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 19 December.
Evidence ID
E05058
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 19 December the following feasts:
*Secundus, Zosimus, Paulus, and Cyria/Ciriacus, martyrs of Antioch or Bithynia, (S02053),
*Victoria, martyr of Picenum, companion of Anatolia and Audax, (S01406),
Probably *Anastasius I, bishop of Rome, ob. c. 401, (S00571),
*Theoteknos, martyr of Laodicea, (S01091),
*Gregory, bishop of Auxerre, early 6th c., (E02904),
*Chrysanthus and Daria, chaste couple and martyrs of Rome, (S00306),
The virgin *Luceia, king Auceia, and their companions, martyrs of Rome, (S02478),
*African martyrs, commemorated on 17-19 December (S02089).
BnF 10837:
'On the 14th day before the Kalends of January, in Bithynia, the feast of Secundus, Zosimus, Paulus, Cyriacus.
And in the Sabina, the city of Triplana [= Tebula Mutuesca], [the feast of] Victoria.
In the city of Laodicea, [the feast of] Theoticnus.
In Africa, [the feast of] Quintus, Simplicus, Pommorus, Paulus, Aritifus, Crescus, Dignus, Datulus, Felicianus, Moises, Rogatianus, Martyr, Honoratus, Victurica, Privatus, Tinnus, Salutor, Situs, Victurus, Victuricus, Caecilianus, Septimus, Rusticus, Lessa, Lucana, Honoratus, Reductola, also, Victuria, Felicitas, Quintula, Pinna, Privatola, Caecilia, Saturninus, Caeciliana.
And elsewhere, [the feast of] Nanus, Famo, Felix, Vincentus, Arestus, Muscus, Siddinus, Adiutor.
In Rome, [the feast of] the virgin Lucia, and king Auceias, Antonus, Ereneus, Theodorus, Papeusus, Appollonia, Apamia, Paenus, Circusseus, Ario, Papiscus, Saturus, Victor, with nine others.
And elsewhere, the passion of Afra, Victor, Victorinus, Bassilianus, Honoratus, with forty others.'
Weissenburg 81:
'On the 14th day before the Kalends of January, in Nicaea, city of Bithynia, [the feast of] Zosimus, Paulus, Secundus, Caeriacus.
And elsewhere, [the feast of] bishops Anastasus and Siddinus.
In Auxerre, [the feast of] blessed bishop Gregorius, and of Crisantus and Darus.'
In Bern 289 all the entries from 22 November to 24 December are missing from the manuscript.
Quentin follows the manuscripts carefully.
Delehaye suggests several emendation to the entries for this day.
Translation and comments: M. Vukovic.
FestivalsWomen
Saint’s feast
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Monarchs and their family
Ecclesiastics - bishops
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
On 19 December, the entries in the two early manuscripts of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum that have entries for this day are very different. Both manuscripts, however, open their entries with the commemoration of *Secundus, Zosimus, Paulus, and Ciriacus (martyrs of Antioch or Bithynia, S02053); both specify that the commemoration is in Bithynia, Weissenburg 81 being yet more specific that it is in Nicaea (north-west Asia Minor, close to Constantinople). These martyrs are also commemorated in the Hieronymianum on 11 December (E05048), 14 December (E05051), and from 19-21 December (E05058, E05059, E05060). This is the only commemoration on 19 December that appears in both manuscripts.Thereafter, BnF 10837 alone records commemoration 'in Suanis, the city of Triplana,' of a saint Victoria. Delehaye is certainly correct in interpreting this as 'in the Sabina, the city of Tribula [Mutuesca]'. Trebula (or Tribula) is a ruined Roman city in central Italy north of Rome (near present-day Monteleone Sabino), where a romanesque church of Santa Vittoria stands to this day. A Martyrdom of *Victoria (martyr of Picenum, and companion of Anatolia and Audax, S01406), tells how she withdrew to the 'civitas Tribulana' and saved the city from a great serpent that was threatening it, before suffering martyrdom (E02486).
