The 6th/7th c. recension of the Latin Martyrologium Hieronymianum, as transmitted in 8th c. manuscripts, records the feasts of a number of saints on 10 December.
Evidence ID
E05047
Type of Evidence
Liturgical texts - Calendars and martyrologies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Martyrologium Hieronymianum
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum is preserved in a number of early manuscripts which share much in common, but also diverge, making it impossible to reconstruct from them a single authoritative text. Below, we therefore offer separate English translations of each important early manuscript. By clicking 'Latin Text' (above), you can view these different versions in their original Latin, set side-by-side for ease of comparison, with also the editions and interpretations of the text suggested by the scholars Quentin and Delehaye. For a full discussion of the Martyrologium, click 'Discussion/Bibliography.'
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum commemorates on 10 December the following feasts:
*Traso/Trofo, Pontianus, Capitolinus, and Praetextatus, saints of Rome, (S02050),
*Eulalia, virgin and martyr of Mérida, (S00407),
Perhaps the *Eronenses, martyrs commemorated at Carthage (E02907),
*Damasus, bishop of Rome, ob. 384, (S00535),
Possibly *Maurus, martyr of Rome buried on the via Salaria, son of Hilaria and Claudius, (S00526),
*Agricola and Vitalis, master and slave, martyrs of Bologna, (S00310),
*Other saints, on 10 December in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum: in Spain, Rome and 'elsewhere' (S02049).
BnF 10837:
'On the fourth day before the Ides of December, in Rome, [the feast of] Trofo, Pontianus, Capitolinus, Praetextatus, and 72 others.
And in Spain, [the feast of] Eulalia, Victurus, Currens, Adrianus, Eraclus, Erumentus, Prudentus, Migginus, Victorianus, Paulus, Marcus.
In Enericia in Cilicia, [the feast of] Orbanella, Crispina, Pulentus, Privata,
In Rome, [the feast of] bishop Damasus.
And elsewhere, [the feast of] Germanus, Eladius, Evangelus, Traso, Maurus.
In the city of Clermont, [the feast of] Agricola and Vitalis.
And in Spain, [the feast of] the virgin Iulia.'
Weissenburg 81:
'On the fourth day before the Ides of December, [the feast of] Victurus, Consentus, Adrianus, Heraclus, Erumentium, Pudentus, Migginus, Victurianus, Paulus, Orbanus, Marus, Crinica, Caecilia, Orbanella, Crispina, Polentia, Privata.
In Rome, the burial of bishop Damasus, Germana, Euladus, Evangelus, Traso, Maurus.
And in the city of Clermont, [the feast of] Agricula and Vitalis.
And in Spain, the city of Mérida, [the feast of] the virgin and martyr Eulalia.'
In Bern 289 all the entries from 22 November to 24 December are missing from the manuscript.
Quentin follows the early manuscripts, but not entirely.
Delehaye suggests some emendations.
Translation and comments: M. Vukovic.
FestivalsEcclesiastics - bishops
Saint’s feast
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Women
Source
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum ('Martyrology of Jerome'), is the oldest extensive martyrology of the Latin West, listing the feast days of the saints for the entire calendar year, generally also specifying where their feasts are held (which is normally their place of burial). It derives its name from prefatory letters copied at the start of the martyrology, which attribute the text to the Church Father, Jerome of Stridon (ob. 420). These letters are present in all the earliest manuscripts, but it is uncertain when they were first attached to the text. The Hieronymianum is the primary source of all later martyrologies of the Latin world.It is universally accepted that the attribution to Jerome, intended to give the text greater authority, is false, and the predominant scholarly view is that the first version of the martyrology was compiled in northern Italy during the 5th century (probably in Aquileia), though no manuscript of this Aquileian redaction has survived. The text was then evidently revised and added to in Gaul, probably in Burgundy, around AD 600. The north Italian origin of the text, and its Gallic revision, are deduced from the presence in the martyrology of saints from northern Italy, and then of saints from Frankish Gaul. This Gallic version (sometimes referred to as the recensio gallica), just like its north Italian predecessor, does not survive in its original form in any manuscript (Lifshitz 2006, 14).
