Baring-Gould’s sources: Greek Meuaea. Cultus at Reggio in Calabria on this day, sanctioned by the Congregation of Sacred Rites in 1632. Authority: — A late account in Greek, probably by Metaphrastes, of most questionable authority. Certain it is that nothing was known at Reggio of there having been a bishop and martyrs there, before the 17th cent., when they were made acquainted with it through the Greek Menma; and at once popular invention added particulars.] ^^^^CCORDING to the Greek story, S. Paul on gnKS 0 his way to Rome in the ship, tarried at £ pj Rhegium, after leaving Syracuse, sufficient time to preach to the people, and convert many thousands. Not only so, but he ordained one Stephen to be their archbishop. After seventeen years, persecution broke out under Hieracos the governor, and Stephen, another bishop, named Sueras, and three women, Agnes, Felicitas and Perpetua were put to death with the sword.

Since the 17th century, when the good people of Reggio were first made aware that they had a martyr bishop, their lively imaginations have filled out the story. When S. Paul landed there, the citizens would not believe him, till an end of candle he held in his hand caught fire spontaneously. Then he placed the candle on a marble pillar, and when the wick of the candle fell over, it set the marble on fire, and the pillar burnt down to its socket. This story has been gravely inserted as fact by Marco Antonio Politi in his Chronicon Regiense, and many others. 1 It is of course most questionable whether S. Paul preached at Rhegium. In Acts xviii. 13, it is said that he only tarried one day there, and probably he did not even disembark. “Landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli: where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went towards Rome.” The fable of the candle, says Janning the Bollandist, must have grown up among the vulgar, the product of some idle brain, till it made its way into the writings of serious authors. The martyr Agnes is derived from the Greek Menology, which commemorates one of this name on July 5th, without saying where she suffered, but giving a story which bears a strong resemblance to that of S. Agnes of Rome. Felicitas and Perpetua occur together in suspicious proximity, and have probably been translated from Africa, and anti -dated by rather more than a century. In 1622, Annibal de Afflictis, archbishop of Reggio, requested permission to erect altars and set up images, and institute mass and other devotions in honour of these martyrs. The Sacred Congregation of Rites gave the faculty desired. 1 Marafioti in his Chronicon Calabriae. Ughelli in his History of the Bishops of Reggio; and Paolo Gaulteri in his Saints of Calabria. S. Zoe.