ON SAINTS DIDYMUS AND THEODORA,
MARTYRS AT ALEXANDRIA IN EGYPT.
A.D. 303.
PrefaceTheodora, Martyr at Alexandria (Saint) Didymus, Martyr at Alexandria (Saint)
By D. P.
[1] We gave the glorious band of Alexandrian Martyrs, from the agreeing copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, on the 5th day of April, They are venerated among the Greeks on April 5 under Saint Didymus the Presbyter, their leader and head of all; on whose occasion, I think, it happened that the Greeks, in their printed Menaia and various MS. Synaxaria, and, following these, Sirletus in the Menology, and Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, ἐν βίοις Ἁγίων, have reported another Didymus, the liberator of Saint Theodora, whom the Latin Martyrologies remember on this day. The relics of both, being brought on this day to some one of the Constantinopolitan churches, could also have given a reason for setting forth their encomium then. For that the Didymus who is praised together with Theodora With another Saint Didymus the Presbyter was a Presbyter cannot even by a shadow be gathered from the most accurate Acts, which, taken almost verbatim from the Proconsular records, but once translated from Greek into Latin, James Ussher found in manuscript in a certain library of England, and sent them to us thirty years ago. But neither in the Acts, which Allatius judges to have been wrongly attributed to Metaphrastes, The ancient Acts though they exist under his name in Lipomanus and Surius, will you find anything on which the suspicion of the presbyterate is founded: only he is said to be "a certain most religious Brother." It is added, however, which the older Latin texts are silent about, that he suffered martyrdom on the Nones of April. But we are little moved by this, taught by experience that in such less-ancient Acts the day of the cult is often taken for the day of the passion; and below we shall show that the day of passion which the Latins observe cannot be notably anticipated.
[2] Bede in his genuine Martyrology makes no mention of either one, Used by Florus I believe because he had not yet received the Acts; but someone had them before Ado and Usuard, whose words Ado transcribed more fully in his manner, Usuard in a contracted form. Who else but Florus, whom each proposed to himself to follow after Bede? Even if we have not found them in those MSS. from which we gave the Supplement of the same Florus to Bede. The words of Ado, which Notker in his manner transcribed, are these: "At Alexandria, of Saint Theodora the Virgin, This Ado transcribed who, refusing to sacrifice, delivered to a brothel, was by the wonderful favor of God rescued. For when a multitude of impudent youths was already standing at the door of the cell, suddenly one of the Brothers, Didymus by name, full of faith, divinely inspired, taking up a soldier's garb, first rushed into the brothel; and explaining to the holy Virgin why he had come, he put his military spoils on her, and himself was clothed in the virginal garment. So the Virgin going out and recognized by none, fled to the city and escaped. Didymus, brought before the Governor, and constantly explaining the whole deed, confessed that he was a Christian, and with his head cut off was delivered to the fire. The blessed Virgin also, who had fled from the brothel to preserve her virginity, for love of the crown returned at once to the stadium, and together with Didymus was struck and together crowned."
[3] And Usuard Usuard uses fewer words in this manner: "At Alexandria, of Saint Theodora the Virgin, who, refusing to sacrifice, when she had been delivered to a brothel, suddenly one of the Brothers, Didymus by name, by the wonderful favor of God, rescued her, and afterwards was struck and together crowned with her." Which clearly is taken not immediately from the Acts, but from the same author that Ado used: for Usuard seems to have known nothing of his Martyrology when he composed his own, as has been observed elsewhere. But why on this day, since no day is expressed in the Acts? Or was the day expressed in the title of the Acts? [Where she is said to have been beheaded together with Didymus: she is called Theodora] So we believe: for we know that this custom was frequent, and we have seen it observed passim in the ancient Passionals. But of the martyrdom of Saint Theodora nothing is found, either in our Latin or in the Greek texts. Only the Synaxarium of the Clermont College at Paris, whose MS. we use, on May 27, on which day no other is found, concludes the encomium of both thus: "Saint Didymus, brought to the sword and fire, is condemned, and being struck and burned, is added to the company of Martyrs. After this, Saint Theodora, being arrested and struck with the sword, was cast into a nearby river; and thus both consummated their martyrdom." Certainly it is not in any way credible that either the Virgin would have further given herself into the hands of a Judge whom she had experienced as wishing to take from her not life but modesty; or that the first author of the Acts would have omitted so noble an appendix to the prior martyrdom, if truly Theodora, taught by the inner instinct of the spirit that no outrage should be inflicted on her body, hastened to become a partaker of the crown with Didymus, and received it either on the same or on the following day.
