ON SS. ZENO AND CONCORDIUS AND THEODORE OF NICOMEDIA: WITH PATERNUS THE TRIBUNE, THEODOTE HIS WIFE, SIXTY-EIGHT SOLDIERS, A MOTHER WITH HER TWO SONS, AND SERAPION WITH FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO SOLDIERS; LIKEWISE ON SS. CUSCO, MONOLAPPUS, AND JOSEPH, MARTYRS,
Under Julian the Apostate.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Their cult from the Martyrologies and the Acts; the time; the copies of the Passion.
Zeno, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Concordius, his son, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Theodore, his son, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Paternus, tribune, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Theodote, his wife, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Sixty-eight soldiers, MM., at Nicomedia. (SS.)
A mother, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Two sons, MM., at Nicomedia. (SS.)
Serapion, at Nicomedia. (S.)
Five hundred and twenty-two soldiers, MM., at Nicomedia.
Cusco, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Monolappus, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Joseph, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
BY J. P.
The manner of announcing the holy Champions of Nicomedia on this day is not the same among the Martyrologists. For the Roman Martyrology commemorates only these three: The Martyrologies vary in their announcements At Nicomedia, of the holy martyrs Zeno, Concordius, and Theodore, Baronius adding in his notes: Of these the records of the church of Capua speak, in whose old Breviary their martyrdom is recounted. The names of these three alone I find in the Breviary of Capua, which was printed in the year 1489, inserted in three small lessons proper to them. Michael Monachus in the Sanctuarium Capuanum, and in the second, as he calls it, Calendar, p. 409, has this: On the IV of the Nones, of Zeno and of his sons. And in the notes, p. 540, he says, Concerning saint Zeno and his Sons, the Martyrologies and the second Calendar. In the first (in the same work, p. 400) Zeno alone is named. In the Office, lessons whose beginning is: "At that time, when the emperor Julian"; and three very short lessons in a Ms. lectionary agree. Among the abridged Hieronymian Martyrologies which we have published, the Reichenau one reports this on this day: At Nicomedia, of Zeno, Gorgonius, Theodotus. With these the Rheinau one agrees; but not that of the Queen of Sweden, which in the same place in our work writes thus: At Nicomedia, the birthday of the saints Zeno, Gorgonius, Theodota, with her sons. And among the supplements to Usuard published by us, on this day the codex of the said Queen marked n. 130 reads: Of saint Zeno with two boys.
[2] Far different is the manner of announcement in the Hieronymian transcripts in Florentini: of the Nicomedians for in the very text of the ancient Martyrology which he tried to explain with notes, this is read: At Nicomedia, the birthday of the saints Zeno, Gorgonius, Monolappus, Theota * with her sons, and Cusco. Obscure here again, as commonly elsewhere, is the chaos of confusion in those transcripts. Florentini in the notes brings forward another announcement from the Martyrology of St. Willibrord, namely: At Nicomedia, of Zeno, Theodota, and her sons Gorgonius, Menolappus, Cosconus. Then the said Martyrologist observes the following: The most ancient M. venerates here Gorgonius, Menalippus, and Cosconius as the sons of Theodota; but a different order in our books seems to acknowledge the sons of Theodota as anonymous, and to reckon others before Theodota, and separately, just as also the Corbie M.: "At Nicomedia, the birthday of the saints Zeno, Gorgonius, Monolappus, Theodota with her sons: and of Cosconus." The Martyrology marked with the name of St. Jerome agrees, in the Spicilegium of d'Achery, vol. 4, p. 670.
[3] On this day Menalippus, for whom the name Monolappus is, as I believe, of today's Champions; we bring forward very many of them from their Acts. a corruption, we give from the Menologium of Sirletus and from the printed Greek Menæa; and from these we have also called him Melanippus, attached to no place. But on the III day of this month, in the same Menologium, there is noted without a place the Commemoration of saint Zeno, who, cast into a cauldron full of boiling lead, completed his martyrdom. Our Ms. Florarium, besides the birthday of the saints Zeno and Gorgonius, adds also the name of Joseph, not mentioned by the above hagiologists, whom it announces both At Nicomedia and with the title of Martyrs. You have here, reader, announcements sufficiently different from one another, with no mention made of the others who are expressed in the Acts to be given below. In the Acts, I say; which, though they are not of good stamp, at least in a continuous course report the history of the martyrdom, and also the names of the Martyrs which are contained in them. And Acts are not ordinarily so subject to faults, dislocations, and inverted order as many Hieronymian transcripts; and therefore the band of today's Champions I have recited above, before this Commentary, in the first place from their own Acts; to which, however, I have also subjoined the others joined with Zeno in the Martyrologies, even though I would not affirm as certain that these suffered with the rest.
