ON S. PAPPIUS OR PAPPIANUS, MARTYR AT MYLAE IN SICILY.
CommentaryPappius or Pappianus, at Milis in Sicily (S.)
BHL Number: 6451
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
Whence the eulogy of S. Anectus the day before From the same source whence on the preceding day, the Collector of the greater Menaia, and Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, received the torments of S. Anectus or Anicetus; they received similar torments of S. Pappius, exaggerated almost beyond probability; and in this even more imperfect than those, that they do not even express the place of the combat; but in this equal, that we have not yet been able to find the memory of such a Martyr in any other Synaxaria; and that Sirletus referred them into his Menologium, whence it befell them to be referred also into the present-day
Roman Martyrology, with a more prolix Eulogy taken thence. The Greek text of the Menaia is this.
[2] we also give that of S. Pappius, like that one, "This Pappius was in the times of Diocletian and Maximian, from his ancestors above worshipping Christ and preaching him.
Being accused therefore he is seized, and standing before the Ruler is urged to sacrifice; but not yielding, but rather the Governor insulting, into wrath he kindled him. Forthwith therefore he is lifted up from four posts and stretched, and with raw sinews he is scourged at length.
Then into a very great cauldron of oil and tallow for three days he is cast; and there was a wonder and amazement at what was seen, a man as if putting on like a garment the fire, and for seven days in this torment persevering. Many therefore of the unbelievers to the faith in Christ he called forth. And being cast out thence, again upon iron caltrops naked he is dragged, and to wild horses being bound, over rough and impassable places he is driven.
Then he is hung upon the beam for three days head downward, a very great stone being attached to him on his neck, and after the third day the rope being cut through with a sickle, upon the ground the Saint is dashed. Again therefore a great quantity of live coals is poured over the whole of his body, and with stones from above he is buried. But by the protection of an Angel unharmed from the stones he is cast out, and whole entirely is restored, and the executioners to the faith he draws, and a considerable crowd, who also had their heads cut off. Then the Saint the death by sword receives, unto glory and praise of our true God. Amen."
[3] This Pappius was in the times of Diocletian and Maximian, from his progenitors worshipping Christ and preaching him; the torments being exaggerated beyond belief. but being accused he is seized; and standing before the Governor he is ordered to sacrifice. Which when he refused to do, nay rather the Prefect himself afflicting with insult, he stirred to anger; forthwith from four stakes hung he is stretched, and with raw sinews is beaten exceedingly long: then into a very great cauldron he is cast, for three days in oil and fat to be cooked. Then there was a miracle and amazement, to see a man, who the fire as a garment put on, and such a punishment for whole seven days sustained unconquered: wherefore of the unbelievers many to the faith of Christ were converted. Thence therefore cast out, upon iron caltrops naked he is dragged; and to wild horses bound, through places rough and trackless he is drawn: afterward from a beam for three days he is hung head downward, with a great stone at his neck: but on the third day the rope was cut with a sickle, and the Saint fell to the ground. Again moreover his whole body covered with a quantity of live coals, stones above being cast, he is buried. But an Angel assisting him, drawn out thence, and whole and unharmed standing, his lictors to the faith he allured, and at the same time a great crowd; who also were beheaded. Then indeed the Saint himself the end of his combats by the sword received, being struck, to the praise and glory of our true God. Amen.
[4] I recognize without doubt the style of the writer, the same who wove the Eulogy of S. Anectus; Hence referred into the Roman Martyrology and whose words, contracted by Sirletus, in the Roman Martyrology also more contracted are thus read. On the same day, S. Pappius the Martyr, who in the persecution of Diocletian, beaten with scourges, and into a cauldron full of boiling oil and fat cast, and other horrible torments having endured, at last, his neck being given, is crowned. So illustrious a martyrdom, ascribed to no certain place, the Spaniards draw to themselves, ought not to be passed over by the fabricators of Spanish fictions, accustomed to draw into Spain whatever is unattributed. And so Pseudo-Dexter wrote him a Martyr beheaded at Segisamo in the year 300: his interpreter Villanovanus turns it into Simancas. At Arbucaria among the Celtiberians (today Albacar) the same one ascribe the Adversaria of Pseudo-Luitprand, equally fictitious, which with that one thus tries to reconcile Tamayus, so that in one place born, in another the Saint suffered: then he adduces more prolix Acta from a Ms. Legendary of Segovia: which, since he professes to bring forward, only the places of origin and combat being added, it pleases under this caution to transcribe them hither for more conveniently judging about the whole matter.
