Cholinduch

ON ST. CHOLINDUCH, MARTYR,

AT HIERAPOLIS, AS IT SEEMS, IN SYRIA.

ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE 7TH CENTURY.

HISTORICAL COLLECTION.

Cholinduch, Martyr among the Greeks, at Hierapolis, as it seems, in Syria (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

§ I. The cult, the distinction of sex, the kinship; eulogies from the Greek Synaxaria.

There are chiefly two Hierapolis distinguished: one Syria claims for itself, the other Phrygia. Of these, the former we assign to our Saint, being about to give the reason in the paragraph next following, her deeds being brought forth from contemporary Authors. Of her the Greeks treat, the title of Martyr being everywhere added, Noted in the Synaxaria on more than one day. and the surname of Mary. The printed Menaea record her on this day; as also their manuscript Index with Maximus, bishop of Cythera. But Sirletus has her on the XI of this month: the Basilian Synaxarium on the XII, with the Slavo-Russian Menology, which adds the year 588, in which she lived: add the Supplement to the printed Menaea from the Synaxarium of Sirmond and the manuscript of Chifflet, and his Menaeon, and also the Menaea of the Ambrosian library, on the same day the XII. It is consequent therefore that Henri de Valois says too determinately, in the Annotations on chapter 20 of book 6 of Evagrius, that the Greeks celebrate her birthday on the XI of July, as he adds that it is read in the Menology, understand of Sirletus: besides that there is none of those just adduced which records her on that day. The formation of the name is manifold; namely Cholinduch, Golinducha, Chelinduche, Golinduch, Golanducha, Golauduch, Colinduca; and if there are other metamorphoses of the same name; with which I would not delay the reader.

[2] In volume 1 of July, page 634, among other Martyrs we gave a place also, with Sirletus, to St. Cholinduch, Vossius wrongly reckons her among the male sex, noting that the name Cholinduch is likewise found in him on the XI of this month. Are all these the same, or different? First of all, that the Martyr recorded on the third day must be distinguished from ours is proved not only by the male sex, to which we think he must be reckoned from the termination of his name; but chiefly this is proved by the time in which he suffered, and the kind and the companions of his martyrdom; concerning which we there in their eulogy: so that it is necessary to insert into the sacred Fasti two martyrs of the same name but of different sex, on different days; but to draw back hither the one recorded on the XI, not distinct from the one of today: although Vossius, book 3, On the Greek Historians, page 416, unskillfully reckons her among the male sex, writing thus: That Golauduch, tortured by the Persian magi with various torments, received the crown of martyrdom in the year 593, as it is in the same (Evagrius and Nicephorus) and in Theophylact, in the history of the Emperor Maurice, book IV, chapter XII.

[3] But truly if he had inspected the text of those whom he cites even with a slight eye, convicted of error from the texts which he cites. he would not have been so basely deceived. Evagrius indeed fits his title to the holy mother Golanduch; with which the narration to be brought forward below agrees; but Theophylact Simocatta has these things, our Jacob Pontanus being the translator: But fame reports that, at the time when Chosroes returned to the palace, there lived at Hierapolis a woman named Cholinduca. Nicephorus speaks thus: But at that time also Golinduch the martyr, living (ζῶσα in the feminine gender), was distinguished. What clearer? Such rewards indeed they bear who describe others' matters, and do not go to the sources. And St. Cholinduch can rightly be called by the praised Theophylact a martyr living or alive: because she endured the punishments of martyrdom, or, to speak with Evagrius cited below, a long and laborious martyrdom, in her life, but did not bear the palm in death, having ended by a natural death. Valois, in the cited place, holds that she was so called by Evagrius: because after her martyrdom she long survived, as Nicephorus writes; which will seem to us hardly proved a little later. Nor, however, did we make it a scruple to call her by the name of martyr, since she is so commonly called by the Greeks. Moreover, that she was a kinswoman of St. Sira the virgin, of whom there is a treatise on the XIII of May, I learn from the title of the martyrdom, which relates thus: The contest of the holy martyr Sira, who suffered martyrdom in Persia, kinswoman of St. Cholinducha (who was herself also crowned with martyrdom) under Chosroes, grandfather of the Chosroes who at this time reigns in Persia.

