CHAPTER II
THE SAINTS’ DAYS
1. The origins of the Cultus of the Saints and the Grounds on which it Rests
The ecclesiastical year recalls to the memory of the faithful all that God has done for the salvation of mankind, especially through the mysteries of the new Covenant, i.e. the life and passion of Jesus Christ, and she re-enacts them, as it were, before their eyes within the compass of each recurring year. To this the Sundays and festivals, especially those from Advent to Pentecost, are devoted. They form an organic whole, constituted in accordance with one definite idea, consisting of the three great festivals Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, each in itself the centre of a special season. The foundations and heart of the whole festal system of the Church were given by a higher Hand, and only the development—the much less important part of the whole—is to be attributed to the thoughts and contrivances of men.
It now remains for us to consider the second division of the Christian festival system—the Saints’ Days. These are distinguished from the feasts of our Lord both by their institution and by their treatment, their distribution throughout the year, their development and their diffusion throughout Christendom.[447]
From the foundation of the Church, there has been no controversy over the holiness and worshipfulness of those who laid down their life for the Christian faith. The New Testament itself did not omit to hand on to posterity the memory of those whose death fell within the apostolic period, such as the Holy Innocents, St James the Great, and before all others the first martyr St Stephen. The seer of the Apocalypse saw the martyrs of Jesus beneath the altar of God, Who did not forget them (Apoc. xvii. 6; vi. 9-11).
Neither did the Church forget them. From its foundation each Christian congregation was at pains to preserve the memory of the martyrs belonging to it. Thus, for example, Pionius and his companions celebrated the “true day” of St Polycarp’s death (natale genuinum) at Smyrna in 250, during which festival they were themselves seized and condemned to death.[448] Among the larger congregations, where the number of martyrs rapidly increased, special means were taken at an early date to preserve their memory. This was necessary in large communities if the memory of these heroes of the Faith was not to pass away. It is true that for the Church of Rome alone, do we possess definite information as to her mode of proceeding in this respect, but there is no room for doubt that smaller communities followed on the same lines, and for some indeed we have clear evidence that they did so. In many instances, the reverence which continued to be paid to the tomb of such an individual was sufficient to keep his memory alive. Those who suffered a shameful death as law-breakers in the opinion of the civil power nevertheless received honourable burial. According to Roman ideas earthly Justice was satisfied by the death of the guilty person, the body was given to the relations and friends to be duly buried.[449] Only when there was risk of a tumult was this permission withheld, which happened very rarely in the Roman Empire before the reign of Diocletian—or, where it was a question of high treason.
Not only the relations and friends were careful to preserve the memory of the martyrs, but, as we have already said, the congregation to which they had belonged. While the former erected chapels over the tombs of the martyrs, and preserved the information relating to them, the community on its part marked down in its registers their names and the days on which they suffered. In large communities the Bishops took steps for drawing up authoritative reports concerning the martyrs belonging to their flocks. According to the Liber Pontificalis, Clement I. is said to have divided Rome into seven regions, with a Christian notary appointed over each whose business it was carefully to investigate matters of this nature belonging to his region.[450] The size of the city of Rome rendered this necessary. Augustus had divided Rome for civil purposes into fourteen regions, but Clement, for the purpose he had in view, formed one region out of every two. Pope Fabian again adopted similar measures, and enjoined upon the seven sub-deacons the duty of seeing that the seven notaries made a complete collection of the acts of the martyrs. He thus doubled the number of persons employed in this matter, and placed the subdeacons over the notaries.[451] His predecessor Anteros (235-236) collected the gesta martyrum, and carefully preserved the Acts of the martyrs, as we learn from a somewhat obscure notice in the Liber Pontificalis.[452] This is again referred to in the same work, where it is stated that Pope Caius appointed the regions of the city to the deacons during the Diocletian persecution.
St Cyprian adopted the same plan at Carthage during the persecutions under Decius and Valerian. He ordered the priests and deacons of Carthage not only to interest themselves in every way on behalf of the faith of those in prison, but also to take thought for the bodies of those who died in bonds, even when they died without having undergone torture, and also to keep a record of the name and date of death of each one, in order that his memory might be celebrated along with the memorials of the martyrs.[453] The order to take down the date could be easily obeyed everywhere, since in every city, Calendars engraved on marble tablets were set up for public use.[454]
We have an authoritative document of this kind in the detailed account given by the communities of Lyons and Vienne, of the martyrdoms which took place there under Marcus Aurelius. Owing to its having been sent to Asia Minor, Eusebius was able to utilise it and incorporate the chief parts of it into his history of the Church.