E08055
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
The martyrdom of Cassianus
1. Cum beatissimus Cassianus Aurelio Agricolano agenti uicem praefectorum praetorio militaris exceptor, eo tempore quo sanctus Marcellus martyr auditurus erat, eiusdem parebat officio.
‘The most blessed Cassianus served as a military clerk (militaris exceptor)’ to Aurelius Agricolanus, the acting praetorian prefect, he appeared in his office when the holy martyr Marcellus was to be interrogated.’
2.-7. The centurion Marcellus was made to appear in Tingis [= Tangier], on the third day before the Kalends of November [30 October]. He said that he could not serve in the military. When Aurelius Agricolanus sentenced Marcellus to death, Cassianus, who was charged with taking minutes, manifested his indignation and said that he considered the sentence unjust.
8. […] Nec tamen longa intercapidine temporis uenerabilis Cassianus, id est tertio nonarum decembrium die, in eodem loco in quo Marcellus fuerat auditus, introductus est, et iisdem fere responsionibus iisdemque sententiis quibus sanctus Marcellus locutus erat, triumphum meruit obtinere martyrii [adiuuante Domino nostro Iesu Christo, cui est honor et gloria, uirtus et potestas in saecula saeculorum. Amen].
‘After a short respite, that is on the third day before the Nones of December [5 December], the venerable Cassianus was brought to the same place in which Marcellus had been interrogated. Cassianus merited the same triumph of martyrdom as Marcellus by the similar answers and phrases, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom are the honour, the glory, the power and the rule for ever and ever. Amen.’
Text: Leoni 2020.
Translation and summary: Stanisław Adamiak.
Saint’s feast
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOfficials
Soldiers
Source
It is impossible to give a date to this text, apart from the terminus post quem being the creation of the account of the Martyrdom of Marcellus (E08138), created itself at an unknown date. The text has been preserved by six manuscripts, the oldest one being Roma, Biblioteca Nazionale, Farf. 29, a. 876-925, f. 138. The account is dependent on the Martyrdom of Marcellus, mentioned in it. There is, on the other hand, no mention of Cassianus in that text.Discussion
The martyrdom of Cassianus is set at the same time as that of Marcellus, whose Martyrdom account (E08138) dates these events to the year 298.Interestingly, although Cassianus appears in this story as a lesser martyr than the centurion Marcellus, whose example he follows, it is Cassianus, and not Marcellus, who was chosen by Prudentius in the 4th poem of “The Crown of the Martyrs” as the representative martyr of Tingis (E00801). There is also some possible archaeological evidence for the cult of Cassianus in Africa (E08056).
The prayer at the end of the account (present only in some manuscripts) may suggest that it was publicly read out.
Bibliography
Editions and translations:Leoni, J. (ed.), Mattei, P. (trans.), Actes et passions des martyrs militaires africains (Sources Chrétiennes 609; Paris: Cerf 2020).
Further reading:
Fialon, S., Mens immobilis. Recherches sur le corpus latin des actes et des passions d'Afrique romaine (IIe-VIe siècles) (Collection des Études Augustiniennes. Série Antiquité 203; Paris: Institut d'Études Augustiniennes, 2018), 94-98.
Stanisław Adamiak
31/03/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00505 | Cassianus, martyr of Tingis/Tangier | Cassianus | Certain | S02897 | Marcellus, martyr of Tingis/Tangier | Marcellus | Certain |
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