ON SS. ANDREW AND JOHN AND PETER AND ANTONY, MARTYRS IN AFRICA,
IN AFRICA
About CM.
A Syllogy from the Martyrologies, chiefly from the Menæa of the Greeks.
Andrew, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
John, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
Peter, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
Antony, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
BY J. S.
Baronius at this day poured over from Greek sources into the Roman Martyrology the memory of four martyrs, These Martyrs recorded in the Latin and Greek Martyrologies: whom he thus announces: In Africa, the holy martyrs Andrew, John, Peter, and Antony. Ottavio Gaetani in the Sicilian Martyrology mentions the same in these words: At Syracuse, SS. Andrew, John, Peter and Antony, martyrs under the Saracens. Whether Gaetani announces them at Syracuse because they obtained a cult there (for in the margin he cites a Calendar of Syracuse), or only because at least the three later ones are said to have been Syracusans, I have not ascertained. Nay, I rather believe that these Martyrs are not venerated at Syracuse, since the same Gaetani in his Annotations on the Acts given from the Menæa makes no mention of a cult at Syracuse, nor does he even cite there a Calendar of Syracuse. Ferrari, however, in the General Catalogue mentions these four Martyrs also at Syracuse. The Menology of the Greeks, which Sirlet turned into Latin, has thus at the same day: The commemoration of the holy martyrs Andrew, John, Peter and Antony, who suffered in Africa. In like manner the memory of the same is inserted in the printed Menæa, and in Marcus, bishop of Cythera.
[2] their martyrdom celebrated in verses in the Menæa. In the Menæa there are prefixed to a longer eulogy six Greek verses, in which the martyrdom of each is briefly touched upon. These I subjoin with a Latin translation.
Υπὲρ νυγέντος πρὶν μιᾷ λόγκῃ Λόγου Λόγκαις ἤνεγκε νυγεὶς δυτταῖς Ανδρέας. Εχθρὰν πλανηθεὶς καὶ σφαγεὶς Ιωάννης Σφάττει τὸν ἐχθρὸν καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τὴν πλάνην. Αντώνιος καὶ Πέτρος, ὡς στεῤῥαὶ Πέτραι, Πρὸς τὰς μεληδὸν ἐκκοπὰς ἐκαρτέρουν.
For the divine Word, pierced before with one lance, Andrew, pierced with two lances, suffered. John, deceived by enmities and slain, Slays the enemy and with him error. Antony and Peter, as firm rocks, Patiently endured cuttings made limb by limb.
After these verses there is added in the Menæa a eulogy, by which it is more fully explained what each suffered, but in another order. For in the verses Andrew is set first, perhaps for his age, since he is said to have been an old man; but in the eulogy he is last, as having suffered after the rest. But John, who was the father of Antony and Peter, is there mentioned in the third place, because he suffered after his Sons.
[3] Ottavio Gaetani in the Acts of the Sicilian Saints, tome 2, page 59, gave the aforesaid eulogy of the Menæa rendered into Latin, A forewarning to the Acts to be given from the Menæa. which I shall reprint below, collated with the Greek text, corrected in some places, and illustrated with due annotations. But I do not think those Acts of such worth as to seem to need reprinting in Greek also. If we believe the Acts, our Martyrs were afflicted with punishments and crowned with martyrdom by the same king of the Saracens who stormed Syracuse. This indeed I shall not deny to be probable enough; but it is less likely that the king had in the torturing of the Martyrs those parts which the author of the Eulogy attributes to him, when he relates that John and Andrew were slain by his hands. I should not dare either to hold for certain the things which are asserted about the offices to which Antony and Peter were promoted. Certainly young men taken in war and led away into slavery are not so easily wont to be promoted to notable offices, so that the dignity of Antony and Peter should become sufficiently certain from the Menæa alone. The year in which the Martyrs suffered cannot certainly be assigned. Syracuse seems to have been stormed in the year 878,
as is read in the Sicilian Chronicle, which was published from the Cambridge Arabic codex in the Writers of Italy, tome 1, part 2, page 245. The same epoch Pagi proves by other arguments too, at the year 878, number 15 and following. But we do not know how many years the Martyrs survived after, Syracuse being taken, they were led away into Africa. If we believe the Acts, Antony and Peter were boys when they were led away, but reached manhood before they suffered. And so twenty years and more could easily have run between their being led away and their martyrdom; but nothing certain can prudently be affirmed about a matter so uncertain. Wherefore I have broadly fixed the martyrdom about the year CM.
ACTS
Rendered into Latin from the printed Menæa. Translated by Ottavio Gaetani, S. J.
Andrew, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
John, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
Peter, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
Antony, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
The Saints, Syracuse having been taken, led away into slavery; Basil being emperor of the Greeks a, a most cruel tyrant, Abrachen b, an Agarene by race, was master of affairs in all Africa. He, when he overthrew Syracuse (that city is the metropolis of Sicily), led away thence John together with his sons Peter and Antony, still of immature age, whom he at once ordered to be instructed in the letters of the Agarenes. Then, when these had come to manhood and began to excel many in judgment and manners, they so moved the mind of that lost man with immense admiration that Antony indeed was chosen by the king as genicus c, and Peter as sacellarius d. Nevertheless they by no means ceased to be Christians in secret, although openly they seemed to conduct the affairs of the Saracens e: but the matter did not long lie hidden.
[2] the martyrdom of the two younger, For Abrachen, having got wind of what the case was, being stirred with immense fury, their feet being tightly bound, punished the Men grievously with knotted cudgels. Blessed Antony therefore, afflicted with four hundred f blows upon the feet, and broken by them, gave thanks to God. Afterward, being set upon a little ass and bound with pack-saddle cords, he is led about through the middle of the city. But Peter they order to be stripped of his garments: then they grievously bruise his shoulders and belly with staves; presently they cast him into prison g. But when the tyrant had brought him out thence, he breaks his arms at the shoulders and his hands with the hardest logs: then he crushes his hips, and shins, and finally his feet, so that all his bones seemed to be softened and almost ground to pieces, and the very flesh to have melted and flowed away together with the blood. Besides these things, a heap of coals being piled up and a blacksmith called, he orders their private parts to be cut off with a glowing pair of tongs, and to be thrown into the faces of the blessed Martyrs.
[3] These things having been done upon the holy Men, he drags into the midst John their father, and of the two others. and, seizing him with his left hand, pierces his throat with the sword which he was carrying: and so, collapsing upon his dearest sons, he breathed out his soul. Afterward a huge pyre being kindled, the bodies of the holy Martyrs were burned together in the same fire. For the rest, blessed Andrew, of a greatly advanced age, had passed many years in chains, worn out and squalid with hunger, thirst, cold, and other calamities of that kind, because he would not obey the tyrant's commands. What plan therefore does that most monstrous beast take? He leaps upon a horse, and, seizing a spear, when he found the holy Man standing, pierces his breast with the javelin. But when the renowned Martyr, about to give thanks to God, had broken out into speech, the most monstrous executioner, approaching again from behind, transfixes his shoulder with another javelin. Thus, his entrails being pierced through by a double spear, the holy Man fell to the ground. Then his sacred head is cut off with the sword, and so their martyrdom was completed.