Calendar of the Church of Carthage (central North Africa) lists saints whose liturgical commemorations were celebrated in January. Written in Latin in Carthage, probably between 505 and 535.
Evidence ID
E02204
Type of Evidence
Liturgical texts - Calendars and martyrologies
Calendar of Carthage
January
Nonas Jan. depositio sancti Deogratias & Eugeni Episcoporum.
viij Id. Jan. sanctum Epefania.
vj Idus Jan. depositio Quodvultdeus Episcopi.
iij Idus Jan. sancti martyris Salvi.
xviiij Kal. Feb. sancti Felicis Nolensis.
xvj Kal. Feb. sanctorum Rubrensium.
xiiij Kal. Feb. sanctorum Tertullensium & Ficariemsium.
xiij Kal. Feb. sancti martyris Sivastiani.
xij Kal. Feb. sanctae martyris Agnes.
xj Kal. Feb. sancti martyris Vincenti.
viij Kal. Feb. sancti martyris Agelei.
'5 January. Burial of holy Deogratias and Eugenius, bishops.
6 January. The Holy Epiphany.
8 January. Burial of Quodvultdeus, bishop.
11 January. (Feast) of the holy martyr Salvius.
15 January. (Feast) of saint Felix of Nola.
17 January. (Feast) of the Rubrenses saints.
19 January. (Feast) of the Tertullenses and Ficariemses saints.
20 January. (Feast) of the holy martyr Sebastian.
21 January. (Feast) of the holy martyr Agnes.
22 January. (Feast) of the holy martyr Vincent.
25 January. (Feast) of the holy martyr Agileus.'
[*Deogratias, bishop of Carthage in 450s, S03074; *Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, exiled to Albi, ob. 505, S00334; *Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage, first half of 5th century, S02896; *Salvius, martyr of Africa, S02044; *Felix, priest and confessor of Nola, S00000; *Rubrenses, otherwise unknown martyrs, S02239; *Tertullenses and Ficariemses, otherwise unknown martyrs, S02251; *Sebastian, martyr of Rome, S00400; *Agnes, virgin and martyr of Rome, S00097; *Vincent, deacon of Zaragoza and martyr of Valencia, S00290; *Agileus, martyr of Carthage, 00630]
Text: Mabillon 1682, 401.
Translation and identifications: Bryan Ward-Perkins.
Festivals
Saint’s feast
Source
The calendar of Carthage was discovered by Jean Mabillon in the library of Cluny abbey, on sheets of parchment attached to the wooden boards binding a codex of Jerome's commentary on Isaiah, and a full transcription and commentary was published by him in 1682 in volume 3 of his Analecta Vetera. Mabillon recorded that the text was affected by wormholes and other damage (as is also clear from the gaps in his transcription). For photographs of Mabillon's text, see the Images attached to E02196.A brief description of the manuscript, written in 1722, stated that it consisted to two sheets of parchment and a third half sheet, all used in the later binding (Oursel 1906). These were last recorded in the library at the very beginning of the nineteenth century, and were subsequently lost. Mabillon's transcription is the only record of the text.
Mabillon wrote that '[t]he script is Roman, written in majuscule letters, no later than the seventh century' (Scriptura Romana est, litteris majusculis exarata, saeculo septimo non inferior); in the absence of the original, this dating of the manuscript is impossible to verify.
The approximate date of the written text in the form that we have it can be established with some confidence, as the days of the burials of all bishops of Carthage subsequent to Cyprian are recorded, and the last bishop named is Eugenius, who died in exile in around 505 (Victor of Tunnuna, Chronicle, 86). After Eugenius, the see remained vacant until the election of Bonifatius who held the bishopric from 523 to c. 535. The Calendar, in the form we have it, can therefore be dated to between c. 505 and c. 535. It has, however, sometimes been argued that the core of the text has to pre-date Vandal rule, which started in 439, since there is no reference in the Calendar to martyrs of the Arian persecution under these new masters. The argument, however, is not a strong one, as there is almost no evidence anywhere of cult for the men and women who suffered in the persecutions of the fifth century.
