ON SAINT CERCYRA THE VIRGIN,
MARTYR OF CORCYRA.
ABOUT THE YEAR 100.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Cercyra, Virgin, Martyr on the island of Corcyra (St.)
G. H.
In the Menaea and in Maximus Cythereus, after the Robbers already mentioned, Saint Cercyra is added, daughter of Cercilinus the Ruler or Governor, who ended her life pierced by arrows. In the Menology of Emperor Basil she is commemorated with the preceding Martyrs on April 27, with a certain eulogy, from which we excerpt the following: "When Saint Cercyra was secretly looking out from a doorway, and observed the holy Martyrs of Christ being cruelly tormented, she embraced the faith of Christ, and freely professed herself a Christian. Having been brought to her father, when she refused to abandon Christ, she was handed over to a certain Ethiopian, that he might wickedly defile her. But by God's dispensation a fierce she-bear suddenly arrived, hindered the Ethiopian from the attempted crime, and kept the Virgin of Christ undefiled. Seeing this wonder, the Ethiopian embraced the faith of Christ, and was beheaded with a sword. But the holy Martyr of Christ Cercyra, first suspended, and tormented by smoke emitted from fire placed beneath, then pierced with arrows, and finally overwhelmed with stones, completed her martyrdom." The Menaea sing this distich to her:
"The Queen wounded by the casting of darts, Is adorned with wounds as with pearls."
The aforementioned Menology of Basil indicates that the martyrdom of the Robbers was carried out after the death of this virgin; and that by her example many others believed: who all, together with the other Brothers and their teachers Sosipater and Jason, withdrew to a certain little island, whence, taken away by Sebastian the successor of Cercilinus and thrown into furnaces, when they remained unharmed, they joined Sebastian himself to Christ. But these eulogies were undoubtedly taken from the more extensive Acts of Saints Sosipater and Jason, the solidity of which will be better examined elsewhere.