Julitta the Widow of Iconium

ON ST. JULITTA THE WIDOW OF ICONIUM, AND HER LITTLE SON ST. CERICUS OR QUIRICUS, MARTYRS AT TARSUS IN CILICIA UNDER DIOCLETIAN. PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Julitta the Widow, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

Quiricus her son, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

D. P.

§. I. On their varied cult among the Greeks and Latins, the Acts censured by Pope Gelasius, the truer ones published by Theodore Bishop of Iconium. The venerable Bede, whose genuine Martyrology we set forth before the second Volume of March, since he had as his purpose to arrange through the calendar only the names of those Saints passed over by Bede on account of deficient Acts, whose Acts he had found; but of the Saints aforetitled either he had found none, or had judged them to be despised as apocryphal; silently passing over their names, he deemed it enough to interweave the eulogy of Saints Ferreolus and Ferrutio into this day: for it is not his, but rather Ado's, the little book which is circulated under Bede's name with their memory woven in with Ado's words. Treading in Bede's footsteps, Florus of Lyon, intending to fill the gaps left by Bede as he could, in the Arras and Lætian Mss. indeed is found to have written nothing more about them; Florus in his 2nd edition reported [it with a eulogy,] But happily in the Tournai copy, where the reported words I believe were received from the same Florus's second Booklet, in which, as Usuard testifies, he both corrected and added many things which in the former he had omitted.

[2] But Florus received no other than apocryphal Acts; which he collected into a compendium in this manner: "At Antioch the passion of St. Cyricus and of Julitta his mother: but taken from the apocrypha, of whom the former, after dire scourgings, received also lime with vinegar and mustard in his mouth: then both alike pierced with nails, their eyes plucked out, were thrust into prison. After these things, scalped and flayed, upon coals on a bronze bed they were roasted. Who, with Alexander reigning, fulfilled the course of their martyrdom by the cutting off of the head. There suffered however with them also four hundred and forty-four others." Where Florus, as he received from the Martyrology the 16th of June, although in the Acts was noted the day of the Ides of June, that is, the 13th; so he retained Antioch; although he had nowhere read it in the Acts; perhaps through error for the day of the Ides of July (which is the true day of the Martyrdom) persuaded that the bodies had been translated thither, before the Martyrology was written, and therefore that it itself is named there. Tarsus however, read in the Acts, he concealed; perhaps lest he render the reader doubtful, and Usuard, Ado, etc., following Florus whether to those named in June pertained those of whom he was treating. Thus the written Eulogy was soon followed by Usuard and Ado; the latter more fully, and in almost the same words as Florus; except that, the forty being removed, he preferred with the Martyrology to read only 404; but more briefly Usuard, in this manner: "At Antioch the Birthday of the holy Martyrs Cyricus and Julitta his mother, who, after dire scourgings and grave torments, fulfilled the course of their martyrdom by the cutting off of the head." And this, together with Usuard's martyrology, passed into the use of almost all the Churches of Europe, even the Roman; as is clear from that which we have, according to the custom of the Roman Curia, printed by Bellinus of Padua at Venice, and reprinted in the year 1498 and 1548.

[3] After, however, there appeared the Catalogue of the Saints of Peter de Natalibus, and in it some compendium of the Martyrdom, but in the Roman Calendar formerly they were noted on 15 June presenting a greater appearance of truth, although not utterly pure from the leaven of the old fabulosity; and narrating it itself as accomplished on the Ides of July; it pleased the curators of the Roman Calendar, to be prefixed to the Missals and Breviaries, to add to such a day the names of Cyricus and Julitta, as those copies printed from the year 1479 teach us, perhaps with a view to a simple Commemoration of them, to be employed at the discretion of the users. Nothing however was read about them in the text, up to the year 1522, when there appeared at Venice a Breviary of the Roman rite, augmented with whole offices and proper histories, which were lacking to many feasts of saints compendiously collected into Lessons. In it are found for the feast of Cyricus and Julitta the Martyrs three Lessons: not however taken from Peter de Natalibus, but from the apocryphal Acts: which it appears displeased Rome, since in the subsequently following editions they were omitted; and at last under Pius V even the names were expunged from the calendar, as to this day they remain expunged, perhaps because of another day, noted in all the Latin Martyrologies, namely this 16th of June.

[4] But when Pius's successor Gregory XIII had ordered also the Roman Martyrology to be revised, restored to the Roman Martyrology on 16 June or rather a new one much more ample and augmented to be composed; it was doubted by the learned men set over that task, of whom the chief was Baronius, what should be done with the memory of these Saints, so utterly discrepant from the truer Acts. But it seemed right, that they should not be expunged, whom the calendars of almost all the transmontane Churches were everywhere naming in June; but that a new Eulogy should be composed from the said truer Acts, which is now recited in these words: with a eulogy from the truer Acts "At Tarsus in Cilicia, the feast of the holy Martyrs Quiricus and Julitta his Mother, under Diocletian the Emperor: of whom Quiricus, a three-year-old little boy, when he was lamenting with implacable grief his mother, who was being most cruelly beaten before Alexander the Governor, dashed against the steps of the tribunal perished; but Julitta, after dire scourgings and grave torments, fulfilled the course of her Martyrdom by the cutting off of the head." These things agree as to substance with the words of Sirleto, on the 15th of July in the Menology, composed by him for the use of Baronius from the Synaxaria of the Greeks, where now Κήρικος (Kerikos), now Κήρυκος (Kerykos) is written, and indeed (as appears from the verse) with the penult long, Cericus, although according to the accent the name is proparoxytone: in which manner also would be written Κύρικος (Kyrikos), with the penult short, derived from Κύρις (Kyris), Lord, as if Dominicus, which corresponds to the Latin Quiricus. The most ancient of those Synaxaria, in a Ms. of Grottaferrata, published under the name of Basil the Emperor, has thus:

[5] Ἰουλίττα ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ Μάρτυς, ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ Διοκλητιανοῦ τοῦ Βασιλέως ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ἰκονίου· διὰ δὲ τὸν ἐπικρατοῦντα διωγμὸν ἐξ Ἰκονίῳ, ἀναλαβομένη Κύρικον υἱὸν αὐτῆς τριετῆ ὄντα, ἀπῆλθεν εἰς Σελευκίαν· καὶ εὑροῦσα καὶ ἐκεῖ τὸν αὐτὸν διωγμὸν, παρεγένετο εἰς Ταρσὸν, ἔνθα καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Ἡγεμὼν, ὠμὸς καὶ θηριώδης ἄνθρωπος ἐβασάνιζε τοὺς Ἁγίους. Καὶ κρατησθεῖσα, καὶ τοῦ παιδὸς ἀποχωρισθεῖσα, ἐτιμωρεῖτο. Τὸ δὲ παιδίον λαβὼν ἐπὶ τῶν γονάτων ὁ Ἡγεμὼν ἐκολάκευε· τὸ δὲ οὐκ ἐπεστρέφετο πρὸς αὐτὸν, ἀλλὰ δι᾽ ὅλον ἔβλεπεν ἀτενῶς πρὸς τὴν μητέρα, καὶ ψελλιζούσῃ τῇ φωνῇ, τὸ μὲν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀνεκαλεῖτο ὄνομα, πρὸς δὲ τὴν μητέρα ἔσπευδεν ἀπελθεῖν. Καὶ χολώσας ὁ ἀνελεὴς θὴρ, ἐλάκτισεν αὐτὸν, ῥίψας ἀπὸ τῶν βαθμίδων· καὶ συντριβείσης τῇ πέτρᾳ τῆς κεφαλῆς, ἀφῆκε τὴν ψυχήν. Καὶ δοξάζουσα τὸν Θεὸν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ, μετὰ πολλὰς τὰς βασάνους, ἀπεκεφαλίσθη καὶ αὐτή. (English: see below) from the synaxary of Basil the Emperor.

[6] Julitta, Martyr of Christ, was in the time of Diocletian the Emperor, in the city of Iconium: but because of the persecution raging there, she took her three-year-old little son Cyricus and went away to Seleucia. But finding here too the same persecution, she passed over to Tarsus, where Alexander the Proconsul, a cruel and ferocious man, was torturing the Saints. Being seized therefore, and separated from her son, she was being tortured; but the Proconsul, taking the boy on his knees, flattered him. But he by no means attended to him, but turned his eyes continually to his mother, and with a stammering voice invoked the name of Christ, and strove to go to his mother. Then the wild beast, moved with savage wrath, struck the boy [and] cast him from the steps; who, his head dashed against the stone, gave up his spirit: but the Mother, glorifying God, after many tortures, That was drawn from the Epistle of Theodore Bishop of Iconium, was beheaded.

[7] There exists, edited by Francis Combefis, from the Greek monuments of the Royal Library at Paris, among the chosen triumphs of the illustrious Martyrs of Christ, "Θεοδώρου Ἐπισκόπου Ἰκονίου ἐπιστολή, δηλοῦσα τὸ μαρτύριον τοῦ ἁγίου Μάρτυρος Κηρύκου, καὶ τῆς τούτου μητρὸς Ἰουλίττης," — The Epistle of Theodore Bishop of Iconium, by which is declared the Martyrdom of the holy Martyr Cericus, and of his Mother Julitta. The same Epistle, but with a more contracted phrasing and at the beginning quite different, is indicated by Allatius in his Diatribe on the writings of the Simeons, page 91, with this beginning: "Ἐπείπερ τῷ καλῷ σπέρματι εἴωθεν ἐπισπείρειν ὁ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐχθρὸς τὰ ζιζάνια:" of which a double text is held. "Since the enemy of human nature is wont to over-sow Tares upon the good seed": and it is said to be of Theodore the Bishop, and is inscribed, "Μαρτύριον τῶν ἁγίων καὶ καλλινίκων Μαρτύρων Κηρίκου καὶ Ἰουλίττης," — The Passion of the Holy and gloriously-triumphant Martyrs Cericus and Julitta; and its ancient version, cited by Baronius in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology, found by us in the Codices of the Vatican and Vallicellan Libraries and transcribed, was also found in a certain Belgian copy by John Molanus, and is indicated in his Annotations to Usuard of the year 1573, under this beginning, which is the same as that of the Roman Mss.: "To my Lord Brother and Co-bishop Zosimus, Theodore," where among other things the Author prefaces, that to him long laboring in vain to write something worthy of the proposed subject, at last Martian, appointed Notary and Chancellor by Justin our most pious Emperor (the Combefisian Acts name Justinian, successor of Justin) intimated by his own mouth these things which are subjoined, narrated by a certain old man of the province of the Isaurians, (whose capital is Iconium) who boasted himself sprung from the very stock of these Saints. §. II. What Acts, and why to be given here. The writings of others concerning the same Saints, Latin and Greek.

[8] One or the other text of the Theodorian Epistle was had by him who composed the Sermon, Nicetas in his more prolix Encomium followed the Epistle of Theodore: to be read among the Lives of Lipomanus and Surius, which it has not yet befallen me to see in Greek; but Allatius saw it, and cites its beginning, consonant with this Latin version, on page 115: "Ὥσπερ οὐκ ἔστι συνεχόμενον τῷ Κυρίῳ Ἰουδαίαν," and the title "Εἰς τοὺς ἁγίους καὶ καλλινίκους Μεγαλομάρτυρας Κήρυκον καὶ Ἰουλίτταν." The Author they commonly make to be Metaphrastes: Allatius makes him Nicetas the Rhetorician; whose age, though it be uncertain, yet that he is much more recent than Theodore the author of the Epistle easily appears from the style, much approaching to the style of the 9th century in which lived Nicetas David, surnamed the Paphlagonian, one century older than Metaphrastes, and the same perhaps called the Rhetorician, whose several encomiastic sermons Combefis published in the Library of the Greek Fathers. Nothing can this sermon teach of any new matter; wherefore, the Greek text being lacking, to recast the Latin version would not be worth the trouble. Another reckoning is made of the shorter Epistle, although it is held only in Latin; for since, on account of the better-preserved form of the epistle in it, this is given from the old version, then [the other in Greek-Latin from Combefis,] I judge the former to be the other and perhaps, before that which Combefis gave in Greek-Latin, the genuine [one]; I reckon that this is to be set before that one. To both it pleases [me] to subjoin, from the Bodeck Codex, the apocryphal Acts, that of themselves the Reader may be able to know and estimate how far apart bronze stands from lupines (worthless things); and that he marvel less, that no great account is held by us of those things which Hucbald Prior of Elnon, and Philip, Abbot of Bonne-Espérance from the abbey of Eleemosyna, published, having nothing but those before their eyes; and finally the apocryphal Acts and which needing much correction, they could more easily note than rightly correct, being destitute of the suitable instrument.

[9] Philip's composition exists among his works, with the Epistle to Lord John, [which, the greater absurdities having been cut away, are held as embellished by Philip the Abbot,] Abbot of the church of St. Amand; by whose authority compelled, and by the affection of charity excited, he confesses he was moved to correcting the Acts of this Passion, which both the mist of antiquity obscures, and the objection of an ill-composed scheme overshadows: which, although it is reckoned among the apocrypha, yet does not bring upon the victory of the Martyrs a cloud of falsity. The aforesaid John ruled the monastery of Elnon from the year 1179 to '92, and to Philip with the apocryphal Acts he seems to have sent Hucbald's composition: for that he treads closely in his footsteps, and only with a more florid style adorns the same matter, by comparing both, can be detected manifestly. But that Hucbald, from the Chronicle of Elnon, we learn died in the year 930, where this Epitaph of his is recited: There sleeps in this tomb a simple dove without gall, A doctor, flower, and honor, both of the Clergy and of the Monks, and before by Hucbald of Elnon, Hucbald: whose fame, through the climes of the world, the published melodies and deeds of the Saints proclaim. He brought into our shores the precious limbs of Cyricus, found at Nevers, and wrote the triumph.

