Acta Cornelius
Simeon Metaphrastes, a Byzantine hagiographer of the 10th century, was the first to record a complete vita for St. Cornelius in Greek. It was translated to Latin by Jacques Paul Migne, see below for an English translation of Migne.
I. Cornelius’ fatherland
The city of Caesarea Palestinae, formerly called Strato’s Tower, as Plinius witnesses (Natural History, Book V, Chapter 13), was built by Herod in honor of the ruler Octavian, and was therefore named after him, according to Ammianus Marcellinus (Book XVI). It was later renamed “Colonia Flavia” by Emperor Vespasian, as Plinius states, but it kept being called Caesaria, as it appears in Ptolemy's table of Chords: Καισάρεια Στράτωνος (Straton’s Caesarea). The city was ennobled by the deeds of its many martyrs, the erudition of its priest, and especially because there happened the first public conversion of Gentiles to the faith of the Church when Cornelius the Centurion was baptized by the first of the Apostles.
2. He was, as Saint Luke says in Acts X, “a Centurion of a cohort called Italica”. For this reason, Baronius states in his first book of the Annals (year 41 A.D., n. 2) that he was of Roman descent, from Italic soldiers, and that we belonged to the sixth Legion, which was called Ferrera or Ferrata. Dio Cassius (in book LV) says that the Iron Legion was deployed in Judea since the times of Augustus. Tacitus narrates some more things about the activities of the Legion in Syria and Armenia (but after Cornelius’s conversion). The Spanish Chronicle, which modern authors consider to have been written by Flavius Dextrus, mentions Cornelius in the register of the year 40 A.D. and says he was from Italica.
Ludovicus Nonius, in his work about Hispania (chapter 17), writes that he was clearly from Italica, a city in Hispania Baetica, and in which the emperors Trajan and Adrian were born. Its ruins can still be seen next to the Baetis river, around a mile away from Hispalis, and it is even called “Ancient Hispalis.”
Franciscus Bivarius in his Chronicon (year 34 A.D., Commentary 3) tries to present several arguments to demonstrate that Cornelius was from Italica. He says that the sixth Legion, which was deployed in the garrison of Judea, was from Italica. He says that the Legion was called sixth (and claims that this was written by Plinius somewhere) because the sixth Province of the Empire was the Further Hispania, where Italica is located. Following this reasoning, since the third Legion is called Gallica or Cyrenaica, the fourth Scythica, the fifth Macedonica, and so on, Gallia and Cyrene should be the third Provinces, Scythia the fourth, and Macedonia the fifth. What a ridiculous statement!
Dio, in his fifth book of Roman History, states that the Legion from Italica stood out in such a marvelous way from all the other legions and that it was sent to Judea by order of Emperor Augustus. I will quote book 55 of Dio because the previous 34 books were lost. It says: “there are two sixth legions, one in the inferior region of Britain, which is called Victrix, and the other one in Judea, renown because of its name, “Ferrea”. He adds some further information: “The first Legion, called Italica, was built by Nero and sent to pass the winter in Mysia… Trajan built the second Legion, called Egyptian, and the thirtieth, called Germanica. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus imposed his name into them, and the second one was deployed in Noricum, and the third one in Rhaetia, and these are also called Italicae.” Is it still marvelous for such a legion to stand out from among the others, as Dio states? Or perhaps that legion was taken to Judea by Augustus because it didn’t exist before and it was built right there? But if it was indeed the Legion Italica the one that was guarding Judea, for what reason was a particular cohort of the legion also called Italica? It is much more plausible that Bivarius confused the concept of cohort and legion. He writes: “in Judea, there was only a single cohort of Roman soldiers… only the sixth, which is the Italica, and meanwhile the Ferrata was staying in Palestine, as Dio witnesses”. We already exposed the words of Dio. If Bivarius thinks that it is an honorable deed for Christ to die by cruel hands, is it that he wishes this honor to his own gentiles as well? Or when in Matthew XXVII it says that the “whole cohort” is congregated, were all soldiers of Cornelius summoned to Caesaria, considering it was the only cohort in Judea? We don’t have to mistake the Legion that was deployed in Hispania (which is also called sixth) with the one we are talking about, the Ferrata, which is an entirely different one.
