ON ST. PAMPHILUS THE MARTYR,
AT ROME.
A COLLECTION
On his memory in the Martyrologies, his cult and relics.
Pamphilus, M., at Rome (S.)
BY C. S.
This Saint is announced today by Usuard, Baronius, The most eminent Baronius today announced this holy Martyr in the Roman Martyrology thus briefly: At Rome, of St. Pamphilus the martyr. Others had gone before Baronius, and especially Usuard, whom he cites in the Notes, and who on this very day reckoned him in the last place, saying: Likewise at Rome, of St. Pamphilus the martyr. Yet whence Usuard learned of this Pamphilus our Sollier wonders in his observation on his text, where he says this: The last place here is occupied by Pamphilus, martyr at Rome, clothed with no other note or mark of distinction. Baronius asserts that ancient manuscripts support Usuard. But which or what sort these are he nowhere indicates; perhaps because he found them cited only in Galesinius, who is liberal enough in naming them. I confess that I greatly wonder at this Pamphilus added by Usuard, of whom no older or contemporary writer makes mention, since I have noted elsewhere that scarcely any Saint is found in Usuard (I except those of Cordova and popular Gallic saints) of whom at least some traces do not occur in others. Nevertheless that he is truly venerated by him on this day is beyond doubt from all our codices. Thus far Sollier, most conversant in this subject.
[2] Nevertheless, if the Gellone Martyrology published by d'Achery in tom. 13 of the Spicilegium, first edition, the Gellone Martyrology, and others. was composed at the beginning of the ninth century, or about the year 804, as the editor affirmed, it must be confessed that Usuard was not the very first of all who inserted the Roman martyr Pamphilus in a Martyrology at the XXI day of September. For on the same day in the aforesaid Gellone Martyrology there is read, likewise in the last place: At Rome, of Pampilus the martyr. The same has also the other edition of the same Spicilegium, reprinted in the year 1723. Nor is there any doubt that this Pampilus is the same as Usuard's Pamphilus, since such a dislocation of names is most frequent in the ancient Martyrologies, and in both places he is announced also at Rome. The Augsburg Martyrology of the monastery of St. Udalric, published in tom. VI of June among the abridged Hieronymian Martyrologies by Sollier, has on this very day and likewise in the last place, but without mention of the arena: Of Palpilus the martyr; and that he is the same as the Pampilus of the Gellone Martyrology no one will doubt who is willing to compare the text of both for this day. He is announced today also in our manuscript Florarium Sanctorum, with the year added in which he suffered, in this manner: Likewise at Rome, of St. Pamphilus the martyr, in the year of salvation CCCIX. Finally other more recent writers agree, whom I forbear to reckon.
[3] His deeds and the time of his martyrdom Further, Baronius rightly warns above that today's St. Pamphilus is different from his namesake who, having suffered at Cæsarea in Palestine in the persecution of Galerius Maximian, is inscribed in the older Hieronymian Martyrology in Florentinius at the XVI day of February, and in various ancient and more recent Martyrologies at the Kalends of June. Usuard certainly distinguished the two, when to the one he assigned the Order of the presbyterate and Cæsarea for his arena, at the Kalends of June; and the other, without that title, he reckoned today as crowned at Rome. The Gellone martyrologist indeed did not so distinguish them, who makes no mention elsewhere of the Cæsarean Pamphilus; but he nevertheless assigned, as I said, the Roman arena to today's, which suffices for the distinction. In the Augsburg Martyrology too the Cæsarean martyr is read neither at the XVI day of February nor at the 1st of June; yet from what has been said it is clear that the Palpilus whom he commemorates today is the Roman one. As to his deeds, these are entirely hidden from me, as also the manner of his martyrdom, and the year and the persecution in which he was crowned. Nor have I found anything about these in others, except in our Florarium cited above, whose author doubtless adapted to the Roman the time of the martyrdom of the Cæsarean Pamphilus, who suffered in the year 308, with a difference of about one year, and who besides is of no authority in this part.
[4] are wholly hidden; some of his relics at Rome; Wherefore Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy seems to have said rightly: Pamphilus the martyr, different from him who is related in the Roman Martyrology to have been crowned at Cæsarea in Palestine on the Kalends of June; … he is recorded on this day by Usuard and others as having suffered at Rome for the faith of Christ; the rest is wholly hidden … The time of this Martyr's passion is unknown to us, since Usuard, from whom the Roman Martyrology seems to have received it, made bare mention of him. Baronius indeed cited in the Annotations to his Martyrology ancient manuscripts; but since he did not record even the persecution in which the holy Martyr fell, it is clear enough either that this was not noted in them, or that Baronius adopted the statements of Galesinius, as Sollier suspected above at num. 1. The aforesaid Ferrari besides confesses that it is equally unknown to him where the body of the Roman St. Pamphilus is preserved. But Carlo Piazza in the Hemerologium sacrum Romanum, part 2, at this very day of September teaches at least some of his relics and his cult in these words: St. Pamphilus, a Roman martyr, recorded in the Roman Martyrology. At St. Mary of the People, where one of his fingers is; other relics of the same are in St. Peter's and in St. Sylvester's in the Campus Martius.
[5] Besides, I have in my hands a letter given at Rome in the year 1692 to our Janning by John Francis Vanni, Is his body at Corinaldo in Italy? a priest of our Society, in which he writes that the body of St. Pamphilus the Roman martyr, of whom the Roman Martyrology makes mention at the XXI day of September, rests at Corinaldo, and that he is the patron of that place. And Corinaldum, in the native tongue Corinaldo, is a town of Italy on the boundary of the duchy of Urbino where it adjoins the March of Ancona, and in the diocese of Senigallia. Leandro Alberti in his Description of Italy reckons it among the more considerable towns and castles situated beside the Misa or Nigola river, at whose mouth Senigallia lies. But the aforesaid Vanni in the same letter confesses that there is plainly nothing known there about their holy Patron, and that the people of Corinaldo were seeking out with all zeal and labor monuments from which some light might be shed upon this darkness. Hence he also asked that if any such were extant among us they should be sent to him. What Janning answered to this I do not know; but certainly I have found nothing of the kind in our Museum; nor have I anything whence I could even lightly prove or deny that that sacred body honored at Corinaldo is rather today's Pamphilus' than another holy martyr's. I likewise do not know whether the people of Corinaldo's diligence in seeking out monuments has turned out happily — which I wish them. And if it be so, more about our St. Pamphilus will be able to be given in the Supplement of the Work.