Julitta

ON ST. JULITTA, MARTYR,

AT CÆSAREA IN CAPPADOCIA.

UNDER DIOCLETIAN.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

The cult, the eulogies, the time and place of the martyrdom, the Acts from St. Basil the Great.

Julitta, Martyr, at Cæsarea in Cappadocia (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

Cæsarea of Cappadocia—elsewhere praised by us on the fourteenth of June among those things which were there collected from various sources for the illustration of the Life of St. Basil the Great—St. Julitta ennobled by her martyrdom, inscribed on this day in the Greek records and in the Roman Martyrology. This latter announces her thus: [The annual memory of the Saint in the Roman Martyrology and in the Greek records, with eulogies;] At Cæsarea in Cappadocia, of St. Julitta the martyr, who, seeking again in judgment her goods which had been usurped from her by a certain powerful man, when he raised the objection that, being a Christian, she ought not to be heard, was soon ordered by the judge to offer incense to the idols, that she might be able to be heard; which she steadfastly refusing, was cast into the fire, and rendered up her spirit to God: but her body remained unharmed by the flames. St. Basil the Great celebrated her illustrious praises with an excellent encomium. Among the Greeks she is also commemorated on this day in the printed Great Menæa, and in the Menology in Canisius; but on the following day in the Synaxary of the emperor Basil, everywhere with a eulogy: to which add the Slavo-Russian Menology, in which her memory is also noted. The contest of the holy martyr Julitta is also commemorated in the Arabic-Egyptian Martyrology, but on the thirty-first of this month.

[2] Now the Greek text of the Basilian Synaxary, published by us at the end of volume 1 of the month of July, we here, after our custom, render into Latin, and it runs thus: The contest of the holy martyr Julitta. Julitta, the martyr of Christ, of which we give that which is found on the 31st of this [month in the Basilian Synaxary] was from the city of Cæsarea of Cappadocia. She had a suit against a certain greedy and violent man, who, having cut off a very great part of her land, transferred to himself her fields, animals, farms, servants, and all the furniture of her life, in contempt of law and of God; relying on sycophants and false witnesses, and also on the bestowals of gifts, by which he corrupted the judges. Now while she stood before the judge, and began to make known the tyranny of the man, she was accused by him of being a Christian: and casting her eyes upon none of the present goods, but despising all things, she said: Farewell, life, and its glory: for I will not deny the Creator and Maker of all. Straightway therefore the unjust judge delivered her to the fire. But the furnace, embracing the body of the Saint, as a bright bridal-chamber, sent her soul indeed to the heavenly region; but preserved her precious body unharmed for her kinsfolk and relations and all the faithful. And these things indeed we have translated from the said Synaxary.

[3] Similar things are found in the Great Menæa printed with type, in the Menology in Canisius, and in the excerpts from the Ambrosian library; with which, collated, the Martyr is elsewhere honored in verses. but there on the following day; and from those things which most briefly were noted by the hand of our Henschenius at the end of the eulogy in those excerpts, we learn that the memory of the Saint is read in each of the two Turin codices: on which same day, the thirty-first of this month, her name is recorded in our often-cited and therefore quite well-known Supplement, with these verses:

Ὡς ἀχλυῶδες καὶ τὸ πῦρ τῆς καμίνου Πρὸς τὸν καλὸν λάμπουσαν ἦν Ἰουλίτταν.

That is: When the pyre is set beside the beautifully shining Julitta, it was darkness, not splendor. As if you should say that Julitta shone with so unusual a splendor in the midst of the fire that her light, compared to the light of the Martyr, ought now to be reckoned not light, but mere darkness. Which poetic allusion has here so little of proper and apt point to the matter itself, that it can easily be applied to all the Martyrs who remained unharmed by fire. Now let us see whether we can somewhere carve out the true time of the martyrdom, which neither the eulogies commemorated above, nor the very panegyric oration of St. Basil the Great, which we are about to produce after this Commentary, determine.