[4] [Not all the eulogies are of the same authority: among which the supplement to the printed Menaea is suspect to us,] There is at hand a twofold class of eulogies; the one indeed genuine and sincere, transmitted to posterity by contemporary Authors: but the other savors of sources infected with Metaphrastic filth, and swells with fabulous rubbish; as it is exceedingly familiar to the Greeks in this part to play the garrulous jesters, and to serve the stage rather than the truth: which is not lightly contaminated by wares of this kind. Of that meal I judge to be the Acts narrated in the aforesaid Supplement after the two following little verses, adapted to her triumph:

Σκήνοῖς Γολινδουχ, εἰς Ἐδὲμ δὲ σκῆναί σοι Τὸ τοῦ βαλσάμου, ὡς σκιάζουσαι νάπαι.

Golinduch enters the tents: but her tent is the shady grove of heaven, flowing with balsam.

Αὐτὴ ἦν ἐκ Περσίδος συνοικήσασα ἀνδρὶ ἀρχιμάγῳ, επὶ μὲν βασιλέως Περσῶν Χοσρόου, Ῥωμαίων δὲ Μαυρικίου. Γενομένη δὲ ἐν ἐκστάσει, ὁρᾷ ἄγγελον Θεοῦ, τόπον αὐτῇ σκότους καὶ πυρὸς ὐποδεικνύοντα, ἐν ᾧ ἰδεῖν λέγεται τοὺς προγόνους αὐτῆς, τοῖς εἰδώλοις πιστεύοντας, καὶ ἕτερον φωτεινὸν, ἐν ᾧ ἐχώρευον, καὶ ἡγάλλον οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ λαθρεύοντες. Εἰσελθεῖν δὲ βουλομένη ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐκωλύετο επὶ τοῦ φαινομένου ἀγγέλου, ἀνεπιβᾶν εἶναι τοῖς ἀπίστοις λέγοντος τοῦτον τόπον. Αὐτίκα οὖν ἀνανήψασα, βαπτίζεται, καὶ Μαρία με ὀνομάζεται. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καταδικάζεται επὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς καὶ παρὰ τοῦ Βασιλέως, καὶ ἐκπέμπεται εἰς τὸ τῆς Λήθης φρούριον, καὶ διαγαγοῦσα ἐν αὐτῷ, χρόνους δέκα καὶ ὀκτὼ, καὶ μὴ πεισθεῖσα, εἰς λάκκον ἐκβάλλεται, ἐν ᾧ ἦν δράκων κατάπληξιν ἐμποιῶν τοίς προσιοῦσι. Καὶ τετραμηναῖον χρόνον ἐν τῷ λάκκῳ ποιήσασα, ἐξημέρωσέ τε αὐτὸν, ὡς αὐτῇ επικλίνεσθαι καὶ ἀναπαύεσθαι. Καὶ ἄσιτος μείνασα, χάριν ἔλαβεν ἐκ Θεοῦ μηκέτι ἀπὸ πείνης ἐνοχλεῖσθαι, μὴ δὲ προσδεῖσθαι ἀνθρωπίνης τροφῆς. Εἶτα ἐκεῖθεν ἀνελκυσθεῖσα, τῷ τοῦ Χοσρόου υἱῷ καθίσταται εἰς ἐξέτασιν, καὶ τύπτεται μάστιξι παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ, ἐξ ὧν ὁ μαστὸς αὐτῆς διαῤῥήγνυται, καὶ ἐν σάκκῳ αἰθάλλης καμιναίας ἐμβληθεῖσα τὴν κεφαλὴν, καὶ ἀσφαλισθεῖσα, ἔν τινι τόπῳ καταμόνας προσρίπτεται, καὶ ἀβλαβὴς διαφυλαχθεῖσα, ἐτέθη ἐν οἰκήματι, ἔνθα προσεθάχθησαν ἄνδρες ἀκόλαστοι, εἰσελθόντες ἐνυβρίσαι τὸ σῶμα αὐτῆς.