[4] For who is that Cusco, and where does he belong? Who is Monolappus? Certain others are unknown to us. Who is Joseph, whom I gave from the Florarium alone? Theodotus could easily have been written for Theodore, who is in the Acts. Whether today's Zeno is different from the namesake martyr whom I reported from the Menologium of Sirletus is doubtful, because he completed the course of his contest beheaded, according to the Acts. But in the Menologium of Sirletus another kind of death seems to be expressed. There, besides, there are no companions of Zeno. These things suggest a difference; but they do not certainly prove it, because the Acts deserve little credit, and Zeno could have been announced without the others, because the others suffered on different days. Nor ought we to wonder that only three Martyrs are reported by Baronius in the Roman Martyrology; since no more are marked in the old Breviary of Capua, which he followed, and of which we have earlier cited either the same copy which he used here, or at least a similar one. And the lessons contained in it not only do not mention other Martyrs, but do not even narrate the whole martyrdom of the said three.
[5] The Acts declare that today's holy Champions, whose martyrdom they describe, suffered under the emperor Julian, and designate as the place of their arena Nicomedia. The Nicomedians are said in the Acts to have suffered under Julian, Baronius at the year 362, n. 45, wove Julian's coming to this city into that same year. In James Gronovius's edition of the history of Ammianus Marcellinus, revised by him and published in the year 1693, bk. 22, the same coming is connected with the year already said, 362, and thus in the same place Ammianus speaks in ch. 9, describing Julian's journeys, pp. 246 and 247: Hastening to go to Antioch, he left Constantinople … Having crossed the strait, therefore, and passed by Chalcedon and Libyssa … thence he came to Nicomedia, a city formerly famous, so enlarged in times past by the great expenditures of princes that, from the multitude of private and public buildings, it was rightly reckoned by those who knew it a certain quarter of the eternal city. And when he had seen its walls fallen into pitiable ashes, showing the anguish of his mind by silent tears, he went on with slower step to the palace: weeping most of all at its calamities because a squalid senate met him, and a people once exceedingly flourishing… Here also in like manner, having abundantly provided very many things for repairing what the earthquake had overthrown, he came through Nicæa to the borders of Galatia. Theodoric Ruinart, in the Acts of the first Martyrs, sincere and select, from p. 644 of the earlier edition, writing of those Athletes who suffered under the persecution of Julian the Apostate, wove them into the said year 362. Since, therefore, Julian the Apostate was then there, and the Acts testify and name those who suffered there under him, I do not see why Castellanus should place St. Zeno and his sons St. Concordius and St. Theodore in the year about 303.
[6] of which the copies That the Passion was written by an anonymous author a good while after the martyrdom was completed I gather from these words about St. Zeno toward the end of the Acts: He buried him in the city of Nicomedia, where his prayers flourish to this day. But how long after the said martyrdom he wrote is hidden from me. Moreover we have three Ms. copies of the same Passion, of which one is headed with the following title: The Passion of saint Zeno, from an old manuscript of our library, namely the Vallicelliana of the Fathers of the Oratory at Rome, as I gather from the margin, to which is added from the vol. of C. P. Gallonius. It begins: At the time when Julian went on to the city of Nicomedia, there was there a certain Christian man named Zeno with his sons Concordius and Theodore. Another transcript is thus inscribed: The Passion of saint Zeno and his sons, from a Ms. of the holy church of Atina, long. per. lect. dist., by which perhaps he means in Lombard script on parchment, distributed into lessons; which is indicated to have been taken from the Mss. of Constantine Cajetan. But I find two Atinas in Italy in Baudrand; one on the border of Campania, formerly an episcopal see, now only a village in the province of Terra di Lavoro; another once also episcopal, now a small town of the kingdom of Naples in the province of Principato Citeriore.