At some point in the 7th century, and no later than the early 8th, the Martyrologium reached Northumbria (in northern Britain), where it underwent some further revision and additions (Lapidge 2005, 45-46). From Northumbria, the text returned to the continent in the 8th century, and it is here that the earliest surviving manuscript copies were made, as listed below (Lapidge 2005, 73).
Some of the sources that were used by the compilers of the Martyrologium in northern Italy, and subsequently in Gaul, can be identified: the so-called Chronography of 354, a mid-4th-century list from Rome of saintly commemorations, primarily of local martyrs (E010151 and E01052); a lost Greek martyrology compiled at Nicomedia around 360 (drawn basically from Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History and Martyrs of Palestine), which was also a prime source for the Syriac Martyrology of 411 (E00465); the African Calendar of Carthage of 505/535 (E02195 - E02205); and early local calendars from Aquileia and Auxerre (Lifshitz 2006, 20).
The four earliest manuscripts of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (three of them complete, one a fragment), on which all editions, including our own, are based, are all from eastern Francia and were copied in the eighth and early ninth centuries. They are as follows:
Ms Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), lat. 10837
Written in the abbey of Echternach (in present-day Luxembourg) by a single scribe, Laurentius, between 703 and 710 (Lifshitz 2006, 32). The Catalogue of the BnF, which publishes BnF lat. 10837 on-line, also provides brief information about the dating: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6001113z/f22.image (click Information). The text of the Hieronymianum is at fol. 2r-32v.
Ms Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Weissenburg 81
From the abbey of Weissenburg in Alsace. Dated to around 800 by the Wolfenbüttel on-line catalogue: http://diglib.hab.de/?db=mss&list=ms&id=81-weiss&lang=en. Lifshitz argues that the manuscript dates from around 772, and was written in the Carolingian royal sphere, in or around Maastrict (Lifshitz 2006, 4). The text of the Hieronymianum is at fol. 7r-103r.
Ms Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Bongars 289
From the abbey of Saint-Avold, near Metz. De Rossi and Duchesne, in the introduction to their edition, argue that Bern 289 must have been written after 766. The text of the Hieronymianum is at fol. 53v-129v. This manuscript is not yet available on line, but we have been able to check it through a microfilm.
Ms Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 238
From the abbey of Lorsch, near Worms. The manuscript contains only a fragment (five pages) of the Hieronymianum, covering 25 December to 3 January, and 27 January to 31 January, written in Lorsch in the first half of the 9th century: http://bibliotheca-laureshamensis-digital.de/bav/bav_pal_lat_238). The fragment is at fol. 74-75, 1-2.
The standard edition of 1894, by G. B. de Rossi and L. Duchesne, published these four manuscripts in parallel columns. In 1931, H. Quentin produced a new edition, with a commentary by H. Delehaye, which attempted to collate the different manuscript readings into a single text.
Even though all the early manuscripts are believed to descend from the same redaction, they are by no means identical. In particular, BnF lat. 10837, the earliest of all, often contains a text which differs markedly from Bern 289 and Weissenburg 81, which are much closer to each other. Because the text varies between manuscripts, in content as well as spelling, it is now universally agreed that it will never be possible to create an 'authoritative' single text of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum. De Rossi and Duchesne in 1894, facing the same problem, decided to print for each day of the year the text of all four early manuscripts, in four columns, and we have followed their lead. Our edition is essentially based on their edition, though we have checked their readings against the manuscripts, and corrected or removed some letters, words, diacritical marks, and comments introduced by the editors that do not exist in the manuscripts. We have then added three more columns: for Quentin’s text for the feast day, which sometimes comes in one version, sometimes in two, and for Delehaye’s reconstruction of much of the text, drawn from his Commentary. Delehaye's erudition was, and remains, unmatched, and we have leaned heavily on his commentary (which is in Latin), but it should be noted that his reconstructed text often departs markedly from the manuscripts. Using his extraordinary knowledge of the saints and their hagiography, he felt able to combine different parts of the Hieronymianum's text, and to correct garbled versions of names, to produce a more coherent 'original'. We consider each of his principal suggestions in our Discussion (below), and attempt a judgment as to how plausible they are. In Delehaye's extensive notes there are also other, more tentative, suggestions, which we have not discussed systematically.
