Matrona

ON ST. MATRONA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, AT BARCELONA IN SPAIN.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

St. Matrona, Virgin and Martyr, at Barcelona in Spain.

[1] On the Ides of March, three holy women named Matrona are commemorated in the calendars of various Churches and honored with sacred rites, though not all distinguished by the same palm. Three St. Matronas are venerated on March 15 For the one at Barcelona in Catalonia is proclaimed as Virgin and Martyr; the one at Thessalonica in Macedonia is a Martyr, but it is uncertain whether she was a Virgin; the third at Capua in Campania is a Virgin, but it is doubtful whether she was also a Martyr. When did they live? In what age each lived can scarcely be concluded with certainty. The last, who is reported to have been a Lusitanian, is commonly assigned to the sixth century. In the Martyrologies, which alone have presented to us the Thessalonican Matrona, no mention is made of Gentiles persecuting Christians, as will appear shortly when we treat of her. The Barcelonan Matrona, if the things narrated about her are true, completed her martyrdom in the Roman countryside while still a young girl, when the most severe heat of persecution was raging. Her birthday was inscribed by Philip Ferrari in the Catalog of Saints I. The Barcelonan one, inscribed in Martyrologies whose names are not found in the Roman Martyrology, in these words: "At Barcelona in Spain, of St. Matrona, Virgin and Martyr." The same is found in the French Menologion of Virgins by our colleague Francis Laherius. Juan Tamayo Salazar, Antonio Vincente Domenec, and other Spanish writers treat of her at length.

[2] This much is well established: that the relics of St. Matrona are preserved on the Hill of Jupiter, her relics near Barcelona, in the church of the Capuchin Fathers called Montjuïc by the locals, near the city of Barcelona, in a church bearing her name, which formerly belonged to the Servites of the Blessed Mary and is now that of the Capuchins — as both Salazar and Domenec affirm; although they do not entirely agree with us as to whence these relics came or who she was. The Venerable Father Friar Francis of Barcelona, Guardian of the Capuchins in the Convent of Mount Calvary there, in two letters (written on April 26, 1648, and March 24, 1649, to Don Silvester Aiossa, a distinguished clergyman, Rector of the Church of St. Leucius at Capua — but (as a curious investigator reported) which he graciously shared with us) testifies that he carefully examined everything that seemed to pertain to St. Matrona, Virgin and Martyr, consulted histories, surveyed locations, and investigated whether any monuments or inscriptions or ancient characters survived anywhere from old records: but he could find nothing of the sort. For about thirty years before he wrote those letters, the church in which the body of St. Matrona had lain for several centuries was destroyed and another, larger and much more elegant one was built. No monuments about her in the new church or convent. But in this he found no vestige of antiquity remaining; nor even in the convent were the notes he remembered having once seen and read, written on parchment, before the demolition of her church, still extant.

[3] He also denies that the ancient chest in which the relics of the same holy Virgin and Martyr were once preserved nor the old chest now survives. For the one in which they are now contained was fabricated in the year 1547*; it is made of bronze with exquisite craftsmanship and gilded, and in other ways most beautifully adorned. He contemplated it curiously from the outside, the new one is elegant and then, when it was opened in the presence of the Vicar of the Bishop of Barcelona and the Consuls of the city, he reverently and diligently inspected it. The only inscription in it was one indicating that the body of St. Matrona, Virgin and Martyr, was preserved there, together with the ashes of SS. Fructuosus, Archbishop of Tarragona, and Augurius and Eulogius, his Deacons: which ashes are placed inside the same chest in a small sack. This new reliquary was commissioned by the city of Barcelona, and into it from the older one the relics were placed therein in the year 1593, September 15 the said relics of St. Matrona and the Tarraconensian Martyrs were transferred by Juan Dimas Lloris in the year 1593, on September 15, as attested in the History of the Counts of Barcelona, book 2, chapter 37, by Francisco Diago, who was then at Barcelona and published that history under the successor of this Bishop, Alfonso Coloma. But the same writer continues in his later letter cited above, testifying that in the said reliquary he contemplated, first, the head of the Saint, though not entire; and this he venerated with due submission and touched the sacred teeth with a devout kiss. The bones of the entire body are also deposited in it, which are clearly those of a very small girl but by no means joined together; rather, they are loose — yet most clean and beautiful, and plainly such that no one could doubt they belonged to a very small girl. Aiossa adds in his letters of 1647 that four years earlier there had been at Capua a Barcelonan nobleman who, serving as a Judge there, affirmed by eyewitness testimony that the head of St. Matrona is preserved separately from the body in a silver reliquary.

[4] And these things indeed we hold as certain, since such men testify that they were explored by them in that manner. In the Life, not sufficiently certain, from an old Flos Sanctorum What he adds about the deeds of Matrona does not merit so firm a credence — as anyone may safely suspect. He drew these from an old history written in the Catalan language, entitled Flos Sanctorum of Catalonia, which history, approved by the judgment of the holy Senate of the Inquisitors and furnished with a Royal privilege, had been printed at Barcelona in 1549. Concerning holy Matrona, then, he narrates approximately the following from it: That she was born at Barcelona, she is said to have been born at Barcelona but as a very young girl, orphaned of both parents, she was adopted by her uncle, a rich and powerful man; who, seeing the affairs of the Christians growing greatly there, withdrew with Matrona to Italy and settled in the Roman countryside. Here, although the profane superstition of the Gentiles had widely occupied the minds of the populace, converted in the Roman countryside there were nevertheless those who in caverns and other places removed from the access of the common people religiously worshiped God, though worn down by many labors and hardships amid the snares laid on all sides not only against their property but their very lives. Then by divine favor it happened that Matrona learned for what reason and in what places those holy men lay hidden. Thenceforth she, despising the threats of the Gentiles, frequently visited them, and with great delight of soul listened to them discoursing on the Sacred Scriptures, on the most bitter death of Christ, and on other mysteries of the faith. And as her heart daily grew more inflamed with the ardor of the Holy Spirit from such conversations, she earnestly begged those holy men to fashion for her an image of the Crucified, such as they themselves used in their hands, so that she too might always carry it with her. They kindly granted her wish and gave her such an image, which she henceforth always carried with her, with great piety and reverence.

[5] One day the Governor of the town or village where these things were taking place saw that Matrona could not be deterred by threats, beatings, or the entreaties of men and women from openly visiting the Christians in this way. seized and brought before the Governor He marveled that a young girl, not yet fourteen years old, should stand so firm in her resolve; and, angered at the fact, he ordered her to be dragged before him and addressed her thus: "Tell me, his threats and promises spurned girl, what mental disturbance agitates you, that you have dared to resist our commands? But now, by the magnificent power which I hold, I swear to you: if you resolve henceforth to obey our laws, I will heap upon you the most ample adornments of wealth and honors. But if you obstinately harden yourself in that madness of yours, know that a wretched death awaits you." Here Matrona, with remarkable constancy, despised his threats, rejected the proffered gifts, and paid no heed to any of his words or promises. And at last, inflamed with love for Christ Jesus, she brought forth the Crucifix which those holy men hiding in the caverns had given her, freely confessing Christ and thus addressed the Governor: "I believe in Him who created heaven and earth and all things. For Him I wish to live and die, who brought me into this light so that one day with Him in the pleasant abodes of heaven I might enjoy perennial and blessed life. Do not brandish empty threats, nor promise riches: for I esteem these as nothing, prepared for

Christ Jesus my Lord, with a glad and eager mind to undergo whatever torments."

[6] Then the Governor, inflamed with anger, summoned two lictors and ordered her to be stripped of her garments and mercilessly beaten with rods, tortured with rods because she stubbornly refused to obey his commands. Then he had her thrust into custody and forbade any food or drink to be given her. He maintained this abstinence for three full days, the Governor hoping that by this means she could be bent from her resolve by starvation and softened by fear of still harsher punishments. and by other means But the blessed Virgin, burning with desire for the heavenly homeland, did not shrink from martyrdom, nor did she dread death however terrible: and at length, after enduring the most grievous torments for thirteen days, exulting with incredible joy, she surrendered her spirit to God.

[7] Secretly buried by Christians When the Christians discovered that she had thus died, with the greatest piety and reverence they took away her lifeless body and, enclosing it in a sarcophagus, committed it to the earth in a hidden place. After several centuries, when peace had been restored to the Church, the sacred pledge of the blessed Martyr came to the notice of the Christian people by heavenly signs, long afterwards, discovered by a light from heaven in approximately this manner. Pious people had very frequently seen a light descend from heaven upon a certain spot in the Roman countryside. Wherefore they persisted in praying to God that He would deign to declare what this thing portended; and in that very spot which had shone with heavenly splendor, they opened the ground and found the very tomb in which the body of St. Matrona, Virgin and Martyr, had been laid. It seemed right to bring this to light, in the hope that what had been so wonderfully revealed might thereafter be divinely honored with further prodigies. She is made famous by miracles And at that very time, by a certain prompting of the Divine, many sick people gathered there, and having implored the patronage of the Saint, they obtained the health they desired.

