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56-591: According to the Golden Legend , the names of the members of the first group were not known at the time of their death "but were learned through the Lord’s revelation after many years had passed." They were called the "Four Crowned Martyrs" because their names were unknown ("crown" referring to the crown of martyrdom ). Severus (or Secundius), Severian(us), Carpophorus, and Victorinus were martyred at Rome or Castra Albana , according to Christian tradition. According to

112-577: A canonry with four canons of the Lateran, which then leased the premises to Discalced Carmelite nuns in 1767, where they remained until 1906. The nuns had a cloister garden, separated from the Via Labicana by a wall. Since then, it has been a parochial church served by diocesan clergy. Seized by the state in 1873 the church is managed today through the Fondo Edifici di Culto (FEC). The former convent, from

168-523: A commentary of the Four Crowned Martyrs' Passio in the work entitled Acta Sanctorum . The Passio had been also studied by the mediaevalists Wilhelm Wattenbach and Giovanni Battista De Rossi . Around 1385, they were depicted by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini . Then in about 1415, Nanni di Banco fashioned a sculpture grouping the martyrs after he was commissioned by the Maestri di Pietra e Legname ,

224-418: A compendium of saintly lore for sermons and preaching , not a work of popular entertainment. The book sought to compile traditional lore about saints venerated at the time of its compilation, ordered according to their feast days . Jacobus de Voragine for the most part follows a template for each chapter: etymology of the saint's name, a narrative about their life, a list of miracles performed, and finally

280-455: A great multitude of people with them. Thus was the city of Rome delivered from double death, that was from the culture and worshiping of false idols, and from the venom of the dragon. Jacobus describes the story of Saint Margaret of Antioch surviving being swallowed by a dragon as "apocryphal and not to be taken seriously" (trans. Ryan, 1.369). The book was highly successful in its time, despite many other similar books that compiled legends of

336-534: A heathen temple. For this they were condemned to death as Christians. They were put into leaden caskets and drowned in the River Save. This happened towards the end of 305. The references in the text of the martyrs' passio to porphyry quarrying and masonry located at the 'porphyritic mountain' indicate that the story's setting is misplaced; there are no porphyry quarries in Pannonia and the only porphyry quarry worked in

392-458: A list of citations where the information was found. Each chapter typically begins with an etymology for the saint's name, "often entirely fanciful". An example (in Caxton's translation) shows his method: Silvester is said of sile or sol which is light, and of terra the earth, as who saith the light of the earth, that is of the church. Or Silvester is said of silvas and of trahens , that

448-462: A merchant through his marriage to the widow Khadija, and goes on to suggest that his religious visions came as a result of epileptic seizures and the interventions of a renegade Nestorian monk named Sergius . The chapter conveys the medieval Christian understanding of the beliefs of Saracens and other Muslims . It may be because of this long history that early copies of the entire work were sometimes referred to as Historia Lombardica . Many of

504-573: A mirror of the heartfelt pieties of the 13th century, is attributed to Téodor de Wyzewa , whose 1901 retranslation into French, and its preface, have been often reprinted. Sherry Reames argues that Jacobus' interpretation of his source material emphasized purity, detachment, great erudition and other rarified attributes of the saints; she contrasts this to the same saints as described in de Mailly's Abbreviatio , whose virtues are more relatable, such as charity, humility and trust in God. The critical edition of

560-439: A pit, which every day slew with his breath more than three hundred men. Then came the bishops of the idols unto the emperor and said unto him: O thou most holy emperor, sith the time that thou hast received Christian faith the dragon which is in yonder fosse or pit slayeth every day with his breath more than three hundred men. Then sent the emperor for S. Silvester and asked counsel of him of this matter. S. Silvester answered that by

616-463: A relatively common Latin name, simply meant "from the forest". The correct derivation is alluded to in the text, but set out in parallel to fanciful ones that lexicographers would consider quite wide of the mark. Even the "correct" explanations ( silvas , "forest", and the mention of green boughs) are used as the basis for an allegorical interpretation. Jacobus de Voragine's etymologies had different goals from modern etymologies, and cannot be judged by

