UNDER this name is celebrated the foundation of the see of Antioch by S. Peter the Apostle, before he went to Rome, so that this day may be called the birthday of the Church and Patriarchate of Antioch. Through the coincidence of this Christian festival with some ancient pagan solemnities, its observance has become surrounded by spurious usages, at least among the Northern races. These usages were so rooted into the habits of the people, that the Church, unable to eradicate them, sought to give them a Christian significance, and to substitute the feast of the Chair of S. Peter for the cara cognitio celebrated by the pagans of the Teutonic races on this day. This heathen festival was a commemoration of deceased relations by a great banquet, called in Flanders the dadsisas, or death-wake, on the 27th Feb., the day on which, in the North of Europe, the year was supposed to begin.
S. ARISTION, DISCIPLE OF CHRIST.
(1ST CENT.)
[Latin Martyrology. S. Aristion is not mentioned in the Greek Menæa. No Acts exist, but he is mentioned in the Apocryphal Acts of S. Barnabas. The Apocryphal Synopsis of the 72 Disciples, by Dorotheus of Tyre, does not mention S. Aristion, but S. Jerome mentions him in his Ecclesiastical Writers, c. 18; and Papias quoted by Eusebius, lib. iii., c. 39.]
Aristion is mentioned by Eusebius in his account of the writings of Papias. Eusebius quotes the words of Papias, who says, "If I met with any one who had been a follower of the Elders anywhere, I made a point of inquiring what those Elders taught; what had been said by Andrew, Peter, or Philip; and what by Thomas, James, John, Matthew, or any other of the disciples of our Lord; and what was said by Aristion, and by the priest John, disciples of the Lord; for I do not think that I derived so much benefit from books, as from the living voice of those that are still surviving."
Papias inserted in his book, says Eusebius, many accounts given him, concerning our Lord, by Aristion. It is much to be regretted that the book of Papias is lost.
S. PAPIAS, B. C.
(BEGINNING OF 2ND CENT.)
[Roman, and all Latin Martyrologies. Authorities:—Eusebius, lib. iii. c. 39; and S. Jerome, De Scrip. Ecclesiasticis, c. 9; epist. 29, ad. Theodoram.]
Papias lived at the same time as the illustrious Polycarp, and had the privilege of conversing with those who had known and heard the Apostles, as also with Aristion and the priest John, who had been disciples of our blessed Lord. He wrote a work entitled "The interpretation of Our Lord's declaration," in five books, containing various parables of Our Lord not contained in the Gospels, and other portions of His doctrine. Papias was visited at Hierapolis, where he was bishop, by the daughters of S. Philip the Apostle, and from them also he derived much information. Papias does not seem, from Eusebius' account, to have been a man of much mental power. He says, "He was very limited in his comprehension, as is evident from his discourses." Nor had he much acuteness of judgment, for he is accused by the same writer of having inserted in his work much that was fabulous.