[7] we indicate. Our Papebroch noted with his own hand in the margin of the Atina transcript: Collated with the Codex of St. Peter's: At the same time when Julian the emperor went on to the city of Nicomedia. And the same Papebroch wrote many things in the Atina transcript, from which I shall insert not a few into the text of the same transcript, which I shall give to the press, and enclose in brackets; a good many others will be placed in the margin; a very few in the Annotations: not a few variant readings will also be indicated from the Gallonian Ms., which I have collated with the Atina one. Moreover these Acts are extremely suspect, because the emperor Julian himself is frequently brought in as persecuting Christians by open violence, and ordering them to be most grievously tortured before him; which was foreign to his crafty character: even though I would not affirm that none were tortured before him. But many other things, and above all what is said of the furnace prepared for the Christians at n. 14, cannot be reconciled with Julian's character. Here now for you, reader, are their Acts with our division and Annotations.
Annotata*. read Theodora
THE PASSION
by an anonymous author, From a Ms. of the church of Atina, collated with others.
Zeno, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Concordius, his son, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Theodore, his son, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Paternus, tribune, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Theodote, his wife, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Sixty-eight soldiers, MM., at Nicomedia. (SS.)
A mother, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Two sons, MM., at Nicomedia. (SS.)
Serapion, at Nicomedia. (S.)
Five hundred and twenty-two soldiers, MM., at Nicomedia.
Cusco, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Monolappus, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
Joseph, M., at Nicomedia. (S.)
BHL Number: 8998
By an Anonymous author.
CHAPTER I.
The contest of St. Zeno and his sons for the faith of Christ; the martyrdom of the sons; his own constancy not overcome by torments.
[ ] [The Martyrs are set before the emperor Julian, who orders them to be tortured with hunger:] At the time when the emperor Julian was reigning, as he was going on to the city of Nicomedia, he ordered a pit to be made there five hundred feet across, and commanded that a multitude of logs be gathered together for thirty days, so that a hundred wagons should bring in ten loads a day. The time for the hauling being now completed , on the first day he found a certain most learned Christian man named Zeno with his two sons Concordius and Theodore, whom he ordered to be seized and brought into his sight; whom he thus assails, saying: Are you Zeno, whom our serenity has illumined with honor and exalted with dignities a? Zeno said: I am the unhappy man who obeyed your commands, and shed innocent and righteous blood. Julian said to him: Have you a wife and sons? Zeno answered: My wife I have sent ahead a Christian, and my sons I have as Christians . In that same hour he ordered him to be handed over to a certain Constantius, an ex-consul, whom he thus ordered to humble him with sacrifices; and if he would not do so , to consume him with various punishments him: whom Constantius, taking him, handed over to twenty soldiers in the public prison, whom he commanded that he should receive a little bread and water a day together with his sons Concordius and Theodore, and should sit in darkness day and night b.
[2] he is tortured with various torments But after eighteen days, Constantius ordered Zeno to be brought before him by night with his sons: and when he had been brought forward , he thus assails him, saying: Tell us, Zeno, by what stubbornness or confidence you so presume that, supported by honor and famous in dignity, you thus forsake * the gods before whom our princes humble themselves, and seek rather to die than to live stripped of your goods? Is it not better that you should live with your sons, and possess the inheritance of your labor, and that your sons here should serve happily in arms, and not lose the flower of their youth? Zeno answered: I find flower and fruit in them c, if I despise the demons, and seek with them the inheritance, that is, eternal life. Constantius said to him d: And what is that inheritance and eternal life? Zeno answered: Christ the Son of God and God everlasting. Constantius said: Hear me, sacrifice, and live. Zeno answered: I have already told you, I will not humble myself before demons and stones, but I will humble myself before God almighty, and before the Lord Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirit, in whom I have believed from the day when I was baptized with my sons.
[3] they are tortured Constantius said: Do what I advise, lest you and your sons perish e. Zeno answered: I have already told you that I will not humble myself before demons. Constantius said: Stretch out his sons in his sight, and beat them with cudgels. And while this was being done, the herald's voice proclaimed: Do not despise the commands of the princes. But Zeno their father cried out with joy, saying to them: My sons, be steadfast; behold the crown which we were desiring. When Zeno had said this, Constantius ordered fire to be put into his mouth: and he, giving thanks to God, said: I have known a honeycomb in my mouth.