Mabillon rightly termed this document a 'Calendar' (Kallendarium), a record of the feasts celebrated by a specific church, in this case that of Carthage, as opposed to a 'Martyrology', which is a much more wide-ranging list of feast days. In its preface/title and in the wording of its entries, the Calendar of Carthage draws a distinction between the burials (depositiones) of Carthage's bishops, which were probably marked with comparatively little ceremony, and the natalicia (literally 'birthdays', into heaven) of the martyrs, which were proper feast days. In its combination of episcopal commemorations and major feasts, the Calendar of Carthage is similar to the early calendars of the church of Rome contained in the Chronography of 354, except that the calendars of Rome list the depositiones of its martyrs (E01052) and those of its bishops (E01051) separately.
The Calendar of Carthage also reflects the progressive spread of the cult of saints. In it there are seventy-two feast days for martyrs, compared to the twenty-three noted in Rome in the mid-fourth century, and there are also many more non-local martyrs than in the Roman calendar. In the Calendar of Carthage, martyrs from Rome are particularly well represented, reflecting the close ties between the 'Catholic' church in Africa and the church of Rome: nine unquestionably Roman martyrs are commemorated (with two more whose location is uncertain, but who could well have been Roman).
The Calendar opens the year on 19 April, after Easter, and closes it on 16 February, before Lent (during which, and during the Easter festivities, martyrs' feasts were not celebrated in Carthage). Hence, for instance, the feast of Perpetua and her companions, on 7 March, is absent from the Calendar.
Many of the martyrs recorded in the Calendar of Carthage are otherwise unknown, and because the Calendar records them simply as 'martyrs', without ever specifying their role or rank in life, for these we know no more than their names and their dates of commemoration. In very many cases, we also do not know precisely where they came from and where they were martyred, though, on the basis of those we can locate, we can be confident that all were from central North Africa, not too far distant from Carthage.
There is reason to believe that the precise dates of some commemorations were moved, so that they could to sit on the same days as others (Achelis 1900, 28). It is, for instance, implausible that bishops Deogratias and Eugenius of Carthage, and bishop Restitutus of Carthage and Augustine of Hippo were buried, as the Calendar states, on precisely the same two days, in January and August respectively (see E02199 and (E02204). It is therefore possible that martyrs who appear in the text as companions - for instance, as Flavianus and Septimia do on 25 May (E02196) - were actually separate.
Discussion
Deogratias (S03074), whose burial is commemorated on 5 January, was bishop of Carthage in the 450s. Victor of Vita gives an account of his heroic resistance to the persecutions of Gaiseric, and tells us that at his death the people would have torn off the very limbs of his body [as relics], had it not been buried in secret (Victor of Vita 1.27, E08293). These are clear indications of saintly status, and it is perhaps significant that the Calendar designates him as 'sanctus'. We have, however, no other indication that Deogratias attracted cult.Eugenius (S00334), whose burial was celebrated on the same day, died in exile at Albi (southern Gaul) in 505 and is the last bishop of Carthage to appear in the Calendar. Although he is not designated 'sanctus', he is the sole bishop of Carthage (after Cyprian) for whom we have unequivocal evidence of cult, though this evidence is exclusively Gallic (see, in particular, E00583).
Quodvultdeus (S02896), whose burial is commemorated on 8 January, was the bishop of Carthage immediately preceding Deogratias.
Of Salvius (S02044), commemorated on 11 January, all that is otherwise known is that Augustine delivered a sermon (which does not survive) on his feast day (see E08472 and E05408).
The feast of Felix of Nola (S00000) on 14 January is also attested in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (E04609) and Bede's Martyrology (E05410). His commemoration at Carthage was probably the result of the influence of Augustine, who in turned had been influenced by Felix's great proponent, Paulinus of Nola.