[8] Not many months passed from this discovery before, by the goodness of God Almighty, the bones of the holy Martyr were conveyed back to her homeland; which happened in this manner. When the fame of the miracles that had occurred through the aid of St. Matrona had spread rapidly through the provinces, it was carried also to Gaul, where at that time some King or Prince of the Franks had long been suffering from a continuous fever which no skill of physicians could dispel. The Pope gives the body of the Saint to be carried to Gaul Having heard, therefore, of the miracles taking place at Rome at the body of St. Matrona, and seized with an immense desire to recover his health, he immediately sent envoys to the Supreme Pontiff, beseeching him to allow the bones of St. Matrona to be brought to him, so that through them his health might be restored. The request of the envoys was pleasing to the Pontiff, and he at length ordered the bones of the Virgin Martyr to be given to them. These were placed on a ship with incredible applause and exultation, and they quickly set sail and, having enjoyed favorable winds, had nearly reached the French coast, when suddenly — God not wishing the Virgin to remain in a foreign land, but rather to be returned to the one that had first brought her into the light — a horrible storm arose, when a storm arose drove the ship back into the open sea, and cast the sailors into the most immediate peril of their lives. Wherefore, turning to vows and prayers, they invoked the Queen of heaven, Mary the Mother of God, and St. Matrona, whose remains they were carrying, to help them in this danger and bring the ship to the port where they wished this treasure to be bestowed.

[9] And indeed they felt the help and will of the great Mother and of Matrona the Martyr, [the ship having been driven to the coast of Barcelona and then made immovable, it is unloaded] for they were carried to the Catalan shore, before the rock called the Hill of Jupiter, near the city of Barcelona; whence they were unable by any effort thereafter to propel the ship. They did not doubt that this was the homeland of Matrona and the seat divinely assigned to her. They reported the whole matter to the Bishop of the city; he went down to the sea in supplication with his Clergy, reverently removed the relics from the ship, transported them into the city, and afterwards placed them on the summit of the said hill, where a church of St. Matrona was built, placed on the Hill of Jupiter and on its walls the series of the narrative already told was painted. This church was first given to the Servite Fathers, and when they abandoned the place, to the Capuchin Fathers. But afterwards it was destroyed and another, more elegant one was erected. And then of course the memory of those old paintings perished, and the writings were lost The history was painted on the walls which contained the things already related. In the same chest in which St. Matrona's relics were placed, the bodies of three other Saints were also deposited.

[10] "These things," says the same Venerable Father, "are reported in that Flos Sanctorum of Catalonia, reviewed and approved by the authority of the Holy Inquisition and published by the press of Jacopo Iaceres in the year 1549. Her image is painted holding a ship in one hand and a palm in the other; The image of St. Matrona the latter as the token of martyrdom, the former to signify the miraculous arrival of the holy Virgin on those shores." How great the authority of that Flos Sanctorum, from which this history was drawn, is not easy to determine. What Juan Marietta ingenuously professes in his Ecclesiastical History of the Saints of Spain, Book 4 (which treats of Virgins and Martyrs), chapter 56, is pleasing, where he writes thus: The trustworthiness of this history is not beyond question "On St. Matrona, Virgin and Martyr, of Barcelona. The Church of Barcelona celebrates on March 15 the feast of St. Matrona, Virgin and Martyr. Nothing else about her that could be narrated has come to my knowledge: neither whether she was originally from there, nor at what time she suffered martyrdom."

[11] but it is commonly received by the Catalans Nevertheless, the settled opinion among the Catalans is that the relics of St. Matrona preserved at Barcelona were brought from abroad, and indeed by French sailors. Antonio Vicente Domenec in his book on the Saints of Catalonia, and Juan Tamayo Salazar, write that she is the one who was slain at Thessalonica by a cruel mistress: and indeed an orphan girl taken in by her uncle, who, to prevent her from joining the Christians, brought her from Thessalonica to Rome, with some variation, however and, as those who claim she was born at Barcelona also relate, was led to give her name to Christ. Then she returned to Thessalonica, for an uncertain reason, and there, given into the service of a Hebrew woman, was killed by her, as the Martyrologies relate; buried at Thessalonica by the Christians; and many centuries later, French merchants who had landed there obtained her sacred relics from the citizens, and when they wished to carry them to France, were driven by heavenly force to Catalonia.

[12] Many agree that she was brought from Italy: whence arose the conjecture, perhaps, that a Virgin Matrona was venerated in Campania. But neither the Thessalonican Martyr nor the one venerated as a Virgin at Capua seems to have been carried to Barcelona, in whatever way or at whatever time: for neither is the former called a Virgin, nor the latter a Martyr — at least not by consistent and certain report. To the Barcelonan one, however, both laurels are attributed: At Barcelona there is a St. Matrona famous for miracles and, as is established by the reliable testimony already cited, her bones are slender, so that there seems to be no doubt they belonged to a very small girl. Who then could believe that she led a long life in a convent, as the Campanians report of the Lusitanian? Or that she was equal to menial labors under so harsh a mistress? This is certainly established: that at Barcelona there is a St. Matrona who has always been regarded as a Virgin and Martyr, and has attested by very many miracles the glory she enjoys in heaven. The rest of what they narrate, we are able neither to refute nor bound to confirm, in so great a silence of antiquity.

[13] She grants rain Domenec narrates the following about her miracles: "Whenever drought afflicts the land, her relics are customarily carried to the Cathedral basilica and placed on the high altar. Nor does heaven long delay the rains, God swiftly supporting the honor of His faithful bride. Elders frequently observed that it rained on the very day the relics had been brought, or on the next day, or at least within eight days, and sometimes in such great and continuous quantity that the relics had to be returned to their own church, the prescribed period for obtaining rain from heaven not yet having elapsed."

[14] The patronage of the same Virgin also heals fevers. In the year 1547 the son of a certain notary of Barcelona was seized with feverish heat. She heals fevers The father implored the help of the Saint; immediately health returned to the boy. Not many years before (he was writing in the year 1602) a blind woman came to the church of St. Matrona, and kneeling at the entrance, she prayed to the Saint, not without tears, and crawled on her knees to the high altar, she restores sight and received her sight.

[15] She heals a wound In the year 1554 at Barcelona, Francisco Arbusies, son of a shoemaker, fell from a high place and struck his head on a rock so severely that the frightened doctor refused to lay a hand on the wound, saying that the injury could be cured by God, not by a mortal surgeon. The parents, alarmed at their son's danger, fled with great piety to the help of blessed Matrona, and obtained perfect health for their son.

[16] and a chronic illness Anna Villela, wife of Sebastiana Villela, a notary, oppressed for two months by a severe and continuous illness, devoutly visited the church of the Saint: and having duly offered her prayers, as she rose to return home she felt herself free of all languor.

[17] She saves a boy fallen from a precipice A boy named Severus was at Barcelona the cousin of a notary named Moses Calopa. He fell headlong from the rock of St. Matrona; and when his family believed he was going to die, and besought St. Matrona to come to his aid, they found him unharmed.

* Probably 1593.

ON ST. MATRONA, MARTYR, AT THESSALONICA IN MACEDONIA.

Historical synopsis.

St. Matrona, Martyr at Thessalonica.

[1] Thessalonica is a large and wealthy city of Macedonia on the Thermaic Gulf; already in the age of the geographer Strabo, under the Emperor Augustus, abundant in population; and two hundred years earlier, celebrated when the Romans conquered King Perseus. But its greatest felicity and glory was that, having received the religion of Christ from the Apostles themselves, it so cultivated it that the Christians of Thessalonica merited not only to be confirmed but also to be commended by St. Paul in a double epistle; and that many afterwards gloriously laid down their lives there in defense of the same religion. Among them, the first to appear in the Roman calendar is St. Matrona, St. Matrona, Thessalonican Martyr celebrated on the Ides of March with this encomium: "At Thessalonica, of St. Matrona, the servant of a certain Jewess, who, while secretly worshiping Christ and daily frequenting the church with furtive prayers, was discovered by her mistress and afflicted in many ways; finally beaten with stout cudgels even unto death, she surrendered her incorrupt spirit to God in the confession of Christ."