[4] We have, however, from these some chronological note, by the aid of which we are instructed concerning the time of the martyrdom; [The Saint seems to have suffered under Diocletian; in what year, is not established.] namely that the Saint was rejected from her right in judgment because she was a Christian. For we learn from Eusebius, book 8, chapter 2, and more clearly from Lactantius On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter 13, that by the first edict of Diocletian the Christians were declared infamous, and incapable of being heard in judgment for any cause whatever: which agrees so perfectly with the history of St. Julitta, that we—following Tillemont, volume 5, in the notes on the persecution of Diocletian, note 76—do not think a difficulty is to be made if we say with Baronius that she attained the palm of martyrdom under the persecution of Diocletian; but whether in the year 304, to which Baronius adapts that martyrdom, is not so certainly established as that it was not before the first year of that persecution, the year of Christ 303, in which, on the twenty-fourth of February, that decree was promulgated; as may be seen in the same Tillemont on the said persecution, article 8. Nor did the French legendarist find anything more certain concerning the Saint's martyrdom, which he wove into his Lives of the Saints on this thirtieth of July, saying that it is believed to have happened in the time of the emperor Galerius Maximian, who succeeded Diocletian in the empire in the year of Christ 305. The Slavo-Russian Menology says she suffered in the year 304, under Constantius and Gallienus; for which it ought to have said Galerius Maximian: for that the emperor Gallienus is wrongly joined with Constantius Chlorus, here doubtless indicated, is very well known.

[5] We think the arena of the martyrdom to be Cæsarea of Cappadocia: But the things which pertain to the arena of the martyrdom do not everywhere so shine forth as to be altogether free from all difficulty. Baronius, at the year cited from him, number 67, attributes it to Cæsarea of Cappadocia. The Greek eulogies ascribe the Saint's birth to the same city; but whether the same city which was her fatherland was also the arena of her martyrdom, they do not expressly state: although that which is in Canisius may suggest to us a little more light, at least a dim one, whence it may appear that the true place of the martyrdom was there: for it says: This Saint, when she had wished to accuse before the governor of Cæsarea a certain iniquitous man, of transferring to himself fields, farms, etc.; and since in that place the prætor or governor, as Tillemont observes in the note 76 assigned above, ordinarily resided, it is altogether permissible to judge that the same place also fell to the Saint's martyrdom. The Panegyric of St. Basil the Great seems to favor this, if one attentively considers its whole context; for we cannot persuade ourselves that that encomiast would otherwise have so spoken, in the church of the city of Cæsarea and to his own subjects there, over whom he presided as bishop. And, what is the chief point, concerning the body he pronounces thus: Indeed, buried in the most adorned vestibule of the chief temple of the whole city, it brings to the place a venerable holiness … Moreover the earth, blessed by the arrival of this Blessed one, sent forth water, which by its own nature ought to be most gracious to every one of US, etc.

[6] [a difficulty from the Latin translator of St. Basil's eulogy of the Saint is proposed,] And from these last words of this passage it must be said, says Tillemont rightly in the same note, that St. Basil speaks either of Cæsarea itself, or of a city not very far removed from it; but we understand him of Cæsarea alone, since he so expressly mentions the Saint's body resting there, nor does he even by a word indicate that it was translated thither from elsewhere. A difficulty is raised for Tillemont by τῇ ἐπιδημίᾳ in the text just adduced. The Latin translator renders it "adventu" (by the arrival), Tillemont "par la visite," that is, by the visitation, as if that Saint, according to Tillemont, seems to speak of the church where the body of the Saint rested, as of a place different from that in which he himself was. Nevertheless he candidly confesses that he does not well see what τῇ ἐπιδημίᾳ means, unless it be understood simply of the presence of her body. And indeed why can that word not here be so understood—nay, ought so to be understood—so that openly it does not stand in the way, but that Julitta, as born at Cæsarea, so also buried at Cæsarea, is understood to have completed the contest of her martyrdom also at Cæsarea; whatever the translator of the Basilian Panegyric understood by that "arrival"?

