Herculanus

ON ST. HERCULANUS, MARTYR,

UPON THE CLAUDIAN WAY IN ITALY

From the Martyrologies and the Acts of S. Alexander, bishop and martyr.

In the II century

Herculanus, Martyr, on the Claudian Way in Italy (S.)

BY J. P.

The conversion to Christ of this vigorous Athlete, The Saint, whose Acts were given on the 21st of September; and his renowned combat for His faith, we have already now exhibited at the XXI day of September, on the occasion of St. Alexander, crowned with martyrdom on the Claudian Way on the said day; for such was the connexion of their deeds among themselves that they could not conveniently be separated from one another. Wherefore, holding as here inserted whatever was discussed there about the Acts of the martyrdom, and about their value and their author — who professes himself an eye-witness of almost all of it — we add only those things which we did not judge should be brought forward then from the sacred Calendars, since that day was not proper to St. Herculanus. The first among the martyrologists to mention him is Ado, but again only on the occasion of St. Alexander, at the XXVI day of November, on which the birthday of neither was observed, but only the translation of St. Alexander. Our Saint is indeed commemorated today in three codices which Dominic Georgi lately used to illustrate Rosweyde's Martyrology of Ado, and about whose authority, compared with the authority of the codices of Mosander and Rosweyde, a little more will have to be said today in St. Aunarius; but we do not think the announcement should be attributed to Ado. The leader on this day, therefore, is Usuard, announcing him thus: On the same day, of saint Herculanus the soldier, who is read of in the Passion of Alexander the bishop. The author of our manuscript Florarium follows a little more fully: On the same day, of saint Herculanus the soldier, who, at the command of the emperor Anthoninus, by the governor Cornelius, * a great stone being tied to his neck, was cast into a lake, and was not drowned, but was led back to the shore by the Lord's guidance: at last, after various torments, he was consummated by the sword in the year of Salvation CLI. His passion and conversion are described in the deeds of blessed Alexander the bishop, below at the VI Kalends of December. So he; which things he could have learned neither from Ado alone, nor from our Acts of St. Alexander alone — indeed, if you regard the epoch of the martyrdom, not all of them even from both — as I shall show, when I have finished with the other martyrologists.

[2] he is rightly marked today in the Calendars, As many of the more recent writers as have inscribed St. Herculanus in their Calendars — and they are very many — have conspired in this, that they have marked him on this day; but not all equally rightly in the circumstances of time and place at which he underwent martyrdom. Both Galesinius passed over in silence, and so was not liable to error: On this very day, of S. Herculanus the martyr. Canisius in the German Martyrology, Castellan in the universal one, and Baronius in today's Roman, make the wrestling-place of his martyrdom the City itself, although from Ado and from the Acts of St. Alexander it seems clear enough to be gathered that both Herculanus and Alexander suffered on the Claudian Way. Baronius's announcement is this: At Rome, of S. Herculanus, soldier and martyr, who, converted to Christ by the miracles at the passion of blessed Alexander the bishop, under the emperor Antoninus, after many torments was slain by the sword. Manifestly deceived, and offering a handle for error to the less cautious, were Belinus and several others in the Usuardine Auctaria, substituting for Alexander the bishop Alexander the Pope, as follows: On the same day, of saint Herculanus the soldier, who is read of in the Passion of Alexander the Pope.