[2] Some Martyrologies very briefly commemorate her memory on the same day with Florus in the supplement to Bede: "At Thessalonica, of Matrona, servant and Martyr." The MS. Martyrology of the Church of St. Lambert at Liège: "At the city of Thessalonica, the birthday of St. Matrona." In the metrical Martyrology which the monk Wandelbert of Prüm composed more than 800 years ago, the following is read:

"Thessalian folk the Ides with Matrona Martyr keep." Inscribed on March 15 in the ancient Latin Martyrologies

Many copies of Usuard, written by the most ancient hand, have: "At the city of Thessalonica, the birthday of St. Matrona the Martyr, who, having been discovered and afflicted in many ways,

finally beaten with stout cudgels even unto death, in the confession of Christ she surrendered her incorrupt spirit to God." The same things precisely are found in the Martyrology according to the practice of the Roman Curia, corrected by Master Bellinus of Padua, of the Order of the Hermit Friars of St. Augustine, published at Venice in 1498. Molanus inserted the following into the text of Usuard, but had them printed in a different typeface: "who, while secretly worshiping Christ, daily frequented the church with furtive prayers, was discovered," etc. The Martyrology published under the name of Bede, with slightly altered words: "At the city of Thessalonica, the birthday of St. Matrona, who, being a servant of a certain Jewess and secretly worshiping Christ, was discovered by her mistress and beaten even unto death, and surrendered her incorrupt spirit."

[3] Her martyrdom explained by Blessed Ado More fully did Blessed Ado, Bishop of Vienne, set forth her martyrdom — for the complete Acts of this same holy Martyr we have nowhere yet found: "At the city of Thessalonica," he says, "the birthday of St. Matrona, who, being the servant of a certain widow named Plautilla, and secretly worshiping Christ, daily frequented the church with furtive prayers. Discovered by her mistress, stretched and bound on a bench, and beaten almost to the point of death, and thus left bound on the bench, the doors having been carefully sealed, through the night — there, on the following day, she was found divinely freed, praying with extraordinary grace of countenance. Again, bound with raw sinews on the same bench and beaten with thongs until she fell silent, she was left there for three days, the doors having been sealed. When the third day arrived, she was again found divinely freed and praying. Then, beaten with stout cudgels even unto death, she surrendered her incorrupt spirit to God in the confession of Christ." So Ado, published by Rosweyde, and others and various MSS. and Notker. But whom they call a widow as Matrona's mistress, the MS. of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden, and another MS. of Bruges, and the one printed at Cologne in 1490, as well as the Roman Martyrology and the Menaea, make a Jewess. Peter de Natalibus, book 7, chapter 202, writes that she was a gentile widow, and with some variation and that the Saint, bound on the bench, was divinely freed during the night and led out through the closed doors, returned to the church, and gave thanks to God. "When," he says, "her mistress found her again there, she again bound her on the bench and beat her more cruelly, leaving her shut up without food for three days as well. But she was again divinely freed, led out, and found by her mistress praying in the church for the third time," etc. Peter cites Ado, from whom he departs, as is clear. Antonio Vincente Domenec in his book on the Saints of Catalonia, and Francisco Diago in his History of the Counts of Barcelona, book 2, chapter 37, call Matrona's mistress Plantilla and say she was a wealthy widow devoted to the worship of idols. Juan Tamayo de Salazar calls her Plautilla, "either a gentile," he says, "or a Jewess." The Menaea, Arcudius, the Synaxarion, etc., call her Pantila.

[4] She is venerated elsewhere on March 14 The day before the Ides of March is assigned to her in the MSS. of Queen Christina of Sweden, and of the monasteries of St. Maximin and St. Martin at Trier. The Greeks assign her to March 27, on which day the Menologion published by Canisius has this: "The birthday of St. Matrona at Thessalonica. She, while professing the Christian faith and being a servant of a certain noble Jewish woman, could be bent neither by threats, nor by blandishments, nor by beatings from persevering in her resolve, among the Greeks, March 27 and after prolonged vexation in prison she delivered her soul to God." The shorter Greek Menologion on the same day: "Of our holy Mother Matrona, at Thessalonica." Christophorus, Patrician and Proconsul of Mitylene, also records her in his epitome of the Menologion.

[5] The Menaea give her more fully: "In the same month, the twenty-seventh day. Of St. Matrona at Thessalonica.

It is not fitting that you should lie hidden, Martyr Matrona, Even if you expired shut up in prison. Life from the Menaea

She was the servant of a certain Jewish woman named Pautila. Following her mistress to the doors of the Synagogue, she did not enter, however, but turned aside to the church of the Christians. Discovered, she was cruelly beaten and shut up in a cage and starved for four days: then brought out, she was cut to pieces with whips; then shut up again, and detained a long time in prison, she surrendered her spirit to God. It is reported that when Pautila had hurled her holy relics from the wall, she paid the fitting penalties of her crime: the murder is divinely avenged for she fell into the vat under the wine-press, into which the must was poured from above after pressing, and breathed out her wretched soul." The Anthologion of Anthony Arcudius and Maximus of Cythera ἐν βίοις ἁγίων have the same.

[6] The Menologion of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus and the Synaxarion of the College of Clermont at Paris she was from Thessalonica expressly assert that she was from the city of Thessalonica, and was the servant of a certain Jewish woman — γαμετῆς, says the Synaxarion, στρατοπεδάρχου ἐν τῇ Θεσσαλονικέων πόλει — "the wife of a Stratopedarch, or commander of the army or soldiers, in the city of the Thessalonians." The Menologion of Basil: ἄνδρα ἐχούσης στρατοπεδάρχην Θεσσαλονίκης — a servant of a Jewess, not a widow "having a husband who was Stratopedarch of Thessalonica." Whence you may refute certain Latins who wrote that Plautilla was a widow; although the error was easy, as from "Jewess" (Iudaea) "widow" (vidua) could be produced by the change of a single letter and the transposition of two. The same Porphyrogenitus Menologion buried by Christians adds the following: "The Christians took up the body of the Martyr and buried it by night. Later, Bishop Alexander, having built a church within the city of Thessalonica under her name, deposited her there." The Synaxarion more fully: "Later, Alexander, Bishop of the city of Thessalonica, having built a church within the walls, a church built under her name laid her there, as befitted a blessed and venerable woman, with holiness and reverence."

[7] It should be noted that the entire Office for the twenty-seventh day among the Greeks is uniquely devoted to this Martyr, and therefore only her name is noted on that day in the Typicon. From the Office, the Menaea cited present proper hymns and antiphons, one of which is this: various encomia of her from the Menaea "Neither the yoke of servitude, nor feminine softness, nor hunger, nor scourges prevented you from imitating the constancy of the Martyrs, O glorious one. For with remarkable strength of soul you endured torments. Wherefore, having attained the heavenly bridal chambers and been adorned with the diadem of graces, you stand before your Creator." The hymn or canon, divided according to custom into six parts, with the initial letters of its twenty-nine stanzas forming this acrostic:

Τὸ τῆς Ματρώνης ἔνθεον μέλπω κλέος. "I sing the divinely inspired glory of Matrona."

This hymn, inscribed with no author's name and therefore probably one of the more ancient, also contains various encomia of the same Martyr, expressed in these stanzas, of which the second: "Christ God, who deigned to assume the form of a servant, wishing to free her from the bonds of corruption and death, betrothed you from the yoke of servitude to Himself as His spouse and Martyr." Another: "With firmness of mind, you endured the grievous torments of the wicked and nefarious woman, blessed Matrona." Another: "Strengthened by divine power, Matrona, you have now escaped the servitude of your bitter mistress: for no humble thought had clung to your soul, since you served the Lord alone." Another: "Gnashing, raging, and wavering in soul, the most impious woman, with Hebrew cruelty, cut your body with scourges, O victorious Martyr." Another: "With a truly divine, wise, and heavenly-inspired soul, you shine forth in the choir of Martyrs, most blessed Matrona."

[8] She does not seem to have been a Virgin More things of this kind may be read in the same Menaea, in all of which, as in the cited Latin Martyrologies, St. Matrona is proclaimed only as a Martyr, but not as a Virgin. Both crowns, however, are attributed to her by the ancient Martyrology of the Monastery of Anchin near Douai, and by a few rather recent writers. Thus Maurolycus: "At Thessalonica, the birthday of St. Matrona the Virgin, who, discovered by her mistress Plautilla and afflicted in many ways and beaten with cudgels, surrendered her incorrupt spirit to God." Constantius Felicius has the same; the MS. Florarium has the same in other words. Nothing similar is reported by Galesin, Canisius, Greven, and very many others. And indeed the Anthologion of Arcudius calls SS. Lucy, Agatha, and other Virgins, in the titles of the Lessons to be recited about them and in the Catalogs of the months, Παρθενομάρτυρας — "Virgin-Martyrs." But it by no means bestows such a title on Matrona, nor small, like the Barcelonan one nor is anything else adduced whence the honor of perpetual virginity could be claimed for her. And from this one may refute those who say she is the same as the one whose relics were conveyed to Barcelona: for the Church of Barcelona has from all antiquity called its Matrona a Virgin and Martyr. Although, as we noted above, by the testimony of a grave and religious man who, in the presence of the leading men of the city of Barcelona from both the sacred and civil orders, when the reliquary containing her relics was opened, had carefully inspected them one by one, it is established that all the bones must be judged to belong to a very small girl — whereas this Thessalonican woman, exercised in menial services under a fierce mistress, certainly seems to have been older and more robust.