[7] it is weighed, For the word ἐπιδημία does not signify merely arrival from place to place, but denotes also a stay or dwelling in a place. Lest we prolong this matter too far, it could suffice us to refer the reader to the Greek-Latin lexica. Yet I cannot silently pass over a few examples in Julius Pollux's Onomasticon, section 9, book 9, chapter 1, page 979, number 9, of the edition of the year 1706, with the Latin interpretation which corresponds there to the Greek text: Ἐπιδημεῖν, to dwell among the people; ἐπιδημῆσαι, to cohabit with the people; ἐπιδημία, cohabitation. But how does τῇ ἐπιδημίᾳ here hinder us, if it be expounded—as from what has been said it can be expounded—but that the earth of the church of Cæsarea, blessed by the stay, cohabitation, or presence of this Blessed one, sent forth water, etc.? What here compels us to have recourse to a place either nearly or remotely distant from the place of the deposition of the body of St. Julitta, indicated in the Panegyric of St. Basil the Great? And because there is great force in the meaning of the word ἐπιδημία, insofar as it designates presence in a place, it pleases us to confirm it by one or another example.

[8] Scapula cites that passage of Synesius, epistle 149: Ἡμῖν ἀεὶ καὶ ἀπὼν ἐπιδημεῖς τῇ μνήμῃ. and it is dissolved. To us, even then when you are absent (in body), you are present in memory. Another there is from Callimachus in the Hymn to Apollo; where Apollo is said, in rendering oracles, ἐπιδημεῖν, that is, to be present: since indeed those oracles were held more certain by the gentiles, in which, according to them, the presence of the deity was manifest. In this notion, therefore, take the word ἐπιδημία, and the difficulty will vanish, but that our Martyr's remains are understood to have been deposited in the temple of Cæsarea, and the Saint herself to have suffered martyrdom in that city. Although each of these is not stated in express and clear terms in the eulogy of the same Saint, yet from the whole context, and from all the circumstances, we deduce it as quite probable and likely.

[9] Furthermore, in the same eulogy various things are noted which conduce to the posthumous glory of St. Julitta: Of the eulogy, which is here given from St. Basil the Great, namely, the feast day, or annual memory of her, the sepulchre, the most fruitful concourse of people to it, and the miraculous fountain. Baronius, at the year 304, from number 66, uses that eulogy; and after him Tillemont in the Ecclesiastical Monuments, volume 5, on the Diocletian persecution, article 66; the French legendarist on the thirtieth of July; which also Ruinart inserts into the sincere and select Acts of the holy Martyrs, from page 515 of the second edition. St. Basil the Great, prelate of the church of Cæsarea, delivered that eulogy to his own people, and indeed in a solemn manner; and also on the day yearly sacred to the holy Martyr, namely that which

may renew the memory, as is said in the eulogy, of that great contest, etc. But whether it fell on this thirtieth of July, or on the day immediately following, is not sufficiently established: because the Greek records mark the memory of the Saint on the one as well as on the other. We give, moreover, the eulogy from the works of St. Basil the Great, printed with type at Paris in the year 1618, with the notes of our Fronto Ducæus, volume 1, from page 367, the translator being Gaudefridus or Godefridus Tilmannus: nor indeed have the other versions been neglected, as will be made plain from the notes.

[10] A certain passage of the aforesaid eulogy, number 10—"she leaped upon the kindled heap of wood," in Greek πρὸς πῦραν ἥλλατο—clear enough indeed of itself, a certain passage is weighed it seemed good to weigh in a few words, the occasion being furnished by Tillemont, who in the place cited, note 77, judges that it can be expounded in this way, so as to signify the ardor and eagerness with which the Martyr betook herself to the place where she was to be burned; or that she even ascended the pyre itself, since it was already then prepared; or the joy with which she saw herself surrounded on all sides by the flames, and admitted them. But what compels Tillemont to twist words so clear from their proper and natural sense to a metaphorical one? Because, he says, it was the custom at that time, as now, to bind him who was to be put to death, or even to fasten him with nails to a stake, and afterward to kindle the fire. But that reason seems plainly frivolous: for just as each rule has its own exception, so each custom has its own too. And let Tillemont say, I pray, will he not have to allege that same custom which he alleges for the time of our Saint, also for St. Apollonia, if he wishes to speak consistently? And yet Eusebius, in book 6 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 41, relates the following concerning her, the translator being Henry Valesius:

