Hippolyte Delehaye

“ We possess no historical documents on St Margaret as distinct from St Pelagia. An attempt has been made, but without success, to prove that the group of legends with which that of St Margaret is connected is derived from a transformation of the pagan divinity Aphrodite into a Christian saint. The problem of her identity is a purely literary question. The cult of St Margaret was very widespread in England, where more than 250 churches are dedicated to her. ”

“ The Church of Rome does not seem to have inscribed in its calendar its martyrs of an earlier date than the 3rd century. The essential form of the cult of the martyrs was that of the honours paid to the illustrious dead; and these honours were officially paid by the community. They consisted in a gathering at the martyr’s tomb on the anniversary of his death. ”

“ BOLLANDISTS, the Belgian Jesuits who publish the Acta Sanctorum, the great collection of biographies and legends of the saints, arranged by days, in the order of the calendar. The original idea was conceived by a Jesuit father, Heribert Rosweyde (see Hagiology) , and was explained by him in a sort of prospectus, which he issued in 1607 under the title of Fasti sanctorum quorum vitae in Belgicis Bibliothecis manuscriptae. His intention was to publish in eighteen volumes the lives of the saints compiled from the MSS., at the same time adding sober notes. ”

“ The procedure per viam casus excepti consists in the legitimation of a cultus which has been rendered to a saint for a very long time. The causes of the martyrs (declarationis martyrii) also are exceptional. Juridical proof is required of the fact of the martyrdom and of its cause, i.e. it must be established that the servant of God was put to death through hatred of the faith. These are the two cases which constitute exceptional procedure.
The common procedure is that in which the cause is prosecuted per viam non cultus. ”

“ In the early days each church confined itself to celebrating its own martyrs; but it was not long before it became customary to celebrate the anniversaries of martyrs of other churches. In the oldest Roman ferial we already find festivals of Carthaginian martyrs, and similarly, in the Carthaginian calendar, Roman festivals, while Wright’s Syrian Martyrology contains numerous traces of this exchange of festivals. From the 5th century onwards certain celebrated saints were honoured almost universally ”

“ The oldest texts which refer to him are an 8th century necrology at Würzburg and the notice by Hrabanus Maurus in his martyrology. According to Maurus Kilian was a native of Ireland, whence with his companions he went to eastern Franconia. After having preached the gospel in Würzburg, the whole party were put to death by the orders of an unjust judge named Gozbert. It is difficult to fix the period with precision, as the judge (or duke) Gozbert is not known through other sources. Kilian’s comrades, Coloman and Totman, were, according to the Würzburg necrology, respectively priest and deacon. ”

“ From the 4th century on are recorded cases of translation of the bodies of saints, and they did not even shrink from dividing the sacred relics. In the West the principle already laid down by St Gregory the Great in his letter to Constantia, namely that of not disturbing the bodies of the saints, was for a long time the rule in all cases, and the portions distributed to the churches were simply brandea, that is to say, linen which had lain upon the tomb of the saint, or, in other words, representative relics. ”

“ Of the best-known historical martyrologies the oldest are those which go under the name of Bede and of Florus (Acta sanctorum Martii, vol. ii.) ; of Wandelbert, a monk of Prüm (842) ; of Rhabanus Maurus (c. 845) ; of Ado (d. 875) ; of Notker (896) ; and of Wolfhard (c. 896 v. Analecta bollandiana, xvii. 11) . The most famous is that of Usuard (c. 875) , on which the Roman martyrology was based. The first edition of the Roman martyrology appeared at Rome in 1583. The third edition, which appeared in 1584, was approved by Gregory XIII., who imposed the Roman martyrology upon the whole Church. ”

“ The great popularity of the saint is due more particularly to her Acta, which in all their forms derive from the apocryphal work known as the Acta Pauli et Theclae. According to her Acta, Thecla was born of illustrious parentage at Iconium, and came under the personal teaching of the apostle Paul. ”

“ The undoubted abuses which grew up, especially during the middle ages, raised up, at the time of the Reformation, fresh adversaries of the cult of the saints. The council of Trent, while reproving all superstitious practices in the invocation of the saints, the veneration of relics and the use of images, expresses as follows the doctrine of the Roman Church: “That the saints who reign with Christ offer to God their prayers for men ”