[3] Hence Peter de Natalibus, probably deceived, invented for himself two Herculanuses: yet with erroneous circumstances here and there. ours, whose martyrdom, and that of Alexander the bishop, he narrates under the emperor Antoninus, book 8, chapter 102; and another, whom, converted to the faith by Alexander the Pope and having obtained the palm of martyrdom on this very XXV day of September, he adorns with this elogium in the same place, chapter 120: Herculanus the martyr suffered at Rome under the emperor Aurelian, who was converted to Christ and baptized by blessed Alexander the Pope, while the same Alexander was held in custody at the house of Quirinus the tribune: wherefore, accused before Aurelian and arrested by him and beaten with cudgels, in the confession of the Lord's name he at length received the palm of martyrdom, the sword slaying him, on the VII Kalends of October. Whose body was buried by the Christians on the Nomentan Way, at the VII milestone from the city. The Acts of St. Alexander I, the Pontiff put to death by martyrdom about the year 117, not by the emperor Aurelian, who belongs to the 3rd century, but by another of the same name, who was appointed judge by Trajan, then ruling, have been illustrated among us at the III day of May: and truly in them that Pontiff is read to have brought to the faith Hermes the prefect and Quirinus the tribune himself, beheaded for the same faith, and about eighteen captives, all of whom, baptized in prison, Aurelian ordered to be led out onto the high sea in an old ship, and there to be drowned with stones tied to their necks. But those Acts contain nothing from which you could gather that any Herculanus suffered on this day and in that manner, which nevertheless would be necessary if the announcement of Belinus and the others were not faulty. This one reason would suffice for us to suspect that the whole elogium recited from Peter de Natalibus was invented gratuitously; even if it were not established from the plain text of the Martyrology that by Usuard is designated the Herculanus recorded in the Passion of S. Alexander the bishop, and crowned with martyrdom on this very day; but this second point needs some elucidation.

[4] Ado, as I noted above, granted St. Herculanus no day of his own, The elogium from Ado; and at the XXVI day of November, setting forth the passion of St. Alexander, spoke of that same Herculanus less distinctly than that we can from his words certainly gather his birthday in heaven. For after narrating the various torments bravely and miraculously overcome by Alexander, he continues in this manner: Then Antoninus ordered the holy man to be led out of the furnace and beheaded. And when he was already being led away by the soldiers, a certain young man of Antoninus's staff, Herculanus by name, cried out, saying: Antoninus, senseless tyrant, why dost thou continue blind and deaf? Behold, the servant of God, after thy rods, after thy racks and torches and the touchings 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 extinguished, now goes filled with joy to be beheaded: who could doubt that He is the true God, who so strengthens His own? Antoninus, hearing this, said: Unhappy young man, what has happened to thee, that thou shouldst speak such words? And being angry, he ordered the Young man to be held, and when he had afflicted him with various torments, he consummated him by the sword. But blessed Alexander, when he was being led … kneeling down received the sword on the Claudian Way … whose deposition is celebrated on the eleventh of the Kalends of October.

[5] Peter de Natalibus, reading these things in Ado, or the like in another, the day of the martyrdom unknown to many, judged that both Saints were struck with the sword together on the same day:

for in book 8, chapter 102, after likewise reporting the torments and miracles of S. Alexander, he subjoins: And Herculanus the soldier, seeing this, is converted to Christ: and straightway both of them are ordered by the emperor to be beheaded. Then, a few things being interposed, he says: And so he received the sword together with the aforesaid Herculanus: from which too it appears why the same author, finding in a corrupt copy of the Usuardine Martyrology Herculanus joined with Alexander the Pope, persuaded himself that he was a different man from ours. Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, at the XXI day of September, closely adheres to the prelate of Equilio as to the day of death common to both Saints, and persists in the same opinion on the XXV day of the same month, in both places understanding the same Herculanus more rightly than he did, but, not knowing why he recurs in the Martyrologies on this day, subjoins this Annotation: Although from the Acts of S. Alexander (namely those which he had given before, taken from Peter de Natalibus) it appears that Herculanus suffered together with him on the XXI day of this month, yet in the Roman Martyrology his martyrdom is observed on this day, perhaps because on this day his body was given to burial. Our Sollerius too hesitated here, in his Observation on Usuard, not indeed so as to think both Saints were slain together on the XXI, but so that it seemed to him that Usuard had placed St. Herculanus today at his own mere discretion, since certainly in Ado's elogium no greater indication is given for this day than for the other, nor does Herculanus appear in the older Martyrology on the XXV of September.

