acta (akta)

pl. [L., pl. of actum: see act, n.] 1. Acts. Specifically-2. Proceedings in a legal or an ecclesiastical court, or minutes of such proceedings. - Acta (or Actus) Apostolorum (Acts of the Apostles), the title in the Vulgate of the fifth book of the New Testament. - Acta Martyrum (Acts of the Martyrs), contemporary accounts of the early Christian martyrdoms, from judicial registers or reports of eye-witne es, or as drawn by ecclesiastical notaries; specifically, the critical edition of such acts by the Benedictine Ruinart, first published in 1689, and the additional collections by the Orientalist Stephen A emani, in 1748.-Acta Sanctorum (Acts of the Saints), a name applied generally to all collections of accounts of saints and martyrs, both of the Roman and 'Greek churches; specifically, the name of a work begun by the Bollandists, a society of Jesuits, in 1643, and not completed until 1870. It now consists of sixty-one folio volumes, including an index published in 1875.