ON THE HOLY EGYPTIAN MARTYRS,
SOPHIA WITH HER DAUGHTERS, DIBAMONA AND BISTAMONA: ALSO ON ST. WARSENOPHA AND HIS MOTHER.
From the Metric Hagiology of an Anonymous Abyssinian.
CommentarySophia the mother, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
Debamona, daughter, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
Bistamona, daughter, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
Warsenopha, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
The Mother, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
D. P.
In the times of the Emperor Hadrian, the City of Rome had a holy matron named Sophia, with three daughters, Faith, Hope, Charity: whose names and cult are found on the 1st of Musre, With Sophia and her two daughters; that is the 25th of July, in the Ethiopian; the 1st of August, in the Latin; the 17th of September, in the Greek calendars. Egypt seems also to have had her own Sophia, mother of two holy daughters, whose aforementioned names, with Warsenopha who suffered the same day, are preserved in the Calendars of the Abyssinians, metrically adorned by Paul the Jacobite Poet, and communicated to us in Latin by Job Ludolf, well-deserving of sacred as well as profane antiquity by his illustration of Ethiopian History. Warsenopha is invoked together with the Mother; Of the strophe pertaining to them, receive this paraphrase from that Hagiology: "I salute Sophia and her daughters Dibamona and Bistamona: who were associated and met today in martyrdom with Warsanopha and his Mother, originating from Densa; praying that all may protect me by their embrace, lest I fall, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings." Whether Warsenopha is a man's or woman's name I would not distinguish, and they indeed as originating from Denfa. except that on the 29th of Abib, the 23rd of Roman July, occurs Wersanopha, illustrious Martyr, with two companions. As for the unknown little town Denfa — what it is, and where it is situated, I should like to learn; for Ludolf does not note it in his Topographical index: who also was content to inscribe only Sophia with her daughters and Warsenopha in the Calendars of the Alexandrian Church compiled by him, omitting his mother; perhaps because something obscure was there to him. When he or another can teach something more distinct about the aforementioned Saints, we shall gratefully learn it: meanwhile it will be permitted to conjecture that the passion of all happened under Decius, or Diocletian and Maximian, or finally under Galerius Maximinus.