ON SS. MAGIGNUS AND NABOR AND FAUSTINUS, MARTYRS,
FROM THE HIERONYMIAN COPIES.
CommentaryMagignus, martyr. (S.)
Nabor, martyr. (S.)
Faustinus, martyr. (S.)
BY J. S.
Three Martyrs, the place of their martyrdom being omitted, Concerning the three Martyrs whose names, for brevity's sake, I have expressed in the title in one form only, although they are variously mangled in the Martyrologies, I have greatly doubted whether they belong to this day. For in the Hieronymian Martyrologies the place in which each of the Martyrs suffered is usually expressed. But the arena of these three Martyrs is not assigned, as sometimes happens, chiefly in the case of those who are reproduced on a day not their own. I have therefore examined, so far as I could, whether they might not belong to another day: for the silence of all the martyrologists of the Middle Ages had increased the suspicion arising from the omission of the place. Yet I have not been able to find on any other day three companions of nearly the same names, and therefore I have believed that they should be referred to this day, at least until they become more clearly known somewhere; for the Hieronymian copies agree well enough about these three, and the reasons brought forward to the contrary do not prove with certainty that they belong to another day, since the Martyrs may have become known to the collector without the place of their martyrdom, and the later martyrologists have passed over many others as well. Receive then, reader, the few things which occur to be said of them.
[2] In Florentinius, in the text after St. Luxorius, who is announced in Sardinia, variously commemorated in the Hieronymian Fasti, these follow thus: And of SS. Magignus, Nabor, Faustinus. Florentinius notes on page 1069 that in the Blumian codex there is read: And elsewhere the birthday of the saints Migignus, etc. That they were not companions of St. Luxorius, martyr of Cagliari, is suggested first by the words and elsewhere, expressed in various codices; and the same appears more openly from the Corbie codex, where they are announced before Luxorius in these words, as given by d'Achery: And elsewhere the birthday of SS. Migignus, Nabor, Faustinus. The Epternach codex has: And elsewhere of Nigenus, Nabrotus, Faustinus. The Reichenau codex: And elsewhere of Migiunus, Nabortus, Faustinus. They are expressed more confusedly, as is customary, in three of the more abridged codices, namely the Augsburg, the Labbean and the Gellone. The first has: Of Magnus, Nabostus, Faustinus. The second: Of Nignus, Nabortus, Faustinus. The third: Of Mignus, Nabortus, Fastinus. The editor adds in the Annotations that there is read in the codex of St. Gall: Of Magnus, Nabostus, Faustinus. From what has been adduced the studious reader will gather that the names of the first two are exceedingly uncertain on account of their varied corruption: for the first is written Magignus, Migignus, Nigenus, Migiunus, Magnus, Nignus and Mignus. The second: Nabor, Nabrotus, Nabortus and Nabostus. But the third is everywhere called Faustinus, and in one place only Fastinus.