ON S. TIMOTHEUS MARTYR, AND MORA HIS WIFE,
VENERATED AMONG THE ABYSSINIANS.
From their metrical Hagiology.
CommentaryTimotheus, Martyr Among the Abyssinians (S.)
Mora, wife, Martyr Among the Abyssinians (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
The metrical Hagiology of the Abyssinian nation, which we have often praised, Ms. so venerates the Martyr above-titled. His cruel martyrdom from the Fasti on this day: Salutation to Timotheus, who in the midst of the assembly of the gathered, confidently pronounced, that there is no God without Jesus; that is, that Jesus is the true God. And when he had not obeyed the precept of the Ethnic King, they boiled him in a frying-pan, burning him alive, until his whole body should be melted away like water. Thou hast the cause. By the tyrant King, Maximinus can be understood; whose cruelty raging in Egypt, & namely at Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea touches, in book 8 ch. 14 of the Valesian edition. The place however & time of martyrdom I would not dare to define from conjecture; having enough to have found the cult, conserved for so many centuries in the Fasti of that nation.
[2] Hither also seems to look the XXVII day of Buna, [1] corresponding to XXI June of ours, where the Poet so addresses the same (unless I am mistaken) S. Timotheus, the dedication of the church on June 21. after a church was erected to him, of which on such a day the Dedication made, is celebrated by annual commemoration. I congratulate the Dedication of thy precious shrine, which to thee, Father Timotheus, of Benhor by origin, was built, after the affliction passed & the torment, or the persecution of the Gentiles; namely with Constantine reigning, & ordering the sepulchres of the Martyrs to be adorned. Lead me into the work of humility, Thou, who raisest from the earth the poor: since where there is pride, there also is wont to be poverty. I do not divine whether this prayer, with allusion to Psalm CXII ℣. 6, is directed to the Martyr, as a master of humility; or simply to the Lord, whom the Psalmist there praises, as one to whom it is proper to raise from the earth the poor & to lift the pauper from the dung, that he may place him with the Princes, with the Princes of his people.
[3] The title of Father, added to this Timotheus, seems to indicate at least an Abbot of Monks, to whose profession humility is more proper. Nor does the elogium recede from this conjecture, which is given to the same (if however it is the same) on V Hathor, that is I November. memory on I November: Salutation to thee Timotheus, blessed Martyr of God, celestial man & terrestrial angel: at the time of afflictions & turbulences hide me under thy wings, from the malign tongue & from the envious eye. But to the monastic life resists another place of the same Hagiology, on XXVII Hathor, where to the Patron of Benhor is added the wife Mora, in this manner: Salutation to Timotheus, Wall of the city of Benhor; & of his wife S. Mora on 27. where his feast is celebrated with citharas & organs: & salutation to his wife, whose name is Mora. Much temptation for Christ they bore, while the soldiers led them before the judge. All which here I have wished to put under one view, while it is not known what day was more proper for their cult; that it may be more certainly recognized as not at all vulgar that one which is so often iterated.