[5] Οἱ δὲ εἰσερχόμενοι, ταύτην οὐχ εὕρισκον κρυπτομένην παραδόξως ὑπό τινος ἀορασίας. from the Synaxarium of Sirmond, Σφραγισθεῖσα οὖν τὸν τράχηλον, καὶ ἀπαγομένη τμηθῆναι τὴν κεφαλὴν, ὑπὸ ἀγγέλου ἐῤῥύσθη, ὃς ἀοράτως τὴν σφραγίδα σώαν ἐκ τοῦ τραχήλου αὐτῆς ἐκβαλὼν, τῷ ἀπαγόντι δημίῳ δέδωκεν ἀπολῦσαι αὐτήν. Τῆς δὲ δυσφορούσης ὑπὲρ τὸ μὴ παθεῖν ὑπὲρ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐπιστὰς ὁ ἄγγελος, ξίφος κατέχων, πλήττει αὐτὴν κατὰ τοῦ αὐχένος, καὶ ἔδοξε τομὴν ἐργάσασθαι, καὶ τῆς τομῆς ὡς αἷμα ῥευσάσης, ἐξ οὗ καὶ τὰ περικείμενα αὐτῆς ἱμάτια ἐμολύνθησαν, καὶ ἰάσεις πολλὰς εἰργάσαντο. Ἡ δὲ Ἁγία παραγενομένη ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις, καὶ προσκυνήσασα τοὺς ἁγίους τόπους, τισὶ μοναστερίοις παρέβαλλεν, ἐν οἷς ἡ δυσσεβοῦς Σεβήρου αἵρεσις ἐπολιτεύετο.

[6] Αἰτησαμένη δὲ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀποκαλυφθῆναι αὐτῇ, εἰ χρὴ προσελθεῖν τῇ κοινωνίᾳ αὐτῶν, and from the manuscript of Chifflet; ὁρᾷ ἄγγελον, δύο κατέχοντα ποτήρια, ἓν μὲν σκότους μεστὸν, καὶ ἕτερον φωτός. Τὸ μὲν οὖν τοῦ φωτὸς τῆς καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἐστί. Τὸ δὲ σκότους αἱρετικῶν. Παρακληθεῖσα δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ κατὰ καιρὸν ἱερέως τῆς ἐκκλησίας παραγενέσθαι ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει, καὶ τὰ ἀγαθὰ τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν ἐπεύξασθαι, εἶπεν ἐγγυς εἶναι τὴν αὐτῆς μετάστασιν, καὶ εἰς τὸ χρεῶν ἀνάλυσιν. Ἐλθοῦσα οὖν ἀναμέσον τοῦ Νιτζιβίου καὶ τοῦ Δαρᾶς εἰς τὸ εὐκτήριον τοῦ ἁγίου Σεργίου, καὶ τῷ Θεῷ εὐχαριστήσασα, καὶ νόσῳ μακρᾷ κατασχεθεῖσα καὶ μέλλουσα ἐκλιμπάνειν, ηὔξατο παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ σωτηρίαν, καὶ οὕτως τὸ πνεῦμα τῷ Θεῷ παρέθετο. Τελεῖται δὲ ἡ αὐτῆς σύναξις ἐν τῷ μαρτυρείῳ τοῦ ἁγίου Τρύφωνος, τῷ ὄντι πλησίον τῆς ἁγίας Εἰρήνης ἀρχαίας καὶ νέας.

