in about which place The biographer sets the arena of the martyrdom at the same distance of place from the City as Ado, namely at the twentieth milestone: he adds, however, some things whence it may be conjectured at about what part of the Claudian Way the whole affair was accomplished, and in what place the holy Martyr was first buried. For at num. 10 he writes that the Saint was put into a furnace in the village of Baccatum or Baccanum, as is read at the last number, where there were public baths. And Baccanæ, on Baudrand's testimony, is a village of Etruria, of which mention is made in the Itinerary of Antoninus, now called Baccano, in the domain of the church and in the province of the Patrimony, XV thousand paces from the city of Rome … it has a small lake, which is commonly called il lago di Baccano … and adjoining it is the Mœsian wood, which is named il Bosco di Baccano. A village, a lake and a wood of the same name, and at about the same distance of journey from the City, Kircher too notes in the parts of Tuscany, in the Chronography of Latium according to its old and new site.

[16] the Saint Nevertheless somewhat further from the City in the same parts there is exhibited in the aforesaid Kircher a place called in Italian Bracciano, of which Baudrand treats twice in his Lexicon; first in these words: Braccianum, Bracciano, by others Bracenum, a town of Italy in the domain of the Church and in the province of the Patrimony of St. Peter, distinguished with the title of a duchy of the Orsini, on the lake of the same name, and the chief place of the Sabatian tract. He adds that it is also called Arcennum, and refers the reader thither. And there he writes thus: Arcennum, a town of Etruria in the Sabatian tract in Livy, which others call Bracennum, and Cato Brygianum, now Bracciano, a town of Italy … on the Sabatian lake … it is small but pleasant, distant XX miles from the city of Rome. At the same lake there were baths, which, as Leandro Alberti writes in his Description of Tuscany, Strabo calls the most healthful Cæretan baths … and in this age they are called the Sabatine Baths from the Sabatine lake, which is also the Bracciano. Aringhi, cited at chap. 40, num. 13, adds: By a common and now corrupted word they are called the Baths of Vicarello, or of the Aurelian village, in which place especially are seen the traces, of vast size indeed, of the once most notable villa of the emperor Verus.

[17] suffered And hence it is not certain enough to me that Baccanæ was designated by our biographer. For as in the manuscripts the reading is so various that in one and the same codex, from which I shall transcribe the Acts, there is read in the village Baccatensis and Baccanensis, while in the Saint-Omer transcript it is Baccarensis; so it may be doubtful whether it has not everywhere been written faultily, and whether we should read Bracennensis, Bracenensis or Braccinensis. There is added that the distance from the city of Rome expressed by the biographer and by Ado favors Baccanæ less than Bracciano or even the Aurelian Village, which from the adjoining lake was perhaps called the Bracenensian or Braccianensian village. For if Baudrand notes rightly, Bracciano is distant twenty miles from Rome, the Aurelian village twenty-one: but Baccanæ only fifteen. And the biographer says that the Saint, at the emperor's command, was led out from the place where the furnace was, and beheaded at the twentieth milestone from the City; therefore, if we understand Baccanæ, it must be held that the guards went forward with the Saint for five miles; which both appears less credible, and is in some measure contrary to the mind

of the emperor, which according to the biographer seems to have been such that the Saint should be beheaded in the sight of all.

[18] Further, that he was buried by the biographer himself in the same place where the furnace stood we shall be sufficiently taught in the Acts; and was buried, is inquired into. but what is said in the old Roman and in Ado's Martyrologies about the translation of the body, and about the festival dedicated to him by St. Pope Damasus — who governed the Church after the middle of the fourth century, and who really, as is read in his Life, sought out and found many bodies of holy Martyrs — I have found nowhere more fully set forth. So much so that we do not know where the holy Pontiff made for him the crypt recorded by Ado, nor whether the Martyr's sacred remains are today preserved anywhere in particular honor. Now I subjoin the Acts as they are contained in our codex marked P Ms. 158, because in it the writing is much more correct than in the others; the more notable variant readings, however, even the faulty ones occurring in these, I shall give either in the margin or among the Annotations. And since, on account of what was said at num. 10, the Annotations will be somewhat more frequent and prolix, for greater convenience I have divided the Acts themselves, although not very prolix, into three parts.

certainly reportatum* (brought back)

elsewhere, venandum* (hunting)

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM

By Crisentianus the presbyter, an eyewitness.