[9] At what time the Thessalonican Matrona completed her contest — whether when the Pagans were still raging against the Christians, when did she undergo martyrdom? or when the reins of government were already in the hands of the Christians themselves — is unclear. For no age has been without examples of such hatred and ferocity of the Jews against our people. However, that she was close to those heroic times of the flourishing Christian religion may be conjectured from the fact that she was entered into the calendars of Martyrs 800 or more years ago. Certainly, the fact that the Christians buried her by night may arouse suspicion in some that they did not dare to do so openly in daylight for fear of the Pagans. But perhaps they feared the household of Plautilla, among whom there either were or could be feared to be more of the sort that their mistress wished Matrona to become. Her husband himself, if he was not a Jew or a Gentile, seems nevertheless to have been excessively uxorious, who either concealed or willingly ignored those domestic outrages — so that his power too could have been feared by those pious people. Otherwise, the Christians do not seem to have performed their sacred rites entirely in hiding, since the church was so easily accessible to Matrona the servant; nor was it unknown to her mistress, who forcibly dragged her away from there. When Alexander governed the Thessalonican Church we do not know, since we have never seen a catalog of the Bishops of that Church. Nor even if his date were known would Matrona's necessarily follow; since he is only said ὕστερον ἔνδον τῆς πόλεως Θεσσαλονίκης ἐκκλησίαν κτίσας, ἐπ᾽ ὀνόματι τῆς ἁγίας — "afterwards, within the city of Thessalonica, to have built a church under the name of this Saint."

[10] Perhaps the dedication of this church or the solemn translation of the relics into it gave the Greeks the occasion to celebrate the feast of St. Matrona in March, the Copts have her encomium on September 7 and to the Latin Martyrologists the occasion to think that the day they found marked for her feast was her birthday. That we should doubt this, however, is suggested by the Coptic Menologion preserved among the manuscripts of our Maronite College at Rome, in which at the tenth day of the month Thoth, which corresponds to the seventh of our September, the following encomium of her is found: "On this day St. Matrona was crowned with Martyrdom. She was the servant of a certain Hebrew woman, and a Christian from her earliest childhood. Her mistress compelled her to become a Jewess, and afflicted her when she refused with

labors, beatings, and hardships. It happened on a certain day that the Hebrew woman, learning that the Saint had gone to the temple of the Christians to pray as was her custom, said to her: 'Why did you not come to our synagogue, but went to the temple of the Christians?' The Saint replied: 'Because God dwells in their temples, but has departed from the Synagogue of the Jews.' Provoked by this freedom of speech, the Jewess, having afflicted her with beatings more severely than ever before, cast her into a dark dungeon: leaving her there for four days without food or drink. Afterwards she brought her out and, having beaten and tormented her again, shut her up once more in the same prison: in which the Saint happily ended her life." likewise on March 27 Finally, in the Egyptian Arabic Martyrology, which Father Athanasius Kircher had translated into Latin for us from Arabic by Gratia Simonius, a student of our Maronite College at Rome, the Contest of the holy Martyr Matrona is noted on March 27.

ON ST. MATRONA, ROYAL LUSITANIAN VIRGIN, NEAR CAPUA IN ITALY.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

St. Matrona, royal Lusitanian Virgin, near Capua in Italy.

CHAPTER I

The Life, feast, and relics of St. Matrona the Virgin, not a Martyr.

[1] Capua had as its first Bishop of the Christian religion St. Priscus, one of the ancient disciples of Christ, as Michael Monachus proves in the Sanctuario Capuano from the Roman Martyrology, from other records, and especially from the MS. Catalog of Capuan Bishops of Cardinal Bellarmine, The body of St. Priscus, first Bishop and Martyr of Capua who had himself formerly been Archbishop of Capua and, according to the same Monachus, was accustomed in his sermons to the people to mention the episcopate and apostolate of St. Priscus. Before the city, not far from the gate called the Alban Gate, on the road leading to Benevento, Priscus dwelt with his two ministers, as the same Monachus relates from the Ecclesiastical Office: there by his sermons and miracles he moved countless mortals to embrace the Faith of Christ. That place, whether town or village, is now famous under the name of St. Priscus: found by St. Matrona the Virgin where he is also believed to have completed his martyrdom, and where he was certainly buried. For there his body is reported, at the beginning of the sixth century after the birth of Christ, or rather toward the end of the fifth, to have been found by divine admonition by St. Matrona the Virgin, born of the Suevic Kings of Lusitania or Gallaecia, and to have had a church built for it: she herself is also venerated in the church of St. Priscus. Her acts, the same Monachus says, we had not written in ink on paper, but expressed in images on walls; which from the walls he himself thus transferred to paper.

[2] She suffered from a flow of blood Matrona, daughter of the King of Portugal, at the age of twelve was suffering from a severe flow of blood. Her father sought remedies from everywhere, but in vain. The girl implored heavenly aid, and at length was divinely instructed in the means of curing her illness. By angelic admonition For an Angel appeared to her in a dream and said: "Matrona, go to Italy, penetrate into Campania, halt on the Via Aquaria near Capua. There you will find two untamed young bulls which daily separate from the herd and kneel in a certain place. See to it that the place is dug up: you will find the body of Blessed Priscus, Bishop and Martyr, one of the ancient disciples of Christ. She comes from Lusitania to Italy When you have extracted and touched the relics, the blood will stop and you will be healed. And lest you be hesitant about the divine will, accept this cord, which you shall place on the heads of the young bulls." Matrona, rising in the morning, told her parents the vision she had seen during the night. They rejoiced, and chose twelve virgins and the most trusted men to accompany her. Matrona therefore, dismissed with a most noble retinue, traveled all the way to Capua, and upon finding him is healed and having discovered the sign of the young bulls, she had the place dug up: she found the relics of St. Priscus, and the illness departed. She then approached the Roman Pontiff she builds a church for him and obtained the faculty for constructing and dedicating a church in honor of St. Priscus. And so in that very place, above the holy body that had been found, she erected a church and endowed it with the surrounding fields.

[3] Thus far the Acts of Blessed Matrona, not written but painted. On the walls of which this Life was painted The paintings were, the same writer says, on the walls of the church, joined with the tribune — that is, with the surviving part of the basilica which blessed Matrona herself had built. Eventually, as the population grew, the church had to be enlarged and the painted walls demolished. But Archbishop Cesare Costa ordered a painter to take copies and, following those examples, to add side panels to the icon of the high altar. Seven years after the Sanctuarium Capuanum was published by Monachus, his nephew Don Silvester Acosta published in Italian a brief Compendium of the Life of St. Matrona the Virgin, drawn from the already cited Sanctuarium, printed at Naples by Roberto Molle's press, on a single sheet. In it, Matrona is said to have been warned by the Angel to tie those two young bulls with her own girdle The body of St. Priscus is now at Capua to find the place where St. Priscus was buried — not that she received a cord from the Angel to place on their heads. It is added that this parish church of St. Priscus is three miles distant from the new city of Capua. Part of it in this parish church The part of the ancient basilica built by the holy Virgin that survives is now called by the people "the old Tribune," and on the altar some relics of St. Priscus are preserved, the rest of the body having been carried into the city to the treasury of the Cathedral.

[4] St. Matrona's house survives, in part But what happened to St. Matrona? Monachus answers: She built a house near the basilica, of which remains survive. The place is called LA MOTTA: where "Motta" now is which name, when applied to persons, signifies a kind of gathering; and when applied to buildings, a house or town surrounded by assigned fields — and either meaning may apply to us. For the house, annexed to the basilica, was the center of the surrounding and assigned field; and there with her companion virgins, the Virgin remained until her death. Her body in a chapel, enclosed in a chest The dead body was honorably deposited in a polished marble chest within a chapel whose dome, decorated with mosaic work, rests on four columns, and whose white walls, encrusted with polished marble tablets, from which a liquid (commonly called Manna) used to flow endured until our grandfathers' times. In the chest there is a small opening below, from which the holy body is said to have emitted a liquid (commonly called Manna). Aiossa, cited just above, wrote to us that salutary for diseases the sacred liquid from the Saint's tomb ceased flowing around the year 1540, when a woman of scandalous life inserted her finger into the opening from which it flowed. The liquid, as the old people themselves recounted now suppressed — who had learned this from their parents in childhood — was salutary against every kind of ailment and often of immediate efficacy.