[10] Hucbald wrote it with a Prologue, whose beginning [is]: in several Mss. "Recalling with due veneration the holy contests of the Martyrs of Christ, let us praise together the wondrous Lord in his Saints." But the Passion he thus began: "The beginning of the sixth age which is now passing, the Lord Jesus Christ deigned to consecrate by his own advent." Thus we have it in a certain distinguished parchment Legendary of ours, which formerly belonged to the monastery of Vaucelles; but we have also a transcript, from a similar Claromaresc copy, and we found in another of Queen Christina of Sweden, whose Codex [is] different from this, which was noted to have belonged formerly to the church of Marseille, which exhibited the same Passion, but much contracted; which whole, and (as the metrical Prologue, not found elsewhere, has it): "With false-speaking writings driven far away from the page," is read in the Ms. of Cardinal Barberini; from which also below something will be given concerning the translation of the bodies into Gaul; and in which are pre-noted the Ides of July, although in the text toward the end it is read, as Hucbald wrote, that these saints completed the happy martyrdom of their contest on the 16th of the Kalends of July. Likewise more contracted are those versions which we found at Rome, distributed through eight Lessons in the Vallicellan Codex under the letter X; and in the Legendary of St. Mary at the Martyrs, but without any (which appears omitted) Prologue, beginning thus: Others elsewhere more contracted. "Under Alexander therefore, a most iniquitous Governor, who had in a manner usurpingly snatched the Principate of the city of Antioch, with Diocletian and Maximian Augusti reigning; a savage against the Christians and bloodthirsty persecution arose everywhere." These things I wished to recite, that it might appear that the author, although in his progress he was wholly going to adhere to the apocrypha, yet at the beginning wished to reconcile in some manner the Martyrologies with the Acts, by naming the city of Antioch, and to correct the Latin

Acts from the Greek, by substituting for Alexander the Emperor, Diocletian and Maximian.

[11] The Canon of Joseph the Hymnographer. Besides the Epistle already indicated under the name of Theodore, and the Panegyric of Nicetas, we have on the 15th of July a full Office, with a Canon, composed by St. Joseph the Hymnographer, whose Acrostic [is] this:

"Κήρικον ὑμνῷ σὺν τεκούσῃ προφρόνως Ἰωσήφ."

With his mother I, Joseph, readily sing Cericus. But after the Canon four Stichera are added, or Verses of four illustrious among the Hymnographer writers. The first Sticheron of the first tone is marked with the name of Germanus, a sticheron of St. Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople namely the holy Patriarch of Constantinople, set forth in these words:

"Τὸν γενναῖον ἀθλητὴν καὶ κήρυκα τῆς πίστεως, σὺν μητρὶ θεόφρονι, ἐπαξίως μακαρίζωμεν. Οὗτοι γὰρ καρτερῶς εὐαθλήσαντες, τὸν ἀρχέκακον ἐχθρὸν τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ σταυροῦ ἀνδρείως κατέβαλον· διὸ στεφάνους ἔλαβον παρὰ τοῦ ἀθλοθέτου Θεοῦ, καὶ πρεσβεύουσιν αὐτῷ ἐν παῤῥησίᾳ ἀκαταπαύστως σωθῆναι τοὺς ἐν πίστει ἐκτελοῦντας τὴν ἱερὰν αὐτῶν ἄθλησιν." — The noble champion and herald of the faith, with his mother divinely wise, let us worthily call blessed. For fighting valiantly to the end, the enemy evil from the beginning by the power of the Cross bravely they laid low: wherefore they received crowns from the President of their contest, God; and before him with confidence they supplicate unceasingly, that they may be saved, as many as celebrate their holy contest in faith.

[12] The other [is] of Byzantius, to be sung to the modes of the second tone: "Δεῦτε πιστοὶ ἐπαίνοις συνελθόντες στέψωμεν δυάδα παναγίαν, another of Byzantius, Τριάδος σέβας κατέχουσαν. Τῶν γὰρ εἰδώλων τὴν πλάνην καὶ τῶν τυράννων τὴν ἐπίνοιαν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν ποσὶ κατεπάτησαν. Τούτους ἀνευφημοῦντες ἀνακράζωμεν λέγοντες· Χαίροις Ἰουλίττα πανσεβάσμιε· ἡ τὴν γυναικείαν ἀσθένειαν ἀποῤῥιψαμένη καὶ ἀνδρικῶς ἀγωνισαμένη· Χαίροις Κήρυκε παμμακάριστε, ὁ τριετὴς τῇ ἡλικίᾳ, καὶ τὸν πολυμήχανον ἐχθρὸν καταβαλὼν· Χαίρετε τὸ ἡμέτερον κλέος καὶ καύχημα τῶν ἐν πίστει ἑορταζόντων τὴν ἱερὰν ὑμῶν ἄθλησιν, οὓς ἱκετεύομεν πρεσβεύειν ἀεὶ τὸν τῶν ὅλων Κύριον, κόσμῳ δωρηθῆναι εἰρήνην, καὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν τὸ μέγα ἔλεος." — Come, faithful, gathered together to the praises of the Saints; let us crown the most holy duality, which contains the worship of the Trinity. For the error of the idols and the devices of the tyrants with their feet they trampled down. These with auspicious acclamations let us follow, saying: Hail, Julitta most worthy of veneration, who, having put off womanly weakness, didst contend manfully: Hail, Cericus most blessed, who, three years of age, didst subdue the enemy furnished with many devices; Hail, glory and boasting of us all, who festively and confidently recall your holy contest; asking, that ye may ever entreat before the Lord of all, that he grant peace indeed to the world, but to our souls great mercy.

[13] The third, to be uttered in the same second tone, is of Mauroleon: of Mauroleon, "Ὁ ἐκ σπαργάνων πεπληρωμένος χάριτος, καὶ ἐσχηκὼς πεπολιωμένον φρόνημα, ἐν τῇ νίκῃ τῶν ἀγώνων σου Μάρτυς Κήρυκε, αἴτησαι σὺν τῇ Μητρί σου Χριστὸν τὸν Θεὸν, δωρηθῆναι εἰρήνην τῷ κόσμῳ, ὡς τῆς Τριάδος μέγας ὁμολογητής." — From the swaddling-clothes filled with grace, and having obtained a hoary understanding, in the victory of thy contests, Martyr Cericus, as a great Confessor of the Trinity, entreat with thy mother Christ God, that he grant peace to the world. In this manner in his Canon also St. Joseph, several times so admires and extols the contests of St. Cyricus that he seems to have believed not a little the Apocryphal Acts, concerning the prudence of the boy answering beyond his age and chattering many things, when in Ode 4, he says, "Νηπιάζοντι σώματι καὶ τελειωτάτῳ φρονήματι τὸν ἀρχέκακον κατέβαλες." With an infant body and a most consummate understanding thou didst lay low the devil: of Joseph, and again in the Tract following the Canon, "Τὴν ἡλικίαν ἀτελής, ἐν φρονήσει τελείᾳ ὑπῆρξας θαυμαστότατα, Κήρυκε ἀθλοφόρε." Immature in age, with perfect understanding, thou didst endure most worthily of admiration, victor Cericus. Before the Canon at the beginning of the Office, after the three first Similar Versicles (Στιχηρὰ προσόμοια, Stichera prosomoia) and the first Gloria, the same Joseph, or whoever ordered the Office, let himself be carried away either by poetic frenzy, or by the marvelousness of the apocrypha, when thus he sang: "Δεῦτε καὶ θεάσασθε ἅπαντες ξένον θέαμα καὶ παράδοξον. Τίς ἑώρακεν νήπιον, τριετῆ ὄντα τύραννον αἰσχύνοντα; Ὦ τοῦ θαύματος! Μητέρα ἐθήλασεν, καὶ τιθηνούμενον τῇ γαλούχῳ ἐβόα· Μὴ πτόου, μῆτέρ μου, τὰς βασάνους τοῦ δεινοῦ κοσμοκράτορος· Χριστὸς γὰρ ἐστιν ἡ ἰσχὺς τῶν πιστευόντων εἰς αὐτόν." — Come and behold, all, a new and unwonted spectacle. Who has seen a tyrant confounded by a three-year-old infant? O the wonder! At his mother's breasts he sucked, and being nursed, to her who suckled him he cried: Be not terrified, my mother, at the torments of the cruel ruler of this world: for Christ is the strength of those who in him believe. So he, as if he had not enough admiration that the three-year-old with stammering voice amid the maternal torments by imitating her had cried, "I am a Christian?" which alone the truer Acts say.

[14] and of St. Anatolius also Patriarch of Constantinople. The fourth, finally, the Sticheron ascribed to the fourth tone, bears the name of Anatolius, and begins with a congratulation, in this manner: "Ἀγάλλου, τέρπου, καὶ εὐφραίνου Ἰκονιαίων ἡ πόλις, ὅτι ἐκ σοῦ ἀνεβλάστησε καρπὸς εὐκλεής, Ἰουλίττα ἡ πανεύφημος καὶ καλλίνικος Μάρτυς, καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς ὁ φερώνυμος υἱὸς Κήρικος· πᾶσαν γὰρ μηχανὴν τοῦ τυράννου βελίαρ ἀνδρικῶς καταπατήσαντες, τοὺς στεφάνους τῆς νίκης ἀξίως ἐκομίσαντο, κηρύξαντες λαοῖς σέβεσθαι καὶ προσκυνεῖν τὴν ἁγίαν Τριάδα· ὅθεν καὶ ἡμεῖς παῤῥησίᾳ βοῶμεν τούτους δοξάζοντι Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν, εἰρηνῶσαι τὸν κόσμον καὶ σῶσαι τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν."

Exult, rejoice, and be glad, O city of the people of Iconium, because from thee came forth a glorious fruit: Julitta, the glorious and most-praised Martyr, and answering to his name her venerable son Cericus: for every device of the devil manfully trampling down they attained the crowns of victory, by preaching to the peoples the adoration of the holy Trinity, whence also we trustingly cry to Christ our God, who glorified them, that he may deign to pacify the world and save our souls. Where regard is had to the onomatopoeia, taken ἀπὸ τοῦ κήρυκος (from the herald), the preacher, as if this is rather the genuine spelling than Κύρικος, corresponding to the Latin Quiricus: wherefore I also placed it Cericus first in the title.

[15] what was their age? Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople sat from the year 449 to '58, distinguished by greater praise of learning than firmness of orthodoxy; as one who, by the machination of Dioscorus of Alexandria, substituted in the place of St. Flavian, unjustly deposed by the conventicle of Ephesus, and dead four days after; although he tried in every way to prove to the Emperor Marcian and Pope Leo his own right faith; yet could not avoid being believed to favor the heretics. But he washed away this stain too, being himself taken from our midst, as on the 3rd of July concerning him the Menaea report. More certain however, among the Latins as well as the Greeks, was the fame of St. Germanus; who in the year 715, translated from the Bishopric of Cyzicus to the Patriarchal Chair, in the year 730, against Leo the Isaurian, wickedly rising up against the sacred images, generously opposed himself, and in exile finished his Life as a Confessor, as appears from what was said on the 12th of May. Byzantius in his Chain of the sacred Hymnographers and Hagiopoetae, Volume 2 of June, page 20, on the left side where [are] the Monks, after Saints John Damascene, Cosmas, Joseph, Theophanes, is placed fifth before Stephen the Hagiopolite, so that it can be believed he flourished in the 9th century, in which flourished most of them. Mauroleon has not even by his own name become known to us from elsewhere yet; but of Joseph, who composed the Canon, distinguished in the year 883 by his excellent Confession, we illustrated the Acts on the 3rd of April. § III. On the cult of the Saints and their Relics throughout Gaul.

[16] The aforepraised Canon of St. Joseph thus begins the ninth Ode: The tomb is said to be illustrious for miracles, "Ἴαμα φέρει ἡ σορὸς τῶν ἐνδόξων ἀθλοφόρων, τῆς χάριτος τοῦ θείου Πνεύματος ἐπαρδομένη· δεῦτε ἀρύσασθε, καὶ ἁγιάσθητε ψυχὰς, καὶ νόσων καθάρθητε, οἱ φιλομάρτυρες." The tomb of the glorious Champions, watered by the grace of the divine Spirit, confers healing. Come, applaud, ye lovers of the martyrs; be sanctified in soul, and be cleansed of diseases. But where the bodies then were, or were believed to be, the Poet does not explain. Theodore says, that the handmaids of Julitta, having gone out of the city by night after the passion, hid the bodies of their Masters in a cave near Tarsus: which under Constantine, under Constantine raised near Tarsus; through one of them still surviving, being indicated; the most devout people running to and fro, hastened to snatch something for themselves for the Healing of the soul; so that he seems to say, that the sacred Relics were dispersed into various places, so that a good part of them could have been carried, not only to Antioch on the Pyramus, but also to Antioch of Syria, in the course of time, on this 16th of June, and thence it came to pass, that there were inscribed in the Hieronymian Martyrology Saints Quiricus and Julitta, as if to be sought at Antioch, and so it would not be necessary to distinguish two pairs of Synonymous Martyrs, unless to be distinguished the fellowship of so many others should persuade, asserted by the same Martyrologies this month, and neither to be deferred to

July, nor to be suspected of fiction, on account of the authority of the more ancient Martyrology of all.

[17] However it may be, the sacred bodies did not remain in the East; and long before St. Joseph the Hymnographer was born, they were taken away thence; whence however the Relics of St. Cyricus [were taken away long ago,] if we believe the Ms. which, found at Rome, Henschen cites on the 1st of May at the Life of St. Amator, number 8, under this title: "Here begin the Miracles of Saints Quiricus and Julitta, which Teterius the Sophist, their servant, published, concerning their bodies, found by St. Amator at Antioch." St. Amator was born before the year 344, and consecrated Bishop in the 88th year of the same century, [and] died in the 18th year of the following century. But his Life is held to have been first written about the year 580. Wherefore, although in it nothing is read of such a pilgrimage of St. Amator, it ought not to seem utterly incredible; since toward the end of the same fifth century, at the beginning of which Amator died, the apocryphal Passion of Saints Quiricus and Julitta was so everywhere known (especially having been brought with the Relics from the East, and at the same time rendered into Latin) that Pope Gelasius found it necessary to pass judgment upon it. After the premised Title, therefore, those things are read in the said Ms., which in the Barberini Ms. are immediately subjoined to the Legend composed by Hucbald.

