Martyrologium Hieronymianum - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Martyrologium Hieronymianum (meaning "martyrology

Martyrology

A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs , arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by names borrowed from neighbouring churches...

of Jerome") was a medieval list of martyrs, one of the most used and influential of the Middle Ages. Compiled probably in the late 6th century by anonymous monks in Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

from calendars or martyrologies originating in Rome, Africa, the Christian east and locally, Martyrologium Hieronymianum was the first general or "universal" martyrology, and the ultimate source of all later Western martyrologies.

Attributed

Pseudepigraphy

Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded; a work, simply, "whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past." The word "pseudepigrapha" is the plural of "pseudepigraphon" ; the Anglicized forms...

to Saint Jerome

Jerome

Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...

, the MH contains a reference to him derived from the opening chapter of his Vita Malchi (392 AD) where Jerome states his intention to write a history of the saints and martyrs from the apostolic times: "I decided to write [a history, mentioned earlier] from the coming of the savior up to our age, that is, from the apostles, up to the dregs of our time". Its alternate name, Martyrologium sancti Hieronomi, offers further misleading confidence to its authorship.

Delehaye

Hippolyte Delehaye

Hippolyte Delehaye was a Belgian Jesuit who was a hagiographic scholar and an outstanding member of the Bollandists, who established critical editions of texts relating to the Christian saints and martyrs that were based on applying the critical method of sound archaeological and documentary...

was of the opinion that the first recension was compiled in northern Italy, probably within the patriarchate of Aquileia

Aquileia

Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso , the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times...

, in the 430s or 440s. The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica suggested that in its present form it goes back to the end of the 6th century: "It is the result of the combination of a general martyrology of the Eastern Churches, a local martyrology of the Church of Rome, some general martyrologies of Italy and Africa, and a series of local martyrologies of Gaul. The task of critics is to distinguish between its various constituent elements." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...

("Martyrology") observes that all the surviving manuscripts derive from a lost recension apparently made in Gaul, probably at Auxerre

Auxerre

Auxerre is a commune in the Bourgogne region in north-central France, between Paris and Dijon. It is the capital of the Yonne department.Auxerre's population today is about 45,000...

, ca 600, on which the Dictionary of the Middle Ages
Dictionary of the Middle Ages
The Dictionary of the Middle Ages is a 13-volume encyclopedia of the Middle Ages published by the American Council of Learned Societies between 1982 and 1989. It was first conceived and started in 1975 with American medieval historian Joseph Strayer of Princeton University as editor-in-chief...

concurs.

Some of the entries contain brief narratives about the saints which is of historic interest, however the vast majority of entries are nothing but lists of names and places, for example: "On the third day before the Ides

Ides

Ides may refer to:* Ides , a day in the Roman calendar that marked the approximate middle of the month* Specifically, Ides of March* Ides, a being in Germanic paganism* Saint Ides, an Irish saint...

of January, at Rome, in the [catacomb] cemetery of Callixtus

Catacombs of Rome

The Catacombs of Rome are ancient catacombs, underground burial places under or near Rome, Italy, of which there are at least forty, some discovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian burials, either in separate catacombs or mixed together, they began in the 2nd century, much...

, on the Appian Way

Appian Way

The Appian Way was one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, Apulia, in southeast Italy...

, buried Miltiades, the bishop

Pope Miltiades

Pope Saint Miltiades, also called Melchiades , was pope from 2 July 311 to 10 January 314.- Origins :He appears to have been a Berber African by birth, but of his personal history nothing is known.- Pontificate :...

". The first "historic" martyrologies (containing narrative history of the life of a saint) would not flower until the Carolingian

Carolingian

The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...

period, starting with the martyrology of Bede

Bede

Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...

.

In its present form the Martyrologium Hieronomianum is a 9th century compilation from various calendars and lists of martyrs, amended and interpolated, the names distorted and multiplied or moved from one date to another according to local cultus. The oldest of the numerous manuscripts is that of Berne. Scholars generally assume that in the lists of martyrs that head each day's entry, newer additions were added at the bottom of the lists, and thus that the first names are most likely to be those from the lost earliest versions of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum.

See also

Further reading