[5] The Capuans were divinely prevented from carrying away the chest The same man testifies that it is everywhere celebrated in the conversations of the people there that the Capuans once came to the town of St. Priscus to carry off to Capua the marble chest in which the relics of St. Matrona are deposited: and when it had been lifted into the atrium between the cells of the same Saint and the church, a great storm suddenly arose which forced them to desist from their undertaking: and this happened three times, and each time the chest was afterwards found in its chapel. This turned their minds, so that they were fully persuaded that the Saint did not wish her relics to be taken from there to Capua: and therefore they permanently abandoned the plans they were forming. So those had reported to whom their own parents, then eighty or ninety years old, had said they had been present when these things occurred.

[6] That chest is kept carefully closed. George Cardoso in volume 2 of his Portuguese Hagiologion writes that when the Capuans wished to convey the tomb of this holy Virgin to their city, it was found, not without a miracle, in its former place: and this has been ascertained, that to the present day the tomb has not been opened, because out of a certain religious awe they do not wish such holy and wondrous relics to be handled. Yet Monachus declares that the tomb was opened for him, so that he could see with his own eyes and touch with his hands the enclosed relics — he who wrote thus in the Sanctuarium twenty-seven years before Cardoso published the second volume of his Hagiologion, in it now a portion of the bones on page 150: "Now there is nothing there but a glass urn, full of smaller bones. The townspeople believe it is the entire body: but although their simplicity has been deceived, their piety has not. believed to be the entire body For those who devoutly visit the tomb of Blessed Matrona even now receive graces by divine piety: and women who suffer especially from a flow of blood daily experience the power of her intercession. There is a great concourse And on the twenty-fifth day of January, when the feast of the Dedication of the Church occurs, it has always been called the Feast of St. Matrona: especially on January 25 and there is a very great concourse of people from the neighboring regions of Capua to the Church of St. Priscus, with votive offerings, invoking the name and aid of St. Matrona."

[7] In the Italian Compendium of the Life of this holy Virgin, already cited above, the same things are related about her relics deposited in an elegant marble chest, which chest is placed on the altar of the chapel erected in her honor and decorated with mosaic work. This chapel is in the church of St. Priscus, and on March 15 a little distant from the old tribune. A second feast of St. Matrona, her own proper feast, is celebrated in the Church of St. Priscus on March 15: on which same day, as the same Monachus rightly notes, the Roman Martyrology makes mention of another Matrona. on which other St. Matronas are venerated He does not, however, call her a Virgin, as he cites it: he otherwise rightly observes that it is not unusual for several feasts of the same name to fall on the same day, or to be deliberately placed together when the proper day of one is unknown. He adduces examples, as we also frequently do in our work. This one is painted with a palm

[8] He also writes that some ask why Matrona the Virgin is seen in the icon of the high altar with a palm — that is, with the sign of martyrdom. And he says that it was certainly done by the error of the painter and of a certain hired Priest of the Church at that time; and that just as it was an error to paint her in that way, so it was the negligence of the Rectors thereafter not to correct the error. He warns, however, that nothing should now be changed in that icon, Is she then a Martyr? both because of those who believe that Blessed Matrona was brought here from Africa during the Vandal persecution, either dead or alive; and because of the authority of the Capuan Breviary, in which, on the Ides of March, St. Matrona Virgin and Martyr is noted — although it is not clear whether it speaks of ours or of the other. And if it speaks of ours, it should not be entirely rejected. For Blessed Matrona could have survived to old age, and could have suffered torments for the faith from the impious, idolatrous, and vile Lombards, who invaded Italy in the year 567 or 568, or for her virginity, as many others did.

to suffer, or for her virginity, as many others did.

[9] The same writer, however, in Part 4 of the Sanctuarium, presents five Capuan Calendars. Matrona's name is absent from the first two; in the third, found in the Capuan Treasury, it reads: "On the Ides, of St. Matrona the Virgin"; in the fourth: "On the Ides, of Matrona the Martyr." But he acknowledges that March and April were attached to this Calendar from elsewhere. The fifth, prefixed to the printed Capuan Breviary, as also the manuscript preserved in the Capitular archive: "On the Ides, of Matrona the Martyr." He himself notes that the Roman Martyrology and others generally treat of St. Matrona the Martyr of Thessalonica. She does not seem to be a Martyr Likewise, that at Barcelona in Spain, Matrona the Virgin and Martyr is treated: but these are different from the Matrona venerated on the Via Aquaria. In the Office of the Capuan Church, nothing is done concerning Matrona. The conjecture of the same writer is therefore idle, by which he questions whether perhaps the Lombards perpetrated the murder of St. Matrona after the year 568. For if she came to Italy under the Emperor Zeno, who died in mid-April of the year 491, even if she had been only twelve years old when she departed from Lusitania the preceding year, it would have to be admitted that she was born in the year 479 at the latest, nor was she translated to Barcelona so that at the time of the first Lombard invasion she would have been nearly ninety years old. By what reasoning, then, does the same author establish elsewhere that this could be the Matrona whose relics were translated to Barcelona, when we have previously affirmed on the most weighty testimony that they are judged by the most serious men who contemplated them closely to belong entirely to a very small girl?

[10] But about the time when Matrona came to Campania by angelic admonition, we shall shortly inquire, and how credible the inscription cited for that purpose is. First, let us set forth what Baronius thinks about her in his Annotations on the Roman Martyrology. Was she brought from Africa to Campania? Thus he writes on the Ides of March, letter c, among other things: "Two other Martyrs named Matrona are recorded as having suffered in Africa under the Emperor Diocletian, together with many others, whose deeds, described from Proconsular Acts, are found in Surius on February 11, in the entry for Saturninus and his companions. We believe that one of these is the one who is held in honor near Capua in Campania: for we think she was translated there by African Bishops who fled during the Vandal persecution, as happened with the relics of other Martyrs, as we say of Castus, Aemilius, Marcellinus, and Saturninus on October 5. We are more willingly led to such a conjecture in an obscure matter than to give credence to certain Acts that in no way hold together, in which it is said that Matrona came from Lusitania to Capua." Neither is this proved

[11] So Baronius, without any other proof than that he considers the Acts of the Capuan Matrona at hand to hold together in no way. Even if we granted that, would it follow that the relics of one of the two who, together with St. Saturninus and many others, obtained the crown of martyrdom at Carthage and are venerated on February 11, were brought from Africa to Campania during the Vandal persecution? Could there not have been another Matrona, since Baronius admits that many holy Martyrs are venerated under that name? Monachus thinks thus about this conjecture of the standard-bearer of sacred history, as he rightly calls him: "If so great a man were to opine," he says, "that St. Matrona came here alive with the holy African Bishops, and was afterwards admonished about searching for the body of St. Priscus, I would most willingly agree. But not otherwise, unless he were to bring some reason that seemed more solid and probable than the things narrated about the Lusitanian Virgin Matrona." Monachus continues: since many things oppose it "But while he opines that the relics of a deceased Matrona were brought here, since the entire history is thus denied, I cannot assent. Why should I deny that St. Matrona was ill and suffering from a flow of blood, if the most ancient and most constant devotion is that women, and even men, whatever blood-related illness they suffer, commend themselves to Blessed Matrona? Why should I deny that St. Matrona built the basilica of St. Priscus, if the feast of the Dedication of that Church is called, by the most ancient and most constant tradition among the Capuans, Aversans, Calatins, and Casertans, the feast of St. Matrona?"

CHAPTER II

The age and royal lineage of St. Matrona from Lusitania.

[12] Michael Monachus continues the discussion he had begun, In the history of St. Matrona there is nothing unusual in favor of asserting that the Campanians possess the relics of St. Matrona received from Africa — full of honor and dignity, both on account of the pilgrimage voluntarily undertaken to them from the remotest borders of Spain, and the residence and domicile established among them, not for a brief time but from her very adolescence for the entire remainder of her life; and on account of the discovery of the tomb in which the remains of their first Bishop, St. Priscus, had been laid, and finally on account of the basilica built in his name, of which part is still visible. He continues, I say, the action begun by us in the preceding paragraph and related by us, with these words: "Why should I deny the Acts, in which nothing contradictory, nothing improbable, nothing unusual is found?" Then he extensively and learnedly shows that nothing is narrated in those Acts that does not have many parallels in the Lives of other Saints and in ecclesiastical histories, and he expends almost excessive diligence on an argument that is not necessary, since there is no one who could deny that similar things are found everywhere.