From a parchment codex collated with other manuscripts.

Alexander, bishop and M., on the Claudian Way in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 0273

By Crisentianus the presbyter.

PART I

The Saint recalls a dead man In those days, when there were plots of the pagans ^a against the Christians under the emperor Antoninus, the most blessed bishop Alexander, filled with the grace of God, began to draw all men away from the worship of idols and to lead them back [] to the way and life eternal. And when a certain dead man was being carried in a coffin ^b, the most blessed Alexander came and said to his parents []: If you shall believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and shall be baptized, your son shall live again. Then his parents answered and said: If the works of God shall appear through thy working [], we too shall believe, and all who have come with us. And when they had said this [], he ordered the child to be set down, and, nodding with his hand, bade silence be made. And prostrating himself in prayer, he prayed to the Lord with tears, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who gavest light to the blind, cleansedst lepers, and in thy name raisedst a dead man: who saidst to thy disciples, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: I ask, I seek and I knock: hear me thy Servant. For the time demands that thou show thy power to all; and as thou didst deign to raise Lazarus from the tomb, so now raise this boy. Hear me, Lord, thy Servant, lest the nations say: Where is their God?

[2] to life, and baptizes many; And when he had said this, he turned to the body and said: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, arise. And straightway he rose, and standing began to cry with a loud voice: Hear, my parents, and understand [*], all you people. Today I seemed to be led by two Egyptians, whose countenances were full of wrath and fury ^c. And they led me through desert places, and set me down in a dark place; and there was there a pit sealed with seven seals, and they handed me over that I might be cast into that pit; and suddenly there was an earthquake and all hell trembled: and there came a young man whose aspect was as lightning, and he cried out with a great voice, saying: Send back the boy, for he is called by Alexander the servant of God: and behold, they led me back into my body. And saying this, he cried out with a great voice, saying: My lord Alexander, baptize me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I may no more see that pit which I saw today: where are sent those who are not baptized, or whoever have not confessed Christ. Whence it was beyond doubt to all that they should become Christians. And because it was the beginning of the month of March, on the day ^d of holy Easter they were all baptized. For the number of those who were baptized was fourteen thousand one hundred and thirty-two ^e. And he not only raised a dead man, but also renewed sight to the blind in the name of Christ, and cured many other persons without fear, by fastings and prayers and through baptism.

[3] he is seized, And while these things were doing, all that was being done came to the hearing of the tyrant Antoninus. Then the tyrant Antoninus appointed Cornelianus, the first officer of the palace ^f, with a hundred and fifty soldiers, to produce him. And Cornelianus, coming, found us in the church on the Lord's day teaching the people of God; for Mass had not yet been celebrated. And when he had entered, wishing to inquire which [] was Alexander, seeing the multitude of the peoples, he began to fear, and with reverence began to state for what cause he had come. To whom Alexander said: It is not hidden from us for what thing thou hast come; nevertheless let us go. But the multitude of the people were minded to kill him with stones; and when he had perceived their thought, he said to them: Sons and brethren, what you are minded to do, bestow [] upon me; but if you let him go, you will both hold my crown and will not lose your own joys. As he was saying this, Mass being ended, having given a prayer he blessed the people, and they let us go ^g. But I, who was ordained presbyter by him, together with my wife ^h, his sister, who lived with him without complaint, taking with us also Bonifacius and Vitalio [*], came to Rome.