3. However, Bivarius presents a somewhat more valid argument, which he takes from Saint Jerome. Among other things, in his Epistle 28 addressed to Lucinius Baeticus he writes the following: “Certainly the words of the Lord are now completed in you: many will come from East and West and will recline on Abraham’s lap”. Cornelius, soldier of the Legion of Italica, was already foreseeing the faith of my Lucinius. The apostle Paul, as he wrote to the Romans, said: “As soon as I start my journey to Hispania, I hope to see you, and to be led there by you. And he received from that province all the favorable fruits that we have been seeking for.” Why then did Jerome write to a Spanish person while referencing the wish of Paul to go to Hispania, if not because he remembered Cornelius and the Spanish people as the first consecrated subjects of faith? We can also reply that in Cornelius, the windows of faith are open, even to the most distant people, such as the Spaniards, and Jerome cannot but remember that first conversion while writing to a Spaniard. We (as we did when we spoke with Rodericus Carus in the notes quoted on the left) refuse to present our prejudice to truth. And it is for this reason that we refuse to forget the Spanish land, which is the fatherland of Saint Cornelius. Joannes Tamaius de Salazar presents in his Martyrologium of Spaniards a similar argument to that of Bivarius, that if Saint Luke had called the cohort “Italicensem,” there would be no doubt that he’s talking about the city of Italica in Hispania, but he calls it “Italicam”. Tamaius adds that in Hispania there’s a noble house whose name is “del Castillo”, which claims to be descended from this very saintly centurion.
II. Cornelius’ episcopacy
Thus, born in whichever country, but he certainly was a citizen of heaven, and became a soldier of Christ, from being a secular centurion: as a matter of fact, he became the leader of such legion under His authority. In fact, the Martyrologists attest that he was appointed as bishop of Caesarea. So Usuardus speaks about that day: “Next to Caesarea of the most holy Cornelius the centurion, whom st. Peter baptized. Such person rested in the aforementioned city, raised to the episcopal honor”. The vulgate Beda reports the same thing, along with Ado, the majority of the manuscripts, and the most recent ones, with some changes in terminology; the Roman Martyrologist shows that he was consecrated bishop by the very St. Peter. Notkerus concludes, in this way, the very detailed praise of such person: “This very Cornelius, after abandoning the army, rested in the aforementioned city, raised to the episcopal honor.” Petrus, in his work about Births, book 3, chapter 73, adds this thing, after telling his conversion: “Then Cornelius, renouncing the army, became a disciple of the Apostles and is appointed as bishop of Caesarea by these very men. In this city, after merrily completing the duty of his preaching, being very renowned due to his sanctity, went to Christ; and, buried over there, rested on the 2nd day of February”.
From these elements, it is possible to reject what is said in the 10th book of the Inspections of Clement, when Simon Magus of Antioch would attack St. Peter, still missing, and confuse the Church: “And then Cornelius the centurion came, sent by the Emperor as defender of Caesarea, as a public role. Being informed about what was happening, he made sure to spread the news that he came to arrest this mage, and he had been sent for this purpose by the Emperor, because the Emperor had ordered to investigate and kill all the wicked ones in the city of Rome and through all the provinces.” Maybe such trickery worked well, and then he made Simon, afraid of this news, escape; but it is still uncertain if Cornelius abandoned the duty of the army, immediately after being baptized, or if he waited for an appropriate opportunity for such event. The seventh book, chapter 47, of the Apostolic Constitutions of the very Clement says so: “Zacchaeus, who had been a publican before, was the first bishop of Caesarea, in Palestine; he was succeeded by Cornelius, and after him the third bishop was Theophilus.” However, as we said somewhere else: the things that are said in this chapter do not seem to be based on a stable truth so that they can be thought of as things written by Clement unless we suppose some interpolations by someone. And St. Teophilus, bishop of Caesarea, flourished under the principate of Severus, as we will say on the 5th of March, by the book of St. Hieronymus About the illustrious Writers of the Church. So, he could not succeed Cornelius, unless after a long time, and it is not even possible that St. Clement, who died in the year of Trajan, could mention him.