“ The oldest historical synaxaria apparently go back to the tenth century. The heterodox Eastern churches also have their synaxaria.
The publication of the Arabic text of the synaxarium of the Church of Alexandria was started simultaneously by J. Forget in the Corp. script. orient, and by R. Basset in the Patrologia orient., and that of the Ethiopian synaxarium was begun by I. Guidi in the Patrologia orient. The Armenian synaxarium, called the synaxarium of Ter Israël was published at Constantinople in 1834. ”

“ The menology of Metaphrastes is a collection of lives of saints for the twelve months of the year, easily recognizable among analogous collections, and consisting of about 150 distinct pieces, some of which are taken bodily from older collections, while others have been subjected to a new recension (μετάφρασις) . Among other works attributed (though with some uncertainty) to Symeon are a Chronicle, a canonical collection, some letters and poems, and other writings of less importance. Symeon's great popularity is due more particularly to his collection of lives of saints. ”

“ In several of his discourses St Augustine pronounces the eulogy of this martyr, and refers to Acts which were read in the church. It is doubtful whether the Acts that have come down to us (Acta Sanctorum, January, ii. 394–397) are those referred to by St Augustine, since it is not certain that they are a contemporary document. ”

“ The supreme judge in the matter is the pope himself. The postulator, who is the mandatory of a diocese or ecclesiastical commonalty, is the solicitor. He must furnish the proofs, which are collected according to very stringent rules. ”

“ The freedom of Papebroch’s criticism made him many enemies, and he had often to defend himself against their attacks. The work was continued—with some inequalities, but always in the same spirit—until the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. ”

“ A Jesuit father, John Bolland, was appointed to carry on the project, and was sent to Antwerp. He continued to amass material, and extended the scope of the work. In 1643 the two volumes for January appeared. The three volumes for February appeared in 1658, the three for March in 1668, the three for April in 1675, and so on. In 1635 Henschenius (Godfried Henschen) was associated with Bolland, and collaborated in the work until 1681. From 1659 to 1714 Papebroch (Daniel van Papenbroeck) collaborated. This was the most brilliant period in the history of the Acta Sanctorum. ”

“ It is impossible to fix the date of his death. The St Valentinus who is spoken of as the apostle of Rhaetia, and venerated in Passau as its first bishop, flourished in the 5th century. Although the name of St Valentine is very popular in England, apparently no church has been dedicated to him. ”

“ It is in this way that the relics of St Babylas were placed in the sanctuary built by Gallus at Daphne (Socrates, Hist. eccl. iii. 18; Sozomen, Hist. eccl. v. 19) . As a matter of fact, the discipline of the Eastern churches with regard to the relics was, from the very beginning, much less severe than that of Rome and a great number of the Western churches. ”

“ Important gifts were made to the church which contained his body, and a monastery grew up hard by. It is probable that the Visigothic princes who were in possession of the country protected and enriched this monastery, and that it was destroyed by the Saracens at the time of their invasion in 721. ”

“ In 808 Charlemagne took the abbey of St-Gilles under his protection, and it is mentioned among the monasteries from which only prayers for the prince and the state were due. In the 12th century the pilgrimages to St-Gilles are cited as among the most celebrated of the time. ”

“ According to his Acta, he was born at Montpellier, France, about 1295. He early began to manifest strict asceticism and great devoutness, and on the death of his parents in his twentieth year he gave all his substance to the poor. ”

“ This reached its 25th volume in 1906, and was edited by the Bollandists de Smedt, F. van Ontroy, H. Delehaye, A. Porcelet and P. Peeters. This review contains studies in preparation for the continuation and remoulding of the Acta Sanctorum, inedited texts, dissertations, and, since 1892, a Bulletin des publications hagiographiques, containing criticisms of recent works on hagiographic questions. In addition to this review, the Bollandists undertook the analysis of the hagiographic MSS. in the principal libraries. ”

“ De Rossi-Duchesne, Les Sources du martyrologe hiéronymien (Rome, 1885) ; H. Achelis, Die Martyrologien, ihre Geschichte und ihr Wert (Berlin, 1900) ; H. Delehaye, “Le Témoignage des martyrologes,” in Analecta bollandiana, xxvi. 78–99 (1907) ”