[4] by Constantius; Concordius and Theodore die on the rack: In that same hour Constantius ordered Zeno and his sons to be hoisted upon the rack. Then Concordius began to cry out, saying: Blessed be the Lord, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, who has deigned to prepare such a banquet for us his servants: and being stretched on the rack together with their father Zeno [f] Constantius said: Will you sacrifice , or will you perish? Zeno answered: May you perish, and your prince , for we shall never do this. Concordius answered: Wretch, do what you do, cease not. In that same hour he ordered their sides to be scraped with hooks, and burning lamps to be applied. But he ordered nothing to be done to Zeno, saying: This man, if he sees his sons tortured, will indeed be converted. Constantius said: Take him down. And when for a long time his two sons were being burned in the sight of their father, Zeno, lifting his eyes to heaven with tears, said: Lord God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look upon the works of your hands, lest the nations say: Where is their God? And when he had said this, suddenly Concordius and Theodore, Zeno's sons, thus gave up their spirit upon the rack: whose bodies were ordered to be cast into the street. Then Zeno, giving thanks to God, said: I give you thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, because I have been counted worthy to offer you an oblation, of which I was not worthy *; but do you, who are blessed, bless your servants.
[5] In that same hour g Constantius ordered Zeno to be led secretly into his own house. And when he had come into his house, Constantius says to him: Hear me, Zeno, but Zeno, assailed with new rebukes for it is not just that you should perish like your sons. Zeno answered: My sons have not perished, but flourish forever. Constantius said: Now lay aside your stubbornness, and live according to your birth. Zeno answered: I, if I die, then live the better; but you, living, are dead. Constantius said: And on what do you presume? Zeno answered: On my Lord Jesus Christ, who will destroy you, and scatter your blandishments.
[6] and is racked with torments, In that same hour Constantius ordered him to be led into the middle of the city of Nicomedia, and ordered a tribunal to be prepared for himself: and when he had taken his seat, he ordered him to be brought before him, and a tripod in his sight and fire, and a calf, and incense; and the herald's voice, shouting, cried out, saying: Sacrilegious Zeno, sacrifice. But he, smiling, said: Be dumb, for that voice is not true: and at once the herald became dumb in the sight of Constantius. Constantius said: Stretch him out, and pound him with cudgels: and while he was long being beaten, he cried out, saying: Lord, have mercy on me a sinner, and do not forsake me your servant, whom you created to know your glory. But Constantius, full of fury h, ordered red-hot iron plates to be placed * about his sides: and while he was long being roasted, and saying with a clear voice: I give you thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, suddenly Constantius, seized by a demon, began to be beside himself, and to devour his own hands i.
[7] This was announced to the emperor Julian, that Constantius had been seized by a demon, and answering the emperor Julian without fear, and the emperor ordered blessed Zeno to be brought before him. Then Zeno, clothed in his own garments, was led before the sight of Julian. The emperor said to him: Why do you not take counsel for yourself, and live? Was not I too a Christian, and by serving the gods and keeping their ceremonies did I not ascend to the summit of empire? Zeno answered and said: Truly you have spoken, emperor, for you were not a Christian k, nor could you be worthy of so great a name: but I in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom you deny, truly and always trust.
[8] The emperor Julian, being angry, handed him over to Paternus the tribune *, he is handed over by him to Paternus the tribune that he might compel him to sacrifice. Then Paternus ordered an assembly of the citizens to be held at the arch of the city of Nicomedia which is called the Arch of Apollo, and ordered a tribunal to be prepared for himself in that place, and ordered all kinds of torments to be brought, and had Zeno brought before him: to whom he thus said: You have heard what the princes and governors of the commonwealth have commanded, that whoever does not sacrifice to the gods shall perish by various punishments: sacrifice therefore to the gods and live. Zeno answered: You have spoken as a fool, who persuade men to forsake their Creator, and the Creator of heaven and earth and sea and of all things which are in them, and to follow l mute and deaf idols. Paternus said: Do what the princes command, and forsake your vanity. Zeno said: Truly you have spoken like a madman.