[11] and it is explained. Now a pyre having been kindled outside the city, they threatened that they would burn her alive … But she, having seemed for a little while to beg for a respite, and meanwhile being let go, swiftly leaped into the fire and was consumed. Here indeed, I do not conceal, it is said in express terms that this holy Martyr was for a little while let go before she leaped into the fire; but what forbids this Saint of ours—already condemned to the fire, but kindled by the vehement fire of the Holy Spirit (which is conformable both to those things which are here set forth concerning her in the text, and especially to the pathetic oration which she delivered to the women standing around)—what, I say, forbids that, so affected, and impatient of longer delay, she leaped upon the kindled heap of wood before, in the custom then of the time, she was fastened to the stake? For the words of St. Basil the Great are clear; not to be twisted to an improper and metaphorical sense, when they can be expounded in the proper and natural one; which, that it can be done here, is evident. For ἅλλομαι εἰς τὸ πῦρ is "I spring or leap into the fire." Consult the Greek Lexica; and the preposition πρός, which the author of the eulogy uses with the accusative case, signifies the same as εἰς, or "into," with motion. And indeed the force of this passage of which we treat in Basil is not sufficiently expressed by certain versions, as will be given to see in the notes to the oft-mentioned eulogy, which we now exhibit.

THE EULOGY

By the author St. Basil the Great, archbishop of Cæsarea of Cappadocia, from the fifth among the various Homilies, the translator being Gaudefridus Tilmannus.

The Saint, unjustly oppressed, is rejected in judgment, because a Christian; she completes her martyrdom in the fire, with body unharmed; her posthumous glory.

Julitta, Martyr, at Cæsarea in Cappadocia (St.)

By St. Basil the Great.

The preaching concerning the blessed Martyr which offers itself to be drawn forth for you—of this is the cause of this congregation ^a. For we have brought in this day to be solemnly observed by you: inasmuch as it renews the memory of that great contest, in which—in a womanly body indeed, but in a mind otherwise noble and more than manly—striking with all admiration and astonishment both those who, themselves present, beheld her contending, and those who in time to come are to receive it by hearing, from the reports of those who by the thing itself made trial of the peril of that great struggle—the most blessed woman Julitta ^b contended (if however the rule of decorum permits her to be called a woman, who by the heroic fortitude of her mind surpassed ^c the weak condition of the female nature:)

[2] By whose magnanimity and constancy alone I should most readily believe that the common adversary of the human race was dismayed and confounded, and the conqueress of the devil namely, bearing most indignantly that the palm of victory should be snatched from him by women; who indeed was wont, growing insolent with unrestrained pride, to utter those grandiloquent boasts, that he would shake the whole globe of the earth, and grasp it as a nest, and take it up out of the midst as eggs that had been left, and reduce cities to solitude: while meanwhile he is seen to be inferior to the virtue of this noble Woman, whom—since at first she was in time solicited to fall away from Christ—he strove to overthrow with arguments and to convict of inconstancy, as one who through the weakness of nature might be less able continently to guard and preserve piety toward God; but he found her at last, experience being his teacher ^d, stronger than the condition of her nature, so that she eluded the terrors of the adversary, and pursued them with laughter, the more, the more he hoped he would terrify her by the same.