[6] it is shown from the Acts of S. Alexander, All doubt is removed, and the matter made plain, by the Acts of S. Alexander which we printed on the XXI day, and which, as they lay before Ado in many things, so also before Usuard in this point: for in them it is so clearly signified that Herculanus was crowned on this day that Usuard could not, without a just cause, rightly have transferred his commemoration to the other. Let us hear the words, so far as they are necessary to prove this. At number 13, after the speech of Herculanus inveighing against the cruelty of Antoninus, we have these words: Antoninus, being angry, ordered the Young man to be held: thereupon, no mention being made of our Saint, the author goes on to set forth the passion and burial of S. Alexander down to the end of number 15, where, resuming the history of Herculanus, he speaks thus: But on the fourth day from the deposition of Alexander (which he had earlier fixed on the XI Kalends of October, or the XXI day of September) Antoninus handed the Young man over to Cornelianus, saying: Just as thou best knowest, put him to death by punishment, and hide his body in a high place, lest the Christians find him and make him a Martyr for themselves. Cornelianus deferred the execution of the command until the following night, on which the holy Martyr, handed over to the soldiers, a stone being tied to his neck, was cast into a lake, and, being miraculously delivered thence, rendered his soul to God, as is there set forth at greater length at number 16. And at number 18 it is said that his body was shown by divine revelation to a Christian man, who, taking it up, buried it in his own cemetery on the sixth day of the Kalends of October.

[7] and certain other things bearing on it There is also another matter among most of the more recent martyrologists which needs some explanation or correction; for they write in such a way as if Herculanus, having seen the miracles divinely wrought in the passion of S. Alexander, was then first converted to Christ. This indeed neither does Usuard teach, nor does Ado openly hint it in the words cited above: And when he was already being led away by the soldiers (Alexander, to undergo death by the sword), a certain Young man of Antoninus's staff, Herculanus by name, cried out saying: Antoninus, senseless tyrant, etc. These things could be understood at the least equally of a man who was previously a secret Christian, and who by the miracles and heroic fortitude of Alexander was animated and inflamed to profess his faith openly and to reproach the tyrant with the hardness of his heart, as of a heathen who for the same causes then first embraced the faith of Christ: nay, that they must be understood in the former sense the Acts again declare at number 13; where Herculanus takes up these words of Antoninus — Unhappy of young men, what has happened to thee, that thou shouldst speak such words, thou who saidst thou heldest Christians in hatred? — with this reply: I have never persecuted a Christian, because among them I received the graces of Christ: for fourteen years I was on thy staff, I entered the temples with thee, but I secretly prayed to Christ my God. Whence the devil could not take possession of me.

[8] These things being observed for the elucidating of the statements of certain martyrologists, are observed. I return to our manuscript Florarium, whose announcement of today I recited at number 1, but which its author, as I noted, could have received in full neither from Ado alone, nor from our Acts of S. Alexander alone, nor from both together. The first point is clear from this, that in agreement with the Acts he says that St. Herculanus, a stone being tied to his neck, was cast into a lake, and yet was not drowned: for of these things Ado does not mention even a word. The second, that with Ado he asserts that the same Saint consummated his martyrdom by the sword; of which no express mention is made in the Acts. The third, that neither Ado nor our biographer designates a certain year of the martyrdom, yet he here determinately fixes it in the year of Salvation CLI, and adds at the XXVI day of November, in the XLIII year of the third persecution, in which he agrees well enough with the calculations of Eusebius, who marks the beginnings of the third persecution in the 10th year of Trajan, the year of Christ 107. But, whether this arose from his own error or from that of a copyist, on the XXI day of September, in Alexander, transcribing Usuard word for word, he adds in the year of Salvation CXL: wherefore I have not wished, Ado and the biographer being silent, to lay down anything more determinate here than at the said XXI day, where, for the reasons alleged in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of Alexander at number 12 and the three following, I marked the martyrdom of Alexander himself, and consequently of Herculanus, broadly in the second century, between the years 138 and 180. There would be several other things too, especially bearing on the manner of death undergone by St. Herculanus, worthy of note in this place, had I not set forth my mind upon them in the Annotations to the third part of the Acts of the often-mentioned S. Alexander, from letter d to letter k, to which, lest I do what has been done already, I refer the reader.

* read Corneliano