[13] There are, however, two chief points that may not seem sufficiently explained: one pertains to the time at which the Virgin is reported to have come to Italy, an inscription placed in the church for which conflicting dates are adduced. The other he raises himself as an objection: how could she be called the daughter of the King of Portugal if Portugal at that time did not have the title of a kingdom? The solution to this latter difficulty is not hard: has erroneous chronological characters the former, if it cannot be solved, must be cut. The difficulty lies in this: on the walls of the church of St. Priscus, besides the paintings with which we said the entire life of St. Matrona had been depicted, there exists an inscription, carved in what Monachus calls a quasi-Lombard or quasi-Frankish character, in this form: "In the Year of the Lord five hundred and six, the fourteenth Indiction, in the reign of the Emperor Zeno in the city of Constantinople, with erroneous chronological characters Pope Gelasius being in the city of Rome, Blessed Matrona caused this basilica to be built in honor of Blessed Priscus, and with the authority of the aforesaid Pope and other Prelates she constituted and ordained that all who should devoutly visit this basilica should receive an Indulgence of one thousand one hundred and two years for their sins." But (to pass over the barbarism of style) these chronological notes by no means agree with one another, except that the fourteenth Indiction did fall in the year of Christ 506. But at that time, the computation of years from the birth of Christ was not used for ordering common chronology. Neither the pontificate of Gelasius nor the reign of Zeno reached that year. For the latter had begun to reign when Leo the Younger was sole Consul, which was the year of the now-received Era 474: he died in mid-April of the year 491, when Olybrius the Younger was sole Consul. But St. Pope Gelasius held office from March 2, 492, to November 21, 496. What then? from the ignorance of the writer Shall the entire credibility of the tradition handed down by ancestors concerning her acts collapse? Shall the entire reverence for the most ancient devotion be extinguished? Shall the entire memory of so many benefits received from St. Matrona be obliterated — because the person who composed this inscription was betrayed by a lapse of memory or by his own ignorance?

[14] What if there is not even an error in those words? For no one can be so dull-witted as to think that all these things happened in a single year: the noble Virgin fell ill; many and prolonged remedies were applied; when these had proved fruitless, she implored the Divine by chaste prayers; a vow was also conceived, as Ferrari and certain others piously suspect, of preserving virginity for as long as she lived, if she recovered her health; a long journey was prepared and completed; the body of St. Priscus was found; a church was built for him; leave was sought from the Roman Pontiff unless they are conveniently explained for undertaking this enterprise and then arranging the dedication. But if under Zeno's administration of the Empire she came to Italy, and afterwards under Pope Gelasius she built the basilica of St. Priscus, and in the year 506 she arranged for its dedication and for it to be adorned and secured with the treasure of various Indulgences — will there be anything that anyone could rightly complain holds together in no way? Is it therefore certain and beyond doubt that things happened thus? We do not assert so; but who would assert it, by what testimony of an ancient writer could he be refuted? Now therefore, since the remains of the temple built by the Saint, the very many miracles performed there, the annual feast of Matrona in that church celebrated on the Ides of March from all antiquity, and piously and the frequent concourse of people there all support this narrative — is it not better to retain, or allow those who wish to retain, the opinion that has long been deeply rooted in all minds, rather than to invent the notion that the relics of another Matrona were brought here, about which there is no writing or other monument anywhere?

[15] Was she herself the daughter of the King of Portugal? The other difficulty is: how could she be called the daughter of the King of Portugal if Portugal did not then have the title of a kingdom? But Kings she nevertheless had — not from the old Lusitanian stock, but foreign barbarians: Alans, Vandals, Suevi, who, as St. Isidore testifies, in the Era 446 (that is, the year of Christ 408), occupying the Spains, perpetrated slaughter and devastation with bloody raids, burned cities, and exhausted the plundered substance. There were Kings there at that time But three years later, that is, in the Era 449, "finally, turned by the Lord's mercy to making peace, they divided the provinces among themselves by lot for their possession: the Suevi occupied Gallaecia, the Alans Lusitania and the province of Carthaginensis, and the Vandals, surnamed Silingi, received Baetica by lot. Atax of the Alans in Lusitania The Spaniards, however, beset by calamities in their remaining cities and fortresses, submitted to the servitude of the barbarian masters." In the Era 454, which was the year of Christ 416, Wallia, King of the Goths in Spain, exterminated all the Siling Vandals in Baetica by war. defeated by Wallia the Goth in the year 416 He so routed the Alans, who had dominated the Vandals and Suevi, that when their King Atax was killed, the few survivors, forgetting the name of their kingdom, subjected themselves to the rule of Gunderic, King of the Vandals, who had settled in Gallaecia. So Isidore in his history of the Goths. In his history of the Vandals, however: Gunderic of the Vandals in Gallaecia "The first King of the Vandals to succeed in Spain was Gunderic, reigning in the regions of Gallaecia for eighteen years. He, breaking the treaty of peace with the Suevi, plundered the Balearic Islands of the Tarraconensian province: then turning from Carthago Spartaria with all the Vandals to Baetica, he destroyed Hispalis, sent it for plundering with slaughter. When he had extended the authority of his royal power into the Church of the same city, forthwith by God's judgment he was seized by a demon at the doors of the church and perished." In the Era 467, that is, the year of Christ 429, Gaiseric, brother of Gunderic, succeeded him in the kingdom for forty years; he, having become an apostate from being a Catholic, is reported to have been the first to cross into Arian

perfidy. He, from the coast of the province of Baetica, crossed over with all the Vandals and their families to Mauretania and Africa.

[16] From the entry, therefore, of these three nations into Spain, which occurred, as stated, in the Era 446, the year of Christ 408, Hermericus, Rechila, of the Suevi in Gallaecia and Lusitania there were always those who held Portugal, or a notable part of it, under the royal title: first the Alans in Lusitania; the Suevi together with the Vandals in Gallaecia, of which part is now reckoned under Portugal; and when the Vandals crossed to Africa, the Suevi alone. Their first chief was Hermericus; his son Rechila, in addition to other provinces brought under his power, annexed captured Mérida to his own kingdom. In that city, in the Era 486, or the year of Christ 448, he ended his life under the worship, it is reported, of paganism. His son Rechiar, Rechiar, a Catholic having become a Catholic, succeeded to the kingdom; but after nine years he was defeated in battle by Theodoric, King of the Goths, his father-in-law, and then captured and killed at a place called Portucale. Then the Suevi who remained in the farthest part of Gallaecia set up Maldra, son of Atsila, as their King; Maldra soon another faction of them set up Frantanes. Frantanes When he died, the rest, having made peace with Maldra, plundered Lusitania together. In the Era 498, the year of Christ 460, Frumarius after Maldra was killed, a dispute arose between Frumarius and Remismund over the royal power. In the Era 502, when Frumarius died, Remismund, Remismund, who becomes Arian having summoned all the Suevi into his dominion by royal right, restored peace, entered into a treaty with Theodoric, King of the Goths, from whom he received arms and a wife. From there he crossed to Lusitania, plundered Coimbra, which he had deceived with peace, and occupied Lisbon. In his time, Ajax, a Galatian by birth, having become an Arian apostate, emerged among the Suevi with the help of their King as an enemy of the Catholic faith and the divine Trinity; bringing this pestilential poison from the Gothic region of Gaul, and infecting the entire Suevic nation with a lethal contagion.

[17] As were his successors for 100 years The Kings of the Suevi remained in that heresy for nearly a hundred years: St. Isidore did not record their names, since they were deemed unworthy of having their memory preserved among orthodox writers. At length, as the same author has it, Theodemirus, Catholic, in the year 558 Theodemirus assumed the royal power; who immediately, having destroyed the error of Arian impiety, restored the Suevi to the Catholic faith, with the help of Martin, Bishop of the monastery of Dumium, renowned in faith and learning: whose Life will be given on March 20. He attended, in the third year of King Ariamirus or Theodomir, the year of Christ 561, the First Council of Braga, and then in the Era 607 the Second Council of Lugo. The Suevi reigned in Spain for 170 years, according to St. Isidore, or 177 according to García de Loaisa.

[18] It is clear from what we have brought forward that there were Kings in the provinces of Portugal at the time when St. Matrona is reported to have lived. Which of these was the father of St. Matrona? But which of them was her father is not established. Some judge it was Rechiar, because he was Catholic. By that argument one might equally suspect the same of Maldra, Frantanes, or Frumarius. For since the Saint is recorded as having reported the heavenly vision to her parents, and they approved it and furnished what was necessary for the journey, and yet none of these three Kings reigned long enough to have been able to send a twelve-year-old daughter to Italy, she could have been born before her father was advanced to the throne. Furthermore, since she is said to have received leave from her parents, this can be understood of guardians, or even of her father's successor. We shall also readily grant that, even if she was not born of a reigning King, she was believed to have been of royal blood; and that even if she herself concealed this, her companions either revealed it, or the Campanians conjectured it from the numerous retinue and equipment. Was he certainly a King? And even if this was not as great as the painting showed, that long and arduous pilgrimage could still have been taken as an indication of royal lineage and a royal character. As for the twelve Virgins who are said to have accompanied her, if they were not attached to serve her, they perhaps followed her of their own accord, with the consent of each one's parents, together with some retinue of grave men and women, under whose protection she and her companions would be. Finally, however the whole matter may have stood, it should not by any means be allowed that we should not, as far as possible, defer to antiquity. Which is also the opinion of Philip Ferrari in the Catalog of the Saints of Italy, in his annotation on the encomium of this very Virgin on the Ides of March.

