Barbarus the Martyr
Acta Sanctorum, May 14
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-14/barbarus-the-martyr.html
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ON S. BARBARUS THE MARTYR
TRANSLATED FROM METHONE TO VENICE.

[Preface]

Barbarus, Martyr, translated from Methone to Venice (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

Methone, a city of Messenia on the Southern shore of the Peloponnesus,
even now a famous emporium,
is now called Modon, by Leunclavius and others
Mutune and Muthone. In this city S.
Barbarus or Barbarius, under Julian the Apostate crowned with martyrdom
or at least laid to rest, is celebrated on this XIV
of May in various Martyrologies. Ferrarius in the general Catalogue
thus opens this day. [The memory in various Fasti] At Methone in the Peloponnesus,
of S. Barbarus the Martyr under Julian the Apostate:
whose body was translated to Venice. He adds in the Notes:
From the Martyrologies of Maurolycus and Galesinius, with which
the records of the Venetian Church, which have the body, agree.
Maurolycus Abbot of Messina writes these things: At Methone,
of S. Barbarus the Martyr, under Julian after various
tortures beheaded, now buried at Venice. Which
same things are read in the Calendar or historical Ephemeris
of Constantius Felicius of Urbino, printed in the year MDLXXVII. In
the Church and diocese of Venice he is venerated with an Ecclesiastical office,
and the body is said to be in the Church of S. Lawrence. Galesinius
in place of the Peloponnesus put Thrace in these words: In Thrace,
of S. Barbarus the Martyr, who, ennobled by a manifold and varied
contest of martyrdom, under Julian the Emperor,
the most bitter adversary of the Christian name, is crowned.
In the Notes he asserts, that his sacred Relics, at Venice
placed again in the basilica of S. Lawrence, are preserved with pious cult.
Richard Whitford, in a Martyrology printed in the year MDXXVI
in English at London, has these things: At Muthone the feast
of S. Barbarius the Martyr and a noble Duke, who under Julian
the Emperor suffered very many and those most cruel torments,
when very many were converted, and
chiefly S. Bacchus the Duke, and his servants SS. Callimachus
and Dionysius. John Grevenus the Carthusian
of Cologne in the Martyrology of Usuard, augmented by many additions
of his own and printed at Cologne in the years MDXV and MDXXI,
thus indicates some torments inflicted on him: In the city of Muthone,
of S. Barbarus the Martyr: whom Julian the Emperor
caused to be hung up, and his belly to be scraped with a sword, until
his inward parts flowed out. Then, cured by an Angel,
he ordered him, bound to a wheel, to be led around, fire being placed beneath
and oil poured over. But when neither so was he injured, stretched
he is beaten with bull-sinews: then, the furnace of fire and the bronze ox being overcome, by the cutting off of the head he completed his martyrdom.
Thus far there. Several other things are edited in
the German Martyrology of Peter Canisius often reprinted: in
which also are said, Bacchus and two soldiers Callimachus
and Dionysius converted to the faith of Christ and
beheaded.

[2] [The Acts of the martyrdom in Peter de Natalibus]. Before these Martyrologists lived Peter de Natalibus,
who at Venice, Plebanus of the Church of the holy Apostles,
wrote a Catalogue of the Saints, and finished it in the year
MCCCLXXI, afterward there in the island of Equilia, now destroyed,
created Bishop. He could best attain the things which
in the basilica of S. Lawrence concerning S. Barbarus and other Martyrs
were preserved as monuments, and edited them in book 4 chapter 170.
But these Acts can be esteemed apocryphal and unworthy of faith,
not only on account of the manifold miracles, through which the holy one
amid such various torments is narrated to have been unharmed or soon healed:
but chiefly because in the more ancient writers
or Martyrologists no mention of these is found,
and because neither the place nor the manner of the passion agrees with the more certain
history of Julian. These things being premised, the Acts themselves from the said Catalogue
we give: and we add, that the church of S. Lawrence is now possessed
by nuns: to whom, asked to go, R. P. Daniel
Simonetti, by whose most useful labor, in S. Athanasius and others
I profess myself aided, answered: That they were diligently
asked by him, that whatever concerning the translation of the sacred body to themselves
they either have in writing or received from their elders retain by memory,
they would communicate; but that they promised
indeed all things at length, yet sent nothing, as they had promised;
and that this was for him a certain indication, that after much
inquiry on that matter they could find nothing. Concerning
various Relics of the Saints, brought from the East to Venice, we have often
treated: concerning the cult also of S. Mark at Venice on account of his body
translated thither, can be seen what we gave on the XXV of April, page
352 and the following. There is venerated also on the XXIX of April S. Leo
the Bishop, whose body from the island of Samos was carried to Venice:
where we indicated, that other bodies of the Saints
also were translated to Venice.

THE APOCRYPHAL ACTS.

From the catalogue of Peter de Natalibus.

Barbarus, Martyr, translated from Methone to Venice (S.)

