ON ST. BASSIANUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, CONFESSOR,
PROBABLY BETWEEN THE YEAR 453 AND 458.
SYLLOGE.
His manner of life; his disciples, and among them St. Matrona of Perge, who embraced it; his age, memory in the sacred Fasti, ecclesiastical cult.
Bassianus, confessor, at Constantinople. (S.)
BY C. B.
Although St. Bassianus, or, as he is also called by others, Basianus, has not been brought from the sacred or ecclesiastical books of the Greeks in which he is commemorated into the present-day Roman Martyrology, The Saint, who is mentioned by Castellan, and by elogia, as has happened to not a few other Saints, Castellan nevertheless lists him today in his Universal Martyrology. Nor indeed is this martyrologist on that account to be criticized. For although the printed Menaea of the Greeks and the Menology of Sirleto, from which, unless I am mistaken, he took Bassianus, now and then reckon among the Saints even those unworthy, or at least destitute of cult, as may be seen with us in tome 1 of August among the Patriarchs of Constantinople, in tome 3 of September, page 744, among the Passed Over, and likewise elsewhere and by name also in tome 6 of the same month of September, page 661, this nevertheless does not hold as regards this Saint of ours, as will become plain from what is to be alleged. Following, therefore, the footsteps of Castellan, I treat here in our Work of St. Bassianus as of a Saint, and in order to do so I first transcribe here the chief elogia with which he is adorned by the Greeks, and then subjoin to these some things by which the matters that concern either the deeds or the age or the cult of the Saint may be discussed, and the doubtful and obscure points elucidated. I begin from the elogium which the great printed Menaea of the Greeks supply, and from the little verses customarily placed before it. These, in which allusion is made to the name of the Saint, βασιανὸς, as if compounded of the substantive βάσις, in Latin gradus, and the adverb ἄνω, in Latin sursum, and at the same time both to this and to another adverb of opposite signification, κάτω, in Latin deorsum, expressed in these Greek words,
Ὁ Βασιανός τὸν κάτω λιπών βιὸν, Χαίρων πρὸς ἀυτὴν τὴν ἄνω χωρεῖ βάσιν,
are rendered in Latin thus:
Basianus, while he leaves the life that is below, Rejoicing goes up to that very step which is above.
[2] from the Menaea, So, namely, it is indicated here that the Saint, having left the earth, passed to heaven; and as regards the elogium, that which is not prolix, and which is conceived in these Greek words, Οὗτος ὁ ὃσιος πατὴρ ἡμὼν Βασιανὸς ὑπῆρχεν ἐξ ἀνατολῶν τῆς Σύρων χώρας. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας Μαρκιανοῦ τοῦ εὐσεβεστάτου ἦλθεν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει καὶ τοσοῦτον διέλαμψεν ἀρεταῖς καὶ θάυμασιν, ὡς καὶ ναὸν κτίσαι ἐπ᾽ ὀνόματι ἀυτοῦ τὸν βασιλέα, ὃς καὶ μέχρι τῆς σήμερον ἐστὶν. Επληθύνθη δὲ ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν μαθητῶν ἀυτοῦ ὡς εἰς τριακοσίους. Ἐξ ὧν ῆν καὶ ἡ ἁγία Ματρώνα. Ὅυτω δὲ βιώσας καὶ πολλοὺς τῷ Θεῷ προσαγαγὼν καὶ νόσους θεραπεύσας, καὶ θαυμάτων ἀπείρων ἀυτουργὸς γεγονὼς ἐν
βαθυτάτῳ γήρα πρὸς Κυριὸν ἐξεδήμησεν, is made Latin in this manner: This holy Father of ours was born in the Eastern region of the Syrians; and he came to Constantinople while the most religious emperor Marcian was guiding the reins of empire, and so shone with virtues and miracles that the emperor even built a temple under his name, which is seen even today. Further, the number of his disciples, among whom was also holy Matrona, grew to about three hundred; and when he had thus passed his life, and had brought many to God, and had cured diseases, and had wrought infinite miracles, he passed to the Lord in extreme old age. Such is the elogium of St. Bassianus which the Menaea, and at the same time also Maximus Margunius in his Graeco-barbarous Martyrology, who is accustomed to adhere closely to the Menaea, exhibit; and it agrees so exactly with the elogium which is contained in the Menology of Sirleto that, if anyone knows the things narrated of our Saint in the Menaea, he has at the same time also perceived the things reported of him in Sirleto's, and that consequently the elogium contained in this need not be added to the elogium of the Menaea just transcribed here in order that a fuller notice of the matters concerning St. Bassianus may be afforded.