Weissenburg 81 alone records commemoration in an unspecified place ('elsewhere') of two bishops, Anastasus and Siddinus. As Delehaye suggests, the first of these is probably *Anastasius I (bishop of Rome, ob. c. 401, S00571), since BnF 10837 on the following day, 20 December, records commemoration in Rome of a bishop 'Athanasus' (E05059), certainly the same man. The identity of Siddinus is uncertain, although in BnF 10837 he appears with Anastasus on the following day, 20 December. Delehaye suggests that he was in fact a saint of Africa, here recorded by mistake together with Anastasus, because a martyr with the same name appears at the end of a long list of African martyrs on 18 December (E05055).
BnF 10837 alone then records on this date commemoration in Laodicea (in west central Asia Minor) of *Theoteknos (martyr Laodicea, S01091), who is also commemorated in Laodicea on the preceding day, 18 December (E05055, where his identity is discussed).
Weissenburg 81 alone then records two commemorations in Auxerre (central Gaul): of a bishop Gregory, who is certainly *Gregory, an early 6th century bishop of the city (E02904), and of *Chrysanthus and Daria (chaste couple and martyrs of Rome, S00306). BnF 10837 places both these commemorations on the following day, 20 December (E05059), though it locates the commemoration of Chrysanthus and Daria, not in Auxerre, but 'elsewhere'; there is indeed no good reason to associate their cult with Auxerre.
The rest of the commemorations are recorded only in BnF 10837. This manuscript first records commemoration in Africa of Quintus, Simplicus, Pommorus, Paulus, Aritifus, Crescus, Dignus, Datulus, Felicianus, Moises, Rogatianus, Martyr, Honoratus, Victurica, Privatus, Tinnus, Salutor, Situs, Victurus, Victuricus, Caecilianus, Septimus, Rusticus, Lessa, Lucana, Honoratus, Reductola, Victuria, Felicitas, Quintula, Pinna, Privatola, Caecilia, Saturninus, and Caeciliana. Many of these are also recorded on 17 December (E05054) and 18 December (E05055), and have been registered by us as *African martyrs, commemorated on 17-19 December (S02089).
The penultimate entry in BnF 10837 is for a commemoration in Rome of Lucia, Auceias, Antonus, Ereneus, Theodorus, Papeusus, Appollonia, Apamia, Paenus, Circusseus, Ario, Papiscus, Saturus, Victor and nine (unnamed) others. These are unquestionably the virgin *Luceia, king Auceia, and their companions (martyrs of Rome, S02478), who are the subject of a somewhat fanciful Martyrdom (E03256) and who are recorded by Weissenburg 81 in the Hieronymianum on the preceding day, 18 December (E05055).
Finally, BnF 10837 records a number of saints commemorated 'elsewhere' (alibi): Nanus, Famo, Felix, Vincentus, Arestus, Muscus, Siddinus, Adiutor, Afra, Victor, Victorinus, Bassilianus, and Honoratus, 'with 40 others'. The last five are also recorded 'elsewhere' in Weissenburg 81, but on the preceding day (E05055), without the first eight named saints and with a further 31 (not 40) unnamed companions. Several of those named in BnF 10837 appear elsewhere in the records for 17-19 December in the Hieronymianum as saints of Africa, and 'Afra' is probably an error for 'Africa' (as discussed in E05055); so we have included all these saints amongst the *African martyrs, commemorated on 17-19 December (S02089).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XIIII kl Iã in bethiñ nt̃ secundi zosimi pauli cyriaci | XIIII KL. IAN. In nicea civit̃ bitthiniae. zosimi pauli secundi caeriaci. | In Nicea civitate Bitthiniae natale Secundi Zosimi Pauli Cyriaci | In Nicea civitate Bitthiniae Zosimi Pauli Secundi Cyriaci | --------------- | |||
