The Latin Martyrdom of *Speusippus, Elasippus and Melasippus (triplets and martyrs of Langres, S02046), based very closely on the Greek Martyrdom (E06799) of *Speusippos, Elasippos and Melasippos (triplets and martyrs of Cappadocia, E02046), recounts the story of triplets of Langres (eastern Gaul) during the reign of the emperor Aurelian: their conversion to Christianity under the influence of their grandmother, Leonilla, and of a missionary from the East, *Benignus (martyr of Dijon, S00320); and their arrest, torture and martyrdom. Written in eastern Gaul, possibly in the early 6th c.
E06512
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
Martyrdom of Speusippus, Elasippus and Melasippus (Passio Speusippi, Elasippi et Melasippi, BHL 7829)
Summary:
We have examined first-hand only parts of this Martyrdom. What follows is a summary by Guy Philippart (Philippart 2014, 257-259), translated from the French.
The Latin story is provided with an entirely new opening, absent from its Greek prototype.
New opening: *Polycarp, bishop of Ephesus (S00004) [in reality bishop of nearby Smyrna], sends disciples out to spread the word of the Lord. Learning that the emperor Aurelian is persecuting Christians with particular savagery in Gaul, he sends a mission to Gaul, consisting of the priests *Andochius (martyr of Autun, S02094) and *Benignus (martyr of Dijon, S00320), accompanied by the deacon *Thyrsus (companion martyr of Andochius, S02094).
Landing at Marseille, the three missionaries travel to Autun, where they are greeted by Faustus, a man of senatorial rank who is secretly a Christian. He is baptised by Benignus, with all his household, with Andochius acting as sponsor. At Faustus' request, they instruct his son, *Symphorianus (martyr of Autun, S00322). Faustus asks them to travel on to Langres to his sister *Leonilla (companion martyr of Speusippus, Eleusippus and Meleusippus, S02046), who is the paternal grandmother of three grown-up, but pagan, triplets. Benignus duly goes to Langres, leaving Andochius and Thyrsus at Autun, where they suffer martyrdom.
The main story: The three triplets had been to offer sacrifices to the goddess Nemesis, and brought back part of the offerings to their grandmother Leonilla. She rejected these with disgust and set about teaching her grandchildren about the Creation and about sacred history. She introduces them to Benignus and tells them to heed him. The young men marvel and convert, and ask why this instruction had not been given to them earlier. Leonilla reminds them that their father is a hardened pagan and that it was necessary to deceive him. The three youths recount in turn visions that they received the day before, of which they now understand the meaning. They demand instruction: they must obey God's commandments, believe that Jesus is God, and abandon idols, offering themselves to their Creator. Benignus baptises them, before departing for Dijon where he will be martyred. At the command of the three young men, their servants smash the image of Nemesis, break up the twelve altars (templa) in the house, and scatter the remains of the images they have destroyed.
News of the triplets' conversion spreads. The notables, magistrates and priests of the idols reproach them for abandoning the cult of the gods, but the young men reply by denouncing such absurd beliefs and by confessing their faith. A certain Quadratus strikes two of the triplets, the third one asks that he too be struck. Threatened with brutal punishment, as outlined by Quadratus, Palmatus and Hermogenes, the young men reply by reasserting their faith. The three pagans then summon Leonilla and tell her to persuade the triplets to amend; she promises to persuade them to do everything necessary for their salvation. Happy to see them firm in their belief, she delights with them that they will soon know eternal joy. Interrogated by the judges, the young men confess their faith, and are bound and suspended from trees, where terrible tortures are inflicted on them. Melasippus reprimands the judges and says that they have been hung up, just as Christ was suspended from the wood of the Cross. Seeing that this torture is having no effect, the judges order that they be cast into a brazier, where Christ visits them and breaks their bonds, and where they suffer no harm. But, seeing the angels who are ready to receive them, they kneel, pray and together surrender their spirit.
Their bodies are taken to the second mile outside Langres, to the settlement called Urbatus (in vico qui vocatur Urbatus), where two important roads meet and many people pass. 'There, every day, through the intercession of the holy triplets, whatever is asked for devoutly is granted by God' (Ibique etiam quicquid cum devocione praecatur obtentu sanctorum geminorum cotidie, deo largiente, praestatur); the sick are healed and the suffering are comforted.
