Martyrology

MARTYROLOGY. - A catalogue of the martyrs and saints arranged according to the order of their feasts.

1. CONCEPT

1. Definition

According to its etymology (μάρτυρ = witness, martyr, λόγος = discourse) M. means a narrative concerning the martyrs (cf. can. 63 of the Sixth Council of Constantinople, 680-81; Mansi, XI, 972; G. Penco, Note sui M., in Rivista liturgica, 38 [1951], 22-25, thinks that M. originally indicated the collections of martyrs reported by direct witnesses). The martyrs in fact formed the primitive core of the M. When later bishops and confessors also entered the M., then the dedicatio and the conditores Ecclesiae, and therefore every liturgical celebration on a fixed date, the concept of M. took on an ever broader meaning. In its present state, with H. Quentin (Les martyrologes historiques du moyen âge, Paris 1908, p. 1), the M. may be defined as: «the book of the anniversaries of the martyrs and, by extension, of the saints in general, of the mysteries and events that are the object of an annual commemoration in the Church». According to its present meaning, the term M. corresponds closely to that of the synaxarion of the Greeks (cf. H. Delehaye, Synaxarium Eccl. Constant., Brussels 1902, pp. II-V).

2. Division

Considering purely the external form, two categories of M. may be distinguished: those that limit themselves to listing under certain dates one or more names of saints, with or without a topographical indication (M. or, better, calendars), and those that contain, in addition, hagiographic narratives or particulars (historical M.). Taking into account, instead, the factor of formation, M. are distinguished into local and general. The former give the catalogue of the feasts of one Church or of a group of particular Churches (e.g., the Philocalian Calendar and the Calendar of Carthage); the latter result, like the M. Hieronymianum, from the combination of various local M. The territory over which they extend may be a province, a region, half of the Empire, or the whole Christian world. From the general M., with the development of the laterculi, were derived the historical M., so dear to the Middle Ages, which are the foundation of today's Martyrologium Romanum.

II. PRIMITIVE CORE OF THE M.: THE CALENDARS. - 1. Origin and formation. - From the cult of the martyrs the calendars had their origin. In the middle of the 2nd century Smyrna celebrated the anniversary of St. Polycarp (Martyrium Polycarpi, XVIII, 2; F. X. Funk, Opera patrum apostol., I, Tübingen 1881, p. 303); in Africa the practice is attested by Tertullian (d. 222: Habes [christianae] tuos; De corona, ch. 13; PL 2, 96) and by St. Cyprian (d. 258), who besides the martyrs recommends keeping a record of the confessores, the heroes of the faith, who, although they had not shed their blood, in merit and veneration are equated after death with the true martyres (Cyprian, Epist., 37, 2: PL 4, 328; cf. St. Gregory, Ad episc. Alexandriae [a. 598], in MGH, Epistolae, II, p. 28). The necessity was therefore seen of keeping firmly fixed the dates of the various recurrences, and from this the calendar was born, in its simplest form and structure: day and name of the saint, and for cities, like Rome, where several coemeteria existed, also the indication of the place of the synaxis. The calendar is, therefore, a document of a liturgical character.

Five elements contributed to the formation of the calendar: 1) the anniversaria martyrum, that is their dies natalis or natalicium (day of death or «birth» into heaven), the depositio (day of burial), the memoria (commemoration of the martyr), and lastly the translatio of the relics. 2) The anniversaria episcoporum. It was natural that the Christian communities should preserve with filial piety the date of the burial of their fathers in the faith, and inscribe them in the fasti of their own Church. At Rome martyres and episcopi are listed in a twofold list. Sozomen speaks of two distinct lists for the cities of Gaza and Maluma, which, even after their fusion into a single see under Julian (361-63), continued to celebrate separately the dies festos of their own martyrs and the commemoraciones of the bishops (Hist. eccl., I. V., ch. 3: PG 67, 1222). The two distinct catalogues, however, did not last long and ended by merging. An indication of this may be seen in the mutual relation between the two Roman depositiones, where Pope Sixtus II is not remembered in the depositio episcoporum because he is already listed among the martyrs. A clearer trace is found in the title of the Calendar of Carthage (4th century): Hic continentur dies natalicium martyrum, et depositiones episcoporum, quae Ecclesia Cartagenis anniversaria celebrant. 3) The dedicatio Ecclesiae: an element that entered in the 4th century. The oldest testimony is found in the Peregrinatio of Egeria (4th century) for the dedication of the basilica on Golgotha: Dies encaeniarum appellantur quando sancta Ecclesia quae in Golgotha est, quam martyrium vocant, conscruta est Deo. The anniversary of the dedicatio entered the calendar either with the clear indication of the dedication or, more often, as the feast of the titular saint. 4) Memoria of the conditor ecclesiae and of the benefactors. In the oldest documents the name of the founder is generally followed by the expression tituli conditor, which serves to identify him. Thus in the M. Hieronymianum on 14 August: Ensebii tituli conditoris. But more often this indication is lacking, and this increases the difficulty of distinguishing the conditor from a saint. 5) The confessores. Once the persecutions were over, when confessor, from hero of the faith (martyr without the shedding of blood), came to indicate the hero of virtue (= spiritual martyrdom = ascesis) and the confessores found a place in the liturgy, the local calendars fixed their names in their fasti, thus completing the series of the fundamental elements of the liturgical calendar.