[4] is led to the emperor At that same time Antoninus was building for himself a mausoleum on the Claudian Way at the seventeenth [*] milestone. And when we had come to Rome, it was told Cornelianus that Antoninus had gone into the parts of Tuscany, in which place he had choice estates, and therefore he frequently went out as though for recreation ⁱ. And when Cornelianus had learned this, he hastily passed through the City. And when we had come to the place which is called the Parralian Slope ^k, he there took him down from the beast, and, his hands being bound behind him, led him to the prætorium of Fuscus ^l. But I, with those who were with me, having followed as far as the place, halting under a tree, was anxious about the Martyr's fortunes. And Cornelianus, entering, stood before the tyrant. Then Antoninus said: Cornelianus, where is he to whom thou wentest? Cornelianus said: I have left him with his hands bound before the council-chamber. The tyrant Antoninus, sitting on the tribunal, ordered him to be brought in before him.

[5] But I, following anxiously, began to stand among the soldiers, being questioned he answers bravely; and heard how Antoninus said to Alexander: Art thou that Alexander who hast condemned the part of the East ^m, and subvertest men of good life, and deceivest many men, persuading them to believe in a desperate man, whom we have heard was killed by his own brethren? For if he had been of God, as a man he would not have suffered. But Alexander returned such an answer: For this cause, being the Lord of majesty, he came down from heaven, taking the form of a man, that he might free from death him whom he had made; and for us all Christ deigned to suffer. Antoninus said: I will not have thee speak much to me, young man ⁿ: deny thy God and sacrifice to the gods, and I will make thee first in my palace ^o. But if thou wilt not hear me, I shall prepare divers torments for thee, and thy God will not free thee from my hands. To whom bishop Alexander said [*]: Deal thou with this: to what end hast thou made me come, that now, sitting, thou shouldst persuade me by these words to adore these deaf stones? Do what thou desirest; for thou wilt not change me from my mind.

[6] Antoninus said: Let him be stretched out and beaten with cudgels until he faint. beaten, he is shut up in prison; the author is warned by an angel. Dost thou not know in whose presence thou speakest such words? Dost thou do injury to me, to whom the whole world lies subject? Bishop Alexander answered with a cheerful countenance: Do not boast so much of thy power as to say that the world lies subject to thee — the world which thou thyself shalt leave unwilling, going whither thou dost not wish. Hearing this, Antoninus ordered him to be put in prison. And as he was being led away by the soldiers, Antoninus cried out and said to Alexander: A truce of four days is granted thee by me, that, laying aside the dread of vanity [p], thou mayest take care to come to us of thine own accord. To whom the venerable Man, the bishop, said: Reckon the four days already past; what thou desirest, accomplish today. He therefore being sent to prison [*], I returned to the place where we had halted, and, sitting under a tree, began to weep, and, laying down my head and growing drowsy, began to sleep. There appeared to me an angel of the Lord, who also said to me: I am the angel Michael, sent by God: I have already been with Alexander, and have loosed his chains, comforting him, and I have come to say to thee: do not sit under that tree, lest those who wish to please the tyrant see you and report to him, and they be troublesome to you. And to what place I ought to make my way, he told me [q].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Ado: laying aside the worship of vanity.

q. These and other visions or apparitions of this kind, recurring below, were probably comprised by Tillemont among the prodigies and Metaphrastic deeds; but why should they lessen the authority of this Passion more than of others, namely of St. Theodotus, just praised, in which highly wonderful apparitions are recorded at num. 16, 18 and 19? For the rest, since the angel said that Alexander's chains were loosed, there may be a suspicion that things have here been passed over which Peter de Natalibus has in his Compendium of the Passion, lib. 8 chap. 102, namely that the Saint was freed from prison, preached anew, and was seized a second time. But since neither does Ado make mention of these, the angel's words may be so understood that by comforting and consoling him he made the chains lighter and pleasanter to the Saint.

elsewhere, perducere*

elsewhere, ad eos*

elsewhere, orationem*

elsewhere, dixisset*

elsewhere, intelligat*

elsewhere, quis*

the other codex, impedit*

elsewhere is added uterque*

* elsewhere, XVIII

The other codex, respondit*

the other codex, in custodiam*

PART II.