The reason the Martyrologium Hieronymianum is such a difficult text is because it consists primarily of long lists of names (with no punctuation and no consistency in the use of capital letters), which were often unfamiliar to copyists and so easily garbled. Generally, we cannot get behind these garbled variants, but occasionally we can, allowing us to shed light on how the text evolved into its current, often confused, state. For instance, an entry for 9 March (E04711) probably originally read something like 'In Armenia minore Sebastia milit(um) XL', 'In Lesser Armenia, at Sebasteia, [the feast of] the Forty Soldiers' - in other words a commemoration of the 'Forty Martyrs of Sebaste' (S00103), prominent saints in the East, but less well-known in the Latin West. In one of our manuscripts (Weissenburg 81) this has become 'In arminia minore sabastiani et milia XL', 'In Lesser Armenia, [the feast of] Sebastianus and the forty-thousand'; somewhere in the process of transmission, the city of Sebasteia has become the martyr Sebastianus, and the 'soldiers' (militum) have become 'thousands' (milia).
Discussion
The entries in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum for 10 December are amongst the most complicated in the martyrology, with the two surviving early manuscripts differing in their entries and listing large numbers of saints who cannot be readily identified.BnF 10837 opens its entry for the day with the commemoration of four saints in Rome: Trofo, Pontianus, Capitolinus, and Praetextatus. These four, whom we have considered 'martyrs of Rome, commemorated in December (S02050)', appear again on 11 December (S05048, where they are fully discussed by us). The first-named saint of this quartet, Trofo, appears as 'Traso' on 11 December; so the Traso who appears later in BnF 10837's entry for 10 December, among the saints commemorated 'elsewhere', and the Traso who appears in Weissenburg 81 as commemorated in Rome, might all be the same man. The other three saints listed by BnF 10837 are missing from Weissenburg 81.
BnF 10837 then lists commemoration in Spain of eleven saints: Eulalia, Victurus, Currens, Adrianus, Eraclus, Erumentus, Prudentus, Migginus, Victorianus, Paulus, and Marcus. Eulalia is certainly *Eulalia (virgin and martyr of Mérida, S00407), who is also commemorated in the Hieronymianum on the two following days, 11 December (S05048) and 12 December (S05049), and who is recorded at the end of Weissenburg 81's entry for 10 December (see below, the last paragraph of this discussion). The remaining ten saints, however, are not readily identifiable. Delehaye suggests that the name 'Erumentus' (which appears as 'Erumentium' in Weissenburg 81 - see below) may refer to a feast of the North African martyrs, the *Eronenses (S02907), who appear a day later, on 11 December, in the early sixth-century Calendar of Carthage (E02203). This we consider unlikely.
The next entry in BnF 10837 reads most naturally as: 'At Enericia of Cilicia, Orbanella, Crispina, Pulentus and Privata'. There is, however, no known place in Cilicia (in southern Asia Minor) named Enericia, and Delehaye suggests that 'Enericia' is an error for 'Emerita', the home town of saint Eulalia, and that 'Cilicia' is an error for 'Caecilia' - the latter suggestion is almost certainly correct, since, as we will see in the next paragraph, a 'Caecilia' features in a list of saints in Weissenburg 81, just in front of Orbanella and Crispina.
Weissenburg 81, by contrast, opens its entry for 10 December with a long list of seventeen saints, with no specification of where they were commemorated: Victurus, Consentus, Adrianus, Heraclus, Erumentium, Pudentus, Migginus, Victurianus, Paulus, Orbanus, Marus, Crinica, Caecilia, Orbanella, Crispina, Polentia, and Privata. The first eleven names overlap closely with the saints commemorated 'in Spain' in BnF 10837, with only minor variations; and the last four (or five, if we include Caecilia) with those commemorated in 'Enericia of Cilicia'.