2. Principal calendars

a) Chronographer of 354. - Furius Dionysius Philocalus (v.), stonecutter of Pope Damasus (d. 384), assembled, in 354, some ten historical-chronological documents which take their name from him. Among them are two lists of martyrs and popes venerated at Rome and designated by the title of Depositio martyrum and Depositio episcoporum. The two documents form a single whole, the Calendar of the festal recurrences of the Roman Church in the first half of the 4th century. Through these lists the faithful of Rome were informed of the day and the place in which the Church rendered official cult to a martyr. The practical purpose caused the arrangement by months and days to be preferred, as in the analogous lists compiled for other communities. The Depositio martyrum has 24 laterculi and names 52 martyrs. It begins with 25 December: Natus Christus in Bethlehem Judaeae, and this together with that of 22 February: Natale Petri de cathedra are the only two feasts that constitute an «exception» in the Calendar, where only feasts of martyrs are listed. An observation that led De Rossi, followed by Mommsen and others, to call the Depositio: feriale ecclesiae Romanae. There are remembered martyrs of Rome, Africa, Albano and Porto not earlier than the 3rd century. The oldest Roman name of certain date is Pope Callistus (d. 223), and among the non-Romans Perpetua and Felicity (d. 203). The Depositio episcoporum contains the list of the bishops of Rome from century III-IV with the indication of the place where the liturgical synaxis was celebrated. The list of 12 names is complete from Lucius I (d. 254) to Julius I (d. 352). Marcellus is missing, being replaced on 16 January by Marcellinus. The compilation can be dated to the period 335-36 because the last pontiff regularly listed in his own place is Sylvester (d. 335), while Mark (d. 336) and Julius I (d. 352) are exceptions, being placed last. The discovery in situ in the cemetery of Callistus of the inscriptions of certain popes has confirmed the accuracy of the Depositio.

In both lists the indications are reduced to a minimum: day of the month, name of the pope or of the martyr, place of burial (in the genitive, dependent on depositio). When two notices fall under the same heading, the order is inverted, the cemetery indication preceding the names of the martyrs. The names carry no distinguishing mark, nor any indication of death, except in three cases. All these are elements that would constantly reappear in the elogia of the M., albeit developed by later additions (cf. R. Valentini and G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della Città di Roma, I, Rome 1942, pp. 1-28; C. Kirch, Enchiridion fontium hist. eccl., Freiburg im Breisgau, nos. 543-44).

b) Calendar of Carthage. - In 1682 J. Mabillon discovered in the Library of Cluny the manuscript of this Calendar and published it the same year in vol. III of the Vetera analecta. The manuscript, judged by Mabillon "septimo saeculo non inferior", was lost. Fortunately the Mabillon edition seems a very servile reproduction of the original, because it reproduces even its defects, later corrected by Duchesne (Martyr. Hieronymianum, pp. LXX-LXXI). It is a true local calendar; for the saints foreign to Carthage who are listed in it have been made their own and therefore fall within the number of local saints. The redaction of the Calendar must be placed after 505, as is revealed by the list of the bishops of Carthage. It is a document of Catholic origin (not Donatist). The text begins with 19 April and ends with 16 February. Nine weeks are missing, deliberately left free because occupied by Lent, during which the feasts of the martyrs, like marriages and the dies natalicii of the emperors, were prohibited (Synod of Laodicea of 360, cann. 51, 52). The notices of the martyrs run alongside the Depositiones episcoporum. As in the respective Roman feasts, the entries give first the day of the month, then the name of the saint in the genitive; however, while the Roman lists add the topographical indication of the burial, the Carthaginian one does not. This means that in Rome the cult took place at the tombs of the martyrs, in Carthage in the churches. Moreover, while in the Roman depositio the martyrs are registered without distinction of title, the Carthaginian Calendar distributes the prerogatives of sanctus, or martyr, or even sanctus martyr.

The Carthaginian Calendar counts 81 feast days with 45 feasts of martyrs, 10 feasts of non-martyr saints, 8 depositiones episcoporum. It has 18 non-African martyrs and an unspecified number of non-Carthaginian martyrs. Noteworthy is the presence of 9 Roman martyrs, three of whom are not registered in Rome. The provenance of the saints is rarely indicated, but can in part be identified. Rome, Naples, Milan, Spain, Noviodunum, Chalcedon, and various African provinces are represented. There was therefore between Carthage and the provinces a true exchange of the cult of martyrs. The absence of the famous martyrs Perpetua and Felicity (7 March) allows us to deduce that the Carthaginian one is incomplete. But even so it represents a document of primary importance. It shows, among other things, certain constant laws in the history of heortology, such as: the increase of feasts according to determined principles, the adoption by the metropolis of feasts of the provinces, the annotation of the dies depositionis of the bishops, the concept of martyrdom becoming ever more elastic, the introduction of biblical saints as martyrs.

c) Calendar of Carmona. - Roughly incised on a marble column, which is found near the church of St. Mary Major in Carmona (Seville). G. Bonsor, who discovered it in 1909, assigned it to the end of the 5th century. It contains the feasts from Christmas, VIII hal. ian., to St. John the Baptist VIII hal. iul., exactly six months. This has led to the supposition that the other half of the Calendar must have continued on a second column. The order and the number of the feasts is what we might suppose in the first half of the 7th century. The entry for Christmas has the same formulation that has remained in the Roman M. Nativitas D. N. J. C. secundum carnem (cf. H. Delehaye, Le Calendrier lapidaire de Carmona, in Anal. boll., 31 [1912], pp. 319-21; J. Vives, Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda, Barcelona 1942.

d) Calendar of Naples. — Composed between 847 and 877, carved on two marble slabs, each of which contains six months. Originally they were plutei of the church of St. John Major in Naples, and are preserved in the chapel of the archbishopric. The Calendar was not an official document of the Neapolitan church, but must have served for the faithful. It has a hybrid character: the redactor had before him two lists not earlier than the 8th century, one Latin and the other Greek, and he united and integrated them, creating a composite calendar, which corresponds to the ethnic, religious, and cultural state and to the bilingual liturgical practice of the city of Naples in the 9th century. The Greek part is preponderant, because it filled the many gaps left by the Latin Calendar. The "marble" one remains a document of a time and of a city in which graeca latinae pars sacerdotalis flourished and in which the laity simul cum clericis assidue communi prece graece latineque psallunt Deo (cf. D. Mallardo, Il Calendario marmoreo di Napoli, Rome 1947; A. Ferrua, Note sul testo del « Calendario Marmoreo » di Napoli, in Miscellanea Mohlberg, I, Rome 1948, pp. 135-67).