[19] George Cardoso in volume 2 of the Portuguese Hagiologion, at March 15, page 184, column 2, letter c, in his commentary, Was Remismund the Arian her father? thinks she was the daughter of Remismund or of his successor, whom he calls Theodulus — like a rose born from thorns, or rather plucked from them by the propitious will of God, lest the poison of the Arian heresy infect her chaste and holy mind; and for this reason she more readily resolved to fix her abode in Italy, where she had recovered the health of her body, lest in Spain she should lose the health of her soul. If it seems surprising to anyone that an Arian father would have allowed his daughter to go in hope of dispelling her illness to the tomb of St. Priscus the Bishop, let him remember both that this hope was instilled in her by the Angel's words, and that the Arians did not abominate the tombs of the holy disciples of Christ: [for even heretics and Gentiles sometimes invoke the help of Saints for themselves and their own] since we know that even Calvinists, sworn enemies of the Saints, who in the past century overthrew the monuments of the Saints and burned their bones, now sometimes reverently kiss the relics of the Saints when they have found them beneficial to their health, venerate the sacred places dedicated to them, and draw drink for themselves and their own — both children and servants and even beasts — from the fountains which are said to have been elicited by invocation of the Divine or dedicated to the Saints for some other cause, and together with it, health. The Gentiles themselves are not averse to similar things. And by this means, many adopt a benign attitude toward Catholics and gradually embrace their doctrines and rites. We narrated a closely similar event in volume 1 of January, on the eighth day, chapter 9 of the Life of St. Gudula the Virgin: where the daughter of some overseas King, still a Pagan, suffering from her very cradle from a multiple and most severe weakness of limbs, was several times divinely admonished in dreams to come to Brabant, a province of Second Belgium, and visit the tomb of St. Gudula the Virgin, and humbly beseech her, certain to obtain through her patronage the recovery of health. And so it came to pass. Wherefore her father and mother also came to venerate the same Saint, themselves too, to the monastery of Moorsel, where Gudula's tomb was: and both received baptism together with their daughter.

CHAPTER III

The many benefits of St. Matrona toward mortals.

[20] What has already been reported above — that from the very numerous votive offerings St. Matrona is invoked against a flow of blood which men and women daily bring to the chapel and tomb of St. Matrona, it is widely known among the Capuans and their neighbors that her patronage especially stanches a flow of blood — need not be confirmed with further examples or testimonies. For rain and fair weather But not only in this matter is her beneficence toward mortals seen: for if they wish for rain, if for fair weather, if for any other thing, they institute processions to her chapel, which is in the church of St. Priscus. These are attended with great piety by people of every sex and age, with processions instituted for this purpose and indeed young women go barefoot, with their hair loose, loudly crying out "Mercy!": and whatever they ask, as the Reverend Don Silvester Aiossa wrote to us, they almost always obtain through the merits of St. Matrona and St. Priscus.

[21] The same Saint has driven away many diseases with heavenly remedies, offering herself to be seen by the sick and even anointing the affected parts of the body. A twofold example of this was written to us by the same person: we give it here as received from a grave, pious, and learned man — not, however, as approved by the supreme judgment of the Church. The first happened to Julia de Monaco, the sister of Michael Monachus, appearing to a sick woman, she anoints her paralyzed arm and side and aunt of the same Don Silvester. For nine whole months, her right arm and side had been paralyzed by a certain stroke, already threatening death, with the doctors having given her up for dead several times. But on the very night when they predicted she would die, awakened from sleep, she beheld entering her room St. Matrona, surrounded by wondrous splendor, carrying a small vessel in her hands, who thus addressed her: "Rise, Julia; for I am here to heal you." But Julia, observing that the form of the Saint appearing to her was like the one she had painted in her room — dressed, that is, in a green garment, with flowing hair, after the manner of young Virgins — thus addressed her: "O my holy Matrona, what is this grace? I, having entirely lost my strength, can by no means move." and instantly heals her But the Saint, smiling gently, approached the bed of the sick woman and anointed her arm and side, freeing her from every discomfort of her long illness. Julia immediately rose from her bed and called her father and mother, she publishes the favor repeating these words many times: "I am well." They, astonished by the sudden event, asked who had cured her. "St. Matrona," she said, "cured me," and showed her arm anointed with heavenly oil. Both parents, pressing their faces to the ground, gave thanks to God and St. Matrona; and the next morning they went with their daughter to the church and showed her arm, entirely healed, to all the people. And the Rector of that Church, Don Luca Pisano, a learned and pious Priest, offered the sacrifice of the Mass at the altar of St. Matrona and gave thanks to God for the gift.

[22] Julia throughout her entire life celebrated the benefit she had received from heaven: and proclaims it throughout her whole life "and often asked me," he writes, "to commit it to writing for the memory of posterity, since she knew I was devoted with a particular devotion to the cult of St. Matrona and had published an Italian epitome of her life. This writing she showed to all the Priests who did not know of it: such as the Rector of the Church of St. Priscus, Don Cesare Bociardo, Doctor of both Laws, and Tommaso Bociardo, a distinguished physician of our time, and likewise Pietro Giuseppe Bociardo, Doctor of Sacred Theology and both Laws, Pietro Paolo de Angelo, my cousin and her nephew and that of Don Michael Monachus — for he had three sisters. The said Don Pietro Paolo is now the Rector of the Church of St. Priscus: for he had devoted his mind to studies so as to imitate our uncle at least in this way, and then exercised the learning and eloquence he had acquired in preaching sermons to the people, and gave Lenten sermons in many places of the Capuan diocese. Julia was his and my aunt, a woman endowed with distinguished virtue and especially with singular devotion toward St. Matrona. She lived many years after the aforementioned illness, and finally died around 1654, nearly eighty years old."

[23] Not dissimilar is what the same Aiossa wrote to us in 1650, in this manner: "In the year 1589, Julia Palmeria, from the town of St. Priscus in the diocese of Capua, having given birth to a son, to whom she gave the name Giovanni Carlo, a few

days later fell into a fever which clung to her from the feast of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul to All Saints' Day. [Another woman with a similar paralysis of the side and a long-lasting fever, already nearly given up] After many remedies were tried in vain, a paralysis of the nerves also completely debilitated her left side, and she now needed the help of two women to be moved from her bed. When therefore the doctors despaired of her life, she, oppressed with languor and pains of her whole body, heard someone saying that she would die within a few days. Deeply shaken by these words, she turned with all the feeling of her soul to her patroness St. Matrona, and prayed for her help. Two days later, about three hours before sunrise, when the door of her room needed to be open because of the excessive heat of her illness and difficulty breathing, and the splendor of the moon entered through it so that it seemed almost broad daylight, and she herself, being awake, was thinking about death, suddenly she saw entering a most beautiful girl, with a shining countenance, of such elegant appearance that she remembered never having seen anyone like her, clad in a yellow garment, with loose hair, carrying a small vessel in her hands. Entering, she greeted the sick woman appearing and anointing her in a similar manner, she heals her and added: 'I could not come to you sooner, because I was attending another sick person in that city' (the name of which had slipped Julia's memory). 'Now take care to place yourself in a comfortable position, for I wish to anoint you with this ointment.' The sick woman replied: 'I cannot move, since I am debilitated by paralysis.' The Saint came closer and anointed the left side, which was languid, and the arm. Then she bade her turn over. When she denied she could, the Saint said: 'I will help you,' and placing her hands on her body, turned her. Julia later confessed that the hands touching her seemed softer than cotton; and when she wished to thank her, the Saint had already withdrawn from her sight.

[24] She immediately called her mother, who was keeping watch in the same room, and asked whether she had understood everything that the most beautiful girl had said. The mother denied having heard or seen anything. Julia recounted to her everything St. Matrona had said, and asked her to get up and light a candle, for she was well. The mother, as if dismissing her daughter's words, and thinking she had been rendered irrational by the force of her illness, nevertheless went to light a candle. Meanwhile Julia rose from her bed, crying out: 'I am well! St. Matrona has cured me!' The mother was astonished when, bringing the light, she found walking about the one whose death had been pronounced shortly before. Immediately therefore they gave thanks to St. Matrona; she immediately publishes the news and when dawn broke, they publicly announced the heavenly favor, with the townspeople rushing in rivalry to see unharmed the one they had thought dead, and asking how she had so unexpectedly recovered her health. She narrated the vision that had been presented to her during the night. This was indeed observed: that the arm and side which had been anointed appeared far more radiant than the other, which had not been anointed.