[4] Whom others follow Maurolicus and Bellinus, and almost also Molanus, transcribed Usuard; Galesinius changed the phrase, not the substance: "At Alexandria, of Saint Theodora the Virgin. She, having despised the worship of idols, and on that account delivered to a brothel, was thence by the work of Didymus, God helping, rescued, and thus her virginal chastity preserved, together with him was struck with the sword, and passed to the heavenly double palm of virginity and martyrdom." But the Roman Martyrology thus changed and augmented both the sense and the words of Usuard: "Who afterwards in the persecution of Diocletian, under the Governor Eustratius, was struck and crowned with her." But better a whole month interposed The reviser of the Martyrology took the persecution of Diocletian and the Governor Eustratius from the Acts which we said exist in Surius: neither is noted in our ancient Latin texts—indeed, in these at the very beginning the Judge is called Proculus (this however can be suspected of having crept in for the word Proconsul by the fault of copyists). That he suffered with her no one of the Greeks has said; and the collector of the Synaxarium, who remembers the martyrdom of Theodora, establishes some interval between their deaths. And thus we think it can be held that on the said May 27 the Virgin was seized and struck with the sword; and her body, recovered from the waters, was entombed with the body of Saint Didymus, and therefore the cult of both is kept united.
[5] The Martyrology which, transcribed for the greater part from Ado, long imposed on the world under the name of Bede, It is falsely said that Ambrose treats of these led Molanus, Surius, and Baronius into error; while it produces the words of Ado interpolated with an inept gloss thus: "At Alexandria, of Saint Theodora the Virgin, of whom Blessed Ambrose writes"—which words, also added by others to Usuard, Molanus found in some copy; but they are better absent from the older copies. For that Virgin of whom, with her name and that of her liberator suppressed, the holy Doctor writes in book 2 On Virgins, But he must be corrected in the name of the city was Antiochene; and although the aforementioned authors suspect that "Antioch" was written for "Alexandria" by the fault of copyists, they do not persuade, because Ambrose seems to narrate a history closer to his own age, and perhaps enacted under Julian, when he thus begins: "Recently at Antioch there was a certain Virgin"; and the contest between the Soldier and the Virgin about undergoing the capital sentence which he describes is so illustrious that it could not have been passed over by the authors of the Acts. Yet I confess that I think Florus, or whoever else persuaded Ado and Usuard that Saints Theodora and Didymus suffered together, understood the said passage of Ambrose as being about them.
[6] Moreover, it is clear that such wantonness of profane Judges against Christian Virgins was most common; For similar history has happened many times why then should we delay to believe that she was more than once deluded by a similar fraud by Christian young men, since there was scarcely any quicker or more certain way to place their modesty in safety—even at the liberator's own peril—than the exchange of clothes? Why should not Antioch also have seen a spectacle similar to that of Alexandria, differing only in that the Antiochene did not endure that a young man should die in her stead, but must at least die together with him? We shall give a similar history on May 3, when we shall treat of Saints Alexander and Antonina: who have their feast at Constantinople on June 10, and seem to have suffered under Maximinus not far thence, In various times and places being natives of the town Cardanium, which Ortelius, following the author of the Miscellaneous History, places near Thrace: but these, after the happy success of their beautiful ruse, are said not to have come forth of their own accord to the contest, but to have been sought out and apprehended. Palladius also in the Lausiac History, chapters 148 and 149, narrates a similar stratagem of a certain Magistrianus, who at Corinth thus freed another most chaste virgin, and as the reward of the deed obtained the crown of martyrdom, probably under Domitian: for Hippolytus, a most ancient writer and familiar of the Apostles, is cited as author.