e) Other Western calendars of particular interest are: The Calendar of Echternach (Bibl. m.z. of Paris, ms. 10837, ff. 34-41), written between 702 and 706 for the monastery of Echternach, the work of an Anglo-Saxon monk (Ed. H. A. Wilson, The Calendar of st. Willibrord, London 1918). The Irish Calendar, of the first half of the 9th century (cod. Augiensis CLXVII formerly of the abbey of Reichenau, now in the Library of Karlsruhe). The Calendar of "Fronto" (British Museum, Herleien collection, ms. 2797). It is a Calendar annexed to an evangeliary of the second half of the 9th century, which belonged to the abbey of St. Geneviève of Paris. Jean Fronteau (d. 1662) published it in Paris in 1652. The Calendars of Montecassino: three, published in 1908 by M. E. A. Loew (Die ältesten Kalendariens aus Monte Cassino, Munich 1908); and then analyzed in detail by G. Morin: Les quatre plus anciens calendriers du Mont Cassin (VIIe et IXe siècle), in Rev. bénéd., 25 (1908), pp. 486-97; furthermore, the calendars published by D. Férotin in Le liber Ordinum en usage dans l'Église visigothique et mozarabe d'Espagne du Ve siècle, Paris 1904, pp. 448-97, and by G. Morin, Liber comicus sive lectionarius Missae quo Toletana ecclesia ante annos mille et ducentos utebatur, Maredsous 1893, pp. 11-XI, 393-405, and in Une liste des fêtes chômées à l'époque carolingienne (Rev. bénéd., 19 [1903], pp. 352-56), are also to be remembered.

f) Calendar of Oxyrhynchus. — Preserved in a papyrus of the British Museum. By the editors Grenfell and Hunt it was assigned to 535, a date confirmed by internal examination. It is a list of the feasts of the Church of Oxyrhynchus from 23 paopi (23 Oct.), the second month of the Egyptian year. The great number of churches and monasteries named suggests that Oxyrhynchus at the beginning of the 6th century was a kind of a holy city. In the five months of which the Calendar consists, 25 churches are commemorated, dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin, to the archangels Michael and Gabriel, to St. John the Baptist, St. Zechariah, St. John the Evangelist, St. Peter, St. Febaramone, famous and greatly venerated in Egypt. Outside Lent the synaxes are celebrated only on Sunday, on the "day of penance" and on the feasts of the saints. The solemnity of the latter never extends beyond two, three or four days (cf. Grenfell and Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, XI, London 1925, p. 32 ff.; H. Delehaye, Le Calendrier d'Oxyrhynchus pour l'année 535-36, in Anal. boll., 42 [1924], pp. 83-99).

g) Calendars of Alexandria and Antioch. These are reconstructions, the first by N. Nilles (Calendrier de l'Église copte d'Alexandrie, in Revue de l'Orient chrét., 2 [1897], pp. 307-39; DACL, VIII, coll. 654-57) and it gives an approximate idea of what the Calendar of the Church of Alexandria could have been at the beginning of the 6th century. The second was attempted, with less success, by A. Baumstark for the Church of Antioch (Das Kirchenjahr in Antiochia zwischen 512 und 558, in Römische Quartalschrift, 12 [1898], pp. 31-65; 13 [1899], pp. 305-23).

h) Gothic Calendar. — A simple fragment containing a list of feasts from 23 Oct. to 30 Nov., preserved in a manuscript of the Ambrosiana (Ambrosiana AS. 36 sup.). A local calendar, brought from Thrace by the Ostrogoths, similar to the chronographer of 354. Out of 38 days, 31 are empty and the other seven occupied by anniversaries of interest to the Goths. In the selection, the profession of the Arian faith is clear; the Calendar, however, is a translation of a Greek exemplar (DACL, VIII, col. 658-61).

III. GENERAL MARTYROLOGIES

From calendars to general martyrologies, as has been seen, the step is short. The oldest representative is the:

1. Syriac Martyrology

The manuscript (British Museum ms. add. 12150, fol. 251v-254v) is dated from Edessa (Mesopotamia), month of Tifrì, year 723 according to the [Seleucid] era, corresponding to November 411. But this is only the date of the translation into Syriac; the Greek original, according to Nau, would have been nothing other than the Martyrology of Nicomedia between c. 360 and 411.

The work has a private character and the Syriac translation is very unfortunate. The copyist has at times abbreviated the original, at times expanded it or mixed it with other calendars; for the entire month of July, only three feasts remain, added later.

The title reads: Names of our lords (cf. the medieval domus) martyrs (Syr. mandajá, that is, "confessors," in the original sense) and victorious, with the days on which they obtained the crown. There follow the names of the saints divided into two classes: the first with the martyrs of the Roman Empire and the indication of the month and day from 26 Dec. to 23 Nov.; the second with the saints of Babylon and Persia grouped in a triple series, according to hierarchical order: bishops, priests, deacons, without regard to the calendar and without indication of anniversary. The first list is separated from the second by the rubric: Here end the confessors of the Westdent (the West in relation to the province of Osroene, except Nisibis and Edessa).

The importance of the Syriac M. lies in its antiquity, in its universality and in its close relations with the Hieronymian M. It is not certain that Eusebius composed a catalogue of martyrs, but the Syriac one might well constitute precisely the index of names, in chronological order, of works dedicated by Eusebius to the martyrs, now lost. Among them was a "collection of ancient martyrs," an expression that recurs 11 times in the Syriac. It is also telling that in the codex it comes immediately after the De martyribus Palaestinae of Eusebius himself. Without doubt the author made use of the Eusebian works, but with additions and interpolations made to them, by him or by others, before the manuscript was translated into Syriac (H. Achelis, Die Martyrologien, Berlin 1900, p. 61). Eusebius himself is listed there under 30 May. The compiler also turned to good account the calendars of the various Churches: this explains why many regions and cities of the Roman Empire are represented in it: Rome, Africa, Illyricum, Thrace, Greece, Scythia, almost all the provinces of Asia Minor, often Antioch and Caesarea of Palestine, Cilicia, Egypt. V. de Buck was the first to point out the close kinship between the Syriac and the Hieronymian (Acta SS. Octobris, XII, 185). According to him, this would be explained by the fact that the Frankish redactor of the Hieronymian had before his eyes a Latin translation of the Syriac Menologion; Duchesne, on the other hand, believes that the Syriac is an abridgment of the Hieronymian for the part relating to the Roman Empire. It is certain that the Syriac is entirely contained in the Hieronymian. It suffices to glance at the comparative tables of De Rossi-Duchesne (Martyrologium Hieronymianum, pp. LII-LXV). The entry for 6 June: Alexandriae, presbyter Arius led Duchesne to conjecture that the M. is of Arian origin. The idea was taken up by K.A.H. Kellner (L'anno ecclesiastico e le feste dei santi, Rome 1906), who built upon it the whole chapter devoted to the Syriac, pp. 302-311 (Il Calendario santorale ariano del IV sec.). It does not appear that the matter rests on a serious foundation (Cf. F. Nau, op. cit.: PO 10, 9 note 3). The name of Arius was common in the East and it may be a question not of the heretic but of a namesake, perhaps a martyr (F. Nau, ibid., 10, 17, note on 6 July).

