Prudentius, in his poem (Crowns of the Martyrs IX) on *Cassianus (teacher and martyr of Imola, ob. 361/363, S00309), tells of his prayer at the tomb of the martyr in northern Italy. Written in Latin in Calahorra (northern Hispania), c. 400.
E00945
Literary - Poems
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
Prudentius
Liber Peristephanon, Poem IX.93-106
haec sunt, quae liquidis expressa coloribus, hospes,
miraris, ista est Cassiani gloria,
95 suggere si quod habes iustum vel amabile votum,
spes si qua tibi est, si quid intus aestuas.
audit, crede, preces martyr prosperrimus omnes,
ratasque reddit quas videt probabiles.’
pareo, conplector tumulum, lacrimas quoque fundo,
100 altar tepescit ore, saxum pectore.
tunc arcana mei percenseo cuncta laboris,
tunc quod petebam, quod timebam murmuro,
et post terga domum dubia sub sorte relictam
105 et spem futuri forte nutantem boni.
audior, urbem adeo, dextris successibus utor:
domum revertor, Cassianum praedico.
'"This, stranger, is the story you wonder to see represented in liquid colours, this is the glory of Cassianus. Declare now any upright and worthy wish you have, any hope, any desire that burns in your heart. The martyr, you may be sure, hears with all favour every prayer, and fulfils those that he finds acceptable."
I obeyed, clasping the tomb and shedding tears, warming the altar with my lips, the stone with my breast. Then I reviewed all my private distresses, and murmured my desires and fears, with a prayer for the home I had left behind me in the uncertainty of fortune, and my hope, now faltering, of happiness to come. I was heard. I visited Rome, and found all things issue happily, I returned home and now proclaim the praise of Cassianus.'
Text: Cunningham 1966: 329.
Translation: Thomson 1953, 226-229.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Oral transmission of saint-related stories
Source
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (348–after 405) was a Christian aristocrat from Calahorra in the Spanish province of Tarraconensis. He was a high official in the imperial bureaucracy in Rome, but withdrew from public life, returned to Calahorra, and dedicated himself to the service and celebration of God. Most of what we know about his biography comes from the preface to the ensemble of his works, which can be reliably dated to 404 (Cunningham 1966, 1-2), and other autobiographical remarks scattered throughout his works (for a detailed discussion, see Palmer 1989, 6-31). He composed several poetical works, amongst them the Peristephanon (literally, On the Crowns [of the Martyrs]), a collection of fourteen poems of different length describing martyrdoms of saints. We do not know exactly at which point in his literary career Prudentius wrote the preface (possibly at the very end, just before publication); for attempts at a precise dating of the Peristephanon, see Fux 2013, 9, n. 1.The poems in the Peristephanon, written in elegant classical metres, deal mainly with martyrs from Spain, but some of them are dedicated to saints of Rome, Africa and the East. The poems were widely read in the late antique and medieval West, and had a considerable influence on the diffusion of cult of the saints included. In later periods they were sometimes used as hymns in liturgical celebrations and had an impact on the development of the Spanish hymnody. Some indications in the poems suggest that they were written to commemorate the saints on their feast days, but Prudentius probably did not compose them for the liturgy of his time. Rather, they probably provided 'devotional reading matter for a cultured audience outside a church context' (Palmer 1989, 3; see also Chapter 3 in her book).
Bibliography
Editions of the Peristephanon:Cunningham, M.P., Prudentii Carmina (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 126; Turnhout: Brepols, 1966), 251-389.
Bergman, J., Prudentius, Carmina (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 61; Vienna, 1926), 291-431.
Translations of the Peristephanon:
Eagan, C., Prudentius, Poems (Fathers of the Church 43; Washington D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1962), 95-280. English translation.
Thomson, H.J., Prudentius, vol. 2 (Loeb Classical Library; London Cambridge, Mass: W. Heinemann; Harvard University Press, 1953), 98-345. Edition and English translation.
Further reading:
Fux, P.-Y., Prudence et les martyrs: hymnes et tragédie. Peristephanon 1. 3-4. 6-8. 10. Commentaire, (Fribourg: Academic Press, 2013).
Malamud, M.A., A Poetics of Transformation: Prudentius and Classical Mythology (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989).
Palmer, A.-M., Prudentius on the Martyrs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).
Roberts, M., Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs: The "Liber Peristephanon" of Prudentius (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993).
Marta Tycner, Marta Szada
07/12/2015
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00309 | Cassianus, teacher and martyr of Imola | Cassianus | Certain |
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