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.