ON ST. SYNTYCHE
DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE.
At Philippi in Macedonia.
SECTION I.
CommentarySyntyche, at Philippi in Macedonia (St.)
BY J. B. S.
"And Syntyche who sleeps at Philippi" is the first and most ancient, that I know, commemoration on this day of the little Roman one, which Ado augmented in this manner: "And of blessed Syntyche who sleeps buried at Philippi: She is first marked by the little Roman one, of whom the blessed Apostle Paul writes: 'I beseech Euodia, and I entreat Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.'" It pleased Usuard to join disparate things: "On the same day, of St. Mary Magdalene, and Syntyche the blessed, who sleeps at Philippi; of whom the Apostle Paul writes": but concerning this connection we have spoken in its place, nor is it now easy to divine the cause of it, unless perhaps it occurred to Usuard that Ado's Syntyche was that very one who was once believed to have made into Latin, from the Hebrew Marcellian, the apocryphal Acts of St. Mary Magdalene; more rightly certainly are those Saints distinguished in others, as also in today's Roman one.
[2] Further, to weave here a long series of the augmenters of Usuard or of other Martyrologies, then by the whole progeny. I plainly do not see to be necessary, since they can teach nothing more than what is contained in the Adonian eulogy, which was described from Notker, the Hieronymian ones being silent, and Bede, Rabanus, Wandelbert, and others not pertaining to the Usuardian progeny, in which you will understand Euodia neglected thence, because the founder of the little Roman one passed her over. To the Adonian words concerning Syntyche the bishop of Equilio (Peter de Natalibus) added, that she persevered in all religion, of which there is no reason for anyone deservedly to doubt: but that she was a Philippian by race, and there, I think, died in peace and was buried, the praised author of the little Roman one not incongruously gathered from the epistle of Paul the Apostle, altogether different from another Syntyche, if this one ever existed in the nature of things: and this is so everywhere admitted, that of those who would dare to call it into controversy, hitherto no one has been found.
[3] She is greatly praised by the Apostle, From the epistle of the Apostle to the Philippians, already cited by Ado, must be drawn out all the praise which can be conferred upon our Syntyche and her companion. Whether they should be called matrons, widows, or virgins, is not expressed: that they were of the more powerful ones you may argue hence, that they contributed, doubtless, not a little by their more liberal alms to the propagation of the Gospel: but their greatest glory is that their names are most expressly asserted to be written in the book of life. Behold the whole text: "I beseech Euodia, and I entreat Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women who labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement and the rest of my fellow-laborers, whose names are in the book of life." Alluding to which Chrysostom, homily 13, thus writes: "This Paul testifies even of these, whose names are written in the book of life. But these women seem to me to have been the head of the Church which was there, and he commends them to a man perhaps admirable, whom he also calls yokefellow… 'Who labored with me in the Gospel.' Hence his solicitude and care toward them, not on account of friendship, but on account of good deeds."
[4] because she labored with him in the Gospel. There are those who will have it that in this epistle union chiefly and concord is commended to the Philippians by the Apostle, and hence so interpret those words, "I beseech Euodia and I entreat Syntyche, to be of the same mind," that the Apostle insinuates that the intimacy which before had subsisted between those two holy women had somewhat cooled, which by the yokefellow
himself, whether he was Syzygus or another, whether the husband or friend of one of them, he earnestly desires to be restored and reconciled: that Theodoret inclined to this opinion, appears most openly: "He praises the women indeed," he says, "but hints that some contention had arisen among them"; which Tillemont seized a little too avidly, although that does not seem so clearly drawn out from the Greek text itself, τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν. That is: "to be of the same mind." But whatever that be supposed to have been, presently blotted out by the more illustrious examples of other virtues, from the adduced words of Paul himself it is so manifest, that we by no means think this could be to the prejudice of Syntyche's sanctity.
[5] No one has explained the Saint's deeds more distinctly, no one determined her age more closely, than the author of the manuscript Florarium of the Saints, on whose faith alone I subjoin these few things, received I know not whence: "On the same day, of blessed Syntyche, disciple of St. Paul, whose heralding of praises the same Apostle commemorates in his epistles. She was hostess of the disciples of Christ, and through her many, converted, were baptized by Paul. Afterward, solicitous about the frequent ministry of the disciples, full of days she rested at Philippi in the year of salvation 78."