Baring-Gould’s sources: Modem Roman Martyrology on Oct 25. By the Greeks on March 19. The marble Kalendar found at Naples, of the 9th cent, gives these saints on both days. Some copies of the Martyrology of Jerome on Aug. 12. Wandelbert on Oct. 13. Menology of Basil on Oct 17. In many ancient Martyrologies of the West, however, on Nov. 29; the most ancient Kalendars have not their names, but in that of Gelasius they occur on Nov. 29. Also same day in the loth cent. Kalendar of S. Martin at Treves, and other Kalendars to the 13th cent. In Usuardus on Dec. I. The two saints are mentioned in an epigram in their honour by Pope Damasus (366-384), when he restored and beautified their catacomb. The Acts, in Greek, are certainly old, but they are utterly untrustworthy. They pretend to have been written by Varinus and Armenius, brothers and priests, at the request of Pope Stephen (253-257). They are either a deliberate forgery, or, more probably, are an early Christian romance, which was not intended to serve any historical purpose, but was designed to take the place of the amatory romances of 1 Acts wholly fabulous.
5'6'. Chrysanthus and Daria. Achilles Tatius, Longinus, &c. The very title of “ Chrysanthus and Daria” reminds one of the love romances of “ Chaereas and Callirhoe,” " Theagenes and Charicleia,” “ Daphnis and Chloe,” “ Clitopho and Leucippe,” &c. The style is not unlike, and there reigns in this, as in the secular romances, the same indifference to history. In the first place, the martyrs suffer under Numerian in 283, and the reigning pope at the time is S. Stephen, who, in fact, died in 257. Numerian, moreover, did not persecute. In the romance the martyrs are brought before the emperor in Rome. As it happens, Numerian never was in Rome. During his brief reign of eight or nine months, he was in the East Celerinus is represented as the prefect of the city who condemns the martyrs. There was no prefect of that name either in the reign of Numerian or at any other time. A vestal virgin is given to Chrysanthus to wife— a glaring impossibility. Moreover, the Acts are charged with marvels like a fairy tale. It is possible that there may have been such martyrs as Chrysanthus and Daria, but it is more probable that readers of the popular romance came in time to treat as sober fact what was intended to be regarded as fiction only, and thus the imaginary hero and heroine of a story were enrolled in the Kalendar of Saints, their relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] were sought and found, and they were invoked jn prayer.] HE Romance of Chrysanthus and Daria relates that there came a man of illustrious birth named Polemius from Alexandria to Rome and settled there in the reign of Numerian. He was received with honour by the Senate, and given by the emperor a seat “ in curia Romana.” 1 He had a son named Chrysanthus, highly educated, and addicted to the study of philosophy. Having greedily devoured all the books he could get hold of, he obtained at length the Gospels; on obtaining which he pronounced an eloquent but somewhat tedious discourse on the vanity of his former studies, addressed to himself, and containing wholesome moral exhortation, seasoned with quotations from the Gospels he was about for the first time to open.
Finding that, notwithstanding the brilliancy of his 1 The whole statement is absurd. parts, he required assistance for the understanding of the Scriptures, he had recourse to a priest named Carpophorus, and taking up his abode with him for several months, was fully instructed in the articles of the Christian faith, and believing was baptized. Seven days after he began to preach Christ, to the surprise and indignation of his relatives, who complained to his father. The father, who seems to have neglected making inquiries as to the whereabouts of his son during the months he was with the Christian priest, now became actively interested in detaching him from the faith he had embraced.
Polemius, finding that the Christian priest with whom Chrysanthus had resided had not attended to the personal cleanliness of his son, in the miserable and squalid hovel he inhabited, ordered him to be washed and combed, and dressed in new and costly raiment, and to be introduced into the dining-room, where food was prepared, and five charming young girls were ready to minister to him. The maidens received a hint from the father beforehand, that unless “they succeeded by their jokes and blandishments in detaching Chrysanthus from the Christian faith, he would put them all to death by various modes of torture.” 1 Stimulated by J:hese words, the girls left nothing omitted to make Chrysanthus enjoy both his victuals and their society. But, we are assured, he looked on the delicate meats as dross, and on the damsels as a parcel of vipers. Some of the girls, more pert than the rest, or in greater terror of their lives should they fail, even approached their rosy lips to his cheek. This was more than Chrysanthus could bear; “ esteeming their kisses as so many shots of arrows,” he broke forth into a long, instructive, extempore effusion partaking equally of the nature of a prayer and of a sermon. The maidens listened to this harangue at first with curiosity, 1 Roman law would never have permitted him to carry his threat into execution..StS. Chrysanthus and. Daria.
