VINDICATIO. - Term suggested by a text of St. Optatus of Milevis (De schismate Donatistarum, I, 16: PL 11, 917), by which it was intended to denote a kind of official recognition of martyrdom, according to the interpretation given by G. B. De Rossi to the abbreviation IVᵃ in the inscription of Pope Fabian, in which the abbreviation itself turns out to have been added to the slab at a later time.

But after the discovery of the epitaph of Pope Pontian, in which the same abbreviation likewise appears as a later addition, it was thought that nothing else should be recognized in it than the practice that became established from 258 onward of writing on the tombs of the witnesses to the faith the honorary title of martyr, as is found in full in the inscription of the martyr Hyacinth, whose year of martyrdom, however, is not known. Certainly the practice of affixing this honorary title is later than the translation of the relics of Pope Cornelius, who died in exile in 253, since on his slab too the title martyr was added in full after his deposition in the cemetery of Callistus. The texts that are known concerning such a v. all refer to the African Church, where the bishops often had to keep watch in order to repress the abuses of the Donatists.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd ed., Brussels 1933, p. 69; id., Sanctus. Essai sur le culte des saints dans l'antiquité, ibid. 1927, pp. 162-89.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec12_vindicatio, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {Vindicatio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1446}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vindicatio} }

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