ON SS. AMMON THE DEACON AND THE FORTY VIRGINS, MARTYRS AT HERACLEA IN THRACE, AT HERACLEA IN THRACE.
Under Licinius.
The cult, the martyrdom, and other things pertaining to these Saints.
Ammon, deacon and martyr, at Heraclea in Thrace. (S.)
The Forty Virgins, martyrs, at Heraclea in Thrace. (SS.)
Written by J. P.
The public cult of these holy Martyrs passed from the Greeks to the Latins. The cult among the Greeks and the Latins: In the Roman Martyrology they are thus announced: At Heraclea, of holy Ammon the deacon, and of the holy forty Virgins, whom he instructed in the faith, and under the tyrant Licinius led with himself to the glory of martyrdom. The same Galesinius reports, with an elogium or narration of the martyrdom rendered from the Greek. Nor did Molanus leave them unannounced in his Additions to Usuard, printed in the year 1573. The Menology of the Greeks, published by Ughelli in volume 6 of Sacred Italy, and prefixed with the name of Basil, the younger emperor of Constantinople, on this day also thus announces them in column 1056 of the earlier edition: The contest of the holy 40 Virgins, and of Ammon the deacon, their master. Somewhat different from these is the Menology of the Greeks which Henry Canisius published from the translation of Cardinal Sirleto. Take the text: On the same day, the birthday of the holy forty Women, martyrs, virgins and nuns, and of Ammun the deacon, their master. Like things are in the great Menæa, which sing this epigram to the Virgins:
Δυσεικαρίθμοις Παρθένοις πῦρ καὶ ξίφος Θεοῦ προεξένησαν υἱὸν νυμφίον.
Which I render into Latin to this sense:
This company of Virgins, twice twenty in number, Betroths to itself by fire and sword the Son of God.
But of Ammon the following are subjoined:
Ἀμμοῦν καλύπτραν ἔμπυρον δεδεγμένος Τὸ σαρκικὸν κάλυμμα χαίρων ἐξέδυ.
That is:
While Ammon puts a fiery covering upon his head, Rejoicing he puts off by death the covering of the flesh.
[2] The martyrdom is set out in these words in the said Menology of the emperor Basil: the martyrdom: The company of forty Virgins and martyrs had for its fatherland Adrianople of Macedonia; and for its teacher of the faith, and of all that pertains to the heavenly kingdom, Ammon the deacon; and for that cause they were cast into prison and endured many kinds of torments, since they most obstinately refused to sacrifice to the idols; nay, when they were compelled to sacrifice, they prayed to God, and by their prayers the priest of the idols was lifted into the air, fell down, and was straightway killed. Wherefore Ammon, being hoisted on high, had his sides scraped, and a glowing helmet was put [*] on his head; who afterwards, being sent together with the Virgins to the prefect Licinius, was condemned with them, that all should be punished with death by various kinds of torment. For ten were consumed by fire; eight with their Teacher were condemned to lose their heads; ten others had their mouths pierced with a dagger; six were cut in pieces; the rest were killed by glowing iron thrust into their throats. Like things are recorded in the Menæa and in the Menology of Sirleto.
[3] various Among other things which may be observed about these Martyrs, let us first say something about the cause of the martyrdom inflicted upon them by Licinius. Eusebius, in the Life of Constantine, book 1, chapter 52, in the translation of Valesius, writes this of the same Licinius: Moreover, since he was given over to every lust and wantonness, and committed many adulteries and other outrages of detestable obscenity, he judged that the honour of chastity and continence could in no way be maintained by men, judging most ill of the common nature of men from his own disease. And presently, going on thus in chapter 53, he says: Therefore he passed another law, by which he ordered that men should not assemble in the church of God together with women for the sake of praying; nor that women should resort to the venerable schools of virtue for the sake of learning; and lastly that bishops should not deliver the precepts of divine religion to women, but that women chosen for that purpose should be set over the teaching of women. And that this law passed by him was the cause why he raged against the holy Virgins of this day and their Master, we judge to be quite probable. For as he was the most unjust promulgator of unjust laws, so likewise he showed himself their most severe keeper, as Baronius observes at the year 316, number 12: Whence, as he goes on, it came about that he punished with various kinds of death Ammon the deacon and the forty Virgins whom he was instructing; whose birthday was consecrated by perpetual memory on the Kalends of September.
[4] about these Saints 20 Some things offer themselves to be observed about Licinius, who inflicted death upon them. The Menology of Basil above gave him only the title of prefect; but the great Menæa call him a tyrant. The Ecclesiastical History of Nicephorus Callistus, published at Paris in the year 1630, volume 1, book 7, chapter 44, records the deed as under the reign of Licinius, which opinion Baronius followed, as we have just set forth. 30. And he rightly explodes at the aforesaid year this fable added by Nicephorus: But Nicephorus is plainly deceived, when those whom all attest to be virgins he himself hands down to have been the wives of those forty soldiers who suffered at Sebaste in Armenia under the same emperor Licinius… But whence he received such an invention does not appear: it is rather thought to have been bandied about by the report of the ignorant crowd from the sameness of the number. 40. The Menology of Basil assigned as the fatherland of these forty Virgins and martyrs Adrianople of Macedonia, the Menology of Sirleto and the great Menæa agreeing; where I have hitherto found no city of that name noted by the geographers whom I have consulted.
[5] Tillemont observes moreover, in volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, observations. note 2 on the persecution of Licinius, that this was not stirred up by him against the Christians so long as he held Macedonia, that is, from the year 312 to 314. And for the fatherland of the holy women indicated above I judge that Adrianople in Thrace on the river Hebrus must be substituted, where it bends its course to the south; in which region also are found Berrhœa and Heraclea, of which the Menology of Sirleto and the Greek Menæa make mention in the narration of the martyrdom. In that Menology indeed are these words: Holy Ammun… was sent with the Virgins from Beroë to Heraclea of Thrace to the tyrant Licinius; and he pronounced sentence, etc. The Menæa agree. Hence I gather that the said Heraclea was the arena of their martyrdom. And it is situated on the shore of the Propontis, and Cellarius has collected more about it in his Notice of the ancient world, book 2, chapter 15. And on the occasion of St. Ammon Baronius has this in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology: There was a monk of the same name, of remarkable sanctity, of whom the Greeks treat on the fourth of the Nones of October; whose soul Antony saw carried into heaven, as Athanasius writes in the Life of Antony. More about him in the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 30, in Suidas and others. Different from him is another who was an Origenist: of whom Jerome to Ctesiphon.
Annotations* rather, induta (was put, of the helmet)