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Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology, Bede, Usuardus, Ado, &c. These saints are Basilides, Cyrinns, Nabor and Nazarius; bnt there are others, Basilides, Distrus, Polmachus, Zabinus, and others, MM. at Rome, commemorated also on this day in some Martyrologies, and with distinct Acts, though not ancient. Sometimes the two Basilides are made into one, and the two groups of saints confounded into one, sometimes those from one group have found their way into the other. The perplexity is great, and the Acts of both companies have been similarly mixed. The Breviary Lessons partake in the errors and confusion. After giving the lessons, Henschen and Papebroeck, the Bollandists, say s— “Si antiquitus eadem invenirentur scripta, neminem futurum credo, cui talis naxratio foret de fictione suspecta; sed cum ex Actis mox producendis appareat ruinosum totius narrationis fundamentura esse, non potest firmum censeri quod superextructum est, quanta vis verosimilitudinus specie niteat, dum in eo omittuntur omnia quae offendere possunt.".... “ Hactenus Acta, nunc quidem in Breviario, satis ad speciem commode depurata, ut dixi; sed huic ipsi fidem minuentia, quam illud seorsim spectatum deberet obtinere; dum ex Actis cum ipso collatis apparet, quod non exiguae fidei narrat ion em prse oculis habuerit Petrus de Natalibus, scribens epitomen illam, unde postea sumptae quas nunc habemus Lectiones, quod tamen harum Auctores inculpabiliter latuit. Potuit quidem Petrus omittendo prudenter, ut retatur, circumstantias et adjuncta prorsus inverosimilia; sed non potuit sic efficere, ut easent in seipsis certiora toto, unde hausta * [Jane x*.
…sunt, textu." Papebroeck only hesitated to print above the Acts the title of “ * Apocryphal,” because offence had been given by the Bollandist Fathers having headed the Apocryphal Acts of S. Venantius, May 14th, " Fabulous Acts/' the Breviary Lections being taken from them.] BASILIDES, Cyrinus, Nabor, and >, Roman soldiers, are said by the >hal Acts, on the persecution of Diobreaking out in the West, to have escaped to the East, but their consciences reproaching them, they returned to Italy, to their native province of “ Aurelia,” in a boat manned by angels. On their arrival, they were brought before Aurelius, proctor of the province of Aurelia, who ordered them to prison, where they converted their jailor. They were then sent to the Emperor Maximian [Diocletian’s co-emperor in the West, 286–305], who after having tried them with various tortures, ordered them to be decapitated. The bodies of SS. Nabor and Nazarius were given by Pope Paul I. to the abbeys of S. Hilaire and Lorsch. But the body of S. Nabor, together with those of SS. Basilides and Cyrinus are claimed by the church of S. Celsus, at Milan.