[7] She herself (Golinduch) was from Persia, dwelling with a man, a chief of the magi, which also in Latin under the Emperor of the Persians Chosroes, but of the Romans Maurice. But, rapt into an ecstasy, she sees an angel of God, who showed her a place of darkness and fire, in which she is said to have seen her forefathers, who had worshipped idols; and another luminous, in which the worshippers of Christ led dances and exulted. Into which, when she wished to enter, she was forbidden by the angel who appeared to her, saying that that place was impassable to unbelievers. Soon therefore, brought back to a better mind, she is baptized, and is surnamed Mary. For which cause she is condemned by her husband, and by the Emperor, and is sent to the custody of Lethe; where, eight and ten years being spent [*], and not being moved from her purpose, she is cast into a pit, in which was a dragon, striking horror into those approaching. But, having stayed three months in the pit, she tamed it, so that it inclined itself to her, and rested. And while she lived without food, she received grace from God, that she might not be tortured by hunger, and might not need human food. Afterward, drawn out thence, she is set before the tribunal of the son of Chosroes, and by his command is beaten with scourges. Whence her breast was rent; and she herself, cast head-first into a sack furnished with the soot of a furnace, yet unhurt; is thrown into a certain solitary place; but, preserved without harm, is placed in a house, in which men had been stationed, that, entering, they might do injury to her body.

[8] here is given: After they had entered, they did not find her, wondrously hidden, so that she was not seen. And so, a seal being applied to her neck, when she was being led away to be beheaded, she was freed by an angel; who invisibly kept the seal whole, taken from her neck; and gave it to the lictor who was leading her away, that he might release her. But when she took it ill that she did not suffer for Christ; the angel, who stood by, holding a sword, strikes her neck, and appeared like one cutting, blood flowing from the cut, with which her garments, in which she was clothed, were sprinkled, and they worked many healings. But the holy woman, having gone to Jerusalem,

departed, and venerated the sacred places, betook herself to certain monasteries, infected with the heresy of Severus. And when she had asked of God that he would reveal to her whether it were fitting to communicate with them, she sees an angel holding two cups; one indeed full of darkness, the other of light. But of the light, (it is a symbol) of the Catholic Church; but of the darkness, of the heretics. Then, summoned by him who at that time was Pontiff of the church, to go to Constantinople, and to pray well for those who reigned; she said that her departure was near at hand, and the debt of nature's dissolution. But after she had come to the midpoint between Nisibis and Dara, to the oratory of St. Sergius, and had given thanks to God, being held by a long sickness, and now about to fail, she prayed salvation for the whole world, and thus rendered up her spirit to God. But her synaxis is celebrated in the oratory of St. Tryphon, which is near St. Irene, the ancient and the new.

[9] and is illustrated by annotations. Rosweyde notes, in his Onomasticon to the Lives of the Fathers, that the place Lethe (in Greek λήθης, that is, of oblivion) was in later times among the Persians a prison, on which the name Lethe was imposed; into which no one was cast unless destined to capital punishment. He adds the etymology of the name from Procopius, book 1, On the Persian War. For a certain man was by chance cast into this prison; and the law did not allow his memory to survive among those who judged that he should be consigned to it: but the prediction of the calamity was death itself. Whence also it received this denomination among the Persians. But once the History of the Armenians says that by the law of the prison of Lethe the power of the Persians was dissolved in this manner, etc. Paul the Deacon, History, book 17: But in Persia there is a prison which is called Lethe, and the King of the Persians shut up in it many of diverse nations together with the captives of the city of Dara. Moreover, of Dara, raised by the Emperor Anastasius from an ignoble village into a city, situated in Mesopotamia at the Persian frontier, and not slothfully fortified by the Emperor Justinian, Procopius treats, On the Buildings, book 2, chapter 1. Not far thence is Nisibis; of which above also there is mention. Now it is not wonderful that here somewhere at the frontier of Persia there stood an oratory sacred to St. Sergius: not only because this Martyr, as Baronius says at the year 592, was most celebrated in the East; but also because vows were there dedicated to him by Chosroes himself, set in dangers, with diligent zeal, as he relates in the same place. Concerning which Evagrius may be seen, book 6, chapter 21. And in the following year he narrates that the same man, now restored to his kingdom, sent to Gregory, bishop of Antioch, a cross exquisitely wrought with much gold and precious stones, by which he wished the honor of Sergius, the renowned martyr, to be illustrated. Of the ancient temple of St. Irene at Constantinople, built by Constantine the Great; and of another new one of the same name, Du Cange treats, Christian Constantinople, book 4, page 147.

§ II. Certain other of her eulogies: the Acts of the Saint from purer sources.