[7] As to the time of this contest, we seem to be able to establish it as the year 303, when on the very day of Easter, which was then April 18, edicts were posted against the Christians. This happened in the year 303 after Easter For the more recent Acts in Lipomanus and Surius (which is enough to have them printed in Latin, and to be given in Greek at the end of this volume from a Vatican MS.) expressly mention a decree promulgated by Diocletian and Maximian, by which Christians were ordered "either to sacrifice or to be punished": not, indeed, with death (for the impiety proceeded by degrees through three successive edicts), but with ignominy if noble, with slavery if plebeian; so that by the force of the first decree, though not yet most cruel, Theodora sent to a brothel to most shameful slavery may be said to have been sent on the tenth day after the decree was promulgated, and yet does not seem to have been able to be punished with death until the second or third decree, at the end of May. Concerning Didymus, as also Georgius, it was another matter: since in these not so much the profession of the Christian faith as contempt of the impious law was punished.
PASSION
Once translated from the Greek from the Proconsular Acts, and supplied from a MS. codex by James Ussher.
Theodora, Martyr at Alexandria (Saint) Didymus, Martyr at Alexandria (Saint)
BHL Number: 8072
FROM THE MS.
[1] In the city of Alexandria, a when Proculus had sat before the tribunal, he said: "Summon Theodora the Virgin." From the office it was said: "Theodora stands." The Judge said: "Of what condition are you?" Theodora answered: "I am a Christian." Summoned to the judge The Judge said: "Are you freeborn or a slave?" Theodora answered: "I have already told you: I am a Christian, and Christ coming has freed me; for in this world I was born of freeborn parents." The Judge said: "Summon the Curator of the city." When he was present, he said to him: "Tell me, what do you know about Theodora the Virgin?" Constantly she professes the faith Lucius the Curator said: "By your Clarity, she is freeborn and honorable, and of the best stock." The Judge said: "Since she is freeborn, why did she not wish to marry?" Theodora answered: "For the sake of Christ. For coming in the flesh into this world he drew us away from corruption, and promised us eternal life. Whence, while I remain in his faith, I believe I shall remain untouched."
[2] The Judge said: "The Emperors have ordered you who are virgins either to sacrifice to the gods or to be handed over to the injury of a brothel b." Theodora answered: "I think you are not unaware that the Lord is the inspector of the will; And of her purpose of virginity for God regards the will of chastity. But if you compel me to do this, it is not merit but violence." The Judge said: "Knowing you to be freeborn, and sparing your beauty, I have mercy on you; I warn you, do not despise me; To him who threatens rape for by all the gods you profit nothing. The Emperors have decreed that you who are virgins should either sacrifice to the gods or be given to the injury of a brothel." Theodora answered: "I already told you before that God is the inspector of the will. For he is foreknowing and the inspector of thoughts: whence, if I am compelled to do this, I do not reckon it fornication. But if you wish to cut off my head, or hand, or foot, or to scatter my whole body, these are the works of violence, She answers that violence will be a crown to her not of will. For I too wish to remain in God: for God's is the promise, as far as my vow is concerned; to him belong virginity and confession. He is the Lord, and as he wills, he saves his gift."
[3] She hopes that she will be preserved by Christ The Judge said: "Do not wish to bring shame upon your lineage and to be in reproach forever; as the Curator has testified for you, you are freeborn and worthy of honor, and first in lineage." Theodora answered: "I first confess Christ the Lord, who has given me free birth and honor, and he knows how to guard his dove." The Judge said: "Why do you err, believing in a crucified man? Do not think that, when you have been delivered into a brothel, you will be kept without stain. Therefore you will be made mad by all." Theodora answered: "I believe in Christ, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, for he will free me from the hands of these enemies, and will keep me without stain persevering in his faith, and I do not deny."
