ON STS. BASILISSA AND ANASTASIA,
ROMAN MATRONS AND MARTYRS.
A.D. 66.
CommentaryBasilissa, Martyr at Rome (St.)
Anastasia, Martyr at Rome (St.)
G. H.
[1] Together with the Roman Martyrology we begin this fifteenth day of April with these matrons, of whom the most ancient memorial is found in the Greek Menology manuscript of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus in these words: Notices from the Menology of Emperor Basil The struggle of the holy women Martyrs Basilissa and Anastasia. Basilissa and Anastasia, martyrs of Christ, were of noble and wealthy birth from the great city of Rome; and were disciples of the holy Apostles. After the death of these Apostles, when by night they had taken up their venerable relics and had provided for the rites of burial, they were discovered and denounced as Christians to the impious and mad Nero, who immediately ordered that they be seized and brought bound in chains before him, and commanded them to renounce Christ. But when he could not succeed in persuading them to do so, he ordered them to be thrust into prison. Afterwards, having been brought out of the prison, he tortured them with manifold torments: for he ordered their breasts to be cut off, their tongues cut out, that they be hung up and beaten, burned with torches, and finally that their venerable heads be struck off.
[2] From the Menaia, This is from the Menology manuscript of the Emperor Basil. With it the rest of the Greek Menaia, both handwritten and printed, agree well enough, together with the Acts of the Saints by Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, as also those things which are found in the ancient Synaxarium of the College of Clermont at Paris under April 17: From the Synaxarium, from which, in confirmation of the earlier notice, we add another, somewhat different, and it runs thus: The struggle of the holy women Basilissa and Anastasia. These were born of the great city of Rome, illustrious in family and riches: but becoming disciples of the holy Apostles, after the death of these they gathered their venerable relics by night and consigned them to burial: on this account they were discovered and brought before the impious Nero: and by his command they were led off to prison. Afterwards, having been brought out, when they could not be persuaded even by the Emperor's exhortation, but publicly professed that they would persevere constantly in the faith and confession of Christ, they were hung up and scourged, and burned with torches, their breasts and tongues were cut off, and at last, their heads being cut off with the sword, they received the crowns of their contest. So that account. In the Menaia it is said that their hands and feet were also cut off.
[3] From the Menology of Sirleto. From these Cardinal Sirleto extracted this notice and inserted it into his Menology in these words: On the same day of the holy Martyrs Basilissa and Anastasia, who being of the great city of Rome illustrious in family and riches, and disciples of the holy Apostles, when these were crowned with martyrdom, took care to take up their holy relics by night, and were denounced to the Emperor Nero. Therefore cast into prison, and a little later brought out, when they had professed that they would remain in the confession of Christ, they were hung up, their breasts, hands, feet, and tongues were cut off, and they were beheaded.
[4] And from the Roman Martyrology. Following the example of the Greeks, Galesinius inserted the same Martyrs into his Martyrology, and Canisius followed him, or whoever enlarged the German Martyrology from it. But Baronius, citing the aforementioned Menology (of Sirleto, that is), begins this day as follows: At Rome, Sts. Basilissa and Anastasia, noble women; who being disciples of the Apostles, and persisting constantly in the confession of the faith, under the Emperor Nero, their tongues and feet being cut off, were struck down by the sword and obtained the crown of martyrdom. So that account. Pseudo-Dexter, finding no indication of Roman birth in the Roman Martyrology, seized the opportunity of ascribing them to Spain, in these words under the year 66, no. 3: They are wrongly imagined to be Spanish, The holy women virgins Basilissa and Anastasia of Spain, of the city of Sætabis among the Edetani, followed the Apostle Paul, whose body and Peter's they took care of, and for this reason obtained from Nero Caesar a splendid crown. Which things Francisco de Bivar in his Commentary on Dexter's Chronicle, page 129, and Tamayo Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology, try to prove at length. But all these fall before the Greek notices, which, although nearly identical, since they are Romans. we have nonetheless set forth individually and in full. In the Menology of Emperor Basil it reads thus in Greek: Ὑπῆρχον ἀπὸ τῆς μεγάλης πόλεως Ρώμης. In others the same is found, but with the compound word μεγαλοπόλεως. In Maximus of Cythera, in the modern Greek tongue, it is rendered: Αὗται ἦσαν ἀπὸ τὴν μεγαλόπολιν Ρώμην.
[5] Moreover, it is not pleasing that without any ancient precedent they should be called Virgins. Not Virgins but Matrons. More rightly does Ferrari in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, in his notice of them, call them Roman Matrons: the same do Silvanus Razzi, in volume 2 Of Women Illustrious for Sanctity, page 146; and Antonius Gallonius, in his History of the Holy Roman Virgins, who, having treated of St. Anastasia the Virgin, who is venerated on October 28, in the third Annotation treats of these Matrons — a more solemn place he would surely have given them had he considered them to have been Virgins. Would that the Acts existed which might more fully instruct us concerning their Life and condition, which among the Greeks we scarcely doubt to have once existed! The distich which the Menaia are accustomed to set before the Greek notice calls them Lambs with a certain allusion to the Lamb of God. But although Virgins may follow this as a special title, we nonetheless find both married and unmarried women indifferently called ἀμνάδες in the sacred praises of holy women: wherefore no scruple can be raised from this source either. The distich runs as follows:
Ἀμνοῦ Θεοῦ σφάττουσιν ἀμνάδας δύο Ἀναστασίαν καὶ Βασίλισσαν ἅμα.
They slay at once Anastasia and Basilissa, Two she-lambs, that is, of the Lamb of God.
[6] The time of martyrdom. These holy Matrons completed their martyrdom after the killing of Sts. Peter and Paul, whom we have shown elsewhere to have suffered in the consulship of P. Silius Nerva and C. Julius Atticus Vestinus, in the year of Christ 65, on June 29. Since their feast day is recorded as April 15 or 17, the following year, 66, is necessarily required.