[5] Pappius from his early age having embraced the faith of Christ, it through his whole life-time without diminution he maintained. But when there occurred, with the Acta taken from the Ms. of Segovia. when now of a proved life he was a man, the storm of persecution, by which Dacianus, supported by the authority of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, all the cities of the Western parts, by the destruction of the Christians, utterly to depopulate tried; the city of Sogessa, in which he had been born, leaving, to go to meet the Governor he proposed. Whom finding, at the town of Bruca, when before his sight he stood, with a brave and intrepid heart the following words he brought forth. Why, madman, against the members of Christ art thou inflamed with so great fury? so that thus savagely the bodies of the Saints thou hast torn? Dost thou not see, that in that very thing in which thou art bitterly wearied, eternal glories for the Martyrs, thou not knowing, thou multipliest? Perhaps thou dost not experience, that the ground of the Saints watered with blood, for one whom thou slayest, the indelible faith of many sprouts forth? Therefore, why art thou mad? Cease indeed the advance of thy fury: and thou who hast seen so many even in the frail sex miracles of constancy and prodigies of virtues, abstain from the journey begun; and Jesus Christ, the true God, who can reduce thee to nothing, adore, that thus thou mayest attain eternal life. These things heard, the Governor raging, where he is said [to suffer under the Governor Dacianus] ordered Papius to be seized, commanding his attendants, that, his garments suddenly stripped off, they should scourge him with the hardest sinews, until the insolence of his words together with his soul amid the blows he should vomit forth. The band of attendants obeyed, and so long persisted to beat the Martyr with scourges, that scarcely the least skin was seen around unharmed. At these things the holy Martyr always God with glad countenance praised; and sometimes the Governor's blindness rebuking, that in Christ he might believe, persuaded. Then Dacianus, the Martyr's body cut to pieces beholding, a cauldron of oil and fat full to be summoned ordering, it over the fire caused to be set, until that matter melted and boiling should appear; and it upon the body to be set he commanded, together with live coals and firebrands, that also by the violence of the fire the more quickly he might breathe out his soul. But, O remarkable providence of God! seven days in this torment he remained, in each one several times repeated the boiling liquids of oil and fat being applied, until the Governor overcome, the most holy Athlete to be beheaded commanded, by which the glorious Martyr into the heavens with a crown bound ascended on the 4th of the Kalends of July, in the year 303.
[6] Thou hast word for word the Acta, which Tamayus from the Ms. Legendary of Segovia received himself says, suffered at Brucca, born at Sogessa; omitting only those things which from his Pseudo-Dexter he had painted on, in words, at the very beginning; Papius, a Spaniard by nation, sprung from Segisamo, a city in the Vaccaei. I wished also to expunge the name of Arbucara, the fictitious place of his combat, but I did not find it inserted in the Acta by Tamayus, and only named in the text of the Martyrology by him composed, in this manner; At Arbucara in Celtiberia of Tarraconensian Spain, S. Papius, etc. In my Commentary moreover I reprehended the Acta, that they name the place of the combat Bruca, because this is a coastal town of Sicily between Catania and Syracuse, even today called la Brucca; but the place of his nativity Sogessa, such as in Spain none is found, although that the Martyr was a Spaniard, beyond doubt to be Tamayus thinks. but each place will rather be found in Sicily, I therefore, while I consider the same in Sicily, but on the opposite shore between Drepanum and Panormus an old city Segesta, judge it could most easily have come to pass, that its name into Sogessa an unskilled scribe turned; less easily, that this he substituted for Segisamo, or Bruca for Arbucana. But since the recent style teaches the Acta themselves to be recent also, I conceive without difficulty how, at the persuasion of Higuera, or of some one of his accomplices in fabricating antiquities, there crept into a Legendary by no means ancient, Dacianus the Governor, most renowned in Spanish martyrdoms, and to the name of Pappius was added, a Spaniard by nation (if however both are present in the Breviary), but the rest as to substance were so left, as from Sicily to Segovia they had been brought, perhaps together with the Relics; for otherwise no cause appears, by which it happened that those Acta were found in such a place.
