ON SAINT DULA, A HANDMAID, MARTYR AT NICOMEDIA.
CommentaryDula, a handmaid, martyr at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)
[1] After the glorious mysteries of the Annunciation and the Lord's Passion, and the indicated death of the Apostle Saint James, the next entry in the Martyrology of Saint Jerome in three very ancient copies reads thus: Sacred veneration: "At Nicomedia, the birthday of Dula"; in the fourth and most ancient codex, "a handmaid" is added, and this word is interpretive of the former, for δούλη in Greek means handmaid in Latin. It could also be doubted whether, since the proper name of this Martyr was unknown, the name Dula or Handmaid was substituted. The genuine Martyrology of Bede has these words about this Saint: "And at Nicomedia, the birthday of Dula, handmaid of a soldier, who was killed for chastity." The same words are read in Rabanus, Ado, Notker, and in various manuscripts. Today's Roman Martyrology thus records: "At Nicomedia, Saint Dula, handmaid of a certain soldier, who for preserving chastity merited the crown of martyrdom." Galesinius explains these things somewhat more fully: "At Nicomedia, Saint Dula the Virgin, who, being the handmaid of a soldier hostile to the Christian religion, bravely met death for defending the faith and her virginity." The name of Dula in the primary manuscript codex of Usuard, the name variously written which is preserved at Paris in the monastery of Saint Germain des Pres, as also in the manuscript of Utrecht, Saint Mary's, is written Theola; in the Brussels manuscript of Saint Gudula, Dulia; in the Ado of Saint Laurence near Liege, Dulca. But "Puella" (Girl) is read in the Usuard printed at Paris in the year 1536. Peter de Natalibus, book 3 of his Catalogue, chapter 230, citing Ado, fashioned this eulogy for her: "Dula, Virgin and martyr, suffered in the city of Nicomedia. eulogy from Peter de Natalibus. She was the handmaid of a certain soldier of the Pagans: whom, when he wished to know her carnally and she utterly refused, saying that adultery was prohibited by Christian law; when he heard that she was a Christian, she was killed by the same master for the faith and chastity on the eighth before the Kalends of April." In some manuscript codices, various Martyrs follow, about whom we treat under the following title.