And when morning had now come, Antoninus called Cornelianus, and appointed him governor, and ordered the consulship to be given him ^a, saying: Since [] thou hast fulfilled my commands, and hast brought that condemned man with contumely, The Saint is set a second time before the emperor know that the prætorium in which [] thou didst find him is given thee by me, and whatever thou shalt wish from me I shall not deny thee. But I, together with those who were with me, sitting after the manner of the poor beside the neighboring road ^b, were waiting in the place which the angel of the Lord had appointed me. After four days had passed, Antoninus ordered a tribunal and a show of wild beasts to be prepared for him on the estate of the Neviani; and when all had been prepared, the tyrant Antoninus, sitting on the tribunal, ordered bishop Alexander to be brought. And when the venerable man, bishop Alexander, had come, having made the sign of the Cross, he stood before the tyrant. I anxiously heard Antoninus saying: What is it, Alexander, hast thou resolved to be our friend? Bishop Alexander answered: Do not tempt Christ my Lord: for thy father the devil too once wished to tempt him, so that he said to him: If thou be the Son of God, say that these stones be made bread. And the Lord said: Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God ^c. So I too say to thee: Thou shalt not tempt the Servant of Christ.

[8] is variously tortured, But Antoninus, angered, ordered him to be hung upon the rack, and burning torches to be set about his sides; after this he ordered him to be torn with hooks and tormented by the burning of the torches ^d. The venerable man of God Alexander said from the rack: I marvel that a senseless man should at some time grow wise: behold, thou hast become somewhat human, in that thou hast caused my body to be washed with cold water, and now causest it to be wiped with a soft sponge ^e. After this he ordered him to be taken down, and said: Thou seest, Alexander, how long the gods act on thy behalf, and thou dost not comply. By the god Jupiter and the unconquered sun and by great Apollo, who contains the world and governs the whole age ^f, if thou wilt freely render them worship, I shall hold thee as a brother, and there shall be many riches for thee. And the venerable man, bishop Alexander, said: And where are thy gods? Let us go to them, and I shall sacrifice to them ^g.

[9] praying, he destroys the idol and the shrine; among the beasts Antoninus, led by joy, ordered a herald to cry out that they should come to the temple of Apollo. And Antoninus, coming first to the temple of Apollo, and with him about three thousand men [], Antoninus entered the temple first, crying out with a great voice: Thanks to thee, Apollo, who hast gained for thyself a great worshiper, who is able to please thee and all ^h. But when the most blessed Alexander had entered, having made the sign of Christ, he prayed to the Lord, and straightway that idol fell, and the third part of the temple ⁱ. But Antoninus, confounded, ordered an amphitheater to be prepared there [], and, sitting there on the tribunal, ordered bishop Alexander to be set up before the wild beasts. And when four bears had been let loose on him, coming to where the Servant of God had walked, they licked the prints of his feet. But the tyrant, seeing this, ordered lions to be let loose on him: and when two lions had come, they humbled themselves at his feet and licked his soles ^k.

[10] and in the midst of the flames And while these things were doing, the whole people cried out with one voice: Emperor, dost thou wish to destroy a just and holy Bishop without cause ^l? Antoninus said: This man says that he overcomes by his sorceries. And turning to his Office he said: Prepare me a furnace strongly heated, where I shall have him burned with exceeding torment. The ministers, going into the village of Baccatum, prepared a furnace, since public baths in the same place served the people ^m. Into their furnace he ordered holy Alexander to be cast. And when blessed Alexander had come, seeing the furnace burning exceedingly, sighing he looked up to heaven, and began to stand before the furnace. Antoninus said: Do not persist in evil. Think with thyself: for I see thee a young man, and I grieve for thee, lest thou too soon lack the light of this sun. I swear to thee [*] by all the gods, that if thou deny thy God, thou shalt be a great friend to me: gold and silver shall abound to thee, and, if thou bid it ⁿ, I shall give thee the dignity of a prefect, and thou shalt be second in my palace.

