The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): JanuaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): January
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
Tertullian[10] says that on the natal days, that is, on the days of
martyrdom of the Saints who have suffered for Christ, "We keep an annual
commemoration." It is easy to see how this usage necessitated the
drawing up of lists in which were inscribed not only the names of the
martyrs, and the place of their decease, but also a few words relative
to their conflict, so that the people might associate their names with
their victories, and the names might not become, in time, to them empty
sounds. S. Cyprian was absent from Carthage when the persecution was
raging there, but he wrote to his clergy, "Note the days of their death,
that we may celebrate their commemorations along with the memorials of
the martyrs."[11] S. Augustine says,[12] "The Christian people celebrate
the memory of the martyrs with religious solemnity, both to excite to
imitation, and that they may become fellows in their merits and be
assisted by their prayers."
Adrian I. quotes the 13th Canon of the African Church and the 47th of
the third Carthaginian Council, in a letter to Charlemagne, in which he
says, "The Sacred Canons approved of the passions of the Holy Martyrs
being read in Church when their anniversary days were being celebrated."
The names of the martyrs to be commemorated were announced on the eve.
By degrees other names besides those of martyrs were introduced into the
Martyrologies, as those of faithful servants of God whose lives were
deserving of imitation, but who had not suffered to the death in
testimony to the truth. Thus we have confessors, or those who endured
hardships for Christ, doctors, or teachers of the Church, virgins,
widows, bishops and abbots, and even penitents.
The Martyrologies may be divided into two series, the ancient and the
modern. We need only concern ourselves with the Ancient Martyrologies.
The first to draw up a tolerably full Martyrology was Eusebius the
historian, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, and he did this at the
request of the Emperor Constantine. In this Martyrology he noted all the
martyrs of whom he had received an authentic account on the days of
their suffering, with the names of the judges who sentenced them, the
places where they suffered, and the nature of their sufferings. Eusebius
wrote about A.D. 320, but there were collections of the sort already
extant, as we may learn from the words of S. Cyprian already quoted, who
in his instructions to his clergy ordered them to compile what was
practically a Martyrology of the Carthaginian Church.
We have not got the Greek Martyrology of Eusebius, but we have the Latin
version made by S. Jerome. Bede says of this, "Jerome was not the
author, but the translator of this book; Eusebius is said to have been
the author."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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