[18] translated to Auxerre by St. Amator, Since therefore the venerable Passion of the holy little boy Quiricus, and of Julitta his mother, by a diverse relation indeed, but by a true and equal martyrdom, is well known to be to the Christian people; deducing as it were a certain rivulet of the insuperable profundity of their miracles, by which in the world, with God disposing, they shone, I took care to sip a few of them, and studied to insert them into the pages to the honor of the Church. When therefore the time of many years had run out, after the crown of martyrdom was received, the holy Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, with the most illustrious Savinus as count, traversing the borders of Antioch, the most sacred bodies of them, with the Christ grace cooperating, he found: which, returning with the cult of great veneration, he brought into the regions of Gaul; thence to Nevers, and conveyed to the city of Auxerre, only the boy's arm being granted to the prayers of Savinus, in the house in which the same Bishop, abounding with the glory of his merits, is venerated by the faithful, he again entombed them. For that city, adorned with the titles of many Saints, therefore merited that this incomparable treasure be given to it by God, so that both the health of bodies and of souls might come thence to his people, and the ordination of God, by which the same Martyr (Amator) was to be the future Father of Nevers, might be fulfilled, with her (Julitta) meanwhile as preserver, so much the more gladly it might become a constant help to his faithful. Amen. The same things up to [*] are read in Mombritius, volume 2, after the same Life composed by Hucbald; and they are cited from Mombritius, in the Notes of Baronius to the Martyrology on this day.

[19] We know of no St. Savinus or Sabinus in all Gaul who can be referred to these times; this companion of St. Amator on the sacred pilgrimage, therefore, was perhaps some Deacon of his or Priest, where there is to him a sacred Cathedral church. called Saint by the right of his Order anciently in use. This meanwhile we patiently are ignorant of: more grievously we bear that there are not found written the Miracles which in the Title were promised, and how the Relics of the Saints were translated from Autun to Nevers, where we suppose those Miracles too were wrought. The Sammarthani, in the Gallia Christiana, volume 2 page 791, note that the Cathedral church there has as Patron St. Cyricus, ever since the time of Charles the Bald, that is from the middle of the 9th century; so on page 794 is set forth the diploma of Louis the Stammerer, given to Abbo the Bishop in the year 877, showing the precepts of his progenitor Charles, marked from the 9th century; Augustus Emperor of pious memory; in which was inserted, how the same Lord progenitor had conferred certain things of his own property and bondservants upon the Church of Nevers, which is constructed in honor of St. Cyricus the Martyr. At Nevers, moreover, Hucbald received those relics which he would convey to his Elnon monastery of St. Amand. Yet Hucbald himself did not, which you may wonder at, describe the deed done by himself; and finally to Elnon, whence the Translation [was written] but some centuries afterward Philip the Abbot, of whom above, as is held in our Claromaresc and Vaucelles Ms., and is read printed among the works of Philip himself.

[20] Of the same, or certainly of the same name,

Relics, various other Churches throughout Gaul too boast to have distinguished parts: on whose account in the Gallican Martyrology Saussay thus magnificently boasts of them, after praising Saints Ferreolus and Ferrutio: "On the same day, Cult throughout various churches of Gaul the Birthday of the holy Martyrs Cyricus the little boy and Julitta his mother… whose most sacred pledges, brought to Auxerre into Gaul by St. Amator … and distributed by the ambitious zeal of the peoples, enriched the sacristies of very many Churches; and they aroused in the Christian people such devotion toward the Martyrs themselves, that many Basilicas were soon founded in honor of these Heaven-dwellers, sacred monasteries established, and very many other trophies of their glorious memory erected here and there in that most ample region. But the Birthday of such great Blessed ones is today most conspicuous and celebrated in those places, where either their sacred relics, deposited, rest, or the triumphal title of their venerable patronage shines: namely at Nevers, whose city's Cathedral church is ennobled with the insignia of their sacred title, and also adorned with some Relics: likewise at Toulouse, and at Arles, where their chief pledges are laid up, and monasteries, at Chartres and in Auvergne. here in the church of the most holy Trinity, there in the church of St. Saturninus: likewise in the Elnon monastery in Hainault; and also in a monastery sacred to the Martyrs themselves in the diocese of Chartres; and at Clermont in Auvergne in the most ancient church of their name, in which today is sung the Office of those Martyrs, formerly recited from memory by Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of this municipality: likewise in the Parisian territory in a village called Villejuif, where there is an ancient parochial church, endowed with their name and some relics."

[21] For Auvergne we have as witness St. Gregory of Tours, in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 3, the body is said to be at Toulouse: produced on the preceding day at the Life of St. Abraham, Abbot there, who placed a monastery at the Basilica of St. Cyricus. Nicolaus Bertrandi, folio 5 verso, among the Relics of the church of Toulouse reckons the Bodies of the holy Cyricus and Julitta his mother, but whence or how they were brought he is ignorant, writing at the beginning of the 16th century. Villejuif is distant from Paris to the south a little more than two leagues. Combefis calls it Ville-Julitta, and hopes that, as was done at Nevers, the Acts proscribed by Gelasius may also be proscribed thence, and near Paris, which up to our times, he says, (that is the year 1660 in which he was writing) preserved, and held more religiously by the pious simplicity of the rustic populace, and publicly from the pulpit by ancient custom, once and again and a third time per year, with a great concourse of people, accustomed to be read, were scarcely at last lately suppressed by the diligence of the Priests of the place. From the things which P. Porée of the Premonstratensian Order declaims, where the censured Passion is still read. in a booklet on that subject published at Paris in the year 1644, let this one advantage at least be understood, that those husks of the old Acts of Quiricus and Julitta widely pervaded Gaul; and were received almost in those places in which Patrons are venerated throughout it, and that the censure of Gelasius has not hitherto stood in their way. This new declaimer, lest he seem to betray a crumb of judgment, extols especially and holds as a miracle those things which present greater trifles, and shrink more from the ecclesiastical rule: with Quiricus preaching, Julitta baptizing, &c. § IV. The ancient cult of St. Quiricus, and perhaps of another, in Spain, obscured by newfangled fictions. The Relics at Ravenna in Italy.

[22] The Body of someone so called is said to be at Burgos in Castile: There were not fictions enough, unless new ones from Spain had been added, on this occasion. There is in the city of Burgos, formerly the royal seat of old Castile, a church (as Bivarius asserts on page 274 of his Commentaries on Dexter) adorned with the Abbatial mitre, under the name of St. Quiricus; whose body there with great honor rests; and in many cities of Spain it has churches, called with the name a little altered San-Quirce, and several churches in Spain. such as is the monastery of the Cistercian Nuns of Valladolid. That body, or some part of the body, if it is still held, from the very measure of the bones could well enough be known, whether it be of a three-year-old boy, or of one more adult in age: but he who has cared to scrutinize this hitherto there has been none; for it pleased them to believe it to be of that boy, whose apocryphal Acts could easily have passed from Gaul into Spain: But that they did indeed so pass, is proven from the Spanish Breviaries, cited by Tamayo Salazar, especially the Burgos one, which we have printed at Burgos 1502, with nine brief Lessons taken thence, of which the First begins: there an Office taken from the Apocrypha. "When therefore a persecution of the Christians had been made under Alexander the Emperor." And in the Fourth, to the Judge asking of what province or city she was, Julitta answered: "Of the Province of Isauria indeed, and born of the first families of the city of the people of Iconium, avoiding thy persecutions, I migrated to the places of Cilicia, and stayed at Tarsus." Quite well indeed and conformably to truth, except that the apocryphal source betrays itself by the name of Alexander the Emperor, and the boy's wise disputation with the judge, constituting the IX Lesson: to which without doubt would have succeeded, deduced from the same source, others, concerning the various torments endured, and the life ended by the sword, if the plan of the Breviary had permitted it.

[23] Meanwhile, whether the holy Quiricus, commonly called Quirce, Hence in the 16th century he began to be called Spanish, was really a Spanish Martyr, perhaps having suffered in the Moorish persecution; or someone brought from Rome (one or the other of which I would believe, if the bones are somewhat large, or in such number that they can be named a body) he began by some to be believed a native; and so toward the middle of the 15th century, in Damian a Goës in his Spain, among the authors of the illustrated Spain page 1165, into the Index of the Spanish Saints is inserted St. Cericus, and among the women St. Julitta mother of St. Cericus. With Damian, Tamayo cites authors of almost the same age, John Vasaeus, and Francis Tarrapha, to be sought there; but especially Lucius Marinaeus the Sicilian, Spain substituted for Isauria, who under Charles V wrote 22 books of Spanish affairs; of which book 5, treating of the Saints, page 337 of the aforecited volume, exhibits indeed the Lessons of the Burgos Breviary word for word; but substitutes Spain for Isauria and Sicily for Cilicia, yet retained Tarsus, to which from Spain he says Julitta passed, and there found the same tyrant Alexander whom she had fled there; since this seems by itself by no means credible, and Tartessus for Tarsus. especially, where it is said, that a tender woman with a most tender little infant entered upon the journey; for Tarsus he suggests that Tartessus should be read, a known city of old Spain, which many wish to be the gold-bearing Tarsus, sailed to by the fleets of Solomon.

[24] To those fictions, whether to be established, or rather to be more entangled, a little after came an aid, The Topography of Primus Bishop of Chalon favors [it] from the Topography of the Holy Martyrs of Christ, as if by Primus, Bishop of Chalon and Theologian, formerly composed in the year of salvation 1450, and now at last revised, that is about the year 1568, and published at Venice with the Martyrology of Francis Maurolycus, Abbot of Messina. This booklet, hitherto named by no one, whence it came forth I know not; that the Author's name, and probably also his age, could have been supplied by someone who had even the slightest knowledge of the affairs of Chalon, I do not believe; since not even in all Gaul is any Bishop found to have existed whose name was Primus, but at Chalon from the year 1436 to '60, of an utterly supposititious author: that John, the eleventh of this name, sat as Bishop, is most certainly clear from public documents cited by the Sammarthani. But that this Primus has always been, to say the least, suspect to the learned, even from this is clear; that Gesner in his Bibliotheca, where he enumerates the lucubrations of Maurolycus, reckons indeed the Martyrology, in which are added the names of cities and places, in which the holy Martyrs suffered and their bodies rest; but conceals, both here and elsewhere under the letter P, and passes over in silence Primus the author of the Topography. The same did Philip Labbe in his Chronological Bibliotheca of ecclesiastical Writers.

[25] And let these things be said, to supplement the place of the General Bollandian Preface, chapter 4 §9; where simply reckoning the Martyrologies of the more recent writers, he in passing mentions Primus, published by Maurolycus; and to retract, if anything elsewhere from him, not yet examined, we have drawn. To the present matter it bears, that this Primus, whatever sort he is, betrays a kind of supine ignorance under the letter I, who badly distinguished a double Iconium. by distinguishing a double Iconium, when he says thus: "Iconium a city of Cappadocia. Here Conon with his boy son under Aurelian [was] a Martyr on the 29th of May: here Amphilochius the Bishop, who wrote the Life of Basil the Great, departs as a Confessor on the 23rd of November: Here also St. Thecla the Virgin suffers on the 23rd of September": and again below, "Iconium a city of Spain. Hence was Quiricus, a three-year-old boy, who with his mother Julitta, having set out into Cilicia in the year of the Lord 230, on the 15th of July, under Alexander the Emperor, suffered Martyrdom." The hyperbolical name of Hysauria (for so the writings of the Middle Ages everywhere have it) may have deceived

Primus, whence either he himself or some other made the name of Spain.

[26] But these things cohering thus so little among themselves and with the truth, Pseudo-Dexter [makes the saints to have suffered at Hippo] he who afterward fabricated the Dextrine Chronicle, believed it permitted to himself to make light of whatever was read about Iconium, and Cilicia and Tarsus, as if taken from the Apocrypha condemned by Pope Gelasius; and retaining from Primus and Lucius Marinaeus "Spain," under the note of the year 222, he invented something new by writing thus: "At Hippo in Carpetania, and feigned the bodies found at Istonium. the holy Martyrs of Christ Cyricus and Julitta, under the Emperor Alexander, attain the Laurel"; and under the note of the year 300: "At Istonium in Spain were found the bodies of the most holy Cyricus and Julitta Martyrs, brought thither once from elsewhere": where Tamayo presents himself ridiculous when, for the "from elsewhere," he orders to be read from more correct Mss. "at Hippo"; since it is hidden from none even of their own defenders, that only a single Ms. is alleged, the Fulda one, which Higuera says was transcribed by him, but the monks of Fulda swear was never seen among them. What then are those "more correct Mss." except Higuera's, not always mindful of himself, and successively licking his bearish cub, and communicating various scraps as chance bore them to his friends, and commending his fabrications, with a word changed from time to time or added, as it came to his pen. Meanwhile he did not foresee that from scraps of this kind compared with one another, he would one day be convicted among posterity of the lie, by which he presumed to obtrude his own dreams upon the world, under the name of the Dextrine Chronicle, found at Fulda.

[27] To reconcile faith therefore to the aforesaid it does not suffice, Pseudo-Julian feigned two pairs. that in Livy book 39 we find it fought by the Roman foragers in Carpetania, not far from the cities of Hippo and Toledo, where, between Toledo and Talavera is to be found Yepes, preserving the vestige of the old name Hippo; and that near Saelices and Villaescusa, towns of the territory of Cuenca, there is a certain place, called Histo even today, which could be seen to be the Istonium attributed by Ptolemy to the Celtiberians. But as these profit them nothing, so neither do they greatly stand in the way. The likewise spurious notebooks of Julian, which assert that Saints Cyricus and Julitta, born of the noble family of the Istonii of the Celtiberians, fled into Cilicia in fear of the persecution, and suffered at Tarsus; and distinguish them from others of the same name, who on the 16th of July under Nero suffered also at Tarsus, born of Amphilochius in Celtiberia of the Province of Gallaecia. These all are of the same flour (kind), and not even by Tamayo himself judged worthy that he should take account of them in July: and it was enough for him, as of a single Quiricus, to write in June that his sacred Relics rest at Burgos, in a church dedicated to his name.

[28] Much more reasonably proceeds the claim of the people of Ravenna in Italy, At Ravenna in the church of St. John the Baptist. resting on an old tradition, concerning the presence of Relics in the church of St. John the Baptist, consecrated there in the year 438. For when, ten years after, at Ravenna there died the successor of St. Amator of Auxerre, St. Germanus, as is to be told in the life to be illustrated on the 31st of July; Queen Placidia, foundress of the aforesaid church, while others divided among themselves the other spoils of the deceased, she herself, sole heir of his blessing, received a casket with holy things, undoubtedly Relics, and probably from those which St. Amator had conveyed to Auxerre, taken up as a protection for the journey. Since she was commonly believed to have placed these under the chief altar; Peter Aldobrandini, Archbishop of Ravenna and Cardinal, in his first visitation of this church about the year 1605, gave such a judgment: "At the high altar, although the marble table presents no sign of consecration; yet it does not seem to need consecration, because under it are believed to rest the bodies of the Saints Quiricus and Julitta." some bones are thought to be from the year 438, So he, in Jerome Fabri, in the Sacred Memoirs of ancient Ravenna, page 201; where also is cited the Carmelite

Breviary of the year 1560 or '70, printed by mandate of the General Rossi, where are noted, in the Convent of Ravenna, the bodies of Saints Quiricus and Julitta.