2. Hieronymian M

a) Origin. - The archetype of the Syriac M. (4th cent.) was the principal source of the so-called Hieronymian M. In the first half of the 5th century, in fact, that Greek text was translated into Latin by a clericus of Upper Italy and combined with Western documents of the same nature.

The designation "Hieronymian" arose from the two letters that stand at the head of the work. In the first, the two Venetian bishops, Chromatius and Heliodorus, ask St. Jerome to make an extract of the famosissimus feriale of Eusebius and send them the list of the feasts of the martyrs. In the second, St. Jerome replies that the names are so many (from 500 to 800 a day) as to compel him to send only the small collection that followed. But critics are unanimous in denying its authenticity. The unknown clericus availed himself of Jerome's name to lend credit to his work (cf. Duchesne, Martyrologium Hieronymianum, in Acta SS. Novembris, II, Prolegomena, p. 1).

The Hieronymian remains a precious anonymous work. That the compiler lived in the region between Milan and Aquileia seems beyond doubt, among other things, because of his perfect knowledge of the bishops of the 4th and 5th centuries, so much so as to lead Achelis to assign Aquileia outright as his place of origin. As for the sources, Duchesne indicates three principal ones: a) the Roman Chronographer of 354, which supplied everything that comes under the rubric Romae (cf. A. Urbain, Ein Martyrologium der christlichen Gemeinde zu Rom am Anfang des V. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1901); b) the Eastern M., which gives information well beyond the middle of the 5th century (the anniversary of the death of Simeon Stylites, d. 459, is recorded); c) a general African M. of the 4th century, which supplied the names indicated under the rubric in Africa, names and groups belonging to that region.

2) The "recensio" Italica had been prepared for liturgical use and more precisely to be read every day at Mass, as a supplement to the diptychs. It is not known whether it was ever used in the liturgy; in the course of the 6th century the Hieronymian M. is found as a book of edification in the monasteries. In 541 Cassiodorus (d. 562) recommends it to his monks (De inst. divin. lect., ch. 32: PL 70, 1147). In 598 St. Gregory the Great speaks of it clearly in writing to Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria (Ep., bk. VIII, ch. 29: PL 77, 931). 3) The "recensio" Gallicana. In the 7th-8th centuries the Hieronymian M. disappeared completely from the Churches of Italy. Fortunately, toward the end of the 6th century (before 603) it had entered Gaul and first of all at Auxerre. All the other manuscripts derive from the Auxerre manuscript. The need for adaptations for local churches led to additions that have allowed scholars to trace the various stages covered by the manuscripts beyond the Alps. The documents have been grouped into families according to the various additional characteristics. Duchesne (Les sources du Martyrologe hiéronymien, in Mélanges d'archéol. et d'hist., 5 [1885], pp. 149-50) distinguishes three: 1. family: Echternach (Bibl. nat. of Paris, ms. lat. 10837). The manuscript appears to have been written by a companion of St. Willibrord, founder of Echternach. It represents the state of the Hieronymian at the beginning of the 7th century. It already contains several lists of French saints, especially of Lyon, Autun and Auxerre. 2. family: Bern (Bibl. of Bern, ms. 289). The manuscript is of the end of the 8th century and was written for a monastery of Metz. The exemplar from which it derives had been made for Bourges, as the proper feasts of that Church show. Close to the Bern manuscript is the fragment of Lorsch (Vat. Palat. 238), of the 8th or 9th century, which adds some historical notes taken from the acts of the martyrs. 3. family, characterized by church dedications and by numerous French saints of the 7th century, comprises the M. of western France (Neustria), the Corbejense negus (Bibl. nat. of Paris, ms. lat. 12410) of the beginning of the 12th century, with particular feasts of Corbie, Amiens and neighbouring regions, and also three bishops of Evreux; the Senonense (the ms. half in the Bibl. nat. of Paris, ms. nouv. acq. lat. 1604, half in the Vatican, Reg. 567), a fragment of the 10th century with saints proper to Bayeux and Avranches; the sub-family of Fontenelle (archetype written there before 756) represented by the manuscript of Welfenhüttel (Weissenburg collection) written in 772, and by the two manuscripts of Lucca (Bibl. capitolare no. 618 and Bibl. comunale no. 428). The latter was used by Fiorentini for his edition.
b) Content. - After the two apocryphal letters, the Hieronymian contains an index of the feasts of the Apostles scattered through the m.: Sts. Peter and Paul (29 June), St. Andrew (30 Nov.), St. Philip (alone, 1 May), St. Thomas (21 Dec.), St. James (25 July), St. Bartholomew (24 Aug.), St. Matthew (21 Sept.), Sts. Simon and Jude (28 Oct.); St. Paul is commemorated three times: on 25 Jan. the translatio instead of the conversio, on 8 Feb. the depositio, on 8 Dec. the inventio; St. James is celebrated together with St. John on 27 Dec. On 24 June, after the nativitas of St. John the Baptist, the dormitio of St. John the Evangelist is indicated.