The acts of St. Cornelius (Baronius attests that Symeon the Metaphrast has described them from some ancient testimonies; but we cite them here, edited by Aloysius Lipomanus, then by Surius, organized by the Greek manuscript of the library of the very Christian king) are, then, not mentioned by the Acts of the episcopate of Caesarea. They just refer that, in some moment, he was a travel companion of Peter, sent by this very one to the city of Scepsis, and after tolerating many troubles, being renowned for many miracles, he became the promoter for the acquisition of faith for prince Demetrius and for almost the entire population. So, in that speech, by which the very Metaphrast, or some other author that can be found in Lipomanus and in Surius, on the 29th of June, has collected the fights, the troubles and the travels of St. Peter, it is said that Peter, after he was taken out by the angel from the jail, in which Herod had thrown him, “went to Caesarea of Straton”, where he previously had baptized Cornelius, “and over there appointed a bishop from those presbyters, who would follow him”; then, after some years, after visiting many cities, he went “to Troy, the city in the Hellespont, and in that place he appointed Cornelius the centurion as bishop.”
From that place, maybe, he was called back to Caesarea, after the death of Zacchaeus, or of some other bishop of that city. Baronius, in the Notes ad Martyrologist, writes: “the seat of Caesarea, in that occasion, since the door was opened in that time, for the first time, to the faithful population by the conversion of Cornelius (by the teaching of God), deserved, thanks to a special concession, to be honored in such way that it (and not Jerusalem) would become the metropolis of Palestine.” Caesarea was certainly, once upon a time, the metropolis of Palestine, and Jerusalem was subjected to it, as it is evident by the 7th canon of the Council of Nicaea, that goes so: “Because the tradition and an ancient rule stated that the bishop of Aelia would be honored, so he shall have the result of this honor, being the own dignity of the metropolis preserved”. Theodorus Balsamon, in the scholia to this canon and to the previous one, correctly states that the city of Jerusalem was called Aelia, because it was founded by Aelius Hadrian. But he horribly raves, when he says that, by this canon, is decided that: “the metropolis of Caesarea shall keep its rights, even if Aelia has been taken away from it, along with its honored patriarch, due to the saving passion of Christ”. Jerome, much closer to that time, understood that Nicean canon in a better way. In fact, he writes this thing in the 61st letter to Pammachius, against the errors of John from Jerusalem: “You, asking for ecclesiastical rules, and using the canons of the council of Nicaea, trying to assume other clerics, even if they stay with their bishops, respond to me: how is Palestine related to the bishop of Alexandria? If I am not mistaken, such matter is stated over there, since Caesarea is the metropolis of Palestine”. Moreover, St. Pope Leo I, in the 62nd letter to Maximus, bishop of Antioch, given during the consulate of V. Cl. Opilio, 453 A.D., chastises Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem: “seeking to obtain the power in Palestine, and confirming such impudent, brazen acts through imaginary texts”. Later, however, with the consent of the Roman Pontiff, the seat of Jerusalem was decorated with the patriarchal title and authority. But Caesarea was not, previously, the metropolis of Palestine due to the only commemoration of this converted Cornelius, but because, as Ioseph writes at the end of the 14th chapter of the 3rd book about the Judaic Wars, “it was the biggest city in Judaea”, and so it is in the Greek edition of Basilea, 1544 A.D., at the beginning of chapter 283: even if, around the time of Ammianus Marcellinus, there were even other famous cities, such as Eleutheropolis, Neapolis, Ascalon and Gaza.
The Greeks solemnly worship Cornelius on the 13th of September, as it is evident by the Menologion and by the Meneian texts, in which, however, there is no mention about the seat of Caesarea. After the Meneian texts cited that St. Peter had baptized him, fulled with religious knowledge, add this: (greek) “gives him authority over the city of Scepsis”, and such thing conforms to the Acts described by the Metaphrast. Raderus translates it so: “and he trusted to that one the protection of the city (of Caesarea) and the authority (about religious matters): since Cornelius found the city completely subjected to idols, and then totally converted through the grace of Christ, and then he purified, with holy water, the very chief of the city, Demetrius, believing in Christ with his entire family. Cornelius, at the end, having spent his life with apostolic ways, went to the Lord.” And the Acts testify, as well, that Scepsis was assigned to him. It was an episcopal city in Hellespont, such as Troas and Troy.