[29] Further, says Fabri, when the aforesaid Fathers wished to seek for them as diligently as possible; and knew that in the year 1608, on the occasion of changing its situation, the altar opened, was found to contain an ivory casket filled with sacred Relics (as it was permitted to presume); by the intervention of the Most Illustrious Lucas Torreggiani Archbishop, ordained in the year 1645, and when, as Fabri was publishing his work, completing his twentieth year in that Chair, they opened the marble chest, which is under the altar of St. Teresa, within which they had then placed that casket; and the Relics themselves, more curiously considered by skilled anatomists, it was judged that certain bones were womanly, certain childish. Since however no plate or other writing of public form had been added, they judged nothing further should be moved; but all should be replaced within the chest itself as before, until it should please God to honor his saints, by giving certain testimony to the truth of the aforesaid Relics; but meanwhile they restored the use of the annual festivity, to be celebrated on the day of their Passion, the 16th of June. under the chief altar, whence salutary water was received. And because the chest was found full of water, having entered there in the memorable inundation of the year 1636, and that most clear and most limpid; they collected it, to be preserved, in a certain great vessel, and preserve it to this day, and distribute it to the sick, with very much fruit of the thanksgivings of those who frequently draw from it.

THE EPISTLE OF THEODORE THE BISHOP

On the passion of Saints Quiricus and Julitta Already long since rendered into Latin from the Roman Mss.

Julitta the Widow, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

Quiricus her son, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

BHL Number: 1801

THEODORE BISHOP, FROM THE MSS.

With D. P. as author.

[1] "To my dearest Brother and holy Co-bishop a Zosimus, Theodore, by the Lord's assent a Bishop, greeting in the Lord. Because upon the good seed the enemy of the human condition is wont to over-sow Tares; it behooves the children of the Church vigilantly to guard them, On account of the apocrypha accustomed to be read at Iconium, that they may by no means be mingled, but by burning that seed it may be heaped up with the Lord; and may burst forth into such fruits, by which may be nourished those who hasten to follow the footsteps of the Saints. But this, dearest Brother, I have pursued for thy love, who consulted my humility by directing a letter; namely that in the city of Iconium, whence the Martyr Julitta and her glorious son are believed to have sprung, thou hadst seen by some, especially by rustic men, their Martyrdom frequented (celebrated), which was set forth in so feeble a style, that, barking many things against the truth, and not caring for the grammatical rule, it more clearly showed its own lie.

[2] This therefore immediately, as having it at hand, revolving more studiously, I found thee truthful, Theodore, being asked to seek the truth; most honorable Brother: for it was digested with such writing, that deservedly to it might be reckoned that sentence, which a certain one of the Fathers uttered; 'Truly,' I say, 'frogs and gnats b are worthy of that writing.' Yet because the text itself sufficiently declares itself, it is given to be conjectured, thou amiable to God, that this is a description of the Manichaeans, or a labor of the Pagans; it [Theodore indeed condemns it;] who, mocking the truth of the preaching, think the cross of Christ a scandal. But we, despising verbosity of this kind, obeying thy command, judged we must strive most highly, that we might investigate something worthy of memory concerning that most holy woman.

[3] but he promises to write what was received When for a long time I labored at this and in no way attained to the effect, at last Martian, a Tribune amiable to Christ, who by Justin c our most pious Emperor was appointed notary and Chancellor, intimated by his own mouth these things which are subjoined. For he asserted that he, when he held the military command, with Zeno the most sagacious d Bishop of the Isaurians, had seen a certain e old man of that province, who boasted himself procreated of the stock of those same Saints, from a certain old man of their family: near whom and through this also always partaker of his vow, at the annual festivity of those Saints.

[4] He therefore asserted that the aforetasted Martyr was procreated from an imperial lineage, and adorning an ancient genealogy, Julitta nobly born at Iconium, not only by the acts of her morals, but also by faith. For studying the purpose of continence, f she served Christ with the assiduous obeisance of devotion. But when the storm of persecution thundered against the Christians, a certain Domitian, a fierce man, and a thirsty shedder of Christian blood, was substituted as Count of Lycaonia. Avoiding therefore the savagery of this man, Blessed Julitta, flees to Seleucia, with her son and 2 handmaids: all her substance, although it was very much, being left behind; with only two handmaids and her little son Quiricus, of three years namely, fled to Seleucia, which is the metropolis of the Isaurian g people, and found there innumerable h disturbances. For also a certain Alexander, newly there made Governor by Diocletian, had been enjoined to kill those unwilling to sacrifice.

[5] Holy Julitta straightway, lest she give herself of her own accord to dangers, mindful of that sentence, 'Give place to wrath,' withdrew to Tarsus the metropolis of first Cilicia.

Rom. 12:19 But as she was entering (a wondrous thing! thence to Tarsus:) as if by decree of Alexander and Domitian, blessed Julitta is constrained with a more savage punishment, bearing in her arms her son the holy Quiricus. Soon the handmaids, snatched away by the aid of flight, following their mistress at a distance, were panting; desiring to learn from without, what might befall her. The most constant Julitta therefore was there presented before the tribunal of Alexander: there she is seized with the little one, and being asked her name, and fortune, and country, she professed nothing except the name of Christ, and that she was a most true Christian.

[6] Then the insane Alexander, driven by furies, commands the little one, who, drawn away from his mother, ignorant of all business, to be torn from her, and brought to him, and the mother more sharply to be scourged with raw sinews. Straightway the attendants performing the commands beat Julitta, as she was crying out that she was a worshipper of Christ, and would never sacrifice: but the little infant, with much force torn from the maternal embrace, weeping, they offered to the Governor. Whom he, taking between his hands, is handed to the Governor and placing on his knees, rejoicing, with kisses and childish enticements strove to soothe.

[7] But the infant on the contrary, looking toward his mother, not only detested the Governor, but also tore his head and face with his nails, struggling; and like the chick of a turtledove, crying out from the nest, whom he, having turned away returned voices consonant with his mother;

'I too am a Christian': and long struggling with a wandering effort, he bit the Governor i in the side: O wickedness! At once the most bloody beast (for it is unseemly to call him a man, who had no compassion on the boy) filled with fury, cast him down from the high seat. Who, falling headlong from the head toward the part of the steps, his head is dashed at the tribunal.

defiled the whole tribunal with the blood of his shattered crown: and so gradually breathing out, according to what is written, 'The souls of the just are in the hand of God,' he delivered up his spirit to Christ. Wisd. 3:1.

[8] Seeing therefore St. Julitta, that her offspring had thus expired, filled with great exultation; 'thanks I give thee, Lord Jesus Christ,' she said, 'who didst deign to call my son before me, The Mother drenched with burning pitch, and to crown [him] with an unfading diadem.' Soon the savage Governor, indignant, ordered her to be flayed, stretched out from the crown, and a cauldron filled with boiling pitch to be poured over her feet; with the herald's voice thundering: 'Julitta, have pity on thyself, and sacrifice, lest thou be compelled to incur a cruel death like thy son.' But she, animated with manly strength, cried out: 'I will never sacrifice to demons, but I will serve Christ the Son of God, through whom the Father created all things: she is condemned to [lose her head;] and following my son, we shall together lay hold of the heavenly kingdoms.' Seeing therefore the senseless Judge so great an obstinacy of the woman, he dictated the capital sentence; and ordered the corpse of the son to be cast among the slain condemned criminals.

[9] Soon the most wicked apparitors, hastening to fulfill the commands, a bridle k immediately put into her mouth, hastened to the accustomed place. Then Julitta requested, that they would allow her for a little while to pour out prayers to her God. License therefore being received, with knees thus bent she prayed: and prayer being made 'Thanks to thee, Lord Jesus Christ, devout I render, because thou didst order my son, before me, to migrate from this senseless world, and to share in thy saints. And now, Lord of all mercy, number and also associate me, thy unworthy handmaid, with the wisest Virgins, that I may merit to obtain the bridal chamber of the eternal incarnation; she is beheaded and may my spirit bless thy Father, the Lord almighty, creator of all, and at the same time the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.' But the prayer completed, the executioner drawing his sword, with one stroke cut off her head; but her little body was joined with the body of her son.

[10] Blessed Julitta therefore, and her glorious son, in the name of Christ, King of all Kings, through martyrdom migrated from the world, on the fifteenth day of the month of July. 15 July. For her two handmaids, coming the next day in the silence of the night, the little bodies of their masters taken up, hid in a cave bordering on Tarsus: and up to the times of Constantine Caesar, when the light shone forth to the Christians, they remained concealed. But when the Churches obtained their primacy, The Bodies hidden for some years, are revealed under Constantine the Great. one of her handmaids who survived disclosed the casket of most precious relics. Then the most devout peoples, running to and fro, hastened to snatch something for themselves for the healing of the soul. All these things, inasmuch as I consider them to be truth, I have committed to thy soul, amiable to God: which do thou too commit to faithful men, that they may learn, to consent not to fabulous writings, but to truth, in Christ Jesus our lord, to whom is, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, glory, honor, power, unto the ages of ages. Amen."

ANNOTATIONS D.P.

THE SAME EPISTLE, GREEK-LATIN

From the edition and version of Francis Combefis of the Order of Preachers.

Julitta the Widow, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

Quiricus her son, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

BY THEODORE THE BISHOP.

[1] Thy Reverence having inquired, through thy revered syllables (letters), of our mercifulness, wishing to learn about the martyr-record talked of among many; I mean indeed that of Cericus, and of his mother Julitta; namely whether also in the city of the people of Iconium, whence the gloriously-triumphant Martyr Julitta is said to have sprung, and her renowned son Cericus, the same martyr-record has been received; as a record of those persons sprung and descended from their own land; because there are carried in it certain monstrous and unfitting words, and battological (vain-repetitious) chatterings strange and containing things foreign to the hope held among Christians; and whether it is possible to find the martyr-record of them according to truth, that this be sent to thy Perfection. Having received these thy divine writings, and having greatly taken thought of thy injunction, and with intense zeal having taken in hand the martyr-record of the holy Cericus and Julitta his mother; and having unfolded and read [it] with much accuracy, I found thee speaking truly, most holy of fathers, and most esteemed of priests; for the echoes of frogs or jackdaws one might justly call these things. For of the Manichaeans, as I think, or also of certain other heretics of heterodox views, they are the artifices, of those who mock, and account as scorn and punishment the great mystery of piety.

[2] But since, making much search and investigation beyond our power, we accomplished nothing more, we questioned the local men in office and those who boast of the first rank of the race of the Isaurians, how we might be able to take from some thread, even from a tradition handed down from the fathers, setting forth the contest of the holy martyrs. Martian therefore, a man a lover of Christ, having become Tribune-notary and Chancellor of Justinian the emperor, when he held the office of military command; and Zeno, the most wise, having himself become at that time his assessor (colleague), recounted these things concerning the holy ones, as they had heard from certain of the nobles, that there was a kinsman of theirs; the ever-memorable martyr Julitta being of the first blood, a flower of Lycaonia, obtaining a blameless life, so that they kept her memory every year; doing this especially on account of the kinship.

[3] But she, being descended from royal blood, a persecution having breathed against the Christians under Domitian, who had been set up as Count of Lycaonia, a most beast-like man, and exceedingly rejoicing in the shedding of the blood of the martyrs, she became a fugitive with two handmaids and a three-year-old child, I mean indeed the gloriously-triumphant martyr Cericus, from the city of the people of Iconium, from which also she sprang. Having left behind her substance, which was considerable, she reaches Seleucia; and finding even there a greater disturbance of the Christians, a certain Alexander, under Diocletian the emperor, having been set up as governor in the city of the people of Seleucia, and having recently received an imperial decree commanding in every way to punish those not sacrificing to the idols which they inscribed as gods, though not being gods; she, reckoning that which is contained in the divine scripture, 'Give place to wrath,' so that they might not give themselves

to the dangers, having fled also from there, departed toward Tarsus, which is the metropolis of the first province of the Cilicians.

[4] But as if by decree, with the harsh and most weighty Alexander having removed into it, far surpassing Domitian, the gloriously-triumphant martyr Julitta is seized, holding her son in her arms, being quite an infant, I mean the God-called martyr Cericus. But as they constrained her, her handmaids, leaving her, departed, fleeing. But from without they became spectators of the things being done to her. Then she, standing before the judicial tribunals, with Alexander inquiring [her] appellation, and fortune and country, speaking boldly to the judge, inscribed upon herself the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our God, saying, 'I am a Christian.' Alexander therefore, enraged, commanded the boy to be taken from her, and brought to him, inasmuch indeed as he was comely and knew nothing of things done by design; but her, having been arrayed (stripped and bound), and stretched out, with raw sinews unsparingly to be beaten he enjoined. But as the executioners by force tore him from the arms of the noble martyr, wailing, and wishing to return to his own mother, and gazing toward her, they lead [him] to the Governor; and upon her too the attendants did what was commanded, beating [her] pitilessly, [she] answering nothing else, but 'That I am a Christian, and to demons I do not sacrifice.'

[5] Her, therefore, being vigorously scraped (torn) with the blows like some lifeless statue, and crying out the same voice without ceasing, the Governor, having taken the little child in his hands, with flatteries tried to win [him] over not to weep aloud; and set [him] upon his knees, and undertook to kiss [him]. But the boy, gazing intently toward his mother, shook off the Governor, and turned away his own head; and resisting with his hands, with his own nails tore the face of the Governor he tore; and like the chick of some chaste turtledove the holy Cericus uttered an imitating voice, crying out the very proclamation spoken by his mother, and saying, 'I am a Christian'; and with his heel he aimed at the judge against his side; for the infant nature, for the most part, loves to be moved disorderly in such gestures; so that that wild beast, enraged (for he is not to be called a man, [he] who became unforgiving of [his] ignorant act), taking him by the foot, dashed the boy to the ground from the high tribunal. But the skull of the gloriously-triumphant martyr, upon such a confession, being dashed against the corner of the steps, and ground down by the sharp edge of the hard surface, the places before the tribunal were filled with blood, but into the hands of God the God-born infant rendered up his spirit; for the souls of the just are in the hand of God.