These peculiarities, according to Duchesne, bring it closer to the Gallican rite than to the Roman. The same holds for the feasts of the Lord and of the Virgin. Christmas on 25 Dec., on 1 Jan. the Circumcision instead of the octabas Domini, as in the Roman ferial, on 6 Jan. the Epiphany, on 18 Jan. the depositio beatae Mariae and the Cathedra S. Petri in Roma, both of Gallican origin, on 2 Feb. the Purification, on 25 and 27 March the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord, on 1 May the beginning of Jesus' preaching, on 3 the inventio S. Crucis, 15 Aug. Assumptio B.M.V., 8 Sept. the Nativity, 14 Sept. Exaltatio S. Crucis. As for the saints, a considerable number of them are listed for each day. The series is often closed by a total figure indicating the names omitted, for example, on 27 Jan. in Africa XLIV

martyrum. The same on Jan. 31, Feb. 2, 9, 17, March 4, May 7, June 3, etc. The names are generally grouped by regions. First the East, with the generic formula "in the East" or with the indication of the region or city. Then the West: Africa, then Rome, Ravenna, Milan, and finally the cities of Gaul.

In the Bern manuscript there are here and there allusions to passiones or annotations of a historical character. For example, on Dec. 27 St. James is given as bishop of Jerusalem and martyred during the Easter festivities. Apart from the Gallic lists, which are easily recognizable, the "Hieronymian cento," as De Rossi calls it (Roma sotterranea, II, p. XII), aggravates the obscurities of the local or general M., because of the ignorance of the copyists, who often misinterpreted the model, confused the boundaries separating one day from another, and introduced bizarre readings; because of the insertion into the text of marginal notes; and finally because of the lack of discernment on the part of the redactor himself in using the sources.

But the most serious problem is that of the repetitions caused by the copyist's carelessness or by the juxtaposition of various documents. Saints or groups of saints appear there two, three, four, up to seven or ten times, whether on the same day (as on Dec. 23, which carries a double list of popes) or on different days. Despite all its deficiencies, the Hieronymianum remains a document of the very first importance, "principium et fons" of all martyrological literature (Duchesne).

IV. HISTORICAL MARTYROLOGY

When the Hieronymianum entered liturgical use, its skeletal list of names no longer satisfied, and the later entries were clothed with hagiographical details taken from the various ecclesiastical literary sources, but above all from the passiones, which served as a link between the Hieronymianum and the so-called historical martyrologies. These can be divided into: 1. English group; 2. Lyonese group; 3. Martyrology of Usuard.

1. English group

The oldest representative is the Martyrology of Bede (d. 735). The manuscripts are divided into two families. The first, whose representative is the manuscript of St. Gall 451, presents no additions to the archetype; the second already has several interpolations introduced to fill the empty days. The notices of a historical character number 114, besides a fair number of short notices (especially in the second family), which reduce the empty days to 187. Bede's sources are of three kinds: hagiographical, such as lives, passions, miracles; literary, especially Eusebius, St. Jerome, St. Gregory of Tours, the Liber Pontificalis; the Hieronymian martyrology, in the recension of the Epternacensis. In all about fifty passions and a dozen ecclesiastical writers. The dates assigned to the saints are fixed with prudent discernment; generally they agree with the Hieronymianum, with the Greek Synaxarion and with the liturgical books. A summary of the Martyrology of Bede is the so-called Martyrology of Achéri. It is a poetical composition on a certain number of saints, published by Luc d'Achéry (d. 1685 [PL 94, 603-606]). The work is certainly of English origin; indeed for a certain time it was held to be by Bede himself. It is from the first half of the 8th century (744) and seems a simple obituary calendar of the Church of York or of the monastery of Ripon. Two other martyrologies of lesser interest derive from the Martyrology of Bede: the Martyrology of Rabanus Maurus (d. 856: PL 110, 1122-88) and the pseudo-Florus (PL 94, 799-1148).

2. Lyonese group

Much greater is the importance of the Lyonese martyrology (Bibl. nat. of Paris, 3879), first pointed out by H. Quentin. It is from the 9th century and was used in the Velay. Substantially it is the Martyrology of Bede, with additions and developments, which have reduced the empty days to 129. A considerable number of Spanish saints had at first suggested that it was a manuscript of Bede that had passed through Spain. A more careful examination of the documents has led to the more plausible hypothesis that the compiler had before his eyes a Spanish "passionary."

The sources are the same as those of Bede and of the Hieronymianum. The assignment of dates is less precise than in Bede, but not arbitrary. In general the author follows the Hieronymianum and the Passions. That the homeland of the martyrology is Lyons is attested by the notices of French saints, two thirds of whom belong to that city. The composition must be placed before 866.

The author of an important martyrology is Florus (d. ca. 860), deacon of Lyons. His information is more abundant than that of his predecessors, to whose sources must be added the Hist. eccles. of Eusebius continued by Rufinus, the De viris illustribus of St. Jerome, the Chronica of Bede, St. Cyprian, Cassiodorus. The recourse to the sources is embellishing. One senses an expert hand in ecclesiastical literature. The dates depend naturally on the sources and when these are silent the compiler tries to establish them as best he can. Of the nine manuscripts that contain it, six are Lyonese and must be placed between 866 and 857. Ado (d. 875) made use of the Martyrology of Florus to compile one of his own; it is preserved in many manuscripts and has had several editions (PL 123, 143-438). The notices are often very long and present extensive passages taken from the literary sources.

The manuscripts are divided into two great families (cf. Quentin, op. cit., pp. 466-68). The first, followed by L. Lippomano

(1554), Mosander (1581 and 1586) and E. Rosweyde (1613), presents this order: preface of Ado, Parvum Romanum (rarely), a second preface of St. Augustine (Contra Faustum, 20, 21: PL, 42, 384), the hymn Aeterna Christi munera (not always), first part of the martyrology (which begins with the vigil of Christmas), extract of a preface in verse by Florus, notes on the popes, concerning the Constitutions attributed to them by the Liber Pontificalis; finally, in some manuscripts, a series of additions consecrated to bishops and saints of Vienne. The second family is simpler, that is, preface of St. Augustine and text of the martyrology with additions of saints of Auxerre and of the Martyrology of Usuard.

