The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

The Martyrdom of Fructuosus, the bishop, and Auguris and Eulogius, deacons (Passio sanctorum Fructuosi episcopi, Augurii et Eulogii diaconorum; BHL-3196-3203b, CPL-2056)

Summary

The date of the martyrdom is given: the 12th day before the Kalends of February in the reign of Valerianus and Gallienus (= 21 January 259).

1. On Sunday (16 January) soldiers come to the house of Bishop Fructuosus and arrest him together with his deacons. They are thrown into prison, where they pray and rejoice over their impending martyrdom.

2. The bishop baptises a certain Rogatianus in prison. After six days in prison, on January 21, Fructuosus, Auguris, and Eulogius are brought before the praeses Aemilianus. Aemilianus interrogates them and asks them if they worship the gods. They answer in the negative and affirm that they are Christians. Aemilianus asks Fructuosus if he is a bishop. This he confirms (Sum - "I am") and Aemilianus concludes ominously, "You were" (Fuisti). He condemns them to death.

3. As Fructuosus is led to the amphitheatre, he is mourned by both Christians and pagans, but those who better understand that he is going to eternal glory rejoice. He is offered a drink of wine mixed with herbs, but he refuses because he is fasting. On Friday, however, he will break his fast 'with the martyrs and prophets in heaven'. In the amphitheatre he is approached by the lector Augustalis, who wants to take off his shoes, but Fructuosus decides to do it himself. Then there approaches another Christian, commilito frater noster ('a comrade, our brother') Felix,

adprehenditque dexteram eius, rogans ut sui memor esset. Cui Fructuosus cunctis audientibus clara voce respondit: In mente me habere necesse est ecclesiam catholicam ab oriente usque ad occidente.

'and he grasped his [Fructuosus'] right hand and begged him to remember him. The holy bishop Fructuosus answered him in a loud voice so that all could hear: I must bear in mind the entire Catholic Church spread abroad in the world from East to West.'

4. At the gate of the amphitheatre, just before his death, Fructuosus makes a short speech that is heard by the soldiers guarding him and by a Christian named Martialis. He says that they will not lose their shepherd and that what they see is only 'a one-hour weakness'. He dies by burning, which is compared to the punishment of the three youths in the book of Daniel (which is also an image for the Trinity).

5. Babilonus and Migdonius, Christians who belonged to the household of Aemilianus, see the martyrs entering heaven. They show this to the daughter of Aemilianus and Aemilianus himself. But he is not worthy to see it.

6. The Christians mourn the death of Fructuosus and his deacons. At night they come to the amphitheatre:

superveniente nocte ad amphitheatrum cum vino festinaverunt ut semiusta corpora exstunguerent. Quo facto cineres eorum collectos, prout quisque potuit, sibi vindicavit. Sed et in hoc domini et salvatoris nostri non defuere magnalia, ut credentibus fides augeretur et parvulis monstraretur exemplum. Oportebat enim Fructuosum martyrem, quod in saeculo per misericordiam dei docendo promiserat, in sua postea passione et resurrectione carnis comprobare. Igitur post passionem apparuit fratribus et monuit, ut quod unusquisque per caritatem usurpaverat, restituerent sine mora.

'When night fell, they hastened to the amphitheater with wine in order to quench the smouldering bodies. This done, each one collected the ashes of the martyrs, so far as he could, and claimed them for his own. And here too the miracles of our Lord and Saviour were not wanting to increase the faith of believers and to set example to the young. For it was necessary that the martyr Fructuosus should finally confirm in his own bodily suffering and resurrection that which he had by God's mercy taught when he was alive in the world. And so, after his death, he appeared to his brethern and urged them that what each had taken of his ashes out of love for him should be restored without delay.'

In the manuscripts with the interpolated versions (see discussion) there is the following passage:

Nam post passionem, septimi diei nocte adveniente, sanctus Fructuosus apparuit per visum omnibus qui reliquias eorum per caritatem sustulerunt, et monuit eos dicens: Talis amor vester in nobis non est bonus, in quo ex corporibus nostris partes factas, quas quisque ut praevaluit vindicavit, quam plurimi vos in una urbe constituti hospitiis privatis conclusas velitis habere. numquid dominus noster Iesus Christus divisus est qui ubique unus est? haec ergo talis devotio mentis non tenet caritatem dei et domini, sed dissensionis errorem nutrit. et ideo oportet ut reliquias nostras in unum positas nunc vos unianimes atque posteri vestri ita concordes deprecantes conlaudare deum patrem et Iesum Christum filium suum, pro cuius nomine sancti iam passi sunt et nunc patiuntur et adhuc passuri sunt, quos omnes deus pater cum deo filio et spiritu sancto in ipso elegit ante mundi constitutionem. et mane facto mox omnes christiani, qui reliquias sanctorum abstulerant, deferentes cum magno metu ac summa laetitia, singuli narrantes visionem similem, in qua commoniti fuerant, et in unum collectas in sacrosancta ecclesia sub altario sancto exultantes in domino honorifice sepelierunt.

'Now at nightfall on the seventh day after the martyrdom St. Fructuosus appeared in a vision to all who out of love had taken up the martyrs' remains. He admonished them with these words: "This love you show us is not good; for, dividing our bodies into parts, which each one of you claimed by force, so many of you in the same city choose to keep them locked up in private resting-places. Is Jesus Christ our Lord, who is everywhere one, so divided? Hence such spiritual devotion does not share the Lord God's love, but nourishes-the error of division. Thus it is meet that all of our remains be brought together, and all of you and your children should of one mind make supplication together and praise God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son, for whose name the saints have already suffered, still suffer, and will continue to suffer; all of these God the Father, with God the Son and the Holy Spirit, chose for himself before the world was made.' When day broke, all the Christians who had carried off the remains of the saints brought them back with great fear and the utmost joy, and each one told of a similar vision in which they had been admonished. They then buried the gathered remains with due respect in the holy church under the holy altar, giving voice to their joy in the Lord.'

8. The martyrs show themselves to Aemilianus, they accuse and insult him, saying that he achieved nothing by killing them. The martyrdom ends with the invocation and praise of the saints and their victory.


Text: Seeliger and Wischmeyer 2015: 206-215.
Summary: M. Szada.
Translation: Musurillo 1972 (adapted where necessary to reflect the text of Seeliger and Wischmeyer).

Prayer/supplication/invocation
Composing and translating saint-related texts

Bodily relic - unspecified
Bodily relic - corporeal ashes/dust
Theft/appropriation of relics
Division of relics

Ecclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Unbaptized Christians
Women
Officials
Soldiers

Source

Discussion

Bibliography