The Martyrdom of *Anastasius (monk and martyr of Persia, ob. 628, S02052) is rendered into Latin at least three times before 731: probably first at Rome, c. 645/68; then again at Rome, c. 645/731, or in Britain, 669/731; and again by Bede at Wearmouth-Jarrow (north-east Britain), 700/731.
Evidence ID
E07037
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
Major author/Major anonymous work
Bede
The Life and Martyrdom of the Blessed Monk Anastasius (Vita et passio beati Anastasii monachi) (BHL 410b)
A word-for-word (ad verbum) translation of the Greek Martyrdom of Anastasius (E06606), probably undertaken at Rome by a member of the Greek-speaking, Syriac community there, perhaps Theodore of Tarsus (later archbishop of Canterbury, 669-90), or at least a member of his circle. For a detailed summary of the story, see E06606.
Text: Franklin 2004, 259-98.
The Martyrdom of the Holy Martyr Anastasius (Passio sancti Anastasii martyris) (BHL 410)
Abbreviated redaction of BHL 410b, retaining many of its ad verbum grammatical and syntactical defects. Probably undertaken at Rome, or perhaps in Britain.
Text: Franklin 2004, 417-48.
[Bede], The Acts and Martyrdom of the Blessed Martyr Anastasius of Persia, 22 January (Acta et passio beati Anastasii martyris ex Persida civitate mense Ian. die XXII) (BHL 408)
Reworking of BHL 410b, which also betrays some knowledge of BHL 410. Probably identifiable as the (long-considered 'lost') work of Bede mentioned in his Ecclesiastical History (5.24).
Text: Franklin 2004, 362-416.
Composite translation (using both the Greek and Latin texts): Franklin 2004, 29-44.
Non Liturgical ActivityEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Pagans
Torturers/Executioners
Monarchs and their family
Foreigners (including Barbarians)
Source
The Northumbrian monk Bede (673/4-735) included among his many works listed in the final, autobiographical chapter (5.24) of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731),librum uitae et passionis sancti Anastasii male de Greco translatum et peius a quodam inperito emendatum, prout potui, ad sensum correxi
'A book on the life and passion of Saint Anastasius, badly translated from the Greek, and reworked in an even worse manner by someone inexperienced: I have corrected its meaning, as best as I could.'
Thanks to the work of Carmella Vircillo Franklin, we can now confidently identify the three texts in this short passage (usually translated - e.g. in Colgrave and Mynors' edition - as if only referring to two texts) as BHL 410b (the book 'badly translated from the Greek'), BHL 410 (the inferior revision, by 'someone inexperienced'), and BHL 408 (Bede's own correction).
BHL 410b is a word-for-word (ad verbum) translation of the Greek Martyrdom of Anastasius, surviving in a single copy from ninth-century Bobbio (northern Italy). The hyper-literal state of the translation suggests it may not have been intended for wide circulation, nor perhaps read without reference to the original. Possibly it reflects a first draft, or an interlinear gloss. It is probably not the work of a native Latin/Romance-speaker, nor meant for an audience unfamiliar with Greek: it thus probably originated within the Greek-speaking monastic milieu of seventh-century Rome, which we know from later sources had established an early cult of Anastasius at the monastery ad Aquas Salvias, and laid claim to the saint's head (first attested in the mid-to-later seventh-century pilgrim guide, the De Locis Sanctis (E06989), although this does not refer to the community as Greek, nor otherwise). Since Bede's interest in Anastasius and apparent familiarity with BHL 410b (see below) demonstrates the relatively early migration of this cult to Britain, and since we know that Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury (669-690) was himself a member of the Greek-speaking monastic diaspora at Rome, we may be able to link the arrival of Anastasius' cult in Britain - and with it, probably BHL 410b - to Theodore's own departure for the island in 668-9, thus establishing a plausible terminus ante quem for this translation.
BHL 410 survives in thirteen manuscripts, and would seem to represent a defective attempt to render the ad verbum BHL 410b into a more conventional Latin Life. However, its emendations are only minor, and many of the grammatical and syntactical problems of BHL 410b remain. The editor has abridged the text, but in doing so lost much of the sense of the original. We can probably attribute this revision to those involved with Anastasius' cult at Rome, although it may well have been undertaken in Britain. Bede almost certainly knew the text (see below), thereby giving us a terminus ante quem of 731.
BHL 408 is a far superior ad sensum Latin text of the Martyrdom, and survives today in varying forms in about fifty manuscripts. It is clearly an adaptation of BHL 410b, although certain details betray a familiarity with BHL 410. This aligns with Bede's suggestion in the Ecclesiastical History that he worked from two versions of the text, one translated 'badly' (male) and one revised 'even worse' (peius). Although there remain defects to the text's Latin and meaning, Franklin has argued that comparable problems elsewhere in Bede's corpus mean that this does not rule out his authorship; indeed, the literalism of BHL 410b presents a number of challenges that could have probably never been amended without a thorough knowledge of Greek. The earliest surviving witnesses of BHL 408 were copied in western Germany, as were many of our earliest copies of Bede's works. There is also a 'striking' agreement between Bede's comments on Anastasius in his On the Reckoning of Time (725) and the BHL 408 version of the Martyrdom. Overall there is a strong case for identifying this revision with that described by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History. Franklin considers the closest surviving version of the text to Bede's original to be that transmitted in a ninth-century Lorsch manuscript (Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatinus latinus, 846), which she christens BHL 408(p).
For all points, see Franklin, 2004, passim, but esp. 53-83, 152-223.
Bibliography
Editions, translation and discussionFranklin, C.V., The Latin Dossier of Anastasius the Persian: Hagiographic Translations and Transformations (Toronto, 2004).
Further reading
Franklin, C.V. and P. Meyvaert, 'Has Bede's Version of the Passio S. Anastasii come down to us as BHL 408?' Analecta Bollandiana, 100 (1982), pp. 373-400.
Franklin, C.V., 'Theodore and the Passio S. Anastasii,' in M. Lapidge, ed., Archbishop Theodore: Commemorative Studies on his Life and Influence (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 175-203.
Record Created By
Benjamin Savill
Date of Entry
05/11/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S02052 | Anastasios, monk and martyr of Persia, ob. 628 | Anastasius | Certain |
|---|
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