From the critical standpoint the Martyrology of Ado is the most vulnerable of all the historical martyrologies. For one and the same notice Ado sometimes uses several sources, often adds arbitrary details. The notices taken from the New Testament, especially from the Acts, are manipulated with great freedom. The concordance with the Synaxarion and with the Hieronymianum no longer exists, new names are found, dates shifted, a great abundance of topographical indications. In the preface Ado affirms that he also used a venerabile perantiquum martyrologium, sent to Aquileia by the Pope to a bishop. This document, published in 1613 by Heribert Rosweyde (d. 1629) and by him called Parvum (instead of vetus Romanum (PL 123, 143-178), has been the object of discussions and differing appreciation on the part of critics. Du Sollier (Acta SS. Iunii, VI, ed. Paris 1867, pp. xviii-xxxv and de Buck, Recherches sur les calendriers ecclésiast., Brussels 1877, p. 12) assign it to 740. De Rossi (Roma sotterranea, II, XXVII) and Achelis (Die Martyrologien, p. 112) call it contemporary with Bede, Dufourcq (Etude sur les gesta martyrum, rom., p. 372) places it in the first half of the 7th century (608-58), Duchesne between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th century (Lib. Pont., I, p. CXXVI). Quentin considers it a composition later than 848 (Les martyr. historiques, p. 410). The Parvum Romanum contains 525 entries of which 120 are its own and the rest deriving from Florus. Of these the compiler of the Parvum moved 51, for the necessity, most of the time, of filling gaps.

The author is inspired by the literary sources of his predecessors, but the concern is clear to backdate the dates when it is a question of Roman saints and to avoid saints too recent or of a local character so as not to harm the ancient and Roman aspect of the martyrology. Finally Quentin (op. cit., pp. 654-63) has demonstrated that the Parvum is an Adonian composition, passed off by the author as of ancient date, probably to give more credit to the affirmations of his major work and to eclipse all competitors. It is enough to compare in the two documents the narrations of the passiones, the manner of using the ecclesiastical writers and the changes of date. The Parvum is therefore "false," and the work of Ado loses value; his martyrology is nothing but an enlarged reworking of the Martyrology of Florus made at Lyons (the numerous references to that city prove it) in the decade 850-859. From Ado derive the martyrologies of Usuard and of Notker Balbulus, monk of St. Gall (d. 912), the Farfa martyrology (11th century, edited by A. I. Schuster, in Revue bénéd., 36 [1909], p. 433, ff.), Hermannus Contractus (d. 1054), and the Adonian recension used by Mabillon and by Giorgi (1745).

3. Martyrology of Usuard

In a letter to Emperor Charles the Bald (875-77), Usuard, a Benedictine of St-Germain-des-Prés (d. 877), says he was induced to compile his martyrology in order to correct what he had found imperfect in the others; the redaction therefore dates to around 875, that is, shortly after the work of Ado. With him the historical martyrology reaches its perfection: it no longer has empty days, as in Bede and Florus, nor long-winded passages, as in Ado; the number of saints rises from 800 (Ado) to 1170, of which 300 are merely mentioned, the rest with brief notices. Usuard states that he took all his indications from the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, from Bede and from Florus. The latter has raised difficulties because, in fact, Usuard refers to the martyrology of Ado, not to that of Florus. Quentin thinks that the expression must be understood in the sense that Usuard abridges and completes the text of Ado's edition, returning in some way to the edition of Florus, on whom Ado depends.

The martyrology of Usuard had a wide and rapid diffusion, which increased with the invention of printing. In 1475 the great Lübeck edition appeared, followed five years later (1480) by that of Utrecht. The Martyrologium secundum morem Romanae curiae, printed in Paris (1521) by the Augustinian Belino of Padua, is nothing but a corrected Usuardine martyrology. By the end of the 16th century it was adopted in almost all churches, including the Roman basilicas. In 1568 there appeared at Louvain the splendid edition of Johannes Molanus with the title: Usuardi martyrologium quo Romana ecclesia ac permultae aliae utuntur. Of the martyrology of Usuard reworked by Francesco of Messina (d. 1575), widely circulated in the 16th century, public and private reading was instead forbidden because of the arbitrary alterations of the text (G. Mercati, Lettera del card. Santoro). The Martyrologium sanctae Romanae ecclesiae usui in singulos anni dies accomodatum auctore Galesino (Milan 1578) was crammed with errors.

V. « MARTYROLOGIUM ROMANUM »

In 1580 Gregory XIII entrusted to Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto (1514-85) the task of preparing an edition of the Roman martyrology. The specially appointed commission included Silvio Antoniano (d. 1603), Cesare Baronio (d. 1607), who had the principal part, Lodovico de Torres, Luigi Giglio (Lilius) who composed the tabella temporaria, the explicatio... ad pronuntiationem lunae and the table of letters at the head of each day, Pietro Chacon (d. 1581), of Toledo, already a member of the commission for the reform of the calendar, Gerard Vossius (Vossius), a Belgian, well-known editor of the Opera s. Gregorii Thaumaturgi (Mainz 1604), the humanist Latino Latini (d. 1593), Curzio Franco (or de' Franchi), a Vatican canon, secretary of the commission, Antonio Geronio of Tarragona and the Theatine Antonio Agellio (d. 1608, bishop of Acerno). It seems that to these were also added the Franciscan Giovanni Salon (cf. Pastor, IX, p. 202) and, more probably, Giambattista Bandini (cf. G. Mercati, Giambattista Bandini e le correzioni del M., art. cit. in bibl.). On the whole question of the members of the commission, cf. Lämmer (op. cit. in bibl., p. 15 ff.) and Paschini (art. cit. in bibl., p. 199).

As the basis of the work there were taken: a) the martyrology of Usuard, by then adopted almost everywhere, the martyrology of St. Cyriacus at the Baths (ms. F. 85 of the Biblioteca Vallicelliana) and the martyrologies of Bede, Florus and Ado; b) the Greek menologia translated into Latin by Sirleto; c) the Dialogi of St. Gregory, from which were taken all the persons named therein; d) various calendars of particular churches, especially Italian ones. The work was carried out with great energy and was published in Rome in 1583: Martyrologium Romanum ad novam Kalendarii rationem et ecclesiasticae historiae veritatem restitutum, Gregorii XIII Pont. Max iussu editum, 1583. After a second edition there finally came in 1584 the official edition for reading in choro, furnished with the apostolic constitution Emendato of 14 Jan. 1584 (cf. the text at the beginning of the current typical edition of the martyrology), by which Gregory XIII prescribed it for the universal Church, omni alio Martyrologio removed. As for the results, from the critical point of view it must be noted that the editors could not have at their disposal the critical apparatus of modern scholars.