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672-446: Is from 1438, and is cryptically signed by "a synfulle wrecche". In 1483, the work was re-translated and printed by William Caxton under the name The Golden Legende , and subsequently reprinted many times due to the demand. The adverse reaction to Legenda aurea under critical scrutiny in the 16th century was led by scholars who reexamined the criteria for judging hagiographic sources and found Legenda aurea wanting; prominent among

728-436: Is to say he was drawing wild men and hard unto the faith. Or as it is said in glossario , Silvester is to say green, that is to wit, green in contemplation of heavenly things, and a toiler in labouring himself; he was umbrous or shadowous. That is to say he was cold and refrigate from all concupiscence of the flesh, full of boughs among the trees of heaven. As a Latin author, Jacobus de Voragine must have known that Silvester ,

784-446: The Gospel of Nicodemus , and the histories of Gregory of Tours and John Cassian . Many of his stories have no other known source. A typical example of the sort of story related, also involving St. Silvester, shows the saint receiving miraculous instruction from Saint Peter in a vision that enables him to exorcise a dragon : In this time it happed that there was at Rome a dragon in

840-552: The Catholic Encyclopedia , however, "this report has no historic foundation. It is merely a tentative explanation of the name Quatuor Coronati , a name given to a group of really authenticated martyrs who were buried and venerated in the Catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Pietro , the real origin of which, however, is not known. They were classed with the five martyrs of Pannonia in a purely external relationship." The bodies of

896-731: The Freemasons . One of the scholarly journals of English Freemasons is called Ars Quatuor Coronatorum , and the Stonemasons of Germany adopted them as patron saints of "Operative Masonry." The translation of the Four Crowned Martyrs to the church on the Caelian Hill is recorded in the Liber Pontificalis among the acts of Pope Leo IV (847–855). The main biographical source is the Latin Passio sanctorum quatuor coronatorum (Passion of

952-640: The Golden Legend is available from Fordham University 's Medieval Sourcebook. Santi Marcellino e Pietro al Laterano Santi Marcellino e Pietro al Laterano is a Roman catholic parish and titular church in Rome on the Via Merulana . One of the oldest churches in Rome, it is dedicated to Saints Marcellinus and Peter , 4th century Roman martyrs , whose relics were brought here in 1256. The first church on

1008-615: The Late Middle Ages . More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived. It was probably compiled around 1259 to 1266, although the text was added to over the centuries. Initially entitled Legenda sanctorum ( Readings of the Saints ), it gained its popularity under the title by which it is best known. It overtook and eclipsed earlier compilations of abridged legendaria, the Abbreviatio in gestis et miraculis sanctorum attributed to

1064-477: The Passion of Saint Sebastian , the four saints were soldiers (specifically cornicularii , or clerks, in charge of all the regiment's records and paperwork) who refused to sacrifice to Aesculapius , and therefore were killed by order of Emperor Diocletian (284–305), two years after the death of the five sculptors, mentioned below. The bodies of the martyrs were buried in the cemetery of Santi Marcellino e Pietro on

1120-582: The Roman Martyrology gives Simpronianus, Claudius, Nicostratus, Castorius and Simplicius, described as marble masons, as the martyrs celebrated on November 8, and the Albano martyrs Secundus, Carpophorus, Victorinus and Severianus as celebrated on August 8. In the fourth and fifth centuries a basilica was erected and dedicated in honor of these martyrs on the Caelian Hill , probably in the general area where tradition located their execution. This became one of

1176-633: The Sava River in about 287. Simplicius was killed with them. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia , [T]he Acts of these martyrs, written by a revenue officer named Porphyrius probably in the fourth century, relates of the five sculptors that, although they raised no objections to executing such profane images as Victoria , Cupid , and the Chariot of the Sun , they refused to make a statue of Æsculapius for

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1232-484: The Via Labicana , in a sandpit where there rested the remains of other executed Christians. It is unclear where the names of the second group actually come from. The tradition states that Melchiades asked that the saints be commemorated as Claudius, Nicostratus, Simpronian, and Castorius. These same names actually are identical to names shared by converts of Polycarp the priest, in the legend of St. Sebastian. According to

1288-508: The humanists were two disciples of Erasmus , Georg Witzel , in the preface to his Hagiologium , and Juan Luis Vives in De disciplinis . Criticism of Jacobus's text was muted within the Dominican Order by the increasing reverence towards him as a Dominican and archbishop, which culminated in his beatification in 1815. The rehabilitation of Legenda aurea in the 20th century, now interpreted as