[6] This therefore, holy Julitta having beheld, and as it were filled with joy, 'I give thee thanks, O Lord,' she said, 'because thou didst count my son worthy, perfected before me, to attain the unfading crown.' But the judge, indignant also at this, orders her hung up to the windlass vigorously to be scraped; and from the cauldron to be drawn boiling pitch, and poured upon her feet. And the judge through the herald commanding it to be said to her, 'Julitta, have pity on thyself, and sacrifice to the Gods and be freed of the torments, lest thou bear the doom of thy son'; the prize-winner nobly endured the torments, crying out and saying, 'I do not sacrifice to demons, deaf and dumb carved images; but I worship Christ the only-begotten Son of God, through whom the Father made all things; and I hasten to attain my son, that with him I may be counted worthy of the kingdom of the heavens.' But when the savage judge, exceeding all madness, saw the persistent steadfastness of the martyr, he pronounces against her, ordering her head to be cut off with the sword; but the relics (body) of her son to be cast into the place of the condemned.

[7] And the executioners, binding the bridle upon her mouth, led her away to the customary place to fulfill what was commanded. But Julitta begged the executioners to hold off a little, until she might pray to the only good God; and the executioners being bent (moved), and yielding for a little, bending her knees she prayed, saying: 'I give thee thanks, O Lord, who didst call before me my son, and didst count [him] worthy, for the sake of thy name holy and fearful, to leave this present and vain life, and to be joined to eternal life with the saints; and receive me thy unworthy handmaid, and make [me] to obtain this great good, that I may become numbered among the prudent virgins who were counted worthy to enter into thy eternal and incorruptible bridal chamber; and let my spirit bless thy Father the almighty God and creator of all things, and the Holy Spirit unto the ages, Amen.' And as she completed the 'Amen,' the executioner whetting his sword, cut off her noble neck, outside the city; casting her body where also the relics (body) of the gloriously-triumphant martyr was laid up. And thus they are perfected, by the grace of Christ, both the prize-winning martyr Julitta, and her renowned son Cericus, on the fifteenth of the month of July.

[8] But on the following day, her two handmaids, taking up the bodies by night, placing them far off, hid them in the earth in the territory of the people of Tarsus. But up to the times of Constantine the pious emperor, the one of the handmaids who survived, when the truth was brought to light, and the churches of God received boldness through grace, discloses the place; and everyone of the faithful hastened, coming, to take from the relics of the Saints for the establishment of their own life, and to the glory of our good God. These things therefore were done in truth, and I have signified them to your God-loving soul; which do thou set before faithful men, who will be capable also of giving full assurance; that they be not carried about by manifestly fabulous writings, but be persuaded by the truth itself; in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, [be] glory, honor, might, unto the ages of the ages, Amen.

[1] When thy venerable Piety, through thy worthy letters, The Author asked to write truer things, had inquired of my poor slenderness, that thou mightest be taught the things which pertain to the martyrdom commonly chanted, and most celebrated by fame; of Cericus, I say, and of his mother Julitta; whether also at Iconium, whence the report is that the Martyr Julitta, illustrious for the praise of victory, and her glorious son Cericus, sprang, the tablets of that same martyrdom are held; as if namely it were their homeland: [and] that namely in the Acts of their martyrdom there exist certain over-swollen and discordant words, and trifles containing things foreign to the Christian hope; [and] likewise whether the true Acts of their martyrdom could be found, because the vulgar ones are very inept, I should write this to thy Perfection. These sacred letters from thee being received, very solicitous that I might fulfill that thy precept, with intent zeal, and with quite diligent labor, I took into my hands the Acts of the Martyrdom of the holy Cericus and his mother Julitta, and unrolling them, and reading them as carefully as I could, I found that thou speakest truly, most holy Father, and most approved Priest: for the garrulous sounds of frogs and jackdaws one might justly call these things.

Plainly composed by the art of the Manichaeans (unless my opinion deceives me)

or of certain other heretics holding alien views, that, rashly mocking, they may bring into derision and reproach the great mystery of piety.

[2] When however, much inquiry having been made, and a diligent tracking of the matter, nothing more had been accomplished by us; we questioned the natives, noble men, and shining with the first distinction of lineage among the Isauri, whether by the report at least of paternal tradition it might be permitted to obtain a thread, from which the contest of the holy Martyrs might be disclosed by certain marks. he writes what was narrated by them Martian therefore, a religious man, and formerly Tribune of the Notaries and Chancellor of the Emperor Justinian, while he was set with the magistracy over the forces; and Zeno, a most wise man, his assessor then, or counselor, [as] regards the Saints, narrated these things. who said they were akin to the saints, They had heard from noble Patricians, that there had been a kinsman to them, the flower of the first blood of Lycaonia, the Martyr Julitta to be venerated with everlasting memory, a woman of a most upright life; whose memory they celebrate with an annual rite, for this reason most of all, that they acknowledge her joined to them by the right of their lineage and kinship.

[3] This woman moreover, sprung of royal seed, when a more vehement persecution raged against the Christians, (with Domitian as Count of Lycaonia, a man namely as fierce and savage as possible, as one who especially rejoiced in the shed blood of the Martyrs) snatched herself away by flight, with two handmaids and her three-year-old son (the renowned victor Martyr Cericus, namely), from Iconium, whence also she had sprung. nobly born at Iconium Her substance therefore, in which she was very rich, being left behind, she came to Seleucia: in which very place finding the affairs of the Christians more disturbed, she fled to Seleucia with a certain Alexander appointed Governor of Seleucia by Diocletian, from whom he had recently received an edict, by which were ordered to be tortured with every kind of torments those who did not sacrifice to the idols (to which they falsely ascribed the name of Gods); she, considering that which is held in Scripture, 'Give place to wrath'; lest she give herself to dangers; hence too a fugitive, and thence to Tarsus: she goes away to Tarsus, which is the chief city of the first Cilician province. Rom. 12:19.

[4] But as if by agreement, with that monstrous and most harsh Alexander migrating thither, who namely surpassed the savagery of Domitian by many degrees, the renowned victorious Martyr Julitta is seized, embracing in her own arms [her] son The Martyr Cericus of a quite tender age (called by God, namely the Martyr Cericus). where she was seized After she was seized, the handmaids, leaving her, took to flight; and from without were watching the punishments of the tyrant upon her and his contest against her. Then she, brought to the tribunal, and being asked her name and fortune and country by Alexander, answering with a confident mind to the Judge, took to herself the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, saying, 'I am a Christian.' and having professed herself a Christian; Alexander therefore, inflamed with wrath, ordered the boy to be taken from her, and brought to him; inasmuch as he was elegant, and not yet through his age knowing anything which is of design and of a free mind: but the mother, fitted to the punishments, whom her three-year-old son seeing tortured, and stretched out with raw sinews, he commanded to be monstrously beaten. But the boy, torn by force from the bosom of the brave Martyr, and wholly yearning toward his mother, nor turning his little eyes from her, the executioners bring to the Praetor; but upon her, what they were ordered, with dire scourges tormenting, they fulfill; while she answered that one thing, that she was a Christian, and that it would never be that she sacrifice to demons.

[5] While therefore she, lifeless after the manner of a statue, is mightily torn with blows, she does not allow herself to be appeased by the coaxing Judge: and incessantly cries out the same voice; the Praetor, the boy received in his hand, coaxing [him] gently, strove to restrain [him] altogether from weeping; and placed on his knees, tried to receive [him] with a kiss. But the boy, with eyes fixed on his mother, removed the Praetor from himself, and turned away his head; and striving with his hands, scratched the Praetor's face with his little nails: like finally the chick of a chaste turtledove, holy Cericus pronounced a rivaling (imitating) voice, uttering the same proclamation of his mother, and stammering 'Christ' and crying, 'I am a Christian.' With his heels too he aimed at the judge's side: for the infant age is wont, for the most part, to be moved uncomposedly with gestures of this kind, and to clamor with anger. Wherefore that rustic beast, growing hot (for he should not be called a man who grows mild not even toward a rude and harmless age, he is dashed against the tribunal. and indulges it), the boy snatched by the foot, dashes to the ground from the lofty seat. But the brain of the renowned Martyr, dashed in that confession against the corners of the steps, and crushed by the heavy blow, the area of the tribunal round about was widely filled with blood; and the infant, the divine offspring, rendered up his spirit into the hands of God, for the souls of the Just are in the hand of God. Wisd. 3. v. 1.

[6] Holy Julitta therefore, having beheld this, and as if filled with surpassing joy, Julitta rejoices at his Martyrdom, 'Thanks I give thee, O Lord,' she was saying, 'because thou didst deign to will that my son, consummated before me, attain the unfading crown.' Hence the Judge, himself deploring [her] lot and wailing at the deed, orders her, hung from the wood or rack, her sides to be mightily dug, and pitch boiling drawn from the cauldron to be poured on her feet. And then, with the herald's voice commanding and saying, 'Julitta, have pity on thyself, and after new tortures and sacrifice to the gods, and be free from the torments, lest thou bear the same evil death as thy son'; with a noble purpose she endured the torments, crying and saying, 'I do not sacrifice to demons (deaf and dumb statues, namely), but I worship Christ the only-begotten Son of God, through whom the Father founded all things; and I hasten to attain my son, that I may be made his companion in the kingdom of the heavens.' When, surpassing all madness, the savage judge, she is adjudged to death. perceived the constant mind of the Martyr in the struggle, he pronounces against her a sentence; ordering the woman's neck to be struck with the sword, [and] the son's corpse to be cast into the place of the condemned.

[7] The executioners therefore, her mouth obstructed and bound with a bridle, Her mouth obstructed with a bridle led [her] to the customary place of execution, to fulfill what they were ordered. Julitta asks them to halt for a little while, until as a suppliant she might pray to God, who alone is good. The executioners being bent in mind, and granting something small for the delays of praying, she, her knees placed on the ground, prayed, saying, 'I give thee thanks, O Lord, after a pious prayer, who didst call my son before me; and didst deign to will that, this present and vain life being left, he should be joined to eternal life with the Saints, on account of thy holy and tremendous name; she is struck in the head. receive me too, thy unworthy handmaid, and grant that I may obtain that vast good by which I may be enrolled among the prudent Virgins, to whom it was granted to enter into the heavenly and incorruptible bridal chamber; and may my Spirit bless thy Father, God the preserver of all and maker of the universe, and the holy Spirit, unto the ages, Amen.' When she had completed the 'Amen,' the executioner brandishing his sword cut off her most steadfast neck; her body cast outside the city; in which very place the corpse of the most renowned laureled Martyr had been placed. And thus is consummated, by the grace of Christ, both the triumphant Martyr Julitta, and her glorious and renowned son Cericus, on the 17th of the Kalends of August.

[8] Buried by night by the handmaids with her son But the next day both her handmaids, the corpses taken up by night, buried them in the ground deposited far off, in the territory of the city of Tarsus. But up to the times of Constantine the most religious Emperor, the surviving one of the handmaids, when the truth was brought to light, and by the gift of God's Church itself they had obtained liberty, discloses the place. And then all the faithful, intending to receive something of the sacred pledges for the defense and protection of their life, and to the glory of our most good God, hastened, and frequented the place. These things therefore were really done, which I have also noted to your most religious mind. But do thou hand them in deposit to faithful men, who namely may be sufficient to teach others too, and to make for them sure faith; lest they be carried about by those booklets which are manifestly fabulous; but that they themselves believe the truth; in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, and to the holy Spirit, [be] glory, honor, power unto the ages of ages, Amen.

THE APOCRYPHAL ACTS

From a Ms. of the Monastery of Bodeck in Westphalia.

Julitta the Widow, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

Quiricus her son, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

BHL Number: 1802 a

FROM THE MSS.

CHAPTER ONE.

The seizing of the Saints and the incredible acts of the first day. In the days of Alexander, b the great Governor, a great commotion was made in the Church of Christ, so that many Christians were tortured with punishments, but some, terrified by the punishments, strove to hide themselves in lurking-places; Julitta seized at Tarsus, whence it happened that a certain woman Julitta, fearing the Lord from her adolescence, hearing the tyranny of the Governor, compelled by fear fled to Tarsus of Cilicia, that she might there be hidden from the face of the most iniquitous Governor Alexander. But he, hearing that many Christians were hidden there, entered that city, and began studiously to seek the worshippers of Christ, and to torture those found with punishments. But the ministers, seizing Julitta, led [her] to the Governor, saying of her: 'This is that sorceress, who fled from thee, to circumvent men here, and deceive them, that they sacrifice not to the gods, and brought to the Governor Alexander saying that they are nothing.' When the Governor had seen her, he said to her, 'From what province art thou, or what is thy name?' Julitta answered: 'I am from the province of Isauria, and of the first families of the city of Iconium, c by name Julitta: who, fleeing thee, came to this city: but now, because the Lord awaits my crown, here I have run into thy hands.' The most impious Governor says to her: 'If therefore thou knowest, that from my face thou canst not be hidden; hear patiently, and sacrifice to the gods, lest thou perish in the punishments.' Julitta answered: 'I will never sacrifice to the unclean demons.' she asks a three-year-old boy to be brought, whom she may question:

[2] The Governor says to her, 'Believe me and sacrifice to the gods, for otherwise thou wilt not escape the punishments of death.' Julitta said, 'If thou wishest that I sacrifice, send into the city, seeking a three-year-old boy: who, when he has come, whomever he shall profess to be the true Lord, let us serve him: for in the present know that I desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ alone.' Then the Governor, sending into the city, began to seek the boy: but the ministers did not find him: for all who had infants there, through fear of the most impious Governor, were hiding d them. Yet going out from the city they found a boy; and to the bystanders they said, 'How many years old is this boy?' Who said, 'Three years old he is not yet. This is the son of the Christian woman who, fleeing from Iconium, came into this place.' Seizing therefore the boy, the ministers led [him] to the Governor, and the boy said first to the Governor: 'I am of the root of the Christians.'