[3] But of two other elogia of our Saint still to be transcribed here, by the Menology of Basil of which the one is supplied by the Menology commonly called Basil's, the other by the manuscript Constantinopolitan Synaxarion of Sirmond, of which we have a copy, one must speak somewhat otherwise. This will become perfectly clear to anyone who has compared these with the elogium given from the Menaea. The first, that is, the one which is extant in the Menology of Basil, published in Greek and Latin by the zeal and labour of Cardinal Annibale Albani with the types of Urbino in the year 1727, has thus in Latin there: Our holy father Basianus, born in the Eastern region of the Syrians, having set out for Constantinople under the pious emperor Marcian, on account of his virtue at once became known to the emperor, who not only honoured him as a father, but also built buildings in his name, which are extant up to this day. For he was most apt at teaching, so that he persuaded many to leave the world and lead the monastic life: among whose number was holy Matrona: and the number of his disciples grew up to three hundred. Besides, he wrought many miracles. Moreover, if anyone had fallen into some very grievous sin, and on that account despaired of his salvation, the holy Man, taking upon himself a like sorrow with him, did not desist from his endeavour until he had brought the fallen man, snatched from the hands of the devil, through penance to the most clement God. Furthermore, being illustrious with the gift of prophecy, he profited many when he foretold future things. His life having been completed in this manner, worn out with old age he passed to the Lord, and was buried by his disciples in the buildings which bear his name. Compare now this elogium with the elogium transcribed here above from the Menaea, and you will see that fewer things are asserted of St. Bassianus in the latter than in the former.
[4] I proceed to the elogium contained in the Synaxarion of Sirmond. and by the Sirmond Synaxarion This sets forth the matters concerning our Saint somewhat more diffusely still than the elogium from the Menology of Basil already given, which besides, as I shall note below, does not seem to speak accurately enough towards the end. The Greek words of which it is composed are these following: Μνημὴ τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἠμῶν Βασιανοῦ, ὃς ἐγένετο ἐπὶ Μαρκιανοῦ τοῦ εὐσεβεστάτου· ὤρμητο δὲ ἐκ τῶν τῆς ἀνατολῆς μερῶν ἐξ ἀπαλῶν ὀνύχων καὶ ἔως γήρως τῇ τῶν καλῶν ἐργασίᾳ ἐνδιατρίψας καὶ πολλοὺς τόπους διαμείψας καὶ πλείστοις ὠφέλεια καὶ σωτηριώδης ὁδὸς γεγονὼς καὶ τὴν βασιλίδα τῶν πόλεων καταλαβὼν μοναστήριον ἐν τάυτη ἐδείματο, Σεβῆρον τινα ἔχων συνεφαπτόμενον ἀυτῷ εἰς τὸ ἔργον καὶ Ιοάννην ὑπατικὸν. Ἐν τάυτῃ τῇ μονῇ καὶ ἡ τιμία Ματρώνα ἀνδρεῖον σχῆμα περιβαλλομένη εἰσηλθεῖν ἐθάρσησε καὶ μετὰ πολλῶν ἡμερῶν παραδρομὴν τῷ Μακαρίῳ ἐγνώσθη. Τούτου τὴν ἔνθεαν πολίτειαν οὐ μόνον ἄρχοντες κατεπλάγησαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ βασιλεῖς ὑπερεθάυμαζον ἀρχόμενοι πρὸς ἀυτὸν καὶ ὠφελείας τυγχάνοντες· ἐπληθύνθη δὲ καὶ ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν μαθητῶν ἀυτοῦ μέχρι τῶν τριακοσίων. Ἀυτὸς οὖν εἰς βαθὺ γῆρας ἐλάσας καὶ πλήρης ἡμερῶν γεγονὼς ἐν εἰρηνῃ τὸ πνεῦμα ἀυτοῦ τῷ Θεῷ παρέθετο, μυρία θάυματα κατεργασάμενος ζῶντε καὶ μετὰ θάνατον, οἷς ἐκπληττόμενος ὁ βασιλεὺς ναὸν ἐπ᾽ ὀνόματι ἀυτοῦ ἀνήγειρε πλησίον τῆς ἁγίας Ἄννης ἐν τῷ Δευτέρω, ἔνθα καὶ ἡ σύναξις ἀυτοῦ ἐπιτελεῖται. Thus far the Greek text of the Sirmond Synaxarion.