Although the Basilian Synaxarium has nothing singular which, besides those things which we have already given, deserves to be here related; What the Basilian Synaxarium concerning St. Golinduch, yet because the whole month of July of that Synaxarium, printed in Greek at the end of the first volume, but rendered in Latin, ought also to wander through all the volumes of the same month, each on its own day, it has seemed good, according to custom, here too to render it Latin: The martyr of Christ Cholinduch was from Persia under the reign of Maurice. But while she dwelt with a man, a chief of the magi, she sees in her sleep an angel of God, who showed her a luminous place, in which the just led dances, and another dark, in which the idolaters were punished. And while she tried to enter into the luminous place, she was forbidden, the angel saying: But if you do not become a Christian, you shall not enter. As soon therefore as she awoke from sleep, she is baptized. Which when it had become known to her husband and to the Emperor, she was shut up in the custody whose name is Lethe: then, cast into the pit in which was a dragon, for many years also, she was tortured in various ways: and a seal being applied to her neck, she was led away to be beheaded. But after the angel had cast off the seal, he gave her safe to the lictor; who, striking with a sword along the neck of the Saint, who was grieved that she did not suffer for Christ, made blood indeed flow thence, but did not cut off her head. After this, when she had lived, and profited many, she departed to the Lord. Thus far there; which is a compendium of the aforesaid Synaxarium; with which almost agree the things which our Rader has in part 1 of the Viridarium of the Saints, from page 245, from the printed Menaea. Far briefer in recounting the deeds of the Saint is Sirletus; the few things which he relates in compendium may be seen in him on the XI of this month.

[11] Nicephorus Callistus also is copious in weaving out the history of Golinduch, book 18 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 25, and Nicephorus Callistus? adding some things to those which we have given above, cutting away some things thence; about to relate the matter more truly, if he had cut away more. He says that she was born of the more Persian, namely of a father Asmodoch, and a mother Myzuch; married to a chief man of the senate, she bore two sons. And after a triennium, rapt out of herself by an ecstasy, she was initiated by a divine angel into the mystery of the dispensation of our salvation; then, handed over to the Magi, she endured very many torments, and produced infinite miracles and wonderful prodigies; the angel, who was her guide, coming to her again and again, and taking care that she should bear all the torments lightly and easily: she also indicated many secret things, as one who had obtained from God the grace of providence. Of the dragon he prudently keeps silence; would that he had restrained himself a little more in what follows! After she had been tortured for many years with torments, she desired to bear the crown of martyrdom, and he who was wont to appear to her, the angel, standing by, and bringing forward a certain sword-bearing youth, satisfied her desire: for at his command the youth cut off her head with iron; and her blood, flowing from her throat, ran down over her inner linen garment, bloodied as far as the thighs: which garment was seen to work innumerable miracles; and she also, after the cutting off of her head, thereafter survived and lived: Thus much. The rest which he has will be better given from contemporary writers. Meanwhile in no way does it seem to me probable or credible what Valois asserts, in the Notations on book 6, chapter 20 of Evagrius, that Nicephorus Callistus briefly described her (Cholinducha's) Life and martyrdom and deeds, just as he had received it from Stephen, bishop of Hierapolis, who wrote a book of her Life. It remains that we approach the purer sources, being about to draw thence purified waters; by whose aid the foregoing, in which the true seem mingled with the false, may be cleansed of filth.

[12] The more genuine things are given from Evagrius: The praised Evagrius, in the same book 6, chapter 20, very briefly touches on the deeds of the Martyr, Valois being the translator, in these words: In the same times (he had treated of Chosroes the Younger) Golanduch, a martyr living and breathing, remained among us: who, grievously tortured by the Magi of the Persians, endured a long and laborious martyrdom, and wrought many miracles. Moreover her Life was written by Stephen the elder, bishop of Hierapolis: who is read to have flourished about the year 598. Would that it might at some time be dug out, so that it might transmit to posterity very many things concerning this Saint most worthy to be known, which are doubtless there described, and thus far are hidden from us. But this loss is somewhat compensated by Theophylact Simocatta, book 5, chapter 12, whose text, contracted perhaps from the aforesaid Life, or, which pleases me more, received from common fame, has thus, from the version of our Pontanus:

[13] and from Theophylact, But fame reports that, at the time when Chosroes returned to the palace (concerning which Evagrius, book 6, chapter 19; and whom Baronius relates to have been restored to the kingdom in the year 593), there lived at Hierapolis a woman named Golinducha; but τίς καὶ πόθεν, who and whence she was, according to the poet, let it indeed be told, that we may enjoy a most magnificent narration. She was born at Babylon of a family of the magi. Her father, of the illustrious prefects, was set over the exacting of the Persian tributes. But after, flourishing in age, she began to be of an age fit for a husband, she was betrothed to a noble man. By chance she was reclining at a feast with her husband; when she was seen suddenly to fail in strength, and to remain with body unmoving, and after a long interval to recover her senses. Those who beheld the event (if only it is lawful to name this divine ecstasy an "event") ask the young woman what had happened to her. She answers that bitter punishments were established somewhere under the earth; but that, on the contrary, the delights of great goods had been decreed to those worshipping the most high God; whom the Christians religiously venerating are mocked by the Persians.

[14] The Acts of the Saint, Then her husband began to deride her words, and, perceiving her constant purpose of embracing Christianity, thought to bring her back to sanity by clubs to be applied: threatening moreover the death which the Persians, after the manner of their ancestors, inflict on those who spurn the dogmas of the magi. But she, her mind raised up by divine love, closed her ears; wrote the words in the wind and air. To her another certain divine and more excellent illumination befell. For there stood by an angel most resplendent in form and garment, again exhibiting to her the former spectacles, and foretelling the soon-to-be death of her husband. The predictions come to pass: the husband dies: the woman, having left Babylon, sets out for Nisibis; and there, having found priests of the Christians, in turn confesses the mighty works of the Spirit: and by those same priests is initiated into the truly heavenly and secret discipline of the Christians.

[15] When the magi learned this, they set out to seek her: briefly describing. they arrive at Nisibis, and act with all their power, and thence try to lead the woman away with them. When they accomplished nothing with words, they shut her for a long time in a foul prison: but by the help of God, who beholds all things, and never leaves her without testimony to herself, an angel appearing, she goes out of custody; and, coming to the province of the Romans, at Jerusalem she publishes the notable and unspeakable magnificence of God, and, sacred prayers being poured out at the sepulchre of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the monument of the Cross of him who suffered being likewise venerated, she returned to Hierapolis: and, having prophesied many things to come concerning Chosroes (since she had also foretold to the Romans, before it happened, concerning his flight and passage to them), and having passed her life by an angelic example, and, as befits the Saints, both in soul and in body, she departed from these mortal things, and was crowned with the crown of endurance in an everlasting triumph. A brief indeed, but sincere narration: rhetorical trappings, theatrical adornments, and catastrophes little probable being bidden fare far off; such as we noted above, some of them, in the eulogies brought forward, fitter for the theater than for sincere and genuine Acts of Martyrs.

[16] In what time she lived; in what place St. Cholinduch died. For the rest, marks neither rare nor obscure have shone before us, that it may be determined concerning the age in which the Saint lived. Marks of this kind are Maurice, Chosroes (the Younger, namely), Evagrius, and Theophylact Simocatta; add Stephen of Hierapolis, the writer of her Life; from which we argue that the Saint flourished at the close of the sixth century, and perhaps also touched the beginnings of the seventh. But which Hierapolis,

in which she seems to have departed from life, so far as we gather from the text of Theophylact at number 15, ought here to be understood; whether that of Syria, called by the same, in book 6, chapter 19, the metropolis of Euphratesia; or that of Phrygia; does not seem ambiguous: for if we cast our eyes upon the departure of the Saint toward Nisibis, Babylon being left; and the veneration of the sepulchre and cross of our Lord at Jerusalem, whence she returned to the city of Hierapolis, of which Theophylact was speaking; no other Hierapolis seems here able to be understood than Hierapolis of Syria in the province of Cyrrhestica; in which she passed and closed her last days, being thence translated to the heavenly Hierapolis.

* Better below: for a long time.