[3] For she had brought a legal action or suit at law against a certain one of the leading men of the city; she is unjustly oppressed by an iniquitous invader of her goods; who, by fraud and violent oppression, had claimed for himself alone wealth extorted from every quarter, and had heaped together riches all at once by rapine and plunder. This man had cut off ^e a very great part of her land, and had also intercepted the fields, farms, cattle, and servants of Julitta. Finally, when he had transferred to himself all the remaining furniture, exceedingly opulent, taken from the Woman, he forestalled the public tribunals by a swift preoccupation, so as to corrupt them, having suborned several calumniators and false witnesses, and at the same time placing the hinge of the case in a mean and sordid bribery, plainly the corruption of the judges.

[4] When the appointed day for deciding this case arrived, behold, the herald summoned each by name, the advocates now being prepared and taking their seats. And when she had begun to instruct the judge concerning the unrestrained tyranny of the man, and was about to narrate the manner in which at first he possessed it in the beginning; and at the same time to show that by the length of long time his dominion was confirmed; and when to these she now most miserably deplored the violent and insatiable greed of the man in seizing others' goods; then he, advancing into the open of the forum, says that it is not lawful for her to proceed by law, nor to introduce that action: for that it is not right that they should have anything in common with the other citizens, who hitherto have by no means worshipped the gods of the emperors, unless they first abjure the faith of Christ.

[5] To the prætor it seemed, in appearance ^f, that he was putting forward in the midst those things which were consonant with law, and which had greatly conduced ^g. Presently incense is ordered to be brought, and live coals* likewise: and this proposal is held out to the litigants by the judges ^h, that they ⁱ indeed could enjoy both the laws and the suffrages of the laws, provided only they abjure Christ; but that if they clung more fixedly to the faith, there would now be left to them no use either of the forum, or of the laws, nor indeed of the rest of the commonwealth; inasmuch as, according to the sanction of the law passed by the emperors of that time ^k, they had incurred the mark of infamy.

[6] What did she [do] after this? Was she seized there with eagerness to recover her wealth ^l? but she, moved by nothing at the fleeting goods, Did she neglectfully let pass what she knew would be of use to her ^m, for the sake of obtaining the disputed cause against him who wronged her? Was she, by the peril impending from the judges, dismayed in mind and terrified? Truly, nothing less. What does she say? Let life itself rather perish, let the chance resources themselves go to ruin: but let not the body itself remain to me longer, before any impious word against God my Creator be brought forth from my mouth ⁿ.

[7] By such words of hers, the more she saw the prætor exasperated with greater hostility, terrified by nothing—neither tyrant nor torments— and kindled against her by the heat of sharper wrath; the more abundant thanks did she render to God: because, while she disputes and contends ^o with the plunderer over fleeting resources, she seemed to herself to be securing [p] the possession of heavenly goods: she perceived indeed that earth was being taken from her, that she might possess paradise: that she was being condemned to infamy, that she might be held worthy of the crown of glory: that her body was being cut with scourges by contumely, and that she was being despoiled of this temporal life too, that she might be a partaker of that blessed hope, admitted into the joy of the heavenly kingdom among the choirs of all the Saints.

[8] [she confesses herself the handmaid of Christ; and, condemned to the fire, joyful she hastens to the flames:] Finally, when she was questioned repeatedly, and rendered no other answer, attesting that she was the handmaid of Christ, and moreover cursing those who invited and exhorted her to abjure the faith: then that judge of iniquity not only deprived her of those most ample riches which, beyond the sanctions of justice and of the laws, had been taken from her; but also imposed on her a penalty, as he himself thought—that she should be deprived of life, atrociously condemning her to the fire. She, moreover, seemed to hasten so swiftly to none of those things which, while life lasts, are wont to delight us, and hurried eagerly to the flame destined for her, by her face, her bearing, the very words she uttered, and moreover by an alacrity flowering openly, indicating what lay hidden in her mind—a most profuse joy.