[3] Whence the Governor, marveling, greeted him, and said, but Quiricus being brought, and having professed himself a Christian, 'Hail, dear little boy, do not, I beseech thee, speak such things to me.' The boy said, 'Why dost thou say to me, "Hail"? when thou neither hast salvation (health) thyself, nor canst confer salvation on others.' The Governor said, 'I do not question thee about this matter, but for certain other things I commanded thee to be brought.' The boy said, 'Whatever thou shalt ask me, I will answer thee.' The Governor said, 'What is thy name?' The boy answered, 'My mother and the Priest who baptized me, named me Cyricus.' The Governor said: 'Sacrifice to the gods, and thou shalt receive great honor from the Princes, but also many riches among the elect first of all.' The boy answered, 'Thy silver and thy gold be with thee unto perdition.' The Governor said: 'From thy mother or from thy father, or from some neighbor of thine, didst thou learn this?' The boy says, by his wise answers he confounds the Governor: 'Foam and without reason, thou questionest a boy of two years and nine months, and sayest asking whether from a father or from a mother, or from a neighbor, I learned this, which I have spoken through the Holy Spirit? thou wast not worthy to hear the words of God, which he speaks through my mouth: but thou shalt hear on account of the bystanders.'

[4] Then the angry Governor ordered the boy to be afflicted, and beaten with cudgels (over the shoulders). e But the boy, directing his heart to God, beaten, he gives thanks to Christ: and lifting his eyes to heaven, said: 'Lord Jesus Christ, to thee I give thanks with my whole soul, and a prayer to thee I pour forth: I will exalt thee in the joy of thy glory, willing in this world for thy love to endure the passion of the body, that into thy kingdom thou mayest receive my soul: for therefore

I have fled to thee and thy power: I proclaim, immortal king, that thou have mercy on me.' As he prayed these things, those beating him grew faint; and when they had taken him down, they saw him sound without any injury, as if he had sustained no blows.

[5] But the Governor, marveling, ordered his mother to be brought, and he appears unharmed. and said to her, 'Julitta, behold the boy has confessed the Gods, willing to sacrifice to them: but thou, what sayest thou?' She said, 'I wish to hear the voice of my son.' Whom when she had seen constant and praising God, At the sight of him the joyful mother, extending her hand to heaven she said: 'I give thanks to thee, Lord almighty, because thou hast made me worthy to see my son before the tribunal of the Judge, agonizing for thy name: thee therefore I confess, Lord Jesus Christ, immortal God, who didst measure heaven with a span, didst mark the sea with a boundary, didst adorn the ether with stars, and the earth with a multitude of flowers didst adorn. Give, O Lord, to my son a crown unfading, who has manfully confessed thy name. *' Then was heard a voice from f heaven saying, 'Hear, daughter, this thy son shall be great in eternal glory, but thy crown is perpetual in the kingdom of God. then by a heavenly [voice,] Be strengthened therefore in the Lord, that you may be able to bear the punishments, which these men have to impose on you; and to persevere in the work begun, for the glory of God, that the impious Pagans, seeing in you the great works of Christ, may be confounded, and through you, many peoples may be converted.'

[6] But as she prayed, her son said to her: 'Mother, then by his own voice she is more encouraged thy reproach has been taken from thee: for I have seen the glory of God upon thee, and I have heard the voice of thy consolation: fear not for me, because the Lord Jesus Christ is with us, who has clothed me with an unfading garment, for the baptism which I received in his name.' The Governor said: 'This woman, as I see, wherefore the boy is tortured with vinegar, Mustard, and fiery nails. has decided with herself that she be taken from this Life.' The boy said: 'Thy Life is death: for thou art [he] of whom the prophet says, "Woe to him who calls sweet bitter, and bitter sweet."' The Governor said to the ministers, 'Bring me vinegar and mustard, and put [it] into his nostrils': which when it had been done, the boy says: 'How sweet to my jaws are thy words, O Lord.' The Governor again says to his men, 'Bring me fourteen iron nails, sharp, burning hot: and drive seven into the mother and as many into the son; two besides put into the boy's ears, and pierce his hearing, that, his eyes being blinded, the pain may reach even to his heel.' The ministers therefore fulfilling the command of the Governor, g by the command of God the nails were made cold like the crystal of snow; and the holy boy praised the Lord in his so great marvels. Then the angry Governor said to the ministers: led to prison he sings psalms: 'Bind both together, and put them into prison, until we consider how we may destroy them.' And they, binding them, put them in prison. But holy Cyricus h was singing this psalm: 'O God, be not silent of my praise, for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful is opened over me: they have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue, and with words of hatred have surrounded me, and have fought against me without cause: but thou, O Lord, deal with me for the sake of thy name, that those who hate me may see, and be confounded, since thou, O Lord, hast helped and consoled me.' But in the evening he was singing, saying: 'Let my prayer, O Lord, be directed as incense in thy sight: the lifting up of my hands [as] an evening Sacrifice.'

[7] But as he prayed, the devil appeared in the form of an Angel, and said to him in his sleep: he confounds the demon tempting him. 'Why dost thou exalt, boy, thy voice in the sight of the Lord? The Lord has turned away his face from thy prayer: and therefore he commanded me to come to thee, to tell thee; that if the soldiers lead thee out, and the Governor say anything to thee, consent to him in all things and thou shalt be a friend i of the Princes and the things which are heavenly thou shalt gain.' Understanding therefore the boy Cyricus the iniquitous art of the most iniquitous devil, said, 'Go, accursed one, pirate devil, for there is to thee no part or inheritance with the Saints of God. May Christ submerge thee in the deep tartarus, which thou hast opened.' At these words the Devil, blushing, went out saying, 'If now thou hast harmed me, and having threatened many things in vain. I will indeed enter into the heart of the Governor, and stop his mouth that he speak not to thee: and so it will come to pass that thou receive not the crown which thou hast desired. I will enter also thy mother, and turn her aside from the way of truth.' Holy Cyricus said: 'Go from me, Satan, may the almighty Lord conquer thee.' And immediately like smoke he went out from the prison. The holy boy therefore said to his mother: 'Let us always watch, O dearest mother, lest the iniquitous deceiver come again, and while we sleep take away our treasure.' Hearing these things, those who were in the prison with them were pricked in heart, and believed in the Lord.

D.P. ANNOTATIONS AND CENSURES

CHAPTER II.

Other miracles of St. Cyricus, utterly paradoxical and incredible.

[8] On the next day the Governor had them led before his tribunal, On the next day the boy uses equal constancy, and said to St. Cyricus:

'I do not now ask of thee, that thou sacrifice: but only say this Phrase, "I fumigate thee, Serapis," and I dismiss thee, and thou shalt be freed from the torments.' St. Cyricus said: 'Now truly I recognize that Satan thy father has entered thy mouth, as yesterday was shown to me. I will never say this phrase which thou persuadest, but rather I will say, "May the Lord Jesus Christ subvert thee and thine."' Meanwhile came an Angel of God from heaven, and overturned the house of the Governor, namely the beauties of the idols and the images of the thirteen simulacra, the idols broken, he insults [him,] crushing them into dust. Then Blessed Cyricus said: 'Thou seest now, Governor, that thy Gods have become like dung, for from the face of my God they have been crushed and reduced to nothing. For the Lord Jesus Christ ground them like sand, because they are vain and lying: and the spirit which dwells in them leads astray and deceives the hearts of the simple, who adore and worship them. Yet, O Governor, what I tell thee, do: and he confounds the Governor. Take thy Gods, and wrap them in clean linen and pour over them oil and salt, and let them lie so long until they themselves rise and help themselves: for others they cannot help.' The Governor therefore did a according to the voice of the boy: and there was in them no substance, by which they could lift themselves from the earth.

[9] The confounded Governor therefore said, 'Call me a bronze-smith, that I may find torments against these, by which they may be overcome.' for the same [Governor, grown mute, he speaks,] And when the bronze-smith had come, the devil entered the heart of the Governor, according to what he had spoken; and did not permit him to speak or to arrange anything of the smith's work; hoping through this that the blessed boy could be deprived of the crown of martyrdom. Understanding which, the holy boy said to the smith: 'Canst thou make for me vessels of torments, in which I may be tortured, and my mother? for the Governor can show thee nothing of it.' The smith answered: 'Say, boy, how thou wishest, and I, according to my power, will satisfy thee.' St. Cyricus said: and he commands the instruments of punishments to be made. 'Make two iron claws to the measure of a palm, one for me and one for my mother: make a head-breaker and hooks for plucking out the eyes, and forceps for the teeth, and a knee-breaker and cutters of the sinews, and a bronze bed in the likeness of a cross, and there fix three iron nails and three of lead according to my age, and write upon their head: "Trinity inseparable, be not separated from those who invoke thee." Make also two locheas (basins) b and a bronze pot; and put there two ladles. These will be our vessels of torments, and whatever beyond these thou knowest, do.'

[10] to the horror of the smith himself. But the smith, made to tremble, said to the Governor, 'Never have I heard such wisdom from those who were before us; never have I heard or learned to make such things.' Then, by command of the Governor, other more skilled smiths were brought, who could make the torments of punishments that he wished: and they gave their hands pledged to the Governor that within forty days they would fulfill his command. Meanwhile the mother with her son were shut up in prison, where also another four hundred and forty-four were kept shut up, who indeed, all converted to the faith of Christ by the preaching of the two, persevered with them in fastings and prayers, giving thanks to God for the benefits conferred through the merits of the saints, and saying: 'Blessed art thou, O Lord, the Lord who doest wonders alone: who hast given power to thy boy Cyricus and to his mother. Help now us too, because we believe in thee; and give us from thy heavenly table the food of perennial life.'

[11] But after forty days c were brought before the sight of the Governor the kinds of torments, Afterward, the Saints being brought and tortured in vain just as he himself had arranged about each one to be made. Who at once ordered the Saints of God to be brought, and said to the boy Cyricus, 'Do not think, that these so many kinds of torments have been displayed for sport.' The holy boy answered: 'Without law and without sense, most evil warrior of Satan, I do not greatly fear thy punishments: for I have my Lord Jesus Christ as helper.' The Governor said to the ministers: 'Take the skin from their heads, and put under them coals of fire'; which done, the coals were immediately extinguished; and their heads shone, as the ray of the sun shines upon the earth. At the same hour the prisons were opened, they present themselves of their own accord and there went out all the Christians who had been shut up inside; and coming before the sight of the Governor they cried out saying, 'We too are Christians, O Governor, 444 converted by them in prison, just as these also.' The Governor said: 'What happened that you should follow these things?' They answered, 'Dost thou not see, senseless one, the crowns prepared for the saints of God, whom thou commandest to be tortured without cause.' These and things like these they following, the Governor ordered them to be led outside the city and beheaded. and they are beheaded. Who, going out from the city, signed themselves with the sign of the cross, and being beheaded obtained the crown of martyrdom. d

[12] After these things the Governor ordered the bronze bed to be brought, and the holy boy to be put upon it; and sharp nails to be driven into his head, saying to him, 'If thou hast a sure God, St. Cyricus, freed from the gridiron, let him free thee now from my hands': and immediately an Angel of the Lord coming from heaven drew out the nails which had been driven in, and even to the ground casts down the Governor from the place in which he was sitting. But he was crying with a great voice, saying: 'Holy boy, help me: for I knew not that the Lord whom thou worshippest was of such power.' The holy boy answered: 'I know indeed that thou hast not it in thee to believe: he heals the smitten Governor: but yet for the sake of those who are to believe I will do mercy with thee,' and soon he placed his hand over him. Then the Governor cried with a great voice and said, 'I give thanks to my gods, through whom now I am freed.' Cyricus says to him, 'Now dost thou reckon thyself to have done rightly? Thou hast spoken ill, for thy gods did not free thee; but God almighty by my prayers saved thee. Because therefore

thou art ungrateful for the benefits of the Lord, by whose grace thou livest, thou shalt again feel the blow of his scourge, and again then thou shalt ask me that I pray for thee.'

[13] But the angry Governor, because the devil had blinded his heart, ordered all the torments to be brought which were prepared, that they might be put in the sight of the Saints. who, again attempting something and being wounded, Which when it had been done the Governor commanded the boy's throat to be strangled with the neck-breaker, wishing in one moment to suffocate [him], lest he suffer greater injuries from him. But the Governor, taking the iron tool into his hand, when he wished to strangle the boy with one stroke, struck himself in the face, and broke his nostrils and disfigured his face, so that he seemed shapeless in appearance and aspect. But the boy Cyricus, seeing the scourge of the Governor, said to him: 'Accursed and ruined one, well was it prophesied of thee, that those assailing are themselves assailed, and their wrath shall fall upon them.' The Governor said, 'I see that thou art a sorcerer, but pray to [thy] God that my face be healed.' he orders the saints to be sawn through the middle; St. Cyricus said, 'Impious one and enemy of God almighty, thou shalt no longer tempt the Lord by thy lie.' Then the indignant Governor said to the ministers, 'Bring saws, and saw them.' The ministers therefore did according to the command of the Governor, bringing saws, to saw the Martyrs of Christ through the middle. They beheld the Lord, and St. Cyricus extending his hands to heaven said: 'O Lord, Lord almighty, willingly indeed would I appear in thy sight, but my crown is not yet fully completed: for I have already received fortitude, to pass through all the punishments, enduring the incomparable tyrant, on account of the will, by which I desire to come to thee.' And behold a voice from heaven saying: 'Come, and receive the power of patience, that you may answer confidently.'

