A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts.
It was presumably drawn up in Italy in the second half of the fifth century, and underwent recension in Gaul, probably at Auxerre, in the late sixth.
This is of assistance in recognizing the existence of a general martyrology of the East, written in Greek at Nicomedia, and which served as a source for the Hieronymian.
The latter is thought to be the earliest, based on a copy possibly brought to England by Augustine of Canterbury in 597, and preserved in a manuscript at the Abbey of Echternach, founded by the English missionary Willibrord.
[4] Also known as the Echternach recension, it was adapted to the English Church, incorporating memorials for Augustine of Canterbury, Paulinus of York and others.
The third edition, which appeared in 1584, was approved by Gregory XIII, who gave the Roman martyrology official status for the whole Church.
[9] The critical study of martyrologies is rendered difficult by the multitude and the disparate character of the elements that compose them.
[12] The notes of Baronius on the Roman Martyrology cannot be passed over in silence, the work having done much towards making known the historical sources of the compilations of the Middle Ages.
II for March of the "Acta Sanctorum" (1668) the Bollandists furnished new materials for martyrological criticism by their publication entitled Martyrologium venerabilis Bedæ presbyteri ex octo antiquis manuscriptis acceptum cum auctario Flori ….
Henri Quentin (Les Martyrologes historiques du moyen âge, Paris, 1908) took up the general question and succeeded in giving a reasonable solution, thanks to careful study of the manuscripts.
[13] Prior to Vatican II, the Martyrology was read publicly as part of the Roman Catholic Divine Office at Prime.
It is in sum the Martyrology of Usuard, which was also still the title of an incunabula edition for use in Rome,[15] completed by the "Dialogues" of Pope Gregory I and the works of some of the Church Fathers, and for the Greek saints by the catalogue known as the Menologion of Sirlet.
The editio princeps appeared at Rome in 1583, under the title: Martyrologium romanum ad novam kalendarii rationem et ecclesiasticæ historiæ veritatem restitutum, Gregorii XIII pont.
This was soon replaced by the edition of 1584, which was promulgated as official for the entire Roman rite of the Church by Pope Gregory XIII.
"The updated Martyrology contains 7,000 saints and blesseds currently venerated by the Church, and whose cult is officially recognized and proposed to the faithful as models worthy of imitation.