ON ST. IRENE, VIRGIN, SISTER OF POPE ST. DAMASUS.
THE YEAR 379.
PrefaceIrene, Virgin, sister of Pope St. Damasus, in Spain (St.)
G. H.
[1] Certain Acts of the most holy Virgin Irene, who is also called Hirena, Erena, and Heira, were extracted from a very ancient manuscript Spanish Martyrology by Thomas de Herrera, the Acts of St. Irene an Augustinian, provincial Rector of the Province of Castile, from whose pen we have the Alphabetum Augustinianum, elaborated with great judgment. These Acts of St. Irene from the said Martyrology were published by John Tamayo Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology under February 21st, since in the Acts she is said to have died "on the bis-tenth with another day of February," that is, February 21st. Whence Tamayo composed this eulogy for her: venerated on February 21 "At Rome, the birthday of St. Irene, a Virgin consecrated to God and sister of Pope Bl. Damasus, who, having gone to the City with her parents and brother, Spaniards, was there nourished by the teaching and conversation of her holy brother. Leaving behind the turnings of a perilous age and overcoming the labors of worldly affliction, she resolved to follow the footsteps of Christ, to whom she had vowed her chastity, living as a recluse; and thus, clad in the sacred veil, amid the silent retreats of solitude, she found the most pleasant fields of eternal blessedness." So far that source. Our Francis Lahier, in the great Menologium of Virgins under December 11th, the day on which Pope St. Damasus is venerated, celebrates the Virgin St. Irene with a eulogy collected from the Viridarium of Portugal by Louis dos Anjos, and on December 11 who in chapters 34 and 35 combines the Acts of Pope St. Damasus and his sister St. Erena. George Cardoso follows the same in his Offices of the Saints of Portugal, page 18, and also calls her St. Erena.
[2] In the appendix to the Ancient Inscriptions collected by Gruter, on page 1172, number 10, there is the epitaph of St. Irene, sister of Pope St. Damasus, epitaph as Baronius calls her in his Additions to the year 384, and writes: "We believe, moreover, that those golden reflections on Virginity were written by Damasus to his holy Virgin sister Irene, and that when she died he also honored her with an epitaph, which long hidden, by the kindness of God has in these days come to light." she died in the year 379 In the Acts she is said to have died in the twelfth year of the pontificate of Damasus -- therefore in the year 379, since he was elected by legitimate votes on the 15th day of September of the year 367, whose beginning was disturbed by the foul schism of Ursicinus. About which, and the homeland and parents of St. Irene, there will be a fuller place for discussion in the Acts of St. Damasus on December 11th.
LIFE
published by John Tamayo Salazar from a manuscript.
Irene, Virgin, sister of Pope St. Damasus, in Spain (St.)
By the author G. H.
[1] Here begin, with the Lord's help, the deeds of Bl. Irene, Virgin and religious, sister of Pope Damasus, a Spaniard. He who was born of his father Antonio, a noble Spaniard, and had gone to Rome, born in Spain had a full sister named Hirena, who by some was also called Heira. And while the blessed Virgin resided at Rome with her parents and Damasus, she very often spent the night she lives at Rome in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ in the catacombs of the holy Martyrs of the City with her pious mother, asking Him to grant pardon for sins and eternal life to herself and her parents and brother. Sanctity increased in her with age, and with it charity toward God and the poor, with such a covering of caution that, although she daily fed several hungry people, generous to the poor this act of mercy never reached the ears of her parents or brother. When she was orphaned of father and mother and remained in the company of Damasus, fleeing the delights of the world, she promised her brother that she would live in chastity and seclusion with him until God, her heavenly Spouse, should remember her unto glory. Damasus, hearing the intention of his Virgin sister, she embraces chastity both admiring and praising the resolve of the not unbeautiful maiden, encouraged her in the pursuit of her promised chastity by word and deed; to whom a treatise on Virginity was dedicated and not long after, so that she might more easily maintain it, he composed a small book on Virginity for her. In this, therefore, Irene read daily, and recognized the greatest fruits of progress and perseverance from its reading. In these holy works, then, she was living a glorious and angelic life when her brother Damasus, elected to the summit of the Roman Pontificate, ascended its chair, notwithstanding the disturbances of Ursicinus and his followers -- from which God, who had presided over the election of her brother Damasus, soon liberated the Church, anxious that the schism be removed not without great conflicts of sorrow for the blessed Virgin, because throughout the entire time of the schism she persisted in fasting and prayer, having recourse with prayers to her benevolent Spouse, that He might drive away from His Church the schism stained with so much blood. This was obtained both by the prayers of the Church and by the entreaties, humiliations, and fasts of this Virgin Irene, sister of the true Pontiff. she dies on February 21 She -- while her brother Damasus now peacefully governed the universal Church -- in the twelfth year of his pontificate, and on the twenty-first day of February, seized by a fever, rendered her unharmed and pure soul to the Redeemer. For her, Pope Damasus took care to affix this funerary poem to the sarcophagus:
IN THIS TOMB THE LIMBS CONSECRATED TO GOD NOW REST.
HERE IS THE SISTER OF DAMASUS: IF YOU ASK HER NAME, IRENE.
SHE HAD VOWED HERSELF TO CHRIST, WHILE LIFE REMAINED. An epitaph placed for her by St. Damasus