[14] which, when it had been attempted in vain with iron and wood Again before the tribunal of the Governor the saws were now placed upon the bodies of the Saints: but by the command of God they were turned crosswise, and those holding them were sawing themselves. Holy Cyricus therefore said to the Governor: 'If thou wishest that we be sawn, command wooden saws to be made, and take from us the iron ones, and thou shalt saw us.' The Governor said: 'Do according to what the boy has spoken.' And they had wooden saws made, and sawed them. But they, strengthened in the arm of the Lord's power, although they lay subject to the most grievous punishments, could by no means be overcome or extinguished. Then the Governor said to the centurion Demetrius: 'Great and most powerful arts help the boy and his mother.' and a thousand dead are raised; Meanwhile a certain Eusebius by name, a most noble man, having a case against more than a thousand men, pleaded against them before the governor and obtained that they be killed: but the blessed boy Cyricus praying for them, the Savior descended with seven Archangels to the place where they had been beheaded, as the same blessed boy beheld with spiritual eyes, and raised them from the dead: and giving to all the Holy Spirit, said to them: 'Go confidently before the tribunal of the Governor, and say to him, "It behooves us to be killed again by thee."' the Governor still hesitating and asking another sign,

[15] These things being so done, all those, together with the holy boy Cyricus and his mother Julitta, came before the sight of the Governor, crying out unanimously and saying, 'There is one true Lord, and no other, who raises the dead.' The Governor therefore, turned to stupor by excessive admiration, said: 'All these are phantasms: yet I ask some sign to be made by thee: that I may believe that all these things are true. For if I am to believe that all these have risen from the dead, let the sandals of my feet be taken off, and let them become alive, let them speak and move, eat and drink: and then I believe that all these have risen from the dead.' Then Holy Cyricus prayed to the Lord and said, 'O Lord, Lord of hosts, who madest heaven and earth, who by wisdom didst establish man, and gavest him a sign of life; give now, O Lord, an incorruptible sign to this Governor, though obstinate in hardness of mind; that he may know that nothing is impossible to thee; that those not yet understanding, may understand the great works of thy power.' his shoes are changed into a bull and a kid. These and things like these the boy praying, suddenly the sandals of the Governor were opened, and became a bull of wondrous size: there also went out from the neck of the bull a kid of the goats, and leaping it stood before the Governor. Which when the multitude of Pagans saw, they cried out with one voice saying, 'Just is the Lord and right [is] his judgment.' The Governor says to them, 'Be not seduced, dearest friends, because these all are phantasms. Let them therefore eat and drink, that we may believe that these things are true.' Holy

Cyricus said; 'Let hay and water be brought to them to drink.' Which when they had been brought, the bull and the kid were eating: and all marveled. The Governor said; 'Kill the bull and the kid, and let a meal be made from them for the people.' Which when it was done, eleven thousand men eating of them were satisfied, and there remained five baskets full of flesh: that the Governor with the people might marvel more, and might know that to the Lord it is not impossible to satisfy many from a little.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

CHAPTER III.

The mother, wavering at the torments, is feigned to be strengthened, and to be beheaded together with her son.

[16] His tongue cut off, the holy [boy speaks.] But the most impious Governor was not pricked by all these things, but filled with the devil called a physician, saying, 'Cut out the boy's tongue: for I cannot bear to overcome his incantations and magic arts.' And when this too had been done, by divine power the holy boy began to speak, and said to the Governor: 'Thou hast reckoned that words could be taken from me with my tongue; but I have received from God the Spirit of an instrument, which neither thou nor thy father the devil can extinguish, that I may insult thy malicious infidelity, because thou exaltest thyself against God.' The Governor said to the ministers: 'Beat the physician with clubs, because he did not rightly cut off the boy's tongue, as I commanded him.' The physician said, 'Behold, I still have it in my hands: but if thou commandest, let a pig be brought, and I will cut out its tongue. Which if it further utters a voice, deliver me to death.' A pig therefore being brought, when the physician had cut out its tongue, unable to utter a voice further, suddenly it expired: and so the physician escaped the danger of death. Again the Governor, turned to the boy, said: 'I do not ask of thee that thou sacrifice to the gods, but only that thou taste of the flesh and of the wine which are on the altar, and thou shalt be freed from the torments.' Holy Cyricus said: 'I will not taste unclean flesh, and let wine offered to the devil not enter into my mouth.' To be cast into a cauldron of fiery pitch

[17] The Governor said to the ministers; 'Bring the flesh of the Sacrifices and the wine of the libations, and opening his mouth put it into him against his will.' Holy Cyricus said: 'Never may it be well with thee, enemy of God and of us, who are servants of Christ with all our hearts': and the Governor said, 'Bring a cauldron, and put into it pitch, wax, tow, and apply fire.' The executioners therefore kindling the cauldron, said to the Governor, 'Lord, command those whom thou desirest to torture to be brought, for the cauldron now boils everywhere.' For the voice of the cauldron was like the voice of thunder, and its boiling ascended fourteen cubits. The Governor therefore sent, and called those men whom Holy Cyricus had raised from the dead, that they might see that most monstrous torment, and being terrified might deny Christ. Who, coming, awaited with patience the torments of the holy Martyrs, who were to be put into the most boiling cauldron. he strengthens his mother wavering at the sight,

[18] But Julitta, seeing the boiling cauldron, was terrified, wishing to deny the treasure which she had laid up. Lest she suffer so great a torment. Understanding which, her son Cyricus strengthened her in the faith, and said: 'Lady mother, be strengthened in the Lord, and fear not the torment of this death, because soon the crown which thou awaitest from God will be present to thee. Be mindful how the creator of all and the liberator, the Lord almighty, snatched the three children from the furnace of fire: for so he will be able to free us from this cauldron. If therefore thou wishest to flee the torments which are on earth, beware lest thou fall perchance into that torment which is eternal, and which none can escape, except he who here, tempted and proven for Christ, and he prays for her. is found faithful in all things. Do not, mother, totter in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ: for he is at hand to all who are afflicted for his name, and does not permit them to be tempted and to suffer above what they can bear, because faithful he is and true in all his promises. He freed Susanna from the false accusation, and Daniel from the den of lions. He now in the present is at hand, to help and free our souls from the monstrousness of this torment: but if the Lord shall wish to receive our souls by that engine, b we will endure patiently, secure that to eternal life as soon as possible without distrust we shall come.'

[19] who, her courage resumed, These and things like these the blessed boy saying, raised his hands, and said; 'Lord Jesus Christ, who hast mercy on all invoking thee and confessing to thee; have mercy on my mother and recall her mind to the solidity of faith and of thy love. But if thou hast forgotten her, and her labor and devotion, blot me too out of the book which thou hast written. O Lord, Lord almighty, look upon her, and suffer her not to perish; lest those who hate thee say, "Where now is their Lord, who did great wonders through them: for if they had invoked our Gods, surely they would have freed them. For their God deserted them, and in their need fled from them, [he] who could not help them." But thou, O Lord, propitious, stretch out thy hands, that the devil may not dominate in us, and say, "I have prevailed against them." Give therefore, O Lord, the spirit of understanding and of Wisdom to thy handmaid my mother.' But the holy boy praying, there came upon her the Holy Spirit, and the devil departed from her. she herself invites her son to the cauldron: Blessed Julitta therefore, strengthened in the Lord, said to her son Cyricus: 'I give thanks to thee, son, because by thy prayers the Holy Spirit has strengthened me in the faith of my Lord Jesus Christ. Come now, son, let us go with confidence and security to the contest laid up for us, and let us receive the crown of justice, which God has promised to those who love him: for I no longer fear the torments which are inflicted on us; I do not dread the boiling cauldron, since he who was hidden in me has departed far from me. So, with God favoring, I regard the cauldron as now affording us not boiling, but refreshment; like the dew which descends from heaven, and like the most sweet odor which comes from paradise.'

[20] Saying these things, Blessed Julitta, having entered of her own accord into the cauldron with her son, blessed God, and was not afflicted by the fire, here he, having entered with her, nor harmed. But holy Cyricus was praying with tears, saying: 'Lord Jesus Christ, who among the three children in the furnace of burning fire didst appear; be here with us, and defend us everywhere, as thou didst defend them.' But the prayer completed, taking water from the cauldron, he sprinkled [it] upon the aforesaid men, whom he had raised from the dead, who also stood by, and said: 'Let this water be to you as a baptism of penitence unto eternal life.' he baptizes thence the thousand raised, Seeing this, the Governor was indignant, and said: 'Even in the fire his sorceries prevail, so that those sprinkled feel no pain.' St. Cyricus said: 'This is not sorcery, but the power and omnipotence of God.' But St. Cyricus, dipping his three fingers into the cauldron, drenched the arm of the Governor: and immediately it scorched the arm of the Governor, and his whole body began to burn, and nothing of him remained but the bones. but he scorches the Governor, Then the Governor, compelled by this torment, cried out and said: 'Holy [one] of God, help me: for now truly I have recognized that thou hast the true God as helper and defender: this alone remains, that if thou heal me, I will immediately believe in thee.' To whom St. Cyricus said; 'I know that thou hast not it in thee to believe, in whom there is no will of religion: but for the sake of those who through the power of my Lord Jesus Christ are to believe in him, and again he heals [him.] behold now I heal thee.' And he prayed to the Lord, and said; 'Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, heal the body of the Governor; not for his sake, but for the sake of those who, admonished by thy power, are to believe in thee.'

[21] And when the Governor had been healed, he began to cry out saying, 'I give thanks to my gods, who have healed my body.' But holy Cyricus said: 'Accursed and senseless son of the Devil, why didst thou not first invoke the demons when thou wast burning? and now, after thou hast been healed by my God, why dost thou honor the demons? for no one can serve two Lords: either he will hate one and love the other; or to one he will adhere and the other despise: so thou too canst not with one mouth invoke the Lord and the Devil. He, proceeding to new torments in vain, Thou doest as the Jews who, forsaking God, adored guile.' The most impious Governor says to him: 'I praise the Gods, through whom I was freed from thy magic arts.' But the Governor happened then to be in a certain place, where he found a great rock, which scarcely seventy men could move: which immediately, seized by a diabolical thought, he ordered to be carved out, and the holy martyrs to be put in up to their heads: so that when they were drenched with boiling lead and bronze, the rock by reason of its great solidity might not break. And when they were dragged through the midst of the boiling substance, that they might be consumed limb by limb, an Angel of the Lord coming from heaven freed them, the rock being utterly burst apart, and the boiling of the fire consumed.

[22] Seeing c this, the Governor was indignant, and said, 'Unless I kill these with the sword, at last he orders the saints to be beheaded: I cannot destroy them with any torments.' Saying this he gave sentence concerning them that they be beheaded. But St. Cyricus, coming with his mother to the place where they were to be beheaded, prayed with tears, that God almighty would send his Angels to receive their souls. The Savior therefore descended with his Angels at the prayer of the infant, and they were standing around them. who being led to the place of punishment: So holy Cyricus, seeing the Savior coming to him with a multitude of Angels, prostrated himself in prayer, and prayed to the Lord, and said: 'Lord my God Jesus Christ, son of the living God, grant me what I ask thee; or if thou wilt not hear me, blot me out of the book which thou hast written.' The Savior answered and said: 'Ask what thou wilt, and I will give thee.' 'Lord,' he says, 'I pray, Cyricus prays for those who will worship or invoke [him:] that whoever in my name shall ask anything, may obtain for their needs the gifts of thy mercy, and the consolation of life. Give them, O Lord, a reward who in this life shall honor me from their substance, or from the fruit of their land; bless their wine, and oil, and multiply their grain and enlarge all their substance: whoever shall venerate or cause to be written my passion, may he receive the reward of eternal life. But into the place where there shall be a tabernacle of [my] martyrdom, let there come neither hail nor mortality of men, nor famine nor sterility, and the incursion of demons: whoever shall venerate or invoke the memory of my name, give them a good reward, and if they have sins, and from their whole heart shall have repented, let them be absolved.'

[23] But the prayer completed, the Savior said: 'Son, all that thou hast asked shall be given thee. Holy art thou, who in the hour of thy passion didst suffer with the needs of all men. Come, my beloved, receive the crown which I have prepared for thee in the kingdom of my Father.' But it was about the Sixth hour of the night; and there was a very great light over them, which no other saw except those who through them had believed, and he undergoes death on 13 June. of whom a very great multitude was there present. So holy Cyricus completed his martyrdom, together with his mother Julitta, at midnight: and being beheaded, was crowned by the hand of the Savior on the day of the Ides of June; and by the Angels was carried to the rest of eternal life. The next day, the impious Governor gathered a multitude of soldiers, and ordered the bodies to be scattered limb by limb, lest they be carried off by the Christians. But an Angel of the Lord guarded their bodies. There suffered also with the blessed boy and his mother men who, as we have aforesaid, with more than 1000 others. by his prayer were raised from the dead, in number more than a thousand, who from Christ received the palm of eternal life, beheaded at the same time and by the same impious judge.

[24] For us therefore, who venerate his memory, may the blessed Cyricus pray, a pious boy and glorious martyr; He is invoked by the Author and may he ever stand at the right hand of the Lord, with continual supplication interceding for us with the Lord almighty, that we too may merit to come to the rest of eternal life; with our Lord Jesus Christ granting [it], who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, through all the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

THE TRANSLATION OF ST. CYRICUS

To the Elnon monastery of St. Amand. By Philip, Abbot of Bonne-Espérance, of the Premonstratensian Order in Hainault.

From the published Works and a double Ms.

Julitta the Widow, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

Quiricus her son, Martyr, at Tarsus in Cilicia (S.)

BHL Number: 1813

[1] Let us praise glorious men and our fathers in their generation, to whom the Lord made much glory by his magnificence. From the Abbey of Elnon, Formerly in the place of the Elnon monastery, where St. Amand rests in body, the riches of salvation, that is, wisdom and knowledge, abundantly overflowed: and diffused their odor every way: so that many drew thence, whence they might offer drink to their own. But because knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies; through the inflation of knowledge, wise charity, and dear wisdom, seemed in that place to grow scarce, as in what follows will be seen. Finally there flourished there in study a certain wise man, by name b Milo; who under the wings of the schools cherished his nephew Hucbald, Hucbald the nephew of Milo with the benefit of the liberal arts. The follower namely, that he might take a trial of his talent, composed about St. Andrew a melody of Antiphons: but also of certain Lauds, having "What is truly pious praise" as their beginning. When the teacher had at last scarcely recognized this, he took it gravely, and denied him entrance to the schools; complaining that he wished to usurp upon himself the name of Philosopher. And because the place at that time lacked an c Abbot: approaching the Prior, he defames the disciple of excessive arrogance, and protested that he and that disciple could by no means dwell in the same dwelling. He, summoning Hucbald, asked [him] to yield to the elder, until, his animosity mitigated, he departs to Nevers; which then was newly fervent, he might return to his own place in peace. Acquiescing in his counsel, he sought the city of Nevers: which a certain d Nivus had founded.