then with indifference, and finally they yawned, stretched themselves on the soft couches, and went to sleep. The servants of Polemius carried them into the open air, when they woke up, and being again urged to the assault, ventured once more into the banqueting hall, where Chrysanthus, nothing abashed by the effect of his harangue upon the audience, was declaiming to the deaf walls. They were scarcely returned within reach of the somnolent effects of the discourse, than the five lively girls again succumbed, and Polemius, looking in, found his son moralizing aloud over an audience which responded with snores. The friends and acquaintance of Polemius, who had been awaiting the success of the experiment with breathless impatience, were taken into consultation, and assured the distressed father that the fit of slumber which oppressed the eyes of the maidens was the not infrequent result of Christian preaching — a magical power not obsolete even now — and a manifest proof of the necromantic arts practised by its professors, and advised him to marry his son to Daria, a young, beautiful, and accomplished virgin, dedicated to Vesta in her temple at Rome.1 Accordingly, the beautiful Daria, adorned with jewels, but still more adorned by the natural charms of modesty and simplicity, was introduced to Chrysanthus, and the young man was informed coldly that this was the wife selected for him by his father and other relatives. Chrysanthus at once began a discussion with himself on the course he should pursue. Daria waited patiently till the stream of words was exhausted, or at least was intermitted, to observe that she did not wish to force her society on any one who did not care for her, but that she was grieved at the tears of Polemius, and was desirous of bringing the young man back to the worship of the immortal gods.
This last allusion unloosed the tongue of Chrysanthus from the momentary respite he had accorded it, and he entered into a long conversation, in which the talking was chiefly on his side, upon the vanity of idols, the nonexistence of the heathen gods, and the excellency of the Christian religion.
After whole pages of talk, the two came to terms. Chrysanthus discovered that Daria was a good listener, and did not fall asleep and snore over his sermons like the giddy girls first sent to him, and Daria, tired of the seclusion of the temple of Vesta, probably thought Chrysanthus not as disagreeable a companion as she might have judged had her experience of men been wider. They settled between them to affect to fall in with the intentions of Polemius, and Daria readily consented to be baptized.
As soon as this was amicably settled, Polemius gave the newly married couple a comfortable lodging, and the honeymoon was spent in theological studies.
Chrysanthus, who had begun to preach seven days after his baptism, found insufficient scope for his abilities within the confines of his own house, and he began to address and convert numerous personages of distinction at Rome. Daria at the same time sought and convinced their wives and daughters.
They were accordingly denounced to Celerinus, prefect of the city,1 who ordered their arrest, and committed them to safe custody in the hands of Claudius the tribune, who committing him to seventy soldiers, bade them make Chrysanthus sacrifice to Hercules, by fair means or by foul. He was bound with cords as tightly as the soldiers could tie them, but suddenly, with a skill rivalled by eminent 1 There never was a prefect of the city of that name. The name of this prefect occurs again in the Acts of S. Maurus, Nov. aa, also fabulous, and nowhere else. S. Maurus owes his fame only to the story of Chrysanthus and Da conjurers in our own day, he shook himself, and they fell at his feet. The soldiers then put him in the stocks, and stretched his legs to the third hole. But suddenly the wood became mildewed, then rotten, and crumbled into dust before their eyes. Annoyed at this, the guards had recourse to the nearest cesspool, and washed Chrysanthus with the drainage of it With the utmost composure he assured them that what they employed to befoul with was in fact otto of roses and essence of mille-fleurs.
The soldiers next had recourse to a barbarous expedient more congenial to the east than to the west.1 They killed a calf, skinned it, and after having wrapped the raw hide round Chrysanthus, seated him in the sun, in the hopes of it contracting upon him as it dried, and suffocating him. But the calf's hide adapted itself as it shrank to the shape of Chrysanthus, and fitted him as if it were his natural skin. It was now time for the puzzled soldiers to report progress to their tribune. Claudius learned their ill success with surprise, and thought it necessary himself to visit the prisoner, and see to the execution of justice upon him. The tribune accordingly arrived on the scene, and when he saw Chrysanthus seated composedly in the calf's skin, with his chains scattered about him, Claudius prostrated himself, and vowed that he could not withhold his conviction that the religion of Chrysanthus was true, and begged to be baptized. The seventy soldiers clamoured that they were in the same mind; the wife of Claudius, Hilaria, put in her word, that she too believed, for hearing of the marvels, with feminine curiosity she had run to the spot; and finally, Jason and Maurus, her two sons, who had accompanied her, gave in their adhesion to Christianity.