[4] Therefore she spurns him threatening a brothel and blows The Judge said: "I am putting up with your wordiness, and I have not yet subjected you to tortures; but if you persist contradicting, I shall cause you to be degraded like a slave, and the order of our lords the Emperors to be fulfilled, according to the example of other women." To whom Theodora answered: "I am ready to yield my body to him who has power over it, but of the soul God has power." The Judge said: "Slap her harder c, and tell her: 'Do not be foolish, but come forward and sacrifice to the gods.'" Theodora answered: "By the Lord, I do not sacrifice, nor do I adore demons, while I have the Lord as my helper." The Judge said: "Fool, you have compelled me to do you injury, a freeborn woman, that you might fall into such a crowd, which awaits your sentence." Theodora answered: "I am not a fool, confessing the Lord. And what you say is an injury will be for me honor and glory for ever."
[5] The Judge said: "I shall no longer bear with you, but I shall carry out the precepts of our lords the Emperors. She refuses the three-day respite offered Reckoning that you could be persuaded, I bore with you; but if now I spare you longer, I shall be found contrary to the imperial command." Theodora answered: "As you fear and hasten to carry out what has been commanded you, so also I hasten not to deny my Lord: for I fear to despise the true King." The Judge said: "Resisting, you despise the order of the eternal Kings, and you regard me as foolish. See," he said, "that you do not begin to feel it. I therefore grant you a space of three days; and by the gods, unless you consent, I shall place you in the brothel, that all the women may see, and seeing may be warned by your injury." Theodora answered: "And now it is the same God who always was, When these had passed who will not permit me to forsake him: wherefore I am prepared to yield my body to you, for to me these three days have already passed; do therefore whatever you will. But I beg you to order me to be kept inviolate until you give sentence." The Judge said: "I order Theodora to be kept under fit custody until three days, if by chance led by penitence d she may persuade herself to recede from such great contradiction: but in no way inflict any violence upon her, because she is of the best stock."
[6] Again she is brought before the Judge After three days, when the Judge had sat, he ordered Theodora to be summoned. The Judge said: "If you have now amended yourself, sacrifice and go. But I tell you, that if you remain in this purpose, you shall not be chaste." Theodora answered: "I have already told you, and I do not refuse to tell you again, that the promise of chastity is through Christ; the proclamation of incorruptibility and confession is through Christ the Lord; and he himself knows how to guard e his lamb, his handmaid." The Judge said: "By the gods, fearing the order of the Emperors, I intend to give sentence; lest if I do not, I myself be found a criminal. And placing her trust in Christ she is condemned to the brothel And because you yourself have handed yourself over to the brothel, now at last you shall learn, because you would not sacrifice to idols. Let us see whether Christ will keep you, for whom you have thus persisted contradicting." Theodora answered: "God, who is the knower of hidden things, who knows all things before they come to pass, who to this day has kept me without stain on account of his promise; he will also keep me from the unclean and wicked men, who are ready to outrage the handmaid of God f."
[7] The handmaid of God, therefore, was led to the brothel. When she entered, she lifted her eyes to heaven and said: "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Where she prays to God to keep her help me, and free me from this brothel; you who helped Peter when he was in prison, who brought him out without dishonor, bring me out from here without stain, that all may see that I am your handmaid." The crowds were looking around like wolves, each wanting to enter first to the lamb of God, or certainly like a hawk around a dove. But the Lord Jesus Christ was not absent even then, but at once sent one who freed her. Saint Didymus entering after her in military garb For of the Brothers who feared the Lord, one, taught the way that leads to heaven, put on military dress and completed in himself a double martyrdom. He entered to her first, as one of the wicked. But she, when she saw him, troubled by the strange garb, fled about through the corners.
