Stacteus and Turturinus

ON SS. STACTEUS AND TURTURINUS: MARTYRS,

AT ROME

From the Martyrologies and the Life of Bl. Rabanus.

Stacteus, Mart., at Rome. (S.)

Turturinus, at Rome. (S.)

BY J. S.

St. Stacteus is mentioned as a martyr in the Hieronymian Baronius announces today in the Roman Martyrology a Martyr little known, writing thus: In the same place (that is, at Rome, of which he had been treating) of St. Stacteus the martyr. In the Annotations he adds: Of the same, Bede (the spurious one) and Usuard and other more recent writers; and the old manuscripts agree, namely the Martyrologies, not Acts. The memory of St. Stacteus is certainly read in the most ancient Martyrologies, not yet printed in Baronius's time, but with the name here and there dislocated, as is wont to happen in them. The Hieronymian ones in Florentini have it thus: At Rome the birthday of Stacta. The Corbie codex: At Rome, the birthday of St. Stacteus. In the Echternach one: At Rome, St. Stacteus. And in the same, in the first place: At Rome the birthday of Sterteus. Florentini in his Annotations doubts whether Sterteus and Stacteus are the same. But, considering the frequent repetitions of those Martyrologies, scarcely any doubt is left me that it is the same Martyr. But what Peter de Natalibus says, book XI num. 262, Stacteus the confessor rested at Rome on the IV Kalends of Oct., and Maurolico in his Martyrology, At Rome, of St. Stacteus the prelate, ought to detain us little, nor does it bring in any well-founded doubt about a twofold Stacteus or Sterteus. For since in the ancient Martyrologies Stacteus is constantly mentioned as a martyr, and both those writers of a more recent age have fallen into not a few errors of that kind, they are simply to be corrected.

[2] The memory of St. Stacteus occurs also in the abridged Hieronymian ones. and in other ancient Fasti, The Reichenau one has: At Rome, of Sterteus. Three others exhibit the bare name, as is generally done in them, and in one of them corrupted as well. Of these the Augsburg one has Statheus, the Labbean and the Gellone ones Stacteus. Bede did not mention Stacteus, nor did Ado, nor Wandelbert, nor Notker: he is nevertheless found in the Appendix to Ado and in some enlarged codices of Bede. Rabanus, who received the relics of St. Stacteus from Rome, as we shall see, mentioned him briefly in these words: At Rome the birthday of Stacteus. Usuard nearly agrees, saying: At Rome, the birthday of St. Stacteus. He is found also in two of the Martyrologies which Martène published in tom. 6 of the Amplissima Collectio. In the Stavelot one it stands thus, without the place: And of Stacteus the martyr. The Auxerre one added the place in this manner: At Rome ad Guttas, the birthday of St. Sterteus. I do not sufficiently grasp whence the not very ancient compiler of that Martyrology drew the place ad Guttas. Still more do I wonder at what the author of the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum writes about St. Stacteus at this day, again making Stacteus a confessor. At Rome, he says, the birthday of St. Stacteus the confessor. This devout philosopher, and most expert in the philosophical demonstration of things, at length considering the mortality of all creatures and the immortality of souls, and knowing the inscrutable mighty works of God, setting all things aside and acknowledging only those which belong to life, was made a true confessor and professor of the Christian faith. I judge that these things were put forward by someone who believed he could attribute in general to a holy Confessor, as he supposed him, what is necessary to all Saints.

[3] [He is almost unknown at Rome. His relics and those of St. Turturinus were translated to Fulda.] But I rather praise Ferrari, who preferred to confess that nothing had become known of St. Stacteus beyond his martyrdom. For in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, at this day, concerning St. Stacteus martyr at Rome he has it thus: That Stacteus suffered martyrdom at Rome is reported by Bede, Usuard and others. But nothing else besides is read written of him: nor could it be known where his body rests, since at Rome there survives no memory of him but that of his martyrdom. Thus Ferrari. Nevertheless we find something about the relics of St. Stacteus in the Life of Bl. Rabanus Maurus, given at the IV of February, which Rudolf the presbyter, his disciple, wrote. There are reported in that Life three translations of various relics, which were brought from Rome to Fulda, where Bl. Rabanus was abbot. Of these the second is reported in chap. 4, where it is said that in the following year (after the 835 mentioned before), that is in the year 836, a certain layman came to Rabanus from the city of Rome, Sabbatinus by name, and gave him then the relics of some Saints, of whom it has been or will be treated, and the bones of St. Turturinus, and the greatest part of the ashes of the body of St. Stacteus, and ten bones.

[4] Nothing has become known of other relics of Stacteus, nothing of Turturinus, What is said about the bones of St. Turturinus I have added here, because I have found his memory nowhere in the sacred Fasti, the other Saints being passed over whose relics Bl. Rabanus received at the same time, because they are commonly known. But about St. Turturinus our Predecessors found nothing further, and I thus far find nothing. But in what manner Bl. Rabanus laid up the relics he received, the author presently declares, continuing thus: And he, having reverently received all these things, placed them with suppliant devotion in the ark which above (chap. 3 num. 16) we said was set beneath the two cherubim. Of other relics of St. Stacteus or Turturinus I find nothing among the Roman writers. For the rest, that unusual ignorance of the Romans about St. Stacteus brings me some suspicion that the Saint perhaps belongs to some better-known troop of Martyrs, and that on this day he could be repeated in the Hieronymian ones on account of some translation of relics or festivity. There was a certain Stacteus among the seven brothers, martyrs, the sons of St. Symphorosa, whose Acts were given at the XVIII of July. They suffered at Tivoli in Latium: but their bodies were afterwards translated to Rome. Of him someone might suspect that he is the same as today's. Nevertheless such a suspicion does not rest on grounds fit for asserting anything.

[5] Of St. Turturinus I find nothing at all. In the Life of Bl. Rabanus, SS. Stacteus and Turturinus are not even called martyrs: and thence perhaps it came about that certain more recent writers called St. Stacteus a confessor. But from the omission there of the title of martyr nothing can be inferred, but Stacteus is to be held for a martyr, and more probably Turturinus also: since in the same place the same title is omitted of SS. Cornelius and Calixtus, Pontiffs, and in chapters 4 and 6 of several others who are known both to have been martyrs and to be honoured as martyrs. Wherefore I have not hesitated to attribute the title of martyr to St. Stacteus, since he is announced in the ancient Martyrologies as martyrs are wont to be announced. But to St. Turturinus I have not ascribed the said title, because I cannot prove it from elsewhere, although of him too it is more probable that he was a martyr.

ON ST. JOHN, MARTYR,

AT CAMULI IN THE TERRITORY OF GENOA.

John, M., at Camuli in the territory of Genoa. (S.)

Ferrari in his General Catalogue at this day has it thus: At Camuli near Genoa, of St. John the martyr. In the Annotations he says that he announces the Saint from the records of the church of St. Michael of Camuli, which village is thirteen thousand paces distant from Genoa towards the East (marked in the maps of the Genoese dominion, on the sea, by the common name Camogli). He adds: His relics rest in the same place. Thus he. But since in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy I find nothing about this holy John, and nothing among other writers, a suspicion may arise that he is a Martyr who suffered in another place, and whose body was translated to Camuli.