[11] The most blessed Alexander, smiling, said to him: he is preserved unharmed I neither praise thy brow nor can I look upon thy face ^o; since a dog is far better and more prudent than thou. Once I have told thee: Thou shalt not tempt the Servant of Christ: but thou returnest to thy vomit, like a dog. I have already told thee: Do what thou art to do. Straightway Antoninus ordered holy Alexander to be cast into the furnace. But he, spreading out his hands in the midst of the furnace, prayed to the Lord, saying: Lord God almighty, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who to the three children,

cast into a furnace, didst show thy angel as a fourth, who was with them, and the fire touched them not, but was made for them a service of refreshment, which had been prepared for them for the pain of burning: depart not from me; let thy mercy, Lord, accompany me. And when he had said this, the furnace was quenched, so that neither the warmth of the burning nor a breath [*] remained in the mouth of the furnace. And the venerable man Alexander stood unharmed in the midst of the furnace, so that not in one hair was he scorched by the fire [p].

[12] Then Cornelianus the governor, coming near, said to Antoninus: and at last, the young man Herculanus openly Hear me, lord emperor, now by a fitting example order him to perish. Antoninus said: By what example? Cornelianus said: Sentence being given, order him to be beheaded in the sight of all. Antoninus said: Thou hast judged excellently; and straightway he ordered him to be cast [] out of the furnace and led away to be beheaded. And as he was being led by the soldiers, a certain young man of Antoninus' staff, named Herculanus, cried out with a loud voice, saying: Antoninus, senseless tyrant, how greatly has God blinded thy eyes, that thou seest not, and hardened thy heart, that thou understandest not and knowest not the power of God! If thy idols have eyes and see not, have ears and hear not, thou who both seest and hearest, why dost thou continue blind and deaf? Behold, the Servant of God lives, beaten by so many centurions; the touch of the rod appeared not on his body; he feared not thy racks and torches; handled with hooks, he gave no voice to pain; thy idols could not stand before him; thy temple fell before him, the lions gave him honor []; the bears licked his feet; cast into the furnace he came out more joyful than he had gone in; he goes to be beheaded filled with joy, he is made glad. Who could doubt that he is the true God, who so comforts those who believe in him?

[13] Antoninus said: Unhappy of young men, what has befallen thee that thou speakest such words, thou who saidst that thou heldest the Christians in hatred? professing himself a Christian, he is beheaded. Herculanus said: I have never persecuted a Christian, because among them I received the grace of Christ: for fourteen years I have been in thy service, I entered the temples with thee, but in my heart I secretly prayed to Christ my God. Whence the devil could not take possession of me. But Antoninus, angered, ordered the young man to be held []; and ordered Alexander to be led away to be beheaded. And as he was being led, they came to a spring [q], which is two feet beside the road, and from the village more or less a hundred and thirty feet. He washed his hands and face, and commended his soul to God: and they came opposite the twentieth milestone [r] of the Claudian Way, where there is a marble marker set upon high [] stones, above the road in a higher place, which is toward the rising of the sun, seven feet from the road, seventy-five feet from the milestone. And he stripped himself of his tunic, and stood in his linen garment, and covered his eyes with his kerchief [s], and, having made the sign of the Cross, knelt down and received the sword; and straightway there was an earthquake, and the village and both the baths fell, and from the place of the furnace the ruin scattered abroad [t].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. A great prodigy, and yet not more wonderful than what is narrated in the Acts of St. Polycarp the martyr, which Tillemont proposes as a model of ancient and authentic monuments. That martyr stood unharmed in the midst of the fire; his body, shining, gave forth a sweet odor; from that same body, when it was pierced with a sword, there came forth a dove together with the blood, by which the fire was quenched. But, lest I seem to have deserted the Acts hitherto cited, in the Passion of St. Theodotus the author narrates the following miracle: Then indeed, a huge pyre being built, the lictors cast the corpse of the holy martyr into it, placing much material around; but by a certain providence of God taking thought for men, there suddenly appeared above the pyre a light shining round about, so that none of those who were to kindle the fire dared approach, and thus the sacred body remained unharmed within the pyre. So he; is it less prodigious than ours here?

