ON ST. ANTHUSA, MARTYR
CommentaryAnthusa, martyr (St.)
J. S.
The Menology of the Greeks, by the most eminent
Sirleti rendered into Latin, announces on the XXVII of August St. Anthusa, Her cult among the Greeks and the Latins, called the younger, to distinguish her from another who had preceded her in time. Take the words: On the same day, the birthday of blessed Anthusa the younger, who, clothed in a rough and tattered garment and cast into a well for the confession of Christ, was consummated. The same is read in Greek in the Menæa. Hence the Roman Martyrology on the said day: The passion of St. Anthusa the younger, who, plunged into a well for the faith of Christ, received martyrdom. Baronius notes in the same place that she is called the younger in respect of the elder, who suffered in the persecution of Valerian. Of the latter we have treated on the day XXII of August; but, as is there noted on page 500, she is not called the elder, nor is she said in the Menæa to have died by martyrdom, so that it is not clear to me whether the Anthusa of today is named the younger in respect of her. Certainly on the XXII of February, that is, in volume III, page 287, another Anthusa, martyr, struck with the sword together with twelve servants, was briefly treated of. Nor is there anything to hinder her from being the elder in respect of this one. But since the time in which each suffered is not expressed, the matter remains uncertain.
[2] and the manner of her death. I subjoin the two verses, which the Menæa express thus.
Ὁ μανδύας σοι πῖλος ἡ πόρπη πέτρα Μεθ᾽ ὧν ὑπῆλθες Ἄνθουσα βαθὺ φρέαρ.
These I render into Latin in this manner:
The garment itself is your cap, the stone is your Clasp, with which, Anthusa, you go down into the well.
The word μανδύας, otherwise μανδύη, properly signifies a kind of military garment among the Persians; but here it seems to be taken for any garment at all. The author signifies, so far as appears to me, that the Saint was put into a sack, and that the sack served her as a covering both of body and of head; that a stone was then bound to her, that she might sink the more swiftly, and that by this stone, as by a clasp, the sack was fastened to her body. Hence therefore the manner of her death is more clearly set forth than Sirleti had set it forth. But to these things I find nothing to add.