The Rubrenses (S02239), commemorated on 17 January, are otherwise unknown. Nor do we know the precise name or location of the place they were from (it may have been a township in Numidia called 'ad Rubras'); but, given the pattern of the Calendar, we can be confident that it was not far distant from Carthage.
TheTertullenses and Ficariemses (S02251), commemorated on 19 January, are otherwise unknown, though their feasts may appear, in a distorted form, on this same day in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (E04615). Nor do we know the precise names or locations of the places they came from; but, again, given the pattern of the Calendar, we can be confident that they were not far distant from Carthage.
Sebastianus and Agnes, commemorated on 20 and 21 January respectively, are the two well-known martyrs of Rome (S00400 and S00097), whose feasts on these day already appear in Rome's mid-fourth-century Depositio Martirum (E01052).
Vincent, commemorated on 22 January, is the deacon of Zaragoza and martyr of Valencia (S00290), whose feast on (or in the immediate vicinity of) this date is well attested in our evidence. He and Eulalia of Mérida, commemorated in December, are the two martyrs of Hispania who feature in the Calendar.
No details are known about the life and martyrdom of Agileus, commemorated on 25 January, but he was evidently a martyr of Carthage of some importance: Augustine preached at his feast (E08472); Dominicus, bishop of Carthage, sent Gregory the Great in Rome 'blessings' of Agileus in 601 (E06426); and he had his own basilica in Carthage, large enough to host a council of Catholic bishops in 525 (E07592)
Bibliography
Edition:[All editions depend on Mabillon's printed text, as he is the only scholar known to have transcribed the Calendar.]
Achelis, H., Die Martyrologien, ihre Geschichte und ihr Wert (Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, philosophische-historische Klasse, neue Folge, Band III, nro 3; Berlin, 1900), at 18-29 (with commentary).
de Rossi, J. B., and L. Duchesne (ed.), Acta Sanctorum 65: Novembris II.1 (Brussels, 1894), pp. lxix-lxxii.
Lietzmann, H., Die drei ältesten Martyrologien (Bonn 1903), 5-8.
Mabillon, J., Vetera Analecta, Vol. 3 (Paris 1682), 398-401 (with commentary, 402-422).
Preuschen, Analecta. Kürzere Texte zur Geschichte der alten Kirche und des Kanons (Freiburg im Breisgau and Leipzig, 1899), 123-6.
Ruinart, T., Acta primorum martyrum sincera et selecta (Paris 1689), 693-5. [in the table of contents, Ruinart states that his text derives from Mabillon's ('Ex tomo 3 Analectorum').]
Further reading:
Oursel, M., “Note sur le calendrier de l’église de Cartage à la bibliotheque de Cluny,” Bulletin historique et philologique du comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, Année 1906, nos. 1 and 2, 66.
Record Created By
Bryan Ward-Perkins
Date of Entry
19/08/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00000 | Felix, priest and confessor of Nola | Felix | Certain | S00097 | Agnes, virgin and martyr of Rome | Agnes | Certain | S00290 | Vincentius/Vincent, deacon of Zaragoza and martyr of Valencia | Vincentius | Certain | S00334 | Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, exiled by the Vandals to Albi in Gaul, ob. 505 | Eugenius | Certain | S00400 | Sebastianus, martyr of Rome | Sivastianus | Certain | S00630 | Agileus, martyr of Carthage | Ageleus | Certain | S02044 | Salvius, martyr commemorated at Carthage | Salvius | Certain | S02239 | Rubrenses, martyrs commemorated at Carthage | Rubrenses | Certain | S02251 | Tertullenses and Ficariemses, martyrs commemorated at Carthage | Tertullenses et Ficarienses | Certain | S02896 | Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage | Quodvultdeus | Certain | S03007 | Martyrs and Confessors under the Vandal king Geiseric | Certain | S03074 | Deogratias, bishop of Carthage, ob. 457/8 | Deogratias | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Bryan Ward-Perkins, Cult of Saints, E02204 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02204