The interest aroused by the new martyrology was great, and a host of questions impassioned ecclesiastics and scholars. Cardinal Sirleto had foreseen this and already the year before had entrusted Baronio with the publication of the "sources" and of the documentation. The work, encouraged by St. Philip Neri, by Cardinal F. Peretti (later Sixtus V) and by Cardinal A. Caraffa, was brought to completion in the middle of 1585. At the request of Baronio himself, Guglielmo Lindano (d. 1588), bishop of Ruremonde, while passing through Rome, was entrusted by the Pope with the revision, completed, with ample praise and approval of the work, on 22 Aug. At the end of 1586 the volume appeared under the title: Martyrologium Romanum cum notationibus Baronii, dedicated to Sixtus V. Although the notationes were a personal work, Sixtus V authorized Baronio to touch up lightly ("perrero"), on the basis of them, also the text of the M., to which, however, he wished the name of Gregory XIII to remain attached. At the head of the 1586 edition the pope had printed Baronio's Tractatio de Martyrologio Romano, which is still in its place.

The work, the first he gave to the press, drew toward the learned Oratorian the attention and esteem of all the scholars of the time. The notationes were called aureae (Lindanus), doctissimae (Plantin), utilissimae (Colvenerius). On the advice of Lindanus, Baronio, having corrected his work, had it published in Antwerp with this solemn title page: Martyrologium Romanum, ad novam Kalendarii rationem, et ecclesiasticae historiae veritatem restitutum, Gregorii XIII Pont. Max. iussu editum. Accesserunt notationes atque tractatio de Martyrologio Romano: Auctore Caesare Baronio Sorano, Congregationis Oratorii presbytero. Secunda editio ab ipso auctore emendata et compluribus aucta. Antverpia, Ex officina Christophori Plantini, Architypographi Regii, MDLXXXIX. The edition met with great favor and was reprinted several times. A third edition, entirely corrected, appeared in Rome in 1598. Other subsequent works (1598-1606) on the same subject served for the edition of 1630 (Calenzio, op. cit., p. 223). Urban VIII (1623-44) in 1628 extended to the M. the revision of the Breviary that had been begun. Among the ten members of the special Commission (cf. Lämmer, op. cit., p. 87), the Barnabite Bartolomeo Gavanti and the Franciscan Luca Wedding stand out for learning and activity. In the M. the recently canonized saints were added, placed first those who had the office "de praecepto"; the text was emended in several points "ad fidem certissimae historiae", while doubtful matters were postponed "tempore decernendo maturius" (B. Gavanti, Thesaurus sacrorum rituum, ed. C. M. Merati, Venice 1749, p. 160). There followed the revision ordered by Clement X (1670-76), carried out under Innocent XI (1676-89) in 1681. In substance it was nothing but an updating. It should be noted that precisely the year before, by decree of 31 Aug. 1680 (cf. Decreta authentica, SRC, n. 1651), the S. Congr. of Rites had put an end to the controversy over the criteria and the meaning of the insertion of a saint into the M. Sixty years later (1749), by the labore et studio of Benedict XIV (1740-58), from the Vatican press, there appeared a most accurate edition of the M. "in qua nonnulla Sanctorum nomina in praeteritis editionibus omissa suppletur: alia item Sanctorum et beatorum nomina ex integro adduntur". A request was made for the insertion into the M. of the names of the beati venerated with immemorial cult, but the Pope rejected the request. Among the names of the saints restored was that of the 200 Benedictine monks of the monastery of Cardeña, in Spain, martyrs in 834 under the Moorish tyrant Rappa. In 1598 the abbot of the monastery asked the S. Congr. of Rites that their name be inserted into the M. After the question had been examined by Baronio, the request was granted and their elogium appeared, under 6 Aug., in the M. printed in Rome typis Stephani Paulini, in 1602. But that edition was sold entirely in Spain, so that in the successive reprints the elogium was forgotten. After a century and a half the request was presented again. The subpromotor, Prospero Lambertini, had an exemplar of the M. of 1602 brought from Spain, and the elogium of the Benedictine martyrs under 6 Aug. was restored.

Benedict XIV did not limit himself to a revision or an updating. He himself studied minutely several hagiographical questions, such as the cases of Clement of Alexandria, Sulpicius Severus, Theodore, Siricius, setting out the results in the apostolic letter ad Joannem V Portugalliae et Algarbiorum Regem, of 1 July 1748, which he prefixed to the text of the M., where it is still found. Another edition ceteris emendator et locupletior is that of Gregory XVI (1845), in which were inserted in an appendix the M. of the four great religious Orders, removed however in the subsequent edition of Pius IX (1873). Pius X too in 1913 published a new edition of the M. The most recent, which appeared under the name of Benedict XV, was published in 1922, prepared by Fr. Brugnani, but criticized and repudiated by hagiographers (H. Quentin, La correction du Martyrologe romain, in Anal. boll., 42 [1924], pp. 387-406). It is the one that has currently remained in liturgical use. The editions of the M. from the first typical one of 1584 were very numerous. The Bollandists listed 129 of them up to 1912 alone (Propylaeum, p. xiv-xv). It has also been translated into the principal spoken languages.

VI. INSERTION OF NEW PRAISES IN THE MARTYROLOGY

Gregory XIII, in the apostolic constitution Emendato, forbids making any addition or change to the text of the M., except for the separate inscription of the saints of particular churches. The M., like all the other liturgical books destined for worship, is a living book. In fact, from Gregory XIII onward the M. has always been kept up to date with the addition of saints canonized from time to time.