q. Understand water, which word could easily be passed over by a copyist: since fontana, taken substantively by some, designates a spring.

r. That is, to the stone marking the twentieth milestone.

s. According to Ado he had asked and obtained that kerchief or linen cloth from a certain widow who met him. See below, letter d in the Annotations to the third part.

t. With this prodigy may be compared what is narrated in the Passion of SS. Tarachus etc. in the aforesaid Ruinart at num. XI. For when the governor had ordered the bodies of the holy martyrs to be mingled with the bodies of gladiators, lest they be distinguished by the Christians, We prayed, says the author, to the Lord … then suddenly there was a great earthquake and thunders and lightnings, and an exceeding tempest of rains came down … and the guards fled … and when we were searching for the bodies … suddenly the merciful God sent from heaven a shining star, which settled over each of the Saints' bodies. A prodigy not much unlike you have also in the Passion of St. Theodotus, num. 19, among us in tom. 4 of May.

elsewhere, quia*

elsewhere is added me*

elsewhere, hominum*

elsewhere, sibi*

elsewhere, tibi*

halitus*

elsewhere, ejici*

elsewhere is added Deo*

elsewhere, teneri*

elsewhere, alios*

PART III.

The Saint, appearing to the author But I by night carried off his body, and laid him where we had halted, and sent Bonifacius to procure spices, wherewith the Martyr's

body I might embalm. And I, with those who were with me, made a small crypt in which the Martyr's body might be laid. But on the following night Alexander the martyr appeared to me in a vision, and said to me: Crisentianus, this place is due to thee and to thy wife and to those who came with you; but my body lay away in the place [] of the furnace, where I prayed to the Lord and the fire did not touch me. And to thee the Lord will grant grace in this place, and thou shalt live [] in Christ, and none shall be insolent toward thee. Keep our deeds more secretly, since the time is evil, so that they be not perceived by Antoninus and Cornelianus; for if they be found by them, they will both persecute you and burn these things with fire. And when he had said this, this vision passed away.

[15] indicates the place for burying his body. And when morning had come, Bonifacius having returned, I related all that had been commanded me by him, and, the spices being received and the body embalmed, we laid it where it had been revealed to me by him, and I wrote upon marble and set over him this ^a: HERE RESTS THE HOLY AND VENERABLE MARTYR ALEXANDER THE BISHOP, WHOSE DEPOSITION IS CELEBRATED ON THE ELEVENTH OF THE KALENDS OF OCTOBER. And the copies dictated by Cornelianus, which Protasius wrote and offered to me to read over, and which I, reading over, subjoined from them the things which were lacking in these; which Protasius himself, taking them back, ordered to be laid up honorably in the case of his library ^b. And on the fourth day from the deposition of Alexander, Antoninus handed over the young man to Cornelianus, saying: As thou knowest best, put him to death by punishment, and hide his body in a high place, lest the Christians find it and make him a martyr for themselves.

[16] Herculanus being slain in secret, the governor Then Cornelianus called the soldiers, and, a reward being given, ordered the thing to be done more secretly; and about midnight he handed the young man over to them, and ordered a great stone to be bound to his neck, and ordered him to be cast into the middle of the lake by night. The soldiers did the governor's bidding. And when he had been cast in, the stone was loosed, and he went out on his own feet as far as the shore, and began to stand. And looking to right and left, he prayed to the Lord, saying: My Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit, and grant me thy promise. And thou knowest, Son of the living God, that in my life I never served thee feignedly: with Antoninus I entered the temple ^c, but always in my heart I secretly prayed to thee. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, make me not a stranger to thy servant Alexander. And there came to him a voice from heaven which said: Fear not, my Child; for I have loved thee: come to me, my angels shall receive thee and shall bring thee into paradise to everlasting rest: and when this was said, he gave up his spirit ^d.

