Theodora

ON SAINT THEODORA, MARTYR AT ROME.

A.D. 117.

Theodora, Martyr at Rome (Saint)

G. H.

This Roman matron was the sister of Saint Hermes, Prefect of the city of Rome; together with him she was brought to the faith of Christ by Saint Alexander I, Roman Pontiff, and was crowned with martyrdom only a month before him. Furthermore (as the most authentic Acts of Saint Alexander have it), in the same year in which they attained the palm of martyrdom, Trajan died by the will of God: Under Trajan the Martyr dies in the year 117, for while he was preparing arms against the Parthians, he fell into sickness; on account of which, being carried to Selinus in Cilicia, he died, in the consulship of Quintius Niger and Titus Vipsanius Apronianus, on the 10th day of August, in the year of Christ 117. But four months and five days before this day Saint Theodora was crowned with martyrdom. For Aurelian, Count of both the military forces in Isauria, had been sent by Trajan to Rome to put to death all the Christians; to whom the whole Senate was so subservient that they would believe him to be Prince Trajan himself. Hence his posterity called him also Prince and Emperor. Saint Hermes her brother is venerated on August 28 and Saint Alexander the Pope on May 3. What concerns the years of this Pontiff on the Roman See we have carefully discussed in the treatise on the First Pontiffs.

[2] Usuard, April 1, on which she is also venerated. Ado, Notker, Bellinus, and other more recent writers begin the month of April in their Martyrologies with this most holy Martyr Theodora. The words of Usuard are these: "At Rome, the passion of the most blessed Theodora, sister of the most illustrious Martyr Hermes. She was martyred under Prince Aurelian, and was buried beside her brother on the Via Salaria, not far from the city of Rome." Ado at the same time composed this elogium for the same: "At Rome, of the most blessed Theodora, sister of the most illustrious Martyr Hermes, whom Blessed Alexander Pope and Martyr instructed, baptized, and taught in the faith of Christ. She was martyred under the Emperor Aurelian: buried beside her brother Martyr on the Via Salaria, not far from the city of Rome." Notker followed Ado, and with Usuard called Aurelian "Prince." The author of the Martyrology printed at Cologne and Lübeck in the year 1490 names him Judge. In today's Roman Martyrology Saint Theodora is said to have been afflicted with martyrdom under the Emperor Hadrian, by Aurelian the Judge. Hadrian succeeded Trajan, but, as we have said, after the death of Saint Theodora: concerning whom various things stand in the Acts of Saint Alexander. The beginning of these Acts in most manuscripts is as follows.

[3] She is baptized by Saint Alexander the Pope "Alexander received the chair of the Church of the city of Rome as the fifth from blessed Peter the Apostle, of incomparable sanctity: a youth indeed in age, but older in faith. Now divine grace so infused all the love of the Roman people into him, that he converted the greatest part of the Senators, and baptized the Prefect of the City, Hermes by name, with his wife, sister, and sons." These last things are explained in the manuscript Life of Saint Hermes thus: "Whence it came to pass, that he baptized the Prefect of the city of Rome, Hermes by name, a powerful, rich, and noble man, with his wife Exuperia, his sister Theodora, and his sons. Afterward Aurelian, Count of both the military forces, was sent by Trajan from Seleucia of Isauria to Rome, together with Saint Hermes her brother: to the slaughter of all Christians… and as soon as he entered Rome, the priests of the temples came to him, and suggesting with envious voices the things that had been done, so stirred Aurelian's mind to wrath, that he sent Hermes the Prefect of the City into chains, and also consigned Saint Alexander the Pope to prison… Therefore when Hermes the Prefect was held in chains at the house of Quirinus the Tribune, he by his conversation brought him to the faith of Christ, for which he also underwent martyrdom." We have given the Acts of Saint Quirinus on March 30; and the next day, or the day before the Kalends of April, we treated Saint Balbina, the daughter of Saint Quirinus: "who from the instruction of Saint Alexander the Pope (as his Acts have it) found the chains of Saint Peter the Apostle, and began to kiss those chains with great trembling, and to give thanks to the King of heaven. Hearing this, Theodora, the most illustrious woman, receives from Saint Balbina the chains of Saint Peter. began to beseech her to leave them to her. Then Blessed Balbina granted it, and delivered the chains to the aforesaid Theodora, the most illustrious woman, sister of Saint Hermes the Prefect. So the most illustrious Hermes, and most Christian in faith, when he could be recalled neither by flatteries nor by threats by Aurelian, was at last ordered to undergo the capital sentence. Whose body his sister Theodora gathered, and with due honor buried near the Reciarian gardens, on the old Via Salaria, not far from the city of Rome." The manuscript Acts of Saint Hermes add she buries the body of Saint Hermes: that his body was embalmed with aromatic spices.

[4] The Acts of Saint Balbina that we have given also attribute all the aforementioned to Blessed Theodora in these words: "When Saint Hermes, by order of Aurelian the Count, had been secretly beheaded in prison, Blessed Theodora, together with Saint Balbina the Virgin, took his body, and they buried it in the estate of Saint Hermes the Martyr himself. Aurelian the tyrant, hearing this, ordered both Virgins to be seized and put in chains… Then Aurelian is indignant, she is seized, and after many kinds of torments and punishments, pronounced the sentence of death against Balbina, saying: 'Let the eloquent Balbina be killed, lest she seduce the Roman people after her error; and let noble Theodora be brought forward, in case she consents to us and lives.' So Balbina having been killed, Theodora was brought forth from custody, and was presented before the face of Aurelian the tyrant, to whom the impious tyrant said: 'Where are the treasures of your brother Hermes the Prefect? Show them and sacrifice, lest after various torments you be killed after the treasures were distributed to the poor, like Balbina.' Saint Theodora replied and said: 'The treasures which I and my brother had, we distributed to the poor and pilgrims for the love of Christ: but I, having nothing now remaining besides the body which you see, most willingly spend even that for His name. beaten with whips she is slain: But nevertheless I say to you, Aurelian the tyrant, that if you order my body to be torn limb from limb, never will I sacrifice to your idols.' Therefore Aurelian, indignant, ordered her also, beaten with whips, to be slain with the sword, on the day of the Kalends of April: whose body was buried by the Christians beside her brother Hermes, Prefect of the city of Rome, the glorious and noble Martyr, she is buried: on the Via Salaria, not far from the city of Rome, in his own estate." So there, with great consensus of the Martyrologies cited above. Theodora is also called a Virgin in the Centulan manuscript, the Vatican one of the church of Saint Peter, the Cologne one of Saint Mary ad Gradus, she is called a Virgin by various writers. and another of Cardinal Barberini; and with these Petrus de Natalibus delivers the same in Book 4 of his Catalogue, chapter 21. Paul Aringhi treats of the cemetery of Saint Hermes the Martyr and the burial of Saint Theodora in Book 4 of Roma Subterranea, chapter 34.

[5] some Relics at Bologna. That some relics of Saint Theodora, Virgin and Martyr, and sister of Saint Hermes, are preserved at Bologna in the church of All Saints, and in the church of Saint Paul of the Barnabites, Masinus delivers on this day in his survey of Bologna.