March 23 both the Roman Martyrology and the Byzantine Menaia commemorate St Nikon, bishop, and his companions. He was a Neapolitan, said to be martyred with 199 companions, all monks, in Sicily in the year 250. St Vitus, a child, martyred, with St Modestus his tutor and St Crescentia his nurse, in Sicily, under Diocletian, occurs in the Roman Martyrology on June 15.[1] At Acis Xynophonia (Acireale, north of Catana), they have a famous martyr, St Parasceve (Παρασκευή, so called because she was born on a Friday). She is believed to have died under Antoninus Pius (138-161). The Byzantine Menaia keep her memory on July 26. But when her name was to be translated into Latin and they made "St Friday" into "Scta Venera," the Pope (Pius VI, 1775-1799) thought that was not a proper name for a Christian saint to have; so he changed it into "Veneranda," in which form she occurs in the Roman Martyrology on November 14, with Gaul as the place of her death![2]
There are saints of the Roman persecution on the mainland of Southern Italy too, as St January at Naples, who, although there seems to be the greatest possible uncertainty as to who he was or when he suffered, still does astonishing things with his blood.[3]
In short, from about the second century there were flourishing Christian communities all over Southern Italy and in Sicily. By about the middle of the third century, at latest, we have evidence of regularly established Churches with lines of bishops. Nor is there any doubt in what language the Gospel was preached here during that time, or in what language the holy Mysteries were celebrated. Greek was the language of the country, and we know that the first Christians said their prayers in their native tongue. Indeed, even in Rome, Greek was the liturgical language, at least till about the middle of the third century. All the more was it so in the South, where few spoke anything else. The acts of martyrs and other fragments of Christian literature from these lands are Greek. There was constant intercourse with Greece, and then with Constantinople. Bishops from Sicily receive sees in Greece
- ↑ "Acta Sanct.," Iun. III, pp. 499-501; L. di Brolo, op. cit., i, 154-158.
- ↑ See Nilles, "Kalendarium Manuale" (2nd edition, Innsbruck, 1896), pp. 223-225.
- ↑ For the local cult of St January (Ianuarius, Gennaro) see C. d'Engenio Caracciolo, "Napoli Sacra" (Naples, 1624), pp. 6-10.
Iohanne, "De diu. Siculorum officiis," pp. 47-50; L. di Brolo, op. cit., i, 159-166.