[25] At the same morning hour, but a little later, she went to the church; and while she was praying alone in the chapel of St. Matrona, and on that very day visits her chapel she noticed the stone covering the Saint's tomb gradually rising, so that two or three fingers could already easily be inserted. While she was suspended in suspense at this sight and anxious about where the matter was tending, a multitude of people came along and diverted her attention; and when she went outside and soon turned her eyes back to the tomb of the Saint, she saw nothing more. She persuaded herself, however, that without the noisy crowd of people, the Saint would have shown her the relics preserved in the tomb. Julia narrated these things before men of great authority, and the whole matter was entirely public; and Julia herself was still prepared (for she was still living in 1650, when he was writing) to confirm what has been said under oath, if need be. She is a woman of very honorable lineage, of proven life, grave and pious." So Aiossa, to which he adds:

[26] In the old cell of the Saint, pigs die for a certain woman "Other benefits of the same holy Virgin bestowed on mortals are recorded. Margarita Vellonesia, wife of a certain Giovanni Battista, lived for eight years in the houses of the Church of St. Priscus, which we noted above from Michael Monachus are called the Motta, and in the old dwelling of St. Matrona, which is on the side facing the sanctuary of the said Church, where there are still two cells, similar to those of the Capuchin Fathers: that is, square, eight palms wide. In one of these, pigs, donkeys, and other animals were stabled: for since she was poor, she attended to nothing but her own convenience. When on a certain day I showed her that I did not approve of this, she simply told me that the pigs and donkeys for which she had made a stable there had all died within a few months of dysentery, which had caused her great despair. I said it was very wrong to abuse so holy a place, for it was one of the old cells of St. Matrona. I therefore urged her to clean the place at once, gave her an image of the Saint to place there, when it was cleaned, things went well for her and advised her to recite the Rosary of the Mother of God with the girls who were there. She did this promptly, with great benefit both to her health and her fortunes: for her health always remained good, and her domestic resources increased, so that she now seemed to herself rich for her station. After many years she moved out of those quarters, and now, in the year 1660 (the same Reverend Don Aiossa was then writing to us), she complains that her affairs are going badly and that she finds herself in poverty."

[27] Elsewhere the church of St. Simmius was not profaned with impunity "What happened here to animals stabled in the old dwelling of St. Matrona, the same thing happened within the city of Capua in a certain small church dedicated to St. Simmius — or, as Monachus on page 194 of the Sanctuarium interprets, St. Symmachus. Whether disfigured by age or gradually profaned by the negligence of those who should have cared for it, horses and other animals brought into it died within a short time — and this happened many times." So Aiossa.

[28] "But here he calls us back to St. Matrona and narrates the following, which we are not entirely sure is different from what has already been related. The public and legitimate Acts have this: 'I, Joanna de Angelo, with full and undoubted faith affirm that when I was a young girl of about nine years, St. Matrona appears to the young girl I was living with my aunt, called Margarita, in the houses of the parish church of St. Priscus, which were formerly St. Matrona's. One day around the twentieth hour, I see coming toward me a distinguished Lady, dressed in a fine white linen garment; who gently touched my face with her hand and spoke thus: "Daughter, where is your aunt Margarita?" I replied that she had just gone out. and bids her warn her aunt about the same neglect She said: "Tell her when she returns to grant me this favor: that she no longer bring pigs and other unclean animals into that cell, but clean it out, and there recite the Rosary." Having said this, she departed from the atrium with a dignified step. I was frightened by the sight of such a foreign woman and was ill for three days, and then recovered. As soon as my aunt returned home, I told her what I had been commanded. She immediately obeyed, cleaned the place, and recited the Rosary. I affirm these things juridically for the attestation of truth, and I have caused them to be entered in the records, in the presence of Don Silvester Aiossa, Rector of the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, called de Quadrapone, in the city of Capua, so that they might be made public through those who are zealous for the honor of St. Matrona, for the propagation of the memory of this matter to posterity.'" And from these things that have been narrated, the history of St. Matrona is confirmed: namely that she came to these shores, lived here until her death, and founded a convent here — since the most ancient cells can still be seen, which are also called St. Matrona's.

[29] During a time of plague, her voice was heard by a woman praying to her "When a pestilence was afflicting the Campanians, certain pious women used to come by night to the church of St. Priscus to offer prayers before the image of St. Matrona. To one of them, as she prayed, this voice reached her ears: 'Daughter, listen to what I will say in one word.' She, not knowing what or whence the voice was, was struck with fear: and shortly afterwards the same voice repeated: 'You did not wish to hear one word from me.' She then suspected the voice was sent by St. Matrona, because she was often seen and heard she was often seen and heard by various people by various men and women living near that church, giving good wishes or advice about matters to be attended to."

[30] "I think it may be permitted to add one more thing to illustrate the memory of St. Matrona — trifling indeed, but for which similar things exist in the Acts of other Saints. In the year 1623, a tall peach tree was felled, A peach tree planted by her stood for about 1100 years which tradition received from ancestors reports was once planted by St. Matrona. Whoever may judge that a tree could not have lasted for eleven centuries should recall that fig tree called the Ruminalis, under which the she-wolf was said to have suckled Romulus and Remus, which is said to have stood beyond the 800th year from the founding of the City; nor can it be considered to have been a small and newly planted tree when the she-wolf brought her teats to the infants beneath it. Moreover, a peach tree seems firmer and more robust than a fig. And what of the thorns in which St. Benedict is recorded to have rolled to extinguish the ardor of the flesh? like the thorns of St. Benedict They are said to still exist, but transformed into rose bushes by rose plants grafted into them by St. Francis or some other Saint, from which some plucked leaves were once sent to us from Italy as a pious little gift by a religious friend. But those thorns now seem to be somewhat older than that peach tree planted by St. Matrona was forty years ago. Still, if tradition is mistaken, it may have been propagated by grafting or otherwise."

[31] "So far what we have been able to learn about St. Matrona, supplied by Michael Monachus and his nephew Silvester Aiossa, both most learned men and most zealous for amplifying the honor of the Saints. From the former, long before he published his Sanctuarium, Ferrari had received what he wrote in the Catalog of the Saints of Italy, St. Matrona was unknown to the older Portuguese writers where he rightly noted that no record of this Matrona exists among the Portuguese writers, as far as he knew. Certainly our own Antonius Vasconcellius, in his description of the kingdom of Lusitania, though he most diligently sought out whatever existed anywhere pertaining to the Portuguese Saints, makes no mention of St. Matrona anywhere. From Ferrari, Luis dos Anjos drew what he published about this Saint in his Garden of the Saints of

Portugal — but not what he asserted: that she was crowned with martyrdom and her relics translated to Spain and preserved on the Hill of Jupiter near Barcelona. For neither of these things is found in Ferrari; much less the claim of the same author that St. Matrona with her nuns observed the Rule of St. Augustine. Did she observe the Rule of St. Augustine in her convent? Nor does his argument sufficiently prove this: that no Rule was so generally widespread and popular at that time, at least in Italy. But it is even more surprising that she is said to be among the first who are read to have lived in a monastery — unless he is speaking only of Augustinian nuns. For St. Eustochium, to omit countless others, was much older than she; older still were Brigid in Ireland and Geneviève in Gaul. Nor would that argument have any force even if we granted that the Rule of St. Augustine was the most widely known. For Virgins who embraced the cenobitic life usually received constitutions written for them by Bishops, or by Abbots celebrated for virtue and wisdom, by which their convents would be formed to perfection. Thus, at the very time when Matrona seems to have built her convent near the church of St. Priscus, St. Caesarius, Bishop of Arles, prescribed a Rule for the monastery of his sister St. Caesaria, whom we presented on the occasion of her birthday, January 12.

[32] Luis dos Anjos is followed in his Lusitanian monastic chronology by António da Purificação, some assert who writes that St. Matrona belonged to his Order, that is, the Hermits of St. Augustine, and was crowned with martyrdom around the year 540, together with all the other Virgins of the same monastery. Philip Elsius in his Augustinian Encomiasticon likewise ascribes her to the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, and states she was slaughtered around the year 560 for the Catholic faith with twelve Lusitanian nuns, and that some of her relics are preserved at Barcelona. These things he recites in the very words of the author from the Alphabetum Augustinianum of Thomas de Herrera. Indeed, Herrera believes we should assent to the conjecture of Baronius, which we reported above in number 10, and then adds: on a weak foundation "But let us grant that the Acts of the Lusitanian Matrona hold together; whence will the Augustinian monachate hold together?" He then adduces the reasons, already cited above, of Luis dos Anjos, whom he calls the first author of this claim. And he adds: "But we judge these foundations too weak for so great a structure, and we desire the treasury of Augustinian glory to be enriched with at least more probable claims." He does not therefore absolutely adopt her into his family, though Cardoso in his Commentary, letter c, page 185, column 1, seems to have so interpreted him.