They were all speedily baptized, and after having been 1 In the Golden Ass of Apulseus the robbers threaten to treat the captive Chantc thus. Lib. vi.
instructed by Chrysanthus, with the utmost promptitude were brought before the Emperor Numerian, and decapitated. Their names occur in the Martyrologies. By express orders of Numerian, Chrysanthus was now thrust into the barathrum, a pit into which the drains of the prison discharged themselves. It was perfectly dark and smelt abominably. But no sooner was the martyr introduced than a supernatural light irradiated the abyss, and the stench was sublimated into exquisite odours.
Daria, by command of the emperor, was sent to a den of infamy; but a lion, escaping from the Flavian amphitheatre, undertook her defence, and, lying down at her feet, guarded her from intruders. The guardians of the damsel, profoundly ignorant of the circumstance that a lion had invaded the house, allowed a youth to enter her apartment. The lion, with a pat of the paw, knocked him down flat, and then looked up in the face of the martyr to inquire whether he was to kill and eat the man there, or suffer him to crawl away. Daria, with true magnanimity of spirit, suffered the youth to escape with his life, and he rushed forth howling that Daria was a goddess.
Some keepers from the amphitheatre now arrived to catch the lion. But the beast struck them down one after another, and arranged them in a pile on the floor, at the feet of Daria, one on top of the other. Daria then addressed them, and bade them promise to become Christians or she would suffer the lion, who kept his paw in readiness on the top of the heap, to eat them. The quaking pile of human beings, in more or less muffled tones, according as they lay at the top or bottom, took the pledge, and were allowed to depart Celerinus, the prefect, finding it impossible to get the lion out of the way, ordered the house and its contents to be consumed. Fire was accordingly applied, and the lion began to manifest uneasiness. Daria, compassionating his Oct. as*] 6VS. Chrysanthus and Daria.
alarm, gave him leave to depart, and the beast, after having solemnly bowed to her, escaped from the house and through the crowd, which parted, and did not venture to molest him. Now that the lion was gone, Daria was accessible, and the necessity for burning the house down over her head was obviated. The flames were accordingly extinguished, and she was conducted to the Emperor Numerian, and found her husband Chrysanthus already before the throne of the emperor. The two martyrs were put to various tortures, which in no way injured them, or even caused them momentary inconvenience, and Numerian in disgust sentenced them to be buried alive. A large sand-pit or quarry existed on the Salarian way. They were conducted thither, sand and stones were thrown upon them, and thus they perished. If there were martyrs of the name of Chrysanthus and Daria, this last statement, that they were crushed in the arenaria, is probably all that is true about them in the Acts. On the anniversary of their death, crowds of Christians came to the sand-pit to pray round their place of martyrdom. Numerian,1 hearing of it, ordered the sand-rocks above to be detached, and all were crushed to death. Among the sufferers were the priest Diodorus and the deacon Maurinus. The relics of the martyrs are tolerably numerous. The first translation [the solemn moving of a saint’s relics to a new shrine] of the bodies took place by Pope Paul I., about 761; a second by Paschal I., about a.d. 820. A third by Stephen V. in 886 to the Lateran [St. John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral in Rome].2 The bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria were translated in 844, however, to Munster Eifel, and an account of this translation, written by Wandelbert of Pram, an eye-witness, exists. There the bodies rest to the present day. The jubilee of their translation was celebrated at Munster Eifel in 1848. The heads are in two reliquaries in the church, the bodies 1 Numerian only reigned six or seven months. Here he reigns till the anniversary of the martyrdom.
i « iff [Oct. as. in one large reliquary in the crypt. The bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, given by Pope John X. to Berengarius, were also translated from Rome in 947 to Reggio. They are preserved there to this day. The bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, now at Munster Eifel, were given to the Emperor Lothair by Pope Sergius II. The entire bodies also at Oria, near Otranto, given by Pope Stephen VI. in 886. The bodies of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, also at Salzburg, given in 860 by Pope Nicolas I. The bodies, also entire, in the Jesuit church at Naples, given by Clement VIII. in 1634; these, dressed up in silk and velvet and spangles, are visible behind glass at the present day. The body of S. Chrysanthus also at Vienna, given by Pope Urban VIII. in 1643, and received with great pomp by the Emperor Ferdinand III. and the Archduke Leopold. In S. Peter’s, Rome, are also some bones of S. Chrysanthus and an arm of S. Daria; other relics in the church of S. Paolo; some bones of both saints at Pavia in the Benedictine [monks following the Rule of St. Benedict] church of S. Helena; some more in S. Maria ad Perticas; some at Welckerath in the diocese of Trfeves. According to Gregory of Tours [bishop and historian of the Franks (d. 594)], the relics of these saints were anciently in Gaul [roughly modern France and Belgium]. Some relics also at Cologne.