1344-640: The titular churches of Rome, and was restored several times. The Four Crowned Martyrs were venerated early in England , with Bede noting that there was a church dedicated to them in Canterbury . This veneration can perhaps be accounted by the fact that Augustine of Canterbury came from a monastery near the Basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome, or because their relics were sent from Rome to England in 601. Their connection with stonemasonry in turn connected them to

1400-553: The 10th century, Archbishop of Naples Peter published a Passio which was historically remarkable for a similar structure and textual style, and for some differences with regard to the content. The Abbacy of Saint Mary of Grottaferrata preserved a Greek manuscript of the Passio which had some concerns with the Neapolitan document. In 1910, the Jesuit philologist Hippolyte Delehaye published

1456-456: The 18th century, is now used as a barracks. The present church, which now lies below street level, is the result of Pope Benedict XIV 's 1751 reconstruction a bit northeast of the old church. The cube-shaped exterior is divided by pilaster strips in a Neoclassical style, but with a late- Baroque elements, including a dome influenced by the architecture of Borromini . The façade was designed by Girolamo Theodoli . An inscription that runs along

1512-621: The Dominican chronicler Jean de Mailly and the Epilogus in gestis sanctorum of the Dominican preacher Bartholomew of Trent . When printing was invented in the 1450s, editions appeared quickly, not only in Latin, but also in almost every major European language. Among incunabula , printed before 1501, Legenda aurea was printed in more editions than the Bible and was one of the most widely published books of

1568-634: The Four Crowned Martyrs), mentioned in the martyrology of Ado of Vienne (d. 875) and then in the more concise version of Usuard (d. 876/877). The latter was the most widely circulated in subsequent centuries, and contributed to the spread of the martyrs' veneration during the Middle Ages . Usuard referred to two sets of saint martyrs: the Quattuor Coronatorum and the set with Claudius, Nicostratus, Simpronianus, Castorius and Simplicius. In

1624-513: The Latin text has been edited by Giovanni Paolo Maggioni (Florence: SISMEL 1998). In 1900, the Caxton version was updated into more modern English by Frederick Startridge Ellis , and published in seven volumes. Jacobus de Voragine's original was translated into French around the same time by Téodor de Wyzewa . A modern English translation of the Golden Legend has been published by William Granger Ryan, ISBN   0-691-00153-7 and ISBN   0-691-00154-5 (2 volumes). A modern translation of

1680-485: The Medieval reader. Many different versions of the text exist, mostly due to copiers and printers adding additional content to it. Each time a new copy was made, it was common for that institution to add a chapter or two about their own local saints. Today more than 1,000 original manuscripts have been found, the earliest of which dates back to 1265. The Golden Legend had a big influence on scholarship and literature of

1736-524: The Middle Ages. During the height of its popularity the book was so well known that the term "Golden Legend" was sometimes used generally to refer to any collection of stories about the saints. It was one of the first books William Caxton printed in the English language ; Caxton's version appeared in 1483 and his translation was reprinted, reaching a ninth edition in 1527. Written in simple, readable Latin,

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1792-582: The Middle Ages. According to research by Manfred Görlach, it influenced the South English Legendary , which was still being written when Jacobus' text came out. It was also a major source for John Mirk 's Festial , Osbern Bokenam's Legends of Hooly Wummen , and the Scottish Legendary . By the end of the Middle Ages, The Golden Legend had been translated into almost every major European language. The earliest surviving English translation

1848-511: The Thebaid during his reign, though he was more usually associated with the Balkans, which might explain why the story's location was transposed to Pannonia over time. When the names of the first group were learned, it was decreed that they should be commemorated with the second group. The bodies of the first group were interred by St. Sebastian and Pope Melchiades (Miltiades) at the fourth milestone on

1904-584: The ancient world is in Egypt. Mons Porphyrites was quarried to supply the rare and expensive imperial porphyry for the emperor's building works and statuary, for which it was exclusively set aside. Mons Porphyrites is in the Thebaid , which was a centre of Christian erimiticism in Late Antiquity . Emperor Diocletian did indeed commission the extensive use of porphyry in his many building projects. Diocletian also visited