BHL Number: 0000

[He is said to be a strenuous Soldier against the Franks,] Barbarus the Martyr suffered in the city of Muthone,
under Julian the Emperor. Who when he had gone into
the region of the Franks against the enemies of the Empire, having
as Duke of the army one by name Baccho, and he the victory
had obtained; in that very war Barbarus the Martyr was a Christian soldier, who strenuously and manfully
bore himself: which the Emperor hearing, made him a Count.
After these things, while the Franks sought single combat, Baccho the Duke sent Barbarus against the athlete of the Franks,
who, an Angel protecting him, in Christ's
name slew the adversary in the duel: and thus
the Franks, put to flight by Baccho and the army of the Romans,
are vanquished. [because he professed himself a Christian,] But when Baccho invited Barbarus, on account of
the triumph obtained, to the sacrifices of the gods,
and he asserted himself a Christian; Baccho
announced these things to the Emperor. Who, Barbarus being detained,
and refusing to sacrifice, and saying himself by B.
Cyriacus to have been baptized, by no reasoning able to adore the gods
of the Gentiles; Julian caused him to be hung up, and
his belly with a sword to be scraped so long, until all the inward parts
flowed out. [after various torments] But the holy one praying, by the Angel
Gabriel appearing to him, his inward parts visibly
gathered, were placed again in his belly, and the cleft
of him consolidated, and he, taken down, remained unharmed.
Which miracle being seen, Baccho with two
soldiers, namely Callimachus and Dionysius, were converted, and in the confession of Christ, Julian commanding,
were beheaded. Then the holy Martyr he caused, bound to an iron
wheel, to be led around, fire being placed beneath and oil
poured over. But the Martyr praying remained unburned:
the flame also bursting forth slew two of the Gentiles.
After these things Barbarus is cast into prison:
but, the Lord appearing to him, he is strengthened. [borne without harm before Julian the Emperor.] But in the morning
being led forth, on four pieces of wood he is stretched,
and with bull-sinews before and behind he is beaten. Then
a furnace for three days is kindled, that into it he might be cast:
in which the Martyr of Christ for seven days entirely unburnt
remained, and from it as from a pleasant
bath leaped forth. He was sent afterward into prison,
scorpions and serpents being cast in there:
which all, untouched by them, by the sign of the Cross he put to flight.
Thence in a bronze ox set on fire the Emperor caused
him to be enclosed: but he himself from all burning remained immune.
But the ox, as if alive, [at last cut at the head.] when it felt the heat,
began to bellow and to walk. At which miracle
many were converted. But last of all, Julian
commanding, he was cut at the head: whose body by the Bishop
Felicius in the city of Muthone was buried, on the day before the Ides
of May.

CENSURE.

The Franks, by the occasion of whom the virtue of Barbarus is here
said to have shone forth, were dwelling beyond the Rhine, and, Zosimus witnessing in book
3, together with the Alamanni and Saxons had taken and devastated
forty cities situated on the Rhine, [but Julian, fighting against the Franks, was still a Christian] in the year of Christ CCCLV,
in which Julian by Constantius Augustus was created Caesar, and
set over the Gauls; but in the following year CCCLVI, when
with Constantius he was made Consul, he recovered Cologne, taken by the Franks ten months
before; and in the following years he made peace
with the Kings of the Franks, as he himself glories, declaiming to
the Senate and people of Athens: and similar things to these
have Ammianus in books 16 and 17, and Libanius in Oration 10.
But all that time Julian bore himself as a Christian,
therefore here first occurs the greatest confusion
of places and times. But perhaps after the death of Constantius, in the year CCCLXII,
when Julian for the first five months was almost at Constantinople;
somewhere in Thrace, as Galesinius wrote,
S. Barbarus suffered torments; and his body, withdrawn from the slaughter,
was brought to Methone and buried.
If you say this, you expunge the whole first part of this Legend,
transferring the Martyrdom of Barbarus from the Gauls into Thrace.
But can at least the second part subsist?
Nor indeed this. For it is established that Julian never openly
raged against the Christians: but what he did secretly at Antioch
and elsewhere, [and afterward openly raged against no one for the faith.] were hidden in the darkness of sacrilegious mysteries.
Wherefore here are to be referred the things which, concerning the equally
fictitious Martyrdom of S. Cyriacus Bishop of Jerusalem,
we said on the I day of May; and altogether it is to be held,
that if under Julian for the faith Barbarus underwent death, this was done
in an altogether other manner than is here described. Let us say
therefore, that concerning S. Barbarus nothing is held proved by verisimilar writing
or reasoning, except the title of martyrdom, under which
by the people of Methone he was held in veneration, when there landed
those by whom the body was translated to Venice: the rest is mere
dream of some idle brain, such as from time to time it is expedient
to set forth to be looked upon even in this work, that contrary things placed
next to each other may shine forth more; and more clearly may appear, what
are those things which from time to time we reject, not wishing to be the first in dragging into the light fables, which until now have well lain hidden,
when it is enough to have marked them with an index of censure for caution, if
anyone perhaps imprudently stumble upon them.