A woman named Ionilla, inspired by the triplets, abandons her husband and only son to proclaim the faith. Hung up by her hair, she is tortured before being killed by the sword along with the triplets' grandmother [Leonilla], at the place where they are buried. Neon, who had recorded the deeds of the martyrs, transcribed them, and given them to Turbon, is also executed after suffering many torments. Turbon too is martyred.
All this happened under the emperor Aurelian and the governors (praesides) Palmatus, Quadratus and Hermogenes, on the 16th of the Kalends of February [= 17 January]. The discovery of their bodies and the dedication of their basilica is celebrated on 19 September.
Text: Philippart 2014.
Summary: Philippart 2014 (translated here from his French).
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
MiraclesMiracle at martyrdom and death
Miracle after death
Power over elements (fire, earthquakes, floods, weather)
Healing diseases and disabilities
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOfficials
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Relatives of the saint
Children
Women
Family
Source
Two Latin versions of the Greek Martyrdom of Speusippos, Elasippos and Melasippos (E06799) exist. One (BHL 7828), presumably the earlier recension, is essentially a translation of the Greek text, with no references to Langres or anywhere else in Gaul. However, a second version (BHL 7829) – the text considered here – while changing neither the names of the triplets (nor those of most of the incidental characters), nor the central story of their martyrdom (even the day of martyrdom, 17 January, is unchanged), makes them martyrs of Langres and links them to a supposed major period of Christianisation and persecution in Burgundy during the reign of the emperor Aurelian (r. 270-275). This is done by adding a totally new opening to the Martyrdom and by having Benignus, a missionary sent by Polycarp of Smyrna, play a major role at the start of the central narrative.This second Latin version of the Martyrdom exists in many manuscripts, the earliest being in the legendary of Turin, of around 800 (the text edited by Philippart).
A version of this Langres recension was certainly in existence by c. 615, when a copy was sent by a certain Warnacharius to Bishop Ceraunius of Paris; in the accompanying letter there is explicit reference to the triplets as martyrs of Langres (for this letter, see E05943, where the issue of whether Warnacharius did not just send, but actually wrote, the Martyrdom is also explored). The Langres recension was also available to Bede and used in his Martyrology (E05412).
It is one of a group of six interrelated Martyrdoms from Burgundy, along with those of *Irenaeus of Lyon (BHL 4458; E08522); *Andochius, Thyrsus and Felix of Saulieu (BHL 424; E08523); * Benignus of Lyon (BHL 1153; E06532); *Ferreolus and Ferrucio of Besançon (BHL 2903; E06312); and *Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus of Valence (BHL 2896; E06306). Many of these martyrs feature in supporting roles in the Martyrdoms of the others, as well as in their own primary Martyrdom, as does a further Burgundian martyr, *Symphorianus of Autun (S00322). All the commemorated martyrs are presented as disciples either of Irenaeus, the bishop and martyr of Lyon (S02832), or directly of Irenaeus' master, *Polycarp (bishop and martyr of Smyrna, S00004), and all except Irenaeus, who dies under Severus, are martyred under the emperor Aurelian.
In its fully evolved form, a coherent story is told through these Martyrdoms of how Polycarp (a disciple of the Apostle and Evangelist John, and in these texts bishop of Ephesus, not Smyrna) first sent Irenaeus to proselytise in Gaul, and, after Irenaeus was martyred in Lyon (and spurred on by the appearance of the latter in a vision), sent Benignus, Andochius and Thyrsus to Gaul; and how, through the actions of these three (combined with the earlier work of Irenaeus), Christianity was established in many of the cities of Burgundy. (Though this is not of importance for our purposes, the story follows an impossible chronology: the historical Polycarp long predeceased the historical Irenaeus, rather than vice-versa, and neither lived in anything like the times of the emperor Aurelian, who reigned from 270 to 275.)
Precisely when these six 'Burgundian' Martyrdoms, were written, and how many different hands were involved, has been the subject of scholarly debate. Duchesne (1907, 48-59) believed that they were all the work of a single falsifier, writing in the early 6th century, while Meyer (1904, 67-71) and van der Straeten (1961) convincingly argued that they were the work of at least two authors. Philippart (2014, 259-262) is certainly correct that the issue requires further research.