ANNOTATA.
*. a heap
*. should bring in each day
*. being completed
*. who are with me Christians
*. should do
*. choicest
*. had been brought forward
*. because
*. you have forsaken
*. sacrifice to the gods
*. your princes
*. may see
*. he ordered
*. Gallonian: who have been counted worthy to offer you the oblation which I was desiring.
*. despise
*. burning
*. be set beneath
*. the consular
CHAPTER II.
The Martyr tortured with other torments under Paternus the tribune; the conversion and martyrdom of Paternus and of Serapion and of very many others: a woman a martyr with two little children: St. Zeno beheaded.
[ ] St. Zeno overcomes the scaffold, the burning lamps, In that same hour Paternus ordered him to be stretched upon a scaffold a, and drawn with sinews. But Zeno cried out, saying: Thanks to you, Lord God, who bestow your grace upon your servants. Then Paternus ordered that he be beaten with scorpions: and when he was long beaten, his bowels were laid open. But Zeno with a cheerful face cried out the more , saying: I give you thanks, Lord, because I have been counted worthy to enter the gate of your glory. Paternus said: Apply flames to his sides. In that same hour the lighted lamps placed at his sides were extinguished, and the sinews of the scaffold were broken. Paternus, [ ] unless it is the magic art b, that you do not feel the torments. Zeno said: If you knew the gift of God, you would know that all torments are creatures of God, and serve their own Creator, not you, unhappy man, nor your prince. Paternus said: Bring a strong beam, and drive iron nails into his feet, and stretch out his hands.
[10] the iron nails, and fire. But in that same hour the iron nails are broken *, and would not go down into his feet. Paternus said: Drive nails into his head: and in that very hour the iron was melted, running down like wax. Then Paternus cried out, saying: O kind of magic art! And full of wrath he said: Let him be hung head downward by the feet, and being bound to a beam let him be burned in a fire: and this was done. But in that hour of the burning, the fire began to separate itself from blessed Zeno, and could do him no harm, neither to his garments c, nor even to any part of his hair d. Paternus said to him: Declare to us that art, and you shall live.
[11] Paternus, instructed by the Saint Zeno answered: If you wish to understand, you will be able to see, and to enjoy eternal life. Paternus answered: And what is eternal life? Zeno said: The Lord Jesus Christ. Paternus said: If Christ truly conquers all these things, how is it that the most clement emperor, by forsaking Christ, reached and ascended to the summit of empire? Zeno said: Why do you not consider with your eyes, and believe, since you see the marvels of my Lord Jesus Christ, God almighty? For these torments, even if they have strength, have it for a little while; but eternal life is everlasting. Paternus said: And what are we to do, that we too may know fully, as you do? Zeno said: Hear me, and all things you shall know. Paternus said: Tell me, what shall I do? Zeno said: Do this which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to speak in the Gospel to Nicodemus.
[12] Paternus said: Put him in the public prison, that * we may announce it to the most invincible emperor: and being converted to Christ, and he, being put in prison, was also ordered to be clothed, because he was naked, and Paternus walked to his own house. Then Paternus secretly asked Zeno what the Lord had said in the Gospel. Zeno said: This the Lord said to Nicodemus when he came to him by night: Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into my kingdom. Paternus said: What is the kingdom of God? Zeno said to him: The kingdom of God is eternal life. Paternus said: And how can we be baptized, who have shed the blood of many Christians? Zeno said: All sins are blotted out in baptism. [For that you may know this to be so, the faith itself which is preached by the priests teaches the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the flesh and life eternal.] Paternus said: Let care first be taken of your limbs; for I shall be greatly confounded to receive good for evils. Zeno said: I am healed; only believe, and you shall see the kingdom of God.
[13] In that same hour he led him to prison with honor. with sixty-eight soldiers he is baptized, And Zeno, coming to prison , began to give himself to prayer. And on another night he ordered a certain most blessed priest Valentinus to be brought to him, whom he had long tortured in prison: and when he came, Paternus cast himself at his feet, saying to him: Forgive me, for all things I did in my unbelief: now, however, redeem my soul, and baptize me, lest I perish in my infidelity: and he catechized him with his other soldiers, sixty-eight in number, and baptized them all, and his wife named Theodote: and he offered the sacrifice for them, whom blessed Zeno received from baptism, and when five days had passed, Paternus began to glory * in fastings and almsgiving, and to wash the feet of the Saints.
