Today we honor the patrons
of sculptors and stonemasons.
“On the Lavican way, the
birthday of the saintly brothers, Severus, Severian, Carpophorus and
Victorinus, called the Four Crowned, who were scourged to death with leaded
whips, during the reign of the Diocletian. As their names, known some years afterwards by revelation,
could not then be ascertained, it was ordered that their anniversary should be
commemorated with the preceding five, under the name of the Four Saints
Crowned. This appellation was
retained by the Church, even after their names had been revealed.”
The ‘preceding five’ saints
referenced were “Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian, Castorius and Simplicius,
who were first sent to prison, then scourged with whips set with metal, and as
they could not be made to forsake the faith of Christ, Diocletian ordered them
to be thrown into the river.”
The Golden Legend calls them
“The Four Crowned Martyrs” and says of them: “… And these martyrs knew all the
craft of sculpture or of carving, and Diocletian would have constrained them to
carve an idol, but they would not entail nor carve it, nor consent to do
sacrifice to the idols. And then
by the commandment of Diocletian, they were put into tuns of lead all living,
and cast into the sea… And Melchiades, the pope, ordained these four saints to
be honored and to be called the four crowned martyrs before that their names
were found. And though their names
were afterward found and known, yet for the usage they be always called the
four crowned martyrs.”
The Golden Legend also
explains that for a long time after their martyrdom, their true names were
unknown, so they were honored under the names of the other five martyrs. It is under these names that they were
entered in an Old English Martyrology [Simplicius became a fellow
workman]. Here quatuor coronati is translated as ‘the four victorious
men’: “On the eighth day of the month is the martyrdom of the holy martyrs that
are called in the books, quatuor coronate, that is the four victorious men,
whose names were Claudius, Castorius, Symphorianus, and Nicostratus. These were four skilful workers in
stone at Rome; six hundred and twenty-two workers were there altogether, and no
others were equal to them. Every
morning they marked their iron tools with the sign of the cross, and then they
were never broken, but they carved each stone as the emperor designed. One of the workmen was named Simplicius;
he believed in God and received baptism, and since he did all that the others
did. Then God granted greater
gifts to these five workmen than to the others. The other workmen then complained of them to the emperor and
told him that they were Christians and that they performed their artificial
work by sorcery, because they marked their work with the sign of Christ’s
Cross. The emperor was angry and
commanded them to be locked up alive in leaden chests and these to be thrown
into the water. After forty-two
days, a Christian pulled up the chests with the bodies and placed them in his
house, and many miracles since happened through these holy men.”
Subsequent embellishments
and research have muddied the waters even further, so that it is not known
which group (the four or the five) handled the carving tools (the other group
being either government officials or soldiers); even the locations of their
executions – Rome and modern Bosnia – are ascribed to one set or the other. Or perhaps the Quattro Coronati are an
entirely different group of martyrs, as proposed by the entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Whatever. Our ancestors didn’t care. They honored four (or five) workmen –
with or without names – who gave their lives for their faith. In the 15th
century, an English stonemason’s guild entered this in their records:
“Pray we now to God
Almighty,
And to His Mother, Mary
bright,
That we may keep these
articles here
And these points well
altogether,
As did those holy martyrs
four
That were in this craft of
great honor.
They were as good masons as
on earth shall go,
Gravers and image makers
they were also,
For they were workmen of the
best
The emperor had them in
great liking;
He invoked them an image to
make,
That might be worshiped for
his sake;
Such idols he had in his day
To turn the people from
Christ’s law,
But they were steadfast in
Christ’s religion
And to the craft, without
denial;
They loved well God and all
His doctrines,
And were in His service
evermore.
True men they were, in that
day,
And lived well in God’s law;
They resolved no idols for
to make,
For no good that they might
take;
To believe on that idol for
their god,
They would not do so, though
he were mad,
For they would not forsake
their true faith,
And believe on his false
religion.
The emperor caused to take
them at once
And put them in a deep
prison.
The sorer he punished them
in that place,
The more joy was to them of
Christ’s grace.
Then when he saw no other
way,
To death he caused them to
go.
Who so will of their life
more know,
By the book he may in learn,
In the legend of the saints,
The names of the four
crowned ones.
Their feast will be, without
denial,
After All Hallows, the
eighth day.”
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We can honor the patrons of
sculptors and stonemasons with OLD FASHIONED ROCKS:
Heat oven to 350°
F.
Grease cookie sheets (enough
for 2 – 3 dozen cookies)
Bring ½ cup of water to
boiling and pour it over 2 cups of raisins. Set aside.
Soften ½ cup of butter.
Sift 2-½ cups of flour, then
add a teaspoon EACH of baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon, and sift again.
In a large bowl, cream the
softened butter with 1-½ cups of firmly packed dark brown sugar. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating the
mixture until light after each addition.
Stir in ½ cup of chopped
walnuts, then add the flour mixture and the raisins with the soaking water, and
mix well.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto
the cookie sheets and bake for about 15 minutes.