[5] transcribed here, he is adorned by the Greeks, Here now is its Latin interpretation, which I subjoin here. It has thus: The commemoration of our holy father Basianus, who flourished under the most religious Marcian; and he had set out from his tender years from the parts of the East, and when up to old age he had applied himself to the exercise of the virtues and had often changed his place, and, having become useful to very many and a way to salvation, had come also to the queen of cities (namely Constantinople), he built a monastery there, having obtained as helpers in the work a certain Severus and John, a man of consular rank. This the venerable Matrona, clothed in a man's habit, also dared to enter, and after the passing of many days became known to the Saint. His divine manner of life not only leading men looked up to, but also emperors admired, when they had approached him and had experienced his help. Further, the number of his disciples grew even to three hundred. He, therefore, when he had come to extreme old age and had become full of days, delivered up his spirit to God in peace, having wrought infinite miracles in life and after death, struck by which the emperor erected a temple under his name near St. Anne's in Deuteron, where also his festival is celebrated. Such is the last of the three chief elogia of our Saint which it seemed good to transcribe here. Let us now examine some things which occur in these, and further, as far as shall be possible, elucidate them.
[6] coming to Constantinople, a monastery there It is asserted in the Constantinopolitan Synaxarion of Sirmond, in the words transcribed immediately here, that St. Bassianus not only came to Constantinople from the parts of the East, whence all the elogia already given affirm that he sprang, but also built a monastery there; but since neither the printed Menaea nor the Menologies of Basil and Sirleto anywhere hand down to memory that a monastery was built there by St. Bassianus, must one stand here by the praised Synaxarion? St. Matrona, who is numbered among the disciples of St. Bassianus in the ecclesiastical books of the Greeks already mentioned, is commemorated in the Menology of Basil on the 8th day of November and in the printed Menaea and likewise in the Menology of Sirleto on the 9th of the same month; and in a shorter Life of her, which is extant with us, taken by our predecessors from I know not what manuscript codex, these following words are read towards the end: Ὁ δὲ ὅσιος Βασιανὸς τὴν τοῦ σχήματος διατύπωσιν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ θεόθεν δεξάμενος, ἐλθὼν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει δύο μοναστήρια συνεστήσατο, τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἕν, ὅπερ καὶ ἐπώνυμον ἀυτοῦ ἐστίν· τὸ δὲ ἕτερον τῆς ὁσίας Ματρῶνας, κρατοῦντα τὸν ἀυτὸν τύπον, τὸν παρὰ τοῦ ὁσίου νενομοθετημένον. And holy Basianus, having received the form of the habit divinely in the desert, coming to Constantinople built two monasteries, one indeed which has its name from him, and the other of holy Matrona, which observe the same rule prescribed by the Saint. Of that shorter Life, indeed, in which it is most expressly asserted by these words that not one only, but two monasteries were built at Constantinople by St. Bassianus, both the author and the age are entirely in obscurity; and it may therefore not without reason be doubted whether it was not committed to writing only when some centuries had already elapsed after the death of St. Bassianus.
[7] But although this is so, and consequently that work, helped by a certain Severus and John, a man of consular rank, which besides is to be held in less esteem because, as I have already intimated, the codex too from which it was taken is unknown, does not merit undoubted credit in the things which it hands down to memory about St. Bassianus, you would nevertheless not without reason be led to believe that it is not altogether to be despised, if only from the fact that our predecessors excerpted it from some exemplar or other that guided them, and would not seem likely to have done so if they had made nothing of it at all; and since it is so, by the words transcribed here above, in which it affirms that two monasteries were built at Constantinople by St. Bassianus, it adds some weight to the Sirmond Synaxarion, which asserts, in words likewise transcribed here above, that one monastery was built there by Bassianus, a certain Severus and John, a man of consular rank, helping. Moreover, among those who are found subscribed to the Council of Constantinople of the year 518, Martyrius appears, archimandrite μονῆς τοῦ ὁσίου Βασιανοῦ, and Theophanes, as du Cange teaches in Christian Constantinople, book IV, page 120, makes mention of the same monastery in more than one place. It may indeed be replied that the monastery of which we are speaking here could have been distinguished by the name of St. Bassianus, not because it had been built by this Saint himself, but because it had been built in honour of him, when he had already been translated by a happy departure from the living to the Saints above; but although this is so, it is nevertheless clear that the monastery which had been built by St. Bassianus himself was in very truth distinguished by the name of this Saint, if only from the fact that it was called by this very name while Bassianus was still living, as two elogia of St. Matrona, still mentioned above, attest, of which the one occurs in the Menology of Basil at the 8th, the other in the Menaea at the 9th day of November.