Both manuscripts then have an entry for Rome. BnF 10837 records a generic feast of *Damasus (bishop of Rome, ob. 384, S00535); Weissenburg 81 specifies that it is the feast of his burial. BnF 10837, by contrast, gives the feast of the burial of Damasus on the following day, 11 December (E05048), which is the date given by the Liber Pontificalis (E01273). After its mention of the feast of the burial of Damasus, Weissenburg 81 lists five more names of saints commemorated in Rome on the same day: Germana, Euladus, Evangelus, Traso and Maurus. BnF 10837 provides a very similar list - Germanus, Eladius, Evangelus, Traso and Maurus - but places the commemoration of these five saints alibi, 'elsewhere'. Delehaye argues that the last two names on both lists, Traso and Maurus, in fact record a celebration of *Maurus (martyr of Rome, S00526) in the cemetery of Traso, on the via Salaria nova. There was indeed a prominent martyr named Traso buried in this cemetery, who was honoured there with one of Pope Damasus' inscriptions (E07196). Delehaye's reconstruction, however, must remain hypothetical, since the feast of this Maurus is more reliably noted in the Hieronymianum on 29 and 30 November (E05035 and E05036).
In a rare moment of agreement, both BnF 10837 and Weissenburg 81 then record a feast in Clermont (central Gaul) of *Agricola and Vitalis (master and slave, martyrs of Bologna, S00310). Clermont had a large church dedicated to the two saints, built in the mid-5th century and described by Gregory of Tours (E02025), but it is unclear why they were being celebrated on 10 December, which is not a day associated with them elsewhere, while the feast of the dedication of their church in Clermont is recorded in the Hieronymianum as being on 14 May (E04814).
Both manuscripts close their entries for 10 December with a commemoration 'in Spain': BnF 10837 saying it is of a 'virgin Iulia', Weissenburg 81 that it is of a 'virgin and martyr Eulalia' and that she is celebrated in a city named 'Almerum'. Despite BnF 10837's rendering of her name as 'Iulia' and Weissenburg 81 rendering the city of her commemoration as 'Almerum', she is presumably *Eulalia (virgin and martyr of Mérida, ancient Emeritum, S00407) who is also commemorated in the Hieronymianum on the two following days, 11 December (S05048) and 12 December (S05049).
Unidentified saints are listed by us among *Other saints, on 10 December in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum: in Spain, Rome and 'elsewhere' (S02049).
Bibliography
Editions:De Rossi, G. B., and Duchesne, L., Martyrologium Hieronymianum ad finem codicum adiectis prolegomenis. Acta Sanctorum Nov.II.1 (Brussels, 1894).
Quentin, H. and Delehaye, H., Acta Sanctorum Nov.II.2 (Brussels, 1931).
On the Martyrologium Hieronymianum:
Duchesne, L., "A propos du martyrologe hiéronymien," Analecta Bollandiana 17 (1898), 421-447.
Lapidge, M., The Roman Martyrs. Introduction, Translations, and Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Lapidge, M., "Acca of Hexham and the Origin of the Old English Martyrology," Analecta Bollandiana 123 (2005), 29-78.
Lifshitz, F., The Name of the Saint. The Martyrology of Jerome and Access to the Sacred in Francia, 627-827 (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006).
Ó Riain, P., "A Northumbrian Phase in the Formation of the Hieronymian Martyrology. The Evidence of the Martyrology of Tallaght," Analecta Bollandiana 120 (2002), 311-363.
On the manuscripts of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum:
Butzmann, H., Die Weissenburger Handschriften (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1964), 242-243.
Muller, J. C., "Trois manuscrits liturgiques de l'abbaye d'Echternach à Paris," in Abteistadt Echternach, éd. P. Schritz, A. Hoffmann (Luxembourg, 1981), 202-206.
Ó Cróinín, D., "Rath Melsigi, Willibrord, and the Earliest Echternach Manuscripts," Peritia 3 (1984), 17-49.
Libaert, P., "Notice sur 43 manuscrits d'Echternach conservés à la bibliothèque nationale de Paris," Hémecht 1 (1985), 53-73.