1960-421: The beginning of February, the year after her martyrdom, there arose a great fire, and came from the mountain toward the city of Catania and burnt the earth and stones, it was so fervent. Then ran the paynims to the sepulchre of S. Agatha and took the cloth that lay upon her tomb, and held it abroad against the fire, and anon on the ninth day after, which was the day of her feast, ceased the fire as soon as it came to

2016-415: The book was read in its day for its stories. Each chapter is about a different saint or Christian festival . The book is considered the closest thing to an encyclopaedia of medieval saint lore that survives today; as such, it is invaluable to art historians and medievalists who seek to identify saints depicted in art by their deeds and attributes. Its repetitious nature is explained if Jacobus meant to write

2072-544: The catacomb of Albano; their feast was celebrated on August 7 or August 8, the date under which is cited in the Roman Calendar of Feasts of 354. The Catholic Encyclopedia wrote that the "martyrs of Albano have no connection with the Roman martyrs". The double tradition may have arisen because a second passio had to be written. It was written to account for the fact that there were five saints in group two rather than four. Thus,

2128-546: The cloth that they brought from her tomb, showing that our Lord kept the city from the said fire by the merits of S. Agatha. Jacobus carefully lists many of the sources he used to collect his stories, with more than 120 total sources listed; among the three most important are Historia Ecclesiastica by Eusebius , Tripartite History by Cassiodorus , and Historia scholastica by Petrus Comestor . However, scholars have also identified other sources which Jacobus did not himself credit. A substantial portion of Jacobus' text

2184-577: The facade recalls the reconstruction carried out in 1751 by Pope Benedict XIV. The doorway has a simple triangular pediment. The church has a Greek cross plan: the main altarpiece by Gaetano Lapis depicts the dedicatees' martyrdom. Under the high altar is an urn containing relics of Saint Marzia. On the left side is a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, with a copy of Guido Reni 's The Virgin in Glory with Angels, St Joseph and St Rita . The chapel on

2240-581: The fourth mile of the Via Labicana by Pope Miltiades and Saint Sebastian (whose skull is preserved in the church). The second group, according to Christian tradition, were sculptors from Sirmium who were killed in Pannonia . They refused to fashion a pagan statue for the Emperor Diocletian or to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods . The Emperor ordered them to be placed alive in lead coffins and thrown into

2296-581: The guild of stone and woodworkers, of which he was a member. These saints were the guild's patron saints . The work can be found in the Orsanmichele , in Florence . Finally, they were also depicted by Filippo Abbiati . Golden Legend The Golden Legend ( Latin : Legenda aurea or Legenda sanctorum ) is a collection of 153 hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in Europe during

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2352-535: The historicity of these martyrs because one group contains five names instead of four. Alban Butler believed that the four names of group one, which the Roman Martyrology and the Breviary say were revealed as those of the Four Crowned Martyrs, were borrowed from the martyrology of the Diocese of Albano Laziale , which kept their feast on August 8, not November 8. These four "borrowed" martyrs were not buried in Rome, but in

2408-501: The main encyclopedia that was used in the Middle Ages, are attributed by modern scholars to the two authors' common compilation of identical sources, rather than to Jacobus' reading Vincent's encyclopedia. More than 130 more distant sources have been identified for the tales related of the saints in the Golden Legend , few of which have a nucleus in the New Testament itself; these hagiographic sources include apocryphal texts such as

2464-566: The martyrs are kept in four ancient sarcophagi in the crypt of Santi Marcellino e Pietro . According to a lapid dated 1123, the head of one of the four martyrs is buried in Santa Maria in Cosmedin . The rather confusing story of the four crowned martyrs was well known in Renaissance Florence, principally as told in the thirteenth-century Golden Legend by Jacopo da Voragine. It appears that

2520-454: The martyrs' relics were transferred from a church located on the ancient "via Labicana", built on the catacombs where the two saints were buried. An image of the dedicatees was placed on the first column on the left from the entrance during this restoration, with an inscription recording the restoration. The hospice was transferred in 1276 to the Ospedale del Salvatore. In 1751 the property became