[7] However it was: I gladly accept, thus beyond the intention of Tamayus and of those who wished to make Pappius a Spaniard, where he seems known under the name of Pappinus or Pappianus, an indication of Sicily offered to us, and in it the homeland and arena of the Saint: and that this is the very one I judge, whom (by the testimony of Cajetan in the Animadversions on the deposition of SS. Pappianus, Lucianus, Gregorius, and Acacius the Martyrs) ascribed to this day, the people of Mylae in the same Sicily call Papinus, and whom in the Translation of S. Bartholomew to the island of Lipara, opposite Mylae, we read called Pappianus. But concerning his cult among them thus writes the same Cajetan in the said Animadversions, number 8. having his own church at Mylae, On the part where the Mylensian Chersonese bends to the West, there stands an old little church sacred to S. Pappianus: thither it is reported his coffer was cast out and buried: nor would I refute the report; for there a church built by the ancestors, and very many miracles in that place, which show that not only the city of Mylae, but the very shore near the little church, is in the tutelage of S. Pappianus. For when the scabby and ulcerous, a pit being dug there, the affected parts of the body with sand cover, and water of the sea pour over, immediately certain little worms come forth thence, and so the sick are made whole.
[8] The inhabitants relate that, not many years before, certain triremes of pirates (they were Turks or Moors, he protected the town from Turkish pirates, enemies of our faith) attempted the plundering of Mylae, on the part of the shore where is the church sacred to S. Pappianus. But while they were now hastening to land their soldiery, armed ranks of horsemen and footmen were seen along all that maritime coast, and as leader of the bands Pappianus: and stricken with fear and trembling, they were carried back into the deep. Of the miracle there are many witnesses: among the rest Vincentius Jacius of Mylae, who was held captive in those triremes, when the Turks, the army seen on the shore, withdrew into the deep. For, uncertain of affairs, they asked Vincentius, whether on the coast of Mylae a soldiery stood for guard? He answered, that no soldier was there, but S. Pappianus, governor and guardian of Mylae. The same Vincentius about the whole matter informed his kinsmen by letters, the citizens being admonished, that the little church of S. Pappianus in the highest veneration they should hold. and his cult as Patron on the 17th of June, A few years before, there were surviving two Priests, Oliverius Virgilius and Franciscus Bittus, who had read the letters. Of the same matter a witness is Didacus Morales, a Spanish soldier, who, when in the Turks' triremes a captive he was then held, the armed cohorts on the shore beheld: afterward, freedom being granted, of his own accord he went to Mylae, and long, for his piety toward S. Pappianus, served at his church. Furthermore S. Pappianus is held Patron of the city of Mylae, and with great cult, on his anniversary feast day, on the 15th of the Kalends of July, is celebrated.
[9] Thus far Cajetan, in Volume 1 on the Acta of the Saints of Sicily, who died in the year 1620: the body having floated thither over the sea within a chest, who also notes that the inhabitants believe that a stone chest with the sacred body floated thither over the sea; and he himself, among the Acta of the aforesaid Deposition, from the Menaia, on the 25th of August describing the arrival of the body of S. Bartholomew to the island of Lipara and its finding there, Theophilus reigning; mentions the portentous transportation thither, and there the so-called Ἄμυλλα
city of Sicily, to be Mylae quite probably thinks. Yet to the miracle itself very ancient, as is aforesaid, and of which also S. Gregory of Tours makes mention in the book on the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 34, and to the same, with circumstances in appearance fabulous not augmented, great credit is given by a relation, which concerning the body of S. Bartholomew others hand down. first in the 9th century or even later written; especially since Theodore and Joseph (from whom we have the Translation aforesaid written not much earlier, and whence the collector of the Menaia took his own) the body indeed of the Apostle through the sea to have flowed in the company of four chests, which, having afterward fulfilled their office, to the places destined for them by divine agency floated; yet neither the places themselves nor the bodies do they name; and all things are wrongly expressed in the Menaia. What if that [body cast at Brucca into the Sea floated to Mylae?] Accordingly I judge that interpolation gratuitously contrived, and the name of Pappianus, as one carried to Amylla, on that account only assumed, because from the tradition of the people of Mylae it is had that the body floated thither over the sea, which I rather than believe to have flowed from Armenia in a stone chest, would say was cast at Brucca into the sea naked and without a head, and then, God so disposing, on the Mylensian shore by the waves deposited; and that on the 28th of June, on which in the Synaxaria the name of Pappius is inscribed, more entirely to be read Pappianus; but that the 17th day of the same month is of some new translation or dedication celebrated at Mylae.