[8] To whom the Brother began to say: "I am not the one you see; outside," he said, "I am a wolf, within I am a lamb. He consoles her troubled by his appearance Do not look at my hostile clothing: for being your Brother in intent, I have entered in diabolical clothing, that I may be able to free you hence. I have entered to explore and to save the treasure of my God, since you are the handmaid and dove of my God. Come therefore, let us exchange clothing, for nature betrays you, but the just consideration has made me fit g. Go out to God, And having exchanged clothes clothed in these very garments which you feared, and let us fulfill the apostolic saying: 'Be as I am.'" Gal. 4:12 And when he had said these things, Theodora consented to him: for she recognized that he who sent his angel to stop the mouths of lions, now also had sent in the habit of a soldier one to free his lamb.
[9] Taking therefore the habit of the soldier, to her head
he put on a low hat. For he had provided beforehand that she might appear to fear the crowd, He sends her forth because he had dared to enter first. And he commanded her to look down and to speak to no one at the door, But in silence but to hasten to him who is truly the door and the gate. But when she went out, she lifted her wings to heaven, freed from the mouth of the hawk and snatched from the mouth of the lion. But the Brother sat, having love for his sister, covered as to his head and girded, already h crowned.
[10] And when an hour had passed, one of those entered in, While he himself remaining for her and found a man instead of the virgin; and stupefied at entering, he said: "Does Jesus change virgins into men?" He who had entered went out and said: "Who is sitting there? Where is the virgin who was shut in? I heard that he changed water into wine, and considered that—which was the easier thing—a fable; but now I see what is greater, for he has changed a virgin into a man, and I fear lest he change me into a woman." i But he who had dismissed his sister with grace did not hide his action, but with a great voice said: "The Lord has not changed me, but has crowned both me and her: for her whom you had, you do not have; but him whom you have, take. A double good palm is mine: a virgin and a soldier-athlete of Christ."
[11] He therefore who had entered went out, and the judge, hearing what had been done, And brought to the judge ordered him to be led in. When he had been brought in, he asked him: "What are you called?" And he said: "Didymus." The Proconsul said: "Who put you up to do this?" Didymus answered: "God sent me to do this." The Judge said: "Confess before the tortures, where is Theodora?" Didymus answered: "By Jesus Christ the Son of God, I do not know where she is. But I know and am certain, that she is the handmaid of God, and having confessed Christ always remained unharmed, and God kept her immaculate; whence I ascribe what was done not to myself but to the Lord. For according to her faith God did for her, And vainly asked about Theodora as you yourself know, if you are willing to confess." The Judge said: "Didymus, of what condition are you?" Didymus answered: "I am a Christian, freed by Christ." The Judge said: "Torment him doubly because of his purpose." Didymus answered: "I beseech you to do quickly what has been commanded you by your Emperors." The Judge said: "By the gods, double tortures are in store for you unless you sacrifice to the gods, that you may also be pardoned for what you have rashly presumed."
[12] Didymus answered: "I for my part show you by the very act, that I am an athlete of my God, He cheerfully receives the sentence of death for the faith which is stored up for me. And therefore I undertook to do this, that both the virgin may remain, and I may make my confession to God manifest. But remaining in the faith of my God I shall not die by your torments. Wherefore do more swiftly what pleases you; for I do not sacrifice to demons, even if you order me to be delivered to the fire." The Judge said: "On account of your great audacity, your head shall be cut off, and because you have not obeyed the orders of our lords the Emperors, the rest of your body shall be delivered to the fire." Didymus answered: "Blessed are you, God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not despise my purpose, who both saved your handmaid Theodora and crowned me with two sentences." k The sentence therefore having been accepted, his head was cut off, and the rest of his body they burned with fire. And he consummated his martyrdom through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory and power forever and ever. Amen.