2576-480: The might of God he promised to make him cease of his hurt and blessure of this people. Then S. Silvester put himself to prayer, and S. Peter appeared to him and said: "Go surely to the dragon and the two priests that be with thee take in thy company, and when thou shalt come to him thou shalt say to him in this manner: Our Lord Jesus Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, buried and arose, and now sitteth on

2632-482: The original four martyrs were beaten to death by order of Emperor Diocletian (r. AD 284–305). Their story became conflated with that of a group of five stonecarvers, also martyred by Diocletian for refusing to carve the image of a Roman god. Due to their profession as sculptors, the five early Christian martyrs were an obvious choice for the guild of stonemasons, but their number seems often to have been understood to be four, as in this case. Problems arise with determining

2688-457: The pit, he descended down one hundred and fifty steps, bearing with him two lanterns, and found the dragon, and said the words that S. Peter had said to him, and bound his mouth with the thread, and sealed it, and after returned, and as he came upward again he met with two enchanters which followed him for to see if he descended, which were almost dead of the stench of the dragon, whom he brought with him whole and sound, which anon were baptized, with

2744-519: The right side of the Father, this is he that shall come to deem and judge the living and the dead, I commend thee Sathanas that thou abide him in this place till he come. Then thou shalt bind his mouth with a thread, and seal it with thy seal, wherein is the imprint of the cross. Then thou and the two priests shall come to me whole and safe, and such bread as I shall make ready for you ye shall eat. Thus as S. Peter had said, S. Silvester did. And when he came to

2800-581: The saint's life. The chapter "St Pelagius, Pope and the History of the Lombards" begins with the story of St Pelagius, then proceeds to touch upon events surrounding the origin and history of the Lombards in Europe leading up to the 7th century when the story of Muhammad begins. The story then goes on to describe "Magumeth (Mahomet, Muhammad)" as "a false prophet and sorcerer", detailing his early life and travels as

2856-480: The saints. The reason it stood out against competing saint collections probably is that it offered the average reader the perfect balance of information. For example, compared to Jean de Mailly 's work Summary of the Deeds and Miracles of the Saints , which The Golden Legend largely borrowed from, Jacobus added chapters about the major feast days and removed some of the saints' chapters, which might have been more useful to

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2912-563: The same standards. Jacobus' etymologies have parallels in Isidore of Seville 's Etymologiae , in which linguistically accurate derivations are set out beside allegorical and figurative explanations. Jacobus de Voragine then moves on to the saint's life, compiled with reference to the readings from the Roman Catholic Church 's liturgy commemorating that saint; then embellishes the biography with supernatural tales of incidents involving

2968-577: The site was built in the fourth century, not far from the Via Labicana 's catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter , with an adjoining hospice which became a centre for pilgrims. The church was restored by Pope Gregory III in the 8th century. Ever since these early centuries, it has been among Rome's stational churches for the Saturday of the Second Week in Lent. When the church was rebuilt in 1256 by Pope Alexander IV ,

3024-462: The stories also conclude with miracle tales and similar wonderlore from accounts of those who called upon that saint for aid or used the saint's relics . Such a tale is told of Saint Agatha ; Jacobus da Varagine has pagans in Catania repairing to the relics of St. Agatha to supernaturally repel an eruption of Mount Etna : And for to prove that she had prayed for the salvation of the country, at

3080-585: The story concerning group one was simply invented, and the story describes the death of four martyrs, who were soldiers from Rome rather than Pannonian stonemasons. The Bollandist Hippolyte Delehaye calls this invented tradition "l'opprobre de l'hagiographie" (the disgrace of hagiography). Delehaye, after extensive research, determined that there was actually only one group of martyrs – the stonemasons of group two – whose relics were taken to Rome. One scholar has written that "the latest research tends to agree" with Delehaye's conclusion. The most recent edition of

3136-554: Was drawn from two epitomes of collected lives of the saints, both also arranged in the order of the liturgical year, written by members of his Dominican order : one is Jean de Mailly 's lengthy Abbreviatio in gestis et miraculis sanctorum ( Summary of the Deeds and Miracles of the Saints ) and the other is Bartholomew of Trent 's Epilogum in gesta sanctorum ( Afterword on the Deeds of the Saints ). The many extended parallels to text found in Vincent de Beauvais ' Speculum historiale ,

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