CONCERNING SAINT ANASTASIA PATRICIA, IN EGYPT, YEAR 567
PrefaceAnastasia Patricia, in Egypt (Saint)
[1] Great in both Empires was formerly the dignity of a Patrician, and, as seemed to Walafrid Strabo, next to the Caesars: you might infer that it was no less in the Imperial Gynaeceum from the fact that the Caesar Justinian, preludes to his shameful marriage with Theodora, raised that infamous harlot to the dignity of Patricia, as Procopius reports in the Anecdotes, chapter 8: until the Empress Euphemia, the sole obstacle to the unfortunate marriage,
should depart from life: and by a law passed, marriages with actresses and harlots were permitted to Senators. The same dignity was held by Antonina, wife of Belisarius: and with that title she is always called by Anastasius, writing about the things done against Pope Silverius by her and her husband to please the impious Theodora, in the year 535: but just as there were several Patricians, so also several Patricias: not only by reason of birth (since for this appellation to be singularly attributed to an individual, no regard is found in the Greek histories) but from a special prerogative of dignity: with which our Anastasia also seems to have been adorned by the Emperor Justinian around this same time, captivated by her character and beauty.
[2] But she was differently disposed than Theodora: and so indeed she easily escaped every stain of shame by her own virtue: Anastasia, suspected by the Empress, flees: but she could not at all escape the envy of the jealous Empress; who had long been accustomed to be driven by malicious jealousy to behave more savagely toward the women of the same theater: how much more when as the partner of the empire she administered everything according to her lust? Moreover, the great wealth and the great zeal for the Catholic religion in Anastasia could have been sufficient for that avaricious harpy, most hostile to Catholics (even if every other suspicion were absent), that she should not look upon her with friendly eyes. Therefore Anastasia fled to Alexandria: and there from the resources which she had been able to withdraw, she built a monastery at the Quintus: that is, in a village so called because it was situated within the fifth mile from the city.
has stood by me, and having prayed well for herself and her disciple, He who knows the condition of my life in this cave for the sake of His name, and this sickness and my afflictions, may He make the Spirit of the Fathers rest upon him, just as the spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha.
[6] And the eunuch, turning to the Father, said: By the Lord, she forbids her body to be stripped: I beg you, Father: do not strip me after death of the garments that cover me; and do not reveal to anyone the condition of my sex and manner of life. And having received the sacred mysteries, she said: Sign me with the sign of Christ; and pour forth prayers to God for me: and gazing toward the East, her countenance in the cave radiated just as if a lamp were carried before her. Then she signed herself with the holy cross and said: Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit, and together with these words she breathed out her soul.
[7] And having dug a tomb before the cell, the Father, having taken off the garment he wore, said: Come, he said to the disciple, clothe the deceased brother from the upper part with that garment which she was accustomed to wear. When the disciple did this, the breasts of Anastasia indeed appeared like dried leaves, but he reported nothing to the Father, but the disciple recognizes that she was a woman. but when the body had already been buried and they were returning, the disciple said: Did you know, Father, that that eunuch was a woman? And the old man said: I knew, my son, but lest the matter should be spread abroad everywhere,
But when he saw that nothing useful was being accomplished, he stays with Bishop Arigius the young man's disposition began to yearn for better things, and he devoted himself to the task that, having set aside the trappings of the world, he might be joined to the company of monks. Having therefore secretly departed from his companions, then at Lerins content with two servants, he came to the monastery of Lerins. Where, leading his life for some time, since he by no means saw the others submitting their necks to the reins of regular discipline, he began anxiously to weigh where the approach of better counsel might open a way. Going forth therefore from there, he came to Blessed Columban as far as Luxeuil: and at Luxeuil. whom, when the holy man perceived he was skilled with a sharp intellect, he joined to his service and tried to instruct him in all divine admonitions.
[2] He is made Abbot, When therefore after Blessed Columban he was ruling the aforesaid monastery excellently, and instructing all in the discipline of the regular tenor, the cunning of the ancient serpent began to release the deadly poison of discord against him with noxious blows, stirring up the hearts of some of his subjects against him, who said that they could not bear the authority of his excessive fervor, and that they were not able to carry the burdens of a strict discipline. But he, shrewd in mind as he was, striving to offer pious remedies and to administer the drink of a salutary antidote, he instructs refractory subjects with pious admonitions by which the putrid infection might be cut away, endeavored to soften their swelling hearts: and having long corrected them, when he was unable to keep them with him, troubled in spirit with grief,
he wished that, when about to depart from the world, he might have his journey ready in all things: with a space of fifty days suspended, in which he might prepare for the coming journey. He foreknows his death under an obscure revelation. But the mind of the man of God did not clearly know whether this journey was the departure from life, or whether he was about to proceed to some other place. The man of God had prepared for both: he strengthened the enclosures of the monastery, renewed the roofing, reinforced everything; so that if he should depart, he would leave nothing weak behind: he tended to the vehicles in peace, fastened the books with bindings: he ordered the furnishings to be washed, the torn things to be mended, the damaged things to be repaired, the shoes to be prepared, so that all things might be ready. He himself, however, afflicted his body with fasts and vigils and prayers, so that he was never seen before to have labored so much in prayer: and lest it seem ridiculous to anyone, I will relate what the same man did in regard to me.
[9] When I had already spent a period of nine years in the monastery, and had often not obtained from him permission, at the request of my parents, to visit them, with no one thenceforth mentioning the matter, he said: Go quickly, He sends the writer to visit his parents, son, and visit your mother and brother in the morning, and return without any delay impeding you. And when I hesitated and said that a more opportune time would come soon -- for it was a time of excessive cold, the month of February -- he said: Hasten to set out on the journey I have told you about; you do not know whether it will be possible to do so afterward. Having therefore given as companions Blidulphus the Priest and Hermenoaldus,
Moreover, Aemilian, the architect of so great an advancement, full of rich exultation at its fruit, bearing copious sheaves of the Lord's harvest, was raised to eternal joy. These things Saussaye writes with magnificent amplification, unless he had some ancient Acts beyond the Life of Saint Furseus. Bucelinus, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menologion transcribes Saussaye, whom he wrongly calls Charles, with a slightly changed phrase toward the end. Whether however he was of the Benedictine order, or whether rather Saints Furseus and Aemilian embraced the rule of Saint Columban or another Irish rule, can be investigated. Indeed Latiniacum, together with other monasteries likewise, is now connected to the order of Saint Benedict, Colgan. so that from this alone they can and ought rightly to venerate their earlier Saints. Colgan treats of the same Saint in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland on this tenth day of March.