III. Cornelius’ work, miracles, & innovation
These very Meneian texts refer that he did not stay in Caesarea, but he traveled through many places, and with St. Peter the Apostle as well: “O Cornelius” – they say – “considered worthy of deserving the highest fame of your name, you went here and there with the head of the Apostles and with many others, referring everywhere the divine message: we were taken away from the darkness of ignorance, and we were led, through it, to light.” In another eulogy: “After receiving the grace of the Ghost, you shone on the earth, as some kind of shining Sun, o Cornelius, after removing the fog of idolatry”. Somewhere else: “You sprung as a big river, watering the entire surface of the earth with his heavenly knowledge, o Cornelius, suffocating the damel of the worshipping of several deities”. Somewhere else: “Died for the entire world, o most holy Cornelius, you announced to all the people, who were dying due to the desires of the soul, the resurrection of the One, who died for us”. Somewhere else: “Enlightened by the Spirit, o Cornelius, versed in divine knowledge, you became a star bringing light, shining over the ends of the world with a very bright glaze”. Even more things say the same about him, they call him “herald of Christ” and “similar to the holy disciples, since he had received the Holy Ghost as they did”. And they even celebrate other things, which the Acts say were done by him in Scepsis. Such things are of this genre: “Entirely dedicated to almighty God, you did not offer any worshipping to the deaf cults, you, o Cornelius, invoked the Supreme, invisible God, even if such nefarious men were compelling you, and you subverted that temple of abhorrent idols to its very foundation, with some great amazement for the men. Since you kept the orders of the Almighty one, you were protected as well: you, knower of Divine things, carried chains and freed the fool men from the chains of superstition.”
They even honor his tomb and the miracles provided through him. There was a house of his in Caesarea, at the time of St. Jerome, but it was transformed into a church: there is no memory in it of the tomb or of the relics. So he writes in the 27th letter, or in “the Life of St. Paula”, which we gave on the 26th of January, at chapter 2, n. 8, where he described the sea places in Palestine, which Paula, going to Jerusalem, visited: “And, backward, (she saw) the tower of Straton, called Caesarea by Herod, king of Judaea, in honor of Caesar Augustus, in which she saw the house of Cornelius and the church of Christ”. Why didn’t she see the tomb as well? And even this passage, as the Meneian texts write: “as a spring he vastly spreads out much care for the believers, he dispels the evil spirits and enlightens the eyes of all the people who honor him, with their faith”. And similarly: “You always come out with streams of care, curing the human illnesses”. And then: “You were exalted by your virtues, similar to a very tall cedar tree, and you offered us its scented fruit, surely the abundance of knowledge, the grace of miracles, and the effectiveness of such cure, you holy hierarch Cornelius”. And then: “Dead for the nature, but basically living in the holy tomb, o holy Cornelius, you make it a spring of many miracles, by healing the ill and dispelling the evil spirits by the power of the Holy Ghost”.
His tomb was unknown for a long time, as it is attested in the Acts, until St. Silvanus, bishop of Troad, found it, during the times of Theodosius the Younger. The Latines worship it, as we said, on the 11th of February, while the Greeks do it on the 13th of September: maybe one is the celebration of his glorious death, while the other is the celebration of such discovery and transportation.
And we must not omit the fact that the Meneian texts call him a martyr, either because he truly was killed for his faith in Christ, or just because he appeared before the court, that is mentioned in the Acts. The Meneian texts go so, in the title of the 13th of September: “And of the holy martyr Cornelius the centurion”. And in one song: “Anointed by the oil of priesthood, you went here and there, bringing to all the populations a message of salvation, taking out the thorns of error, you divine knowledge, and filling the minds with some kind of knowledge, absolutely lacking in errors. And so we bless you, as a pontiff inspired by God, and glorious martyr, o Cornelius”. What is recorded among the miracles of St. Anastasius of Persia, on the 22nd of January, as the tenth miracle done in Caesarea, can contribute to this fact: “Some warden, whose name was John, of the holy and glorious church of Martyr Cornelius”. However, he is called “martyr” as well in the Acts, chapter 3, n. 12.