| et in suanis civĩ triplana victoriae | --------------- | et in Suanis civitate Triplana Victoriae. | ---------------- | in Savinis civitate Tribulana Victoriae. | |||
| --------------- | et alibi sc̃orum anastasi et siddini ep̃or | --------------- | et alibi sanctorum Anastasi et Siddini ep̄or | ---------------- | |||
| laodac̃ civĩ theoticni | --------------- | Laodacia civitate Theoticni. | ---------------- | ---------------- | |||
| ---------------- | Autisiodero beati gregorii ep̃i et crisanti et dari | --------------- | Autisiodero beati Gregorii episcopi et Crisanti et Dari. | Autisiodoro beati Gregorii episcopi. | |||
| In af̃f quinti simplici pommori pauli aritifi cresci digni datuli feliciani moisetis rogatiani martyri honorati victuricae privati tinni salutoris siti victuri victurici caeciliani septimi rustici lessae lucanae honorati reductolae It̃ victuriæ felicitatis quintulae pinnae privatolae caeciliae saturnini caecilianae | --------------- | in Africa Quinti Simplici Pommori Pauli Arifiti Cresci Digni Datuli Feliciani Moisetis Rogatiani Martyri Honorati Victuriae Privati Tinni Salutoris Siti Victuri Victurici Caeciliani Septimi Rustici Lessae Lucanae Honorati Reductolae item Victuriae Felicitatis Quintulae Pinnae Privatolae Caeciliae Saturnini Caecilianae. | ---------------- | ---------------- | |||
| et alibi nani famonis felicis vincenti aresti musci siddini adiutoris | ---------------- | et alibi Nanifamonis Felicis Vincenti Aresti Musci Siddini Adiutoris. | ---------------- | ---------------- | |||
| Rom̄ luciae virgin̄ et auceiae regis antoni erenei theodori papeusi appolloniae apamiae paeni circussei arionis papisci saturi victoris cum alis VIIII. | --------------- | Romae Luciae virginis et Auceiae regis Antoni Erenei Theodori Papeusi Apolloniae Apamiae Paeni Circussei Arionis Papisci Saturi Victoris cum aliis VIIII. | Romae Luciae virginis et Auceiae regis 〈et〉 Antonii, Herenaei, Theodori, Papiani, Apolloniae, Apamiae, Paeni, Cussei, Orionis, Papisci, Saturi, Victoris cum aliis VIIII. Romae 〈in cimiterio〉 Pontiani Anastasii episcopi. | ||||
| et alibi pas̃ afrae victoris victorini bassiliani honorati cum alis XL. | --------------- | et alibi passio Afrae Victoris Victorini Bassiliani Honorati cum aliis XL. | --------------- |
Record Created By
Marijana Vukovic
Date of Entry
11/04/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00306 | Chrysanthus and Daria, chaste couple and martyrs of Rome, and companion martyrs | Crisantus; Darus | Certain | S00571 | Anastasius I, bishop of Rome, ob. c. 401, buried on the via Portuensis | Anastasus | Uncertain | S01091 | Theoteknos, martyr | Theoticnus | Certain | S01406 | Victoria, Anatolia and Audax, martyrs of Picenum in central Italy | Victoria | Certain | S02053 | Secundus, Zosimus, Paulus, and Ciriacus, martyrs of Antioch or Bithynia | Secundus; Zosimus; Paulus; Cyriacus/Caeriacus | Certain | S02089 | African martyrs, commemorated on 17-19 December | Quintus; Simplicus; Pommorus; Paulus; Aritifus; Crescus; Dignus; Datulus; Felicianus; Moises; Rogatianus; Martyr; Honoratus; Victurica; Privatus; Tinnus; Salutor; Situs; Victurus; Victuricus; Caecilianus; Septimus; Rusticus; Lessa; Lucana; Reductola; Victuria; Felicitas; Quintula; Pinna; Privatola; Caecilia; Saturninus; Caeciliana; Nanus, Famo, Felix, Vincentus, Arestus, Muscus, Siddinus, Adiutor, Afra, Victor, Victorinus, Bassilianus | Certain | S02478 | Luceia, king Auceia, and companions, martyrs of Rome | Lucia; Auceias; Antonus; Ereneus; Theodorus; Papeusus; Appollonia; Apamia; Paenus; Circusseus; Ario; Papiscus; Saturus; Victor | Certain | S02904 | Gregorius, bishop of Auxerre, early 6th c. | Gregorius | Certain |
|---|
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