The insertion of a saint in the M. is regulated by precise norms, sanctioned by documents and by usage. A decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites of 30 July 1616, confirmed by another of 31 Aug. 1680 (Decr. auth., n. 1651) limits inscription in the M. to canonized saints alone, excluding the blessed. This norm, upheld and defended unwaveringly by Benedict XIV (op. cit., p. 575), remains even today the basis of the practice of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The exceptions, in particular cases and by special concessions of the Supreme Pontiffs, are not many, as in 1731 for the b. Vincent de Paul, canonized six years later (1737) and recently for the b. Giovanni Leonardi (now a saint), particularly deserving in the founding of Propaganda Fide, and on this ground inserted in 1893, still a blessed, in the M. (and in the Missal). The elogium with which a saint enters the M. was once composed by a cardinal belonging to the Sacred Congregation of Rites; now it is generally compiled by the Postulation of the cause, or by the officials of the same Sacred Congregation, approved in "congress", and then by the Supreme Pontiff. There follows, as for the official documents of the Holy See, its publication in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. According to Benedict XIV (op. cit., p. 575) the elogium must obey two rules: that it be taken from probati auctores, from tradition or from the canonical processes; and that it be concise. In general, in the elogium there is noted the sanctity, a particular virtue, a miracle, the doctrine, the apostolic activity; either one alone or several of these elements. There are also announcements of feasts of conversions (as for St. Paul and St. Augustine), of episcopal ordinations, findings and translations of notable relics.

In short, according to the best tradition, the elements that could enter into an "elogium" should be reduced to the following: name of the place where the saint died, name of the saint and his liturgical title, indication of the character of the feast (translatio, passio, depositio...). If the saint is a founder, the emphasis on the family instituted by him is unfailing. In recent elogia there is almost always found the name of the pope who canonized the saint. Some "historical" element may be added, but with extreme sobriety. The M. is not in itself a book of edifying reading, but the simple catalogus sanctorum, venerated day by day in the Church.

The Rubricae Martyrologii (typical edition 1922, n. 18) have taken care to fix also the criteria that regulate the hierarchical insertion of the elogia. According to these norms: a) where the grade is equal, the feasts of the saints of the universal Church precede those of particular Churches in this order: martyrs, confessors, virgins, non-virgins; b) in the absence of such equality the more noble feasts precede those of lesser dignity; c) men precede women; d) ecclesiastics precede laypersons; e) among ecclesiastics the order of dignity is followed; f) among women, virgins precede; g) among men and women, those saints precede who died in Rome or whose notable relics are preserved in Rome. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was discussed whether the insertion of a saint in the M. signified an official recognition of cult or was only a gestorum memoria. The second opinion prevails, validly upheld by Benedict XIV (op. cit., pp. 579-80; cf. also card. G. Tomasi, Opuscoli inediti, ed. G. Mercati [*Studi e testi], Rome 1905, pp. 46-53). The saints, prima et per se, are inserted in the M. to recall their feast and their cult, and such insertion, being "a simple product of historians, has nothing to do with the infallibility of the Church or of the Pope" (H. Grisar, art. cit., p. 293; cf. also Quentin, op. cit., pp. 678-88). Indeed the different phases of the composition of the M. through the centuries, before the Holy See imposed an official edition, exposed the M., more than any other liturgical book, to inaccuracies, errors, incongruities from the historical-critical point of view, due to the state of the historico-hagiographical science of the times that labored over it, and therefore even today, in consequence of recent hagiographical studies, the M. is in need of an accurate and judicious revision (cf. A. Bugnini, Verso una riforma del « Martyrologium Romanum », in Ephem. lit.*, 61 [1947], pp. 91-99).

VII. LITURGICAL USE

In the liturgical offices (in choro) the M. is read at the hour of Prime after the psalms, before the verse Pretiosa. The use appears ancient, at least in monasteries (E. Martène, De ant. monachorum rit., l. I, c. 5, Lyon 1690, pp. 54-68). The Regula of St. Chrodegang (d. 766) attests it: « Post lectionem recitantur aetas mensis et lunae, et nomina sanctorum, quorum festa crastinum excipiat dies » (PL 89, 1067). It is mentioned by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle of 817 (can. 69): « Ad capitulum primum martyrologium legatur » (Mansi, XIV, 398). Several churches adopted the use. Gregory XIII sanctioned it and desired that the M. be read also in the private recitation of the Office.

Among religious not bound to the choir and in colleges, seminaries, etc., the M. is customarily read at the end of the midday meal. Each day the saints of the following day are announced. Exceptions are Easter day and 2 November, the commemoration of the faithful departed, on which the saints of the same day are announced; on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday the reading of the M. is omitted entirely. The day is announced according to the Roman reckoning by calends, nones and ides, adding the phase of the moon. In the Middle Ages the reader first asked the blessing of the superior, who gave it with the formula: In vitam mandatorum... Usuard, in compiling his M., having found for each day an average of three hundred feasts of saints and being unable to insert them all, supplied the need by adding at the end of the daily reading the formula: Et alibi aliorum plurimorum sanctorum martyrum et confessorum atque sanctarum virginum, a formula still in use. Once those present have replied: Deo gratias, the one presiding over the Office adds a brief prayer to all the saints. At one time he said: Ipsi et omnes sancti intercedant. Today, instead, he invokes: Sancta Maria (the Virgin) et sancti: the reading of the M. on certain feasts was done with particular solemnity. Thus at Christmas, when the reader announced the birth of the Redeemer with the words: Nativitas Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum carnem, all prostrated themselves humbly with their foreheads to the ground. Even today those words are chanted with a higher tone of voice to accentuate their meaning. A similar use existed at the announcement of the death and Resurrection of the Lord, on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday.

The rules to be observed for the reading or chanting of the M. in the canonical Office are minutely set out in the Rubricae prefixed by Gregory XIII to the first typical edition of 1548, considerably developed, then, in subsequent editions. The M. is one of the liturgical books of which the Holy See has reserved the right of printing (AAS, 38 [1946], p. 371; documentation in Ephem. lit. [pars altera, Ius et Praxis], 61 [1947], pp. 19-21). - See plate XX.

Annibale Bugnini