[2] Where, when he stayed with the Bishop e, so he clung to his company, that he became his companion in every business. For the same Pontiff so took him as an intimate, that he entrusted to him his furnishings. And because the Bishop had received the increment of youth to be educated at Reims; he ordered him to be a composer of melody, upon the history f of Blessed Cilinia the mother of St. Remigius. But the oft-mentioned Pontiff had with him, among the sacred ministries, the body of St. Cyricus, where, ordered to write about St. Cilinia, of the little infant and the great Martyr. But it happened that the Bishop was wearied by a sharp pain of the body, and felt the danger of death to be at hand to him. Then calling Hucbald, he addresses his friend with this speech: 'I am afflicted with the weariness of a most grievous illness so far, that I understand I can be aided by the help of no healing, nor relieved by remedy. Wherefore, most loving Brother, because to my uses hitherto I know thee to have devotedly served, I do not wish now to dismiss thee ungratefully. Because therefore all my things are in thy knowledge, disclose what I have, whence a worthy recompense can be made to thee.' Hearing which, Hucbald answered the Bishop, now made more cheerful: 'One thing there is, Lord Father, in thy possession, which if it should befall me to have, I shall greatly esteem the devotion of my service. The quantity of gold or silver I do not seek at all, or of the other things of this kind: but only the body of St. Cyricus. he asks of the Bishop the body of St. Cyricus: This heard, the Bishop with a somewhat sad countenance answered Hucbald: 'Thy petition indeed exceeds the measure; yet lest I seem to wish to defraud thee of the promise, depart as soon as possible, the holy Body taken.' Then he, carrying off secretly the Martyr's bones, laid them in his food-bags, and with him conniving, he takes [them away;] to the faithful theft joining a sagacious industry; namely that so clean a treasure might by no means be sought among unclean vessels.

[3] Meanwhile the Clerics and servants, occupied with various businesses, after they learned that Hucbald had departed, began to speak to one another, lest he had left some detriment behind him: inasmuch as to him the care of the household property had been entrusted by the Pontiff. At last, with him now progressing farther from the city, conversing they came to the place where they thought the Martyr's body was preserved. Which not being found, they perceived that they had been craftily forestalled with household loss. What need of many words should I delay? With him hastening his flight, they hastened to pursue the fleeing [man]. But Hucbald, looking back, when he saw himself surrounded by enemies, penetrating a wood placed opposite him, descended from his horse; bent his knees, poured forth a prayer, even vowed a vow: that if the holy Martyr should permit himself, with Christ aiding, to be carried to the Elnon monastery; placed in the middle of the church's court, he would be singularly venerated by the people. And soon mounting his horse, according to his wish, he quickly crossed that very thicket. But they, since they could not find even his tracks, wandering through the wood, returned, conjecturing that he had taken another route.

[4] But he, rejoicing that he had escaped with that heavenly treasure, The people of Elnon, admonished by a miracle, went on, hastening even to the Elnon monastery. Now on the night which preceded the day, when he was to enter the oratory of St. Amand: St. Amand himself appeared to a certain bedridden Monk in the house of the infirm, whose paralysis had dissolved the joints of his limbs: and touching with his finger his vital breast, 'Rise,' he said, 'unharmed: and by this sign admonish the Brethren, that they prepare themselves to meet Hucbald with crosses and wax candles, bringing the body of St. Cyricus the Martyr.' Who, obeying the command of the one ordering, was present at the procession, not without the greatest amazement of those beholding. Then indeed Hucbald, mindful of his own vow, hastening the woodworkers, had constructed in the middle vault of the church a fitting dwelling, as far as he could, in which the bones of the saint might be placed. Which when it was made with all speed, and there the holy Relics were placed. Wherefore an altar was built there; before which lying prostrate frequently, Hucbald interceded with devout prayers to the Martyr: whence there befell him a certain presage, they piously receive it: which we have by no means judged should be suppressed in silence.

[5] Finally in the stillness of a certain night, with him resting with the Brethren, St. Cyricus is present to him in a vision, he himself understands that he will soon die; by whom, terrified by such an address: 'Know that the course of thy life is to be ended in a short time; namely this year, on the fifth day after the triumph of my passion. Seek therefore some of the Chiefs of the heavenly court, who may stand for thee as advocate before the strict Judge.' Immediately Hucbald, roused from sleep, by no means gave faith to the vision; unless he should inquire the matter from God, prostrate to the holy Martyr. For coming to the church, before his altar prostrated on the ground as usual, with devout affection he supplicated, and he is bidden to compose the Office of St. Peter, that whether the vision were true or an illusion of a phantasm, he might be made certain, by his intervention. And when he prayed more attentively, sleep crept upon him: and behold he beholds the Saint standing by him with his intellectual eyes, and repeating what he had said with friendly words: 'Do not doubt,' he says, 'concerning the things

I have said: but because thou hast hitherto exercised thyself in the memory of many Saints, now before thou departest from this life, take care that in the church by thee more than usual a commemoration be made of the heavenly Key-bearer.' At these things, awakened, he held off, until the assembly of the Brethren should take place: and then with satisfaction, what he had seen, and what he had heard, he made known to all.

[6] But although he was affected with a certain weariness of mind, inasmuch as he believed that his last day was imminent, and this done, he dies in the year 930, by the common condition; about the history of St. Peter he began, as a sick man weak from infirmity, to compose melody: 'In the streets,' saying, 'were placed the sick.' To whom when the day was near, on which he had learned he was to migrate hence: he began, his limbs languishing, to fail in the strength of his body. Coming also, so to speak, even to the gates of death, he received the Viaticum of the Lord's body and of the holy Unction: and about ninety years [old], in the year of the Lord nine hundred thirty, on the Lord's day, the twelfth g of the Kalends of July he died: just as he had heard in his sleep. But the Brethren, beholding the aforesaid vision in no way made void; but, as they had drawn it in by the ears, consequently made valid; whoever had wavered in mind before this concerning the presence of the Saint, led by penitence, they and all the others lifted themselves up in the praises of God. But because there was lacking to them, whence they might adorn the mausoleum of so great a Martyr, they were indeed wasting away in their minds.

[7] But in the course of time, to their successors the clemency of the Savior thus lent aid in this matter. A noble and most powerful matron, namely Susanna h the Queen, approaching the place for the sake of praying: seeing that the bones of so great a Martyr had a less worthy reliquary; The bier of St. Cyricus is fabricated. began to fluctuate with thoughts within the secrets of her inner self, by what means she might be able to correct what concerning him had hitherto been neglected. At last therefore, strengthened in mind, she did not delay to set in motion the efforts of artificers, and also of masons: she gave also to the Monks much gold and silver, commissioning to be made with embossed work a bier and a tablet before the altar, and above [it] the deeds of his passion: but also round about to be becomingly distinguished, with Parian and black stone, the pleasant features of a beautiful little shrine: which, applying skillful industry with sagacity, they wondrously brought to effect. But this work, worthy of all admiration, persevered up to the burning of the church. Let it not therefore be irksome, Brethren, to frequent the memory of him i, to whom of its own accord so great a treasure was brought: since, as it has been said before us, the praise which is spoken of the members, is referred to the head, without doubt. So at last by his present suffrage his venerators will be freed from all evil, the heavenly king granting [it]: who had supplied to the tender child himself strength for enduring the bitter things of the torments, and had suggested eloquence to the little infant, by whose intercession may he free us, we beseech, from every enemy, who with the Holy Spirit reigns [as] God, in the majesty of the Father. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

Hence that verse in the Ms. Monasteriology of the Prior of Anchin, volume 8 part 1 folio 218: "Men flock to Elnon therefore for the sake of learning. From everywhere. Thou too, O Bald King, sendest thither thy twins: Whom true death lays low in their first flower; Pippin one was called, but Drogo was the other." In the same place this Epitaph of theirs exists: "Whoever beholdest our figures with a discerning heart, Behold how suddenly the honor of the world fails. We are sprung of a King, who derived [his] name from a name, Charles from Charles, the Great from the Great. It was not permitted to complete the whole year of life, But due death snatched away our souls. If, father, thou deignest to visit our tomb; O King, grieve not at our deaths, we beg. Taken from the earth, received into a peaceful region, With the Saints we enjoy rest perpetually. Be you, mindful of us, happy parents: This I, Pippin, ask, and likewise Drogo."

Where, if I rightly understand, that they died as infants, not yet a year old; they were not sent thither for the sake of discipline, of which they were not yet capable, but of education: and this the more probably, because their Brother Carloman bore the title of Abbot of Elnon, after Alfrid the 23rd Abbot, thence translated to a certain Bishopric. But of what See? This the people of Elnon confess they are ignorant of. The reckoning of times persuades me, that he was made Archbishop of Utrecht, who sat from the year 838 to 845: add that elsewhere the name of Alfrid nowhere occurs among the Bishops. Concerning this Milo and his writings, Henschen has treated at length, before the Acts of St. Amand on the 6th of February, number 125 and following. Here, from the Monasteriology already mentioned, receive his Epitaph: "Milo, Poet, Sage, lies enclosed beneath this marble; Who with sweet-sounding song the book of sobriety Published, and beautifully depicted St. Amand, Adorning with flowers, gracing with meter and prose The palm, the head, and the crown of so great a Pontiff." He is said to have died in the year 871. The Prior who namely, being present, should rule: for Alfrid indeed had been promoted to the Archbishopric: but Carloman, in whose time the matter rather seems to have been done, lived indeed up to the year 873 or as others [say] 886: but repeatedly rebelling against his father and restless, he was nowhere less than in his own Abbey; where nevertheless he obtained burial, translated to Echternach by the aforesaid Hucbald: just as is understood from these verses which are read there about both: "Carloman, under his father's auspices, augmented by several monasteries, gave judgment also over the waters of the Scarpe; Who many gifts to the cloisters, his father's favor indulging, bestows, worthy of his Caesar father. The father, exhausted by war, when he prepares to turn what [he] sought again into the expenses of savage Mars: The son resists: stirs fierce arms against his parent, and to the enemies of his country he is added as a companion. Conquered in war he is captured; and Caesar orders the conquered to be held in the city of Senlis, And punished, deprived with twin glowing iron of thy rays, O bright Phoebus. In the propitious time when Hucbald, Bald with Apollo (learning) brought him to Elnon and laid him in the place. He here, once seized by sleep at the sacred altar, himself learned the time of his own funeral. He holds a tomb, joined to the tomb of his uncle Milo, where in a sacred shrine the key-bearer Peter is venerated." Hence also this, common to both: "Philosophers here together rest, and famous Masters, The flowers of our Church, illustrious through the ages: The one had been a disciple, the other a teacher." Which things, not easily to be found elsewhere, it pleased to heap together here on the occasion of Hucbald. d This name Nivus savors of a fable: it pleases more to say that Nevers (Nivernum) was named from the river Nivori, otherwise also Nividunum. e As it is difficult, from the figures badly noted in our transcript, to know with certainty the year of the translation, so also the name of the Bishop: for on folio 219 is read, "The Translation of St. Cyricus and Julitta into our church, made by the same Hucbald from the Church of Nevers in the year 800"; where a correction must necessarily be applied, but none pleases more than 860, so that, with his uncle still living, Hucbald returned to Elnon; and so the Bishopric of Hermann would be noted, known from public monuments from the year 849 up to 862. But on folio 220 our copyist wrote thus: "The body of St. Cyricus is translated from Nevers to Elnon [in] 830": but that this too is a manifest error is proven, by what is soon added, "Hucbald died in the year 930": and this Philip soon below confirms. f St. Cilinia is venerated only in the Arch-monastery of her son on the 21st of October, where her Relics are enclosed in gold. Her Life Hucbald is said to have celebrated in a beautiful poem, in Marlot's History of Reims, book 4 chapter 4. If it still exists, we wish to obtain it. Meanwhile we have not found on what foundation the same Marlot says that Hucbald came from Nevers to Reims, and there professed Philosophy with the fame of his name, in the schools restored under Archbishop Fulk. That he was first a Monk among the monks of St. Bertin, which the same Marlot says; I would easily believe, since from what has been said it appears he was a newcomer at Elnon. g The characters agree, because the year 930 had the Dominical letter C.

The Chronicle of [St.] Amand, where it treats of Wericus the 31st Abbot: "At that time Susanna the Queen, dwelling before our monastery, in the palace of the Kings of France, held Mauritania, the Castle of Bricillum, and Felinas with their appendages; and so from the right of St. Amand it passed into the hand of the Count of Flanders. But Susanna the Queen died in the year 1004, who in gold and silver wondrously adorned the bier of St. Cyricus." Which the Chronologer of [St.] Amand illustrated with these verses: "His (Wericus's) age she illustrates with various virtues, the illustrious royal consort Susanna. Bereft of her husband, she placed for herself dwellings near the seat of Amand, led by the religion of the sacred place: Which she heaps with various gifts, and brings forth monuments religious woman of her sincere mind. A tablet carved for thee, O Cyricus, in Parian stone, which relates the punishment and the series of [thy] martyrdom." It is added in the Margin that she was the wife of Robert King of the Franks; but he, having dismissed Bertha whom he had married against divine law, in the year 999 took Constance, daughter of the Count of Arles, and lived with her until he died in the year 1031: she is therefore to be understood [as] the wife of Arnulf the Younger, Count of Flanders, who bore him Baldwin the Bearded, and surviving her husband who died about the year 988; called Queen, because she was the daughter of Berengar King of Italy, according to Vredius, in the Genealogy of the Counts of Flanders. Lambert, who [is] also called Fulcard, is elected Abbot in the year 1065. In the second year of his rule, our church with its buildings is laid waste by fire on the third of the Ides of February, on a Saturday, and so in the year 1067, having the Dominical letter A: which church, adorned with gold and silver and the varied beauty of tablets, becomingly ornamented within with Parian marble, covered on the outside with leaden plates, while it blazed everywhere with a most vast fire, the bells to the number of sixteen, with none striking, sounded together: until, by melting, they were reduced to dust: with which the whole cloister, and also the church of Saints Peter and Paul and St. Andrew, constructed by St. Amand, were burned. See the Miracles of St. Amand, carried about through France on this occasion, described by Gillebert the Monk, chapter 1. That this disaster was described by him in a more prolix Poem, the Poet of [St.] Amand testifies, explaining the matter itself thus: "To the command succeeds Fulcard, a lover of the honest, who bears a face moist with sad weepings; On account of the sacred shrines violated by the rapid fires, and the cloisters and house burned by a chance torch. Here a certain thing happened worthy of memorable relation, and not to be passed over in silence by the office of my song. When the ravaging flame with a horrible whirlwind seized the tower, having laid waste the glory of the temple;

The bronze bells, moved by no one's hand, nor stirred by savage winds, sounded together at once in their place. Nor did they make a limit to their crashing with mournful clang, seeming to bewail the lot of their own destruction; Until, melted, they departed into thin ash, by no interrupted measures, with the fire raging. The disaster received, Guilbert in a plaintive song celebrates, and pursues with mournful measures." Which work seems to have perished.