[9] exhorting the women standing by to equal magnanimity for Christ. As many women as stood next to her, she besought that they should not let their minds grow soft for the enduring of the labors undertaken for the defense of the Christian religion: nor should they make pretext or excuse of the weak condition of the female nature. For, she said, we are constituted of the same mass as the men: to the image of God, just as they, we too were created. Truly woman was created by the Maker, equally with man, capable of virtue. For what is there wondrous in it? Are we not also of the same blood as the men in all things? For not flesh alone was taken to constitute woman, but also bone from bones; whence it comes to pass that we too ought to render back to the Lord no less than the men the firmness of faith and constancy, and also patience in adversities.

[10] [She leaps into the fire; she passes in soul to heaven, her body unharmed by the flames: her burial, the miraculous fountain;] These things said, she leaped [q] upon the kindled heap of wood, which, like a bridal-chamber gleaming with splendor, embracing the body of holy Julitta, destined her soul indeed to that heavenly region [r], and to the rest which befitted her merits: but her body, venerable with special honor, it preserved whole for her kinsfolk and relations, and injured in no part of itself; which, buried indeed in the most adorned vestibule [t] of the temple [s] of the city, brings to the place a venerable holiness, and no less makes holier those who assemble in that place. Moreover the earth, blessed by the arrival [u] of this Blessed one, sent forth water [x],

which by its own nature ought to be most gracious to every one of us, so that this Martyr represents the image of a most pious mother, since, after the manner of a nurse, she nourishes the inhabitants of the whole city, as with some milk gushing forth abundantly for the common use.

[11] whose waters are health-giving. An exhortation to imitate the Saint. This water is a protection to the healthy [y], and a supply of pleasure to those who temperately enjoy it, and a solace to the sick. This very grace the Martyr has kindly conferred upon us, which of old Elisha [z] imparted to his people of Jericho, when by his blessing he changed the saltiness of the common nature of the waters of that place, on every side neighboring, into a taste plainly sweet, delicious, and exceedingly pleasant. Men, do not, I pray, allow yourselves to be seen inferior to women in the defense of religion. Women, do not fall away from this example set before you, but, without any pretext, cling more closely to this piety once undertaken, and by the thing itself make trial that this defect of your nature is no impediment to you, but that you can accomplish any good work whatever. My discourse—begun by me indeed yesterday, and not everywhere completed—recalls me as I prepare to say more concerning this Martyr, and does not permit me to draw out a longer delay.

NOTES.

p Βεβαιοῦσα, that is, "to establish" with the Basel edition of the year 1565, or with another "to confirm": not, however, "to prefer" with the Cologne one; which also in the things immediately following has, "why it should displease."

q The Cologne edition "she ran forth into the pyre," with the Basel of the year 1565; the Basel of the year 1566 "she leaped to the pyre": the version of those two former editions I do not approve; that last one ought to have said "she leaped into the pyre."

r In the Greek text is χώραν, which is rightly rendered "region": in the Menology in Canisius is read "dance," perhaps because the translator read in the Greek exemplar χωρείαν, for χώρα, or χορίον, which two signify the same.

s The Latin edition which Ruinart saw adds "of the chief temple of the whole city," as he himself left noted on this passage.

t The Cologne edition "temple"; the former Basel "the suburb of the city"; the latter "the shrine in the suburb": our translator is preferable.

u The Cologne edition and the former Basel agree; but the latter puts, which is the same, "by approach": but I approve none of these, on account of what was said in the Preliminary Commentary from number 6.

x In the Greek text is added ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων λαγόνων, "from its own or proper openings or fissures"; each Basel edition, "from its proper sides": but less rightly the Cologne, "from its proper arms."

y This whole period, says our Fronto Ducæus in the notes, page 33, on these words, "we have restored, being omitted by the translator, which both the Basel edition and Cornarius and the manuscripts acknowledge: in one Olivarian manuscript, however, is read σώφρονος ἡδονῆς χορηγ., 'a supply of temperate pleasure.'"

z The history is narrated in a few words in 4 Kings, chapter 2, verse 19: Behold, the situation of this city is very good … but the waters are very bad, etc.

* indiximus ("we have appointed")

* oppressione ("by oppression")

* prunæ ("coals")

* adlecta ("admitted")