CONCERNING SAINT GELASIUS,
MARTYR AMONG THE GREEKS.
From their manuscript Synaxaries.
CommentaryGelasius, Martyr among the Greeks (S.)
G. H.
We find the memory of S. Gelasius the Martyr in the Greek manuscript Synaxaries, at Paris in the Library of Cardinal Mazarin, and at Dijon in the College of the Society of Jesus with Pierre François Chifflet, and from these we copied the Eulogy, Οὕτος ὁ μακάριος Μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ Γελάσιος, διωγμοῦ καταλαβόντος κατὰ τῶν Χριστιανῶν, ζήλῳ θείῳ ἄνωθεν πυρωθεὶς, διέμεινε τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῦ τοῖς πτωχοῖς ἅπασαν· καὶ ἀμφιασάμενος λευκὴν στολὴν, ἔδραμε πρὸς τοὺς ἁγίους Μάρτυρας· καὶ εὑρὼν αὐτοὺς ἐν διαφόροις κολάσεσι τιμωρουμένους κατησπάσατο, ὑπαλείφων, καὶ τὰς τούτων εὐχὰς αἰτούμενος. Κρατήσαντες δὲ τοῦτον οἱ φονεῖς, τῷ Ἄρχοντι παρέστησαν· ὃς καὶ ἀνακριθεὶς, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσας Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν, τὰ δὲ εἴδωλα, κωφὰ καὶ αναίσθητα, ὡς εὐτελὴ παραρᾶτο· μικρὸν δὲ μαστιχθεὶς ἐτμήθη τὴν κεφαλήν. Which in English run thus: This blessed Martyr of Christ Gelasius, when the persecution against the Christians was growing strong, kindled from on high with divine zeal, distributed all his possessions among the poor: and having put on a white robe, he ran to the holy Martyrs: and beholding them tortured with various torments, he embraced them, anointing them, and asking their prayers. But, seized by the apparitors, he was led to the Governor; and brought to interrogation, he confessed Christ indeed to be the true God; but the idols, dumb and senseless, he despised as contemptible. Wherefore, after he had been somewhat scourged, his head was cut off.
CONCERNING THE ABYSSINIAN NUNS,
SS. BAZALOTA AND EUPHEMIA.
Their cult in the metrical Hagiology of the nation.
CENTURY IV.
CommentaryBazalota, a Nun among the Abyssinians (S.)
Euphemia, a Nun among the Abyssinians (S.)
D. P.
After, by the work of S. Frumentius, in the age of S. Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria, the faith of Christ was established among the Abyssinians; very many Monks penetrated to them from Egypt; Monks of S. Michael, of whom seven chief ones are named by Job Ludolf, History of Ethiopia, book 3, chapter 3, most of them with their name changed among them. Thus the first of them, Michael, is called by them Aragawi, that is, the Old man, and in the metrical Hagiology on the 14th of the month of October, which would be the 11th day for us, he is thus invoked: A greeting to Michael, who was named Aragawi: because his life was wisdom, and his death prudence: with him was the threefold and one God in essence.
[2] Of this Michael there seems to me to have been the sister, who on this day in the same Hagiology is thus invoked: his sister Bazalota A greeting to thee, Bazalota, the genuine sister of Michael the Priest. Preserve me, O Christ, for the glory of him who endured the iron chain; and free me, helpless, from the fetters of most mighty Satan. Our conjecture is founded on this, that just as "Presbyter" (Elder) is a word among the Greeks significative not only of order, but also of age; she seems to have lived in the region of Tigré. so it could have crept upon either the Poet or his Interpreter, that for "Old man" he wrote "Priest": although nothing forbids that the same man was both a Monk and a Priest. Meanwhile I seem to myself not without reason to have called her a Nun, who is found praised from the iron chain, by which she bound herself for the love of God. The place of her asceticism of this kind we can believe to have been Tigré; where Ludolf teaches that those seven especially settled, and had their chapels. And that region is between the river Tacaza (by others wrongly Lagazi) and the Red Sea, below the tenth degree from the equinoctial circle.
[3] To this Saint we join another, equally (as we conjecture) an Abyssinian, if not by origin, at least by residence; praised even before her. She is S. Euphemia, Euphemia, most devoted to S. Michael the Archangel, died: most devoted to S. Michael the Archangel, from whose most festive invocation the Ode of this day is begun; and soon through the second Strophe she herself is addressed in these words: A greeting I say to Euphemia, who conquered Satan, resisting her with a wily voice: and applying the effigy of Michael to her forehead, from the troubles of this life to eternal rest, as she had wished, she today migrated. Two other Euphemias the same Poet invokes: one on the 6th of May, killed by the bite of a beast; the Acts of this one and of the other are desired. who is the celebrated Great-Martyr of Chalcedon, of whom we must treat on the 16th of September; the other, crucified and burned with fire, on the 11th of July, of whom we long to learn more; and also to receive from Abyssinia the Acts of the one first named, if any are extant.