[17] But the soldiers, seeing all that had been done, came and related it to Cornelianus. And on the seventh day from the deposition of Alexander, Cornelianus came to the place at St. Alexander's tomb he is punished and healed; where his body had been laid, and, shaking his head, began to read, filled with anger, because he found the Martyr's name written. And straightway he wished to break out the marble. But when he stretched out his hand, it was made withered; and, falling to the ground, he began to be racked with pains. The servants run; his wife, lamenting with loosened hair, ran, and came to the place, and there found her husband lying. She questions [] him; he answered her nothing. For he lay senseless and changed from his mind: and, lifting him into a barrow ^e, she brought him back to the prætorium of Fuscus; and, racked with much pain, about midnight he began to cry out: Alexander, thou burnest me: I beg thee, help me. And lifting him again she brought him back to the place where the Martyr's body lay; and, casting him on his left side, the withered hand [] lay [*] over the Martyr's burial-place. And forthwith his hand was made whole, and straightway he grew drowsy, sleeping until morning. And when morning had come, when Cornelianus had learned all that had been done concerning him, he returned to the prætorium of Fuscus; and he sent and summoned Protasius together with his own daughter, and made known to them all that had happened concerning the Martyrs, and the things which he himself had suffered from them. And then Protasius, at Cornelianus' own dictation, wrote everything plainly ^f.

[18] But while the tyrant Antoninus was acting thus, a man just and God-fearing, The body of St. Herculanus, divinely shown, is buried. whose works were great and his alms many, coming to me, made it known to me, saying: As I slept [*], about the third cock-crow, a certain shining man appeared to me, who, rousing me, said to me: Arise and go to the foot of the mountain, thou shalt find there the body of the venerable youth Herculanus, and thou shalt gather him and bury him in thy cemetery: for this benefit life shall be granted thee. Rising therefore I came to the Crecian springs ^g and found the youth lying there. I lifted him on a sledge ^h, and brought him to the place, and wrapped him in two linen cloths, and laid him in my cemetery, which I cut out in the riverside tufa ⁱ, on the sixth day of the Kalends of October.

[19] And when the tyrant Antoninus was dead, Cornelianus the governor gave the prætorium to Protasius as a favor for the maintenance of his daughter ^k. A church is built over the body of St. Alexander. And when Protasius had learned that in the village of Baccanum there had been public baths, he restored those baths at the prætorium of Fuscus to their former state under the same name. And when Christ had granted me the favor of Protasius, I asked him to have a church built over the Martyr's burial-place. And Protasius assigned me four chosen workmen and twelve marbles, and at his own expense they drew a foundation to the Martyr's body: and he ordered a roof to be made by those four []. Again I asked [] him to give me leave to make a cemetery; he gave me three hundred feet round about the place. And the cemetery being finished, in the name of Christ, with the people contributing, the church was made ^l. Whose dedication is celebrated on the tenth of the Kalends of April, in the second consulship of Constantine and the second of Crispus Cæsar ^m, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who liveth and reigneth God through all the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

read in the church. Finally, since in the same fourth century Pope Damasus translated the holy Martyr's body, it is no wonder that Ado did not note the day of the dedication. And why there was omitted in the Acts what Ado subjoins about the kerchief sent back to the widow by a youth, may be conjectured from what was said at letter d.

elsewhere, in loco*

elsewhere, vivens*

elsewhere, interrogans*

elsewhere, aridam manum*

elsewhere, jactabat*

elsewhere, dormiens ego*

elsewhere, istos*

elsewhere, rogans*