McKitterick, R., Books, Scribes and Learning in the Frankish Kingdoms, Sixth-Ninth Centuries (Aldershot: Variorum, 1994).
On saints and calendars:
Farmer, D. H., Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978).
Nilles, N., Kalendarium Manuale utriusque Ecclesiae Orientalis et Occidentalis I-II (Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers Ltd, 1971).
Watkins, B., The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015).
Datum Table
| BnF 10837 | Bern 289 | Weissenburg 81 | BAV 238 | Other Mss | Quentin | Quentin | Delehaye |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IIII id dec̃ rom̄ trofonis pontiani capitolini p̃textati et aliorū LXXII | |||||||
| et in spanis eulaliae victuri currentis adriani eracli erumenti prudenti miggini victoriani pauli marci | IIII ID. DEC. Uicturi consenti adriani. heracli erumentium pudenti miggini uicturiani pauli. orbani mari crinicae caeciliae orbanellae crispinae polentiae priuatae | Victuri Currentis Adriani Eracli Erumenti Prudenti Miggini Victoriani Pauli Marci Enericia Ciliciae Orbanellae Crispinae Pulenti Privatae item Orbanellae. | Victuri Currentis Adriani Eracli Erumenti Prudenti Miggini Victoriani Pauli Orbani Marci | 〈in Africa martyrum〉 Erumentium. | |||
| enericia cilic̃ orbanellae crispinae pulenti privatae It̃ orbanellae | Enericia Ciliciae Orbanellae Crispinae Pulenti Privatae | ||||||
| rom̄ damasi ep̃i | Romae dep̃ damasi ep̃i germanae euladi euangeli trasonis mauri. | Romae Damasi episcopi. | Romae Damasi episcopi. | Romae Damasi episcopi. 〈item Romae in cimiterio〉 Trasonis Mauri. | |||
| et alibi germani eladii evangeli trasonis mauri | et alibi Germani Eladii Evangeli Trasonis Mauri. | et alibi Germani Eladii Evangeli Trasonis Mauri. | |||||
| in civĩ arvernis agricolae et vitalis mar̃ | et in ciuit̃ aruernis sc̃ae agriculae uitalis mar̃ | in civitate Arvernis Agricolae et Vitalis martyrum. | in civitate Arvernis Agricolae et Vitalis martyrum. | in civitate Arvernis Agricolae et Vitalis martyrum. | |||
| et in spanis iuliae virg̃. | et in hispaniis ciuit̃ almeri scae eulaliae uirg̃ et mar̃. | et in Spaniis civitate Almeri sanctae Eulaliae virginis et martyris. | et in Spaniis civitate Almeri sanctae Eulaliae virginis et martyris. | in Spaniis civitate Emerita sanctae Eulaliae virginis et martyris. |
Record Created By
Marijana Vukovic
Date of Entry
19/08/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00310 | Agricola and Vitalis, master and slave, martyrs of Bologna | Agricola/Agricula; Vitalis | Certain | S00407 | Eulalia, virgin and martyr of Mérida | Eulalia | Certain | S00526 | Hilaria, Claudius, Iason and Maurus, wife, husband and two sons, martyrs of Rome, buried on the via Salaria | Maurus | Uncertain | S00535 | Damasus, bishop of Rome, ob. 384 | Damasus | Certain | S02049 | Other saints, on 10 December in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum: in Spain, Rome and 'elsewhere' | Victurus; Currens/Consentus; Adrianus; Eraclus/Heraclus; Prudentus/Pudentus; Migginus; Victorianus/Victurianus; Paulus; Orbanus; Marcus/Marus; Crinica; Caecilia; Orbanella; Crispina; Polentia/Pulentus; Privata; Germanus/Germana; Eladius/Euladus; Evangelus; Iulia | Certain | S02050 | Traso/Trofo, Pontianus, Capitolinus and Praetextatus, saints of Rome commemorated in December | Trofo/Traso; Pontianus; Capitolinus; Praetextatus | Certain | S02907 | Eronenses, martyrs commemorated at Carthage | Erumentus; Erumentium | Uncertain |
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