For our purposes, the detail of who precisely wrote them and when is less important than the general scholarly consensus that at least the central core of these Martyrdoms (with the proselytising work of Polycarp and Irenaeus) emerged in the 6th century, probably in its early years. There are reasonably secure termini ante quem for three of the six Martyrdoms: Gregory of Tours in his Glory of the Martyrs 50 (written in the 580s or early 590s), describes a miraculous stone at Dijon, which plays an important role in the Martyrdom of Benignus (compare E00574 and E06532), and in Glory of the Martyrs 70 (E00606) refers to a Martyrdom of Ferreolus and Ferrucio that could well be our 'Burgundian' text; while in around 615 a version of the Martyrdom of the Langres triplets is known to have been sent to a bishop of Paris (E05943).
Though more tentatively, we can probably assign this clutch of Martyrdoms to a more precise chronological envelope: the early 6th century. They are almost certainly later than the end of the 5th century, because several of them include in their stories Symphorianus, a prominent martyr of Autun (S00322), while the Martyrdom of Symphorianus (E06496), which was probably written in the late 5th century, is entirely silent about any of our saints. An early 6th-century date for one of our Martyrdoms is then suggested by the detailed account by Gregory of Tours of how his great-grandfather, Gregory, bishop of Langres between 507/8 and 539/40, built up (indeed discovered) Benignus of Dijon (E00573). The story includes an account of how Gregory of Langres 'acquired from men travelling to Italy a history of Benignus' suffering' (ab euntibus in Italiam passionis eius historiam adlatam ... accepit). This could very well be our Martyrdom of Benignus, here given a respectable (if implausible) Italian source of origin.
These Burgundian Martyrdoms established martyrs and an origin story for many of the churches of eastern Gaul/Burgundy entirely different from the origin story of many sees in southern and western Gaul, which traced their beginnings to a mission from Rome in the time of the emperor Decius (for this, see, for instance, E01530). Instead, in Burgundy, two men from the East – Irenaeus of Lyon and his master Polycarp – play the central role; with, furthermore, a link back to apostolic times through Polycarp (who was a disciple of the Apostle John during the latter's time at Ephesus). All of this would fit well a context when the kingdom of Burgundy was a powerful and independent force, before it was swallowed up by the Franks in 533/534.
Discussion
This is the most remarkable case we know of, in which a new cult was created by simply taking another Martyrdom and setting it in a new location, without even changing the names of the saints. Duchesne, commenting on it in 1907 (at p. 57), wrote with considerable justification: 'To pull this off the author must have been endowed with exceptional confidence in his own powers of persuasion and in the credulity of his fellow men.' ('Pour l'aborder il fallait être doué d'une rare confiance dans son propre talent de persuasion et dans la crédulité des ses semblables.') Despite their questionable beginnings, Speusippus, Elasippus and Melasippus have enjoyed, as the 'Trois-Jumeaux', a relatively successful afterlife as saints of Langres.The burial place and church of these martyrs (the present-day Église des Trois-Jumeaux) is, as their Martyrdom states, some distance south of Langres, where two major roads (those from Chalon-sur-Saône and Besançon) met (Picard 1986, 53-54).
Bibliography
Editions:Philippart, G., "4. Passio Speusippi, Eleusippi, Meleusippi, BHL 7829", in Goullet, M. (ed.), Le légendier de Turin: ms. D.V.3 de la Bibliothèque nationale universitaire (Florence: SISMEL edizioni del Galluzzo, 2014), 257-278.
Acta Sanctorum, Ian. II, 74-76 (3rd ed. 437-444).
Further reading:
Beaujard, B., Le Culte des saints en Gaule. Les premiers temps. D’Hilaire de Poitiers à la fin du VIe siècle (Histoire religieuse de la France 15; Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2000), 217-223.
Duchesne, L., Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1907), vol. 1, 48-59.
Mayer, W., Die Legende des h. Albanus der Protomartyr Angliae in Texten vor Beda (Berlin, 1904).
Picard, J.-Ch., "Langres," in: Beaujard, B. et al., Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule; IV Province ecclesiastique de Lyon (Lugdunensis Prima) (Paris: Boccard 1986), 47-54.
van der Straeten, J., "Les actes des martyrs d'Aurélien en Bourgogne. Étude littéraire," Analecta Bollandiana 79 (1961), 115-144.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
28/03/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00320 | Benignus, martyr of Dijon | Benignus | Certain | S02046 | Speusippos, Elasippos and Melesippos, triplets and martyrs of Cappadocia, and later of Langres | Speusippus, Elasippus et Melasippus | Certain |
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