[14] Hearing this, the emperor Julian commanded that a fire be set beneath a furnace, and is crowned with martyrdom, and ordered Zeno to be brought to him, and Paternus the augustal * e. And when the soldiers who had been baptized heard this, they all began to follow them. And the emperor Julian said to Zeno: Have you assailed the augustal with your persuasions? And turning to Paternus he said: Have you become so foolish that you perish? And he ordered Paternus, with all his staff and with the wives and children, to be cast headlong into the furnace, and all together sixty- eight; but Zeno to be kept: and by this ordinance and by his own authority he published it to all his courts, saying that whoever should be found a Christian should there be cast headlong into the furnace. And in his anger he ordered that all kinds of torments should now cease, and that either the Christians should offer votive sacrifices to the gods, or, refusing, should there be plunged in.
[15] Then he appointed a certain Serapion as augustal, and ordered him with all diligence to seek out the Christians. as also a woman with two little children And when Serapion had come to the appointed place where the Christians had been ordered to be burned in the fire, with all the company of his staff, he saw a certain Christian woman f with her two little children, one of whom she carried in her arms, and the other she led by the hand, who with all gladness was going on toward the furnace. To whom a certain Silvinus, a chief of the staff, said: Tell me, woman, whither are you going with so great joy of your sons ? The woman answered and said: I am a Christian, and these my sons are Christians, and I am going to the furnace: for there is a great banquet there. And so Silvinus ran after her, to see the outcome of the matter. And when she had come to the burning furnace, the woman said: Woe to you, unhappy emperor, you are destroying your own soul.
[16] cast into the fire, and also Serapion In that same hour the guards of the furnace questioned her: Woman, what do you seek? The woman answered: To die here, that I may live, and see with my sons the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the unhappy Julian has dared to deny. Then the servants cast her headlong into the furnace of fire. But she cried out, saying: Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, whom I now behold. In that very hour Silvinus saw two men of wondrous stature standing and holding a linen cloth, and receiving the woman. And when he had seen this, he began to run, crying out and saying to Serapion: I have seen a majesty receiving the woman with her sons in a clean linen cloth, and because Christ is truly life, I too am a Christian, if I may be counted worthy *.
[17] Hearing this, Serapion g sent to a certain bishop and was baptized with all his household, [with all his family and with five hundred and twenty-two soldiers: but the emperor Julian] and with five hundred and twenty-two soldiers, and said: Let us go to the banquet whither the woman went with her sons: and he walked to the place of the fire with all his people, and all alike asked to be plunged into the fire for the love of Christ. Hearing this, the emperor Julian ordered Zeno to be brought to him, to whom he thus said: Do you not consider that through you many are slaughtered? Zeno answered: If you knew the gift of God and of my Lord Jesus Christ, whom you deny, you would speak more truly, for many are being crowned.
[18] orders St. Zeno to be beheaded. In that same hour the emperor Julian ordered that he be hung by the sinews of his feet with iron hooks upon a beam thirty cubits high. And when he had been hung, he cried out, saying: I give you thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who destroy Julian. And he hung on the beam a whole day and night, to whom many Christians ran together, and he did not die. Then it was announced to the emperor Julian that he was still alive, and sending soldiers he ordered that his head be cut off: and he, taken down from the beam, was beheaded on the fourth of the Nones of September, and his body was cast into a field as an example to the Christians: whose body, after three days, the bishop who had baptized Serapion gathered up, and buried him in the city of Nicomedia, where his prayers flourish to this day, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns through infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATA.
*. the glory that is due
*. Gallonian: he rejoiced with a cheerful face
*. Gal.: were broken in pieces
*. Lead him to the public prison, and
*. twice, from prison
*. had shut up
*. on that very night
*. Gall.: to be at leisure
*. the consular
*. great
*. with your sons?
*. would that I too might be counted worthy to become a Christian!
*. that his feet be hung on iron hooks
*. Gall.: who baptized him and Serapion