Martyrologium Hieronymianum

St. Jerome as a cardinal of the Church, by El Greco: Jerome's connection with this martyrology is purely apocryphal.

The Martyrologium Hieronymianum (meaning "martyrology 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 from calendars or martyrologies originating in Rome, Africa, the Christian east and locally, Martyrologium Hieronymianum is the oldest surviving general or "universal" martyrology, and the ultimate source of all later Western martyrologies.

Pseudepigraphically attributed to Saint Jerome, 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"^[1]. Its alternate name, Martyrologium sancti Hieronomi, offers further misleading confidence to its authorship.

Hippolyte Delehaye was of the opinion that the first recension was compiled in northern Italy, probably within the patriarchate of Aquileia, in the 430s or 440s.^[2] 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 sole surviving manuscript derives from a lost recension apparently made in Gaul, probably at Auxerre, ca 600, with which the Dictionary of the Middle Ages^[3] concurs. The text shows signs of having been copied in Anglo-Saxon England by its inclusion of five Anglo-Saxon commemorations. The sole surviving copy (Epternacensis) is associated with the household of the Northumbrian Willibrord, at his foundation, Echternach;^[4] it is conserved at the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, lat. 10837, folios 2 - 33.

Some of the entries contain brief narratives about the saints which are 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 of January, at Rome, in the [catacomb] cemetery of Callixtus, on the Appian Way, buried Miltiades, the bishop". The first "historic" martyrologies (containing narrative history of the life of a saint) would not flower until the Carolingian period, starting with the martyrology of Bede.

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. 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

• Rabanus Maurus – Carolingian author of martyrologies
• Notker Balbulus – Carolingian author of martyrologies

References

Further reading

• Catholic Encyclopedia:"Martyrology", "Chair of Peter", "Sts. Quirinus", etc.
• 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Martyrology"
• Giovanni Battista de Rossi and Louis Duchesne, editors, Martyrologium Hieronymianum in Acta Sanctorum LXXXII November, part II (1894; reprint 1971) The standard edition.
• Hippolyte Delehaye, Commentarius perpetuus in Martyrologium Hieronynianum ad recensionem H. Quenti in Acta Sanctorum XXIV November 11, part II]. ((Brussels, 1931)
• McCulloh, John M. (1987). "Martyrology", Dictionary of the Middle Ages (vol.8)