[8] Now, since these things are so, and nothing is adduced from any source which suggests in any way before the year 453, not, however, as it appears, that a monastery was not built at Constantinople by St. Bassianus, it appears that one must assent without any scruple to the Sirmond Synaxarion, which asserts that this was in fact done by him, a certain Severus and John, a man of consular rank, bringing help. But when was this done by the Saint? In our Greek codex ✠ MS. 194 there is contained a more prolix Life of St. Matrona of Perge, just mentioned again, written by Symeon Metaphrastes. And in this, which is extant in Lippomano and Surius, turned from the Greek tongue into Latin, at the 8th day of November, it is narrated how St. Matrona, who, when she had already borne offspring to her husband, had secretly departed from him (whether lawfully or otherwise will be examined at the 8th or 9th day of November, on each of which, as has already been said, the memory of that Saint is recalled, if it shall then be treated of her) out of an ardent desire of serving God alone, spent some time at Constantinople in the monastery of St. Bassianus under a man's habit, then withdrew to Emesa, the same Saint, divinely taught of her sex, arranging it, and how at the time when she had already been set over the sacred Virgins there, into whose monastery she had been admitted, the head of St. John the Baptist was found near that city; and since of the second
finding of this sacred pledge discourse is held there, and this, as is shown with us in tome IV of June, where it was treated of that holy Forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ, page 722 and the following, occurred in the year 453, it follows that St. Bassianus built the monastery at Constantinople, since St. Matrona, on the testimony of Metaphrastes, had lived in it before the said second finding of the head of St. John took place, before the year 453.
[9] before the year 450, and consequently And thus indeed we have the year before which St. Bassianus built the monastery at Constantinople; now let us also inquire into the year before which the Saint did not do it. The elogium of St. Bassianus transcribed here above from the Sirmond Synaxarion supplies nothing indeed from which you might determine this; but two other elogia of our Saint, likewise transcribed here above, together with the Menology of Sirleto, do it. For in these, of which the one is recorded in the printed Menaea and the other in the Menology of Basil, St. Bassianus is asserted to have come to Constantinople while Marcian held the reins of empire; and since Marcian, as is agreed among the learned, did not begin to rule the empire before the year 450, and Bassianus surely did not build a monastery there before he came to Constantinople, it follows that he did not do it before the said year 450. But indeed, someone will perhaps say, St. Matrona, after the monastery had been built at Constantinople by St. Bassianus, lived there in it for some time, from what has been said, then withdrew to Emesa into a monastery of sacred Virgins, and already, when the sacred head of St. John the Baptist was found near that city in the year 453, had been set over that convent of virgins, as Metaphrastes also teaches in her Life; and since all these things, if the said monastery was not built by Bassianus before the year 450, must have been done, as will become plain to one who considers it, within the space of only about three years, and it appears very difficult to believe that they were in fact done within so short a time, it therefore seems that it can be doubted whether that sacred monastery was not built by Bassianus before the year 450.
[10] builds either in this very year or not much later, a life in it, I confess it is so; but since all these things, however difficult, could absolutely have been accomplished even within only three years, it appears that one must assent to the Menaea and the two Menologies, namely of Sirleto and of Basil, which with unanimous consent assert that from which it follows that the monastery at Constantinople was not built by Bassianus before the year 450; and since nevertheless, as I have already taught above, the Saint built the monastery at Constantinople before the year 453, it follows from what has just been disputed that he very probably did it either in the year 450 or not much later. Further, St. Bassianus, who, as his elogium transcribed here above from the Sirmond Synaxarion declares, had come to Constantinople only when he had devoted himself to virtue for a very long time and, having travelled through not a few regions with abundant gain of souls, had already become an old man, thereafter continued to live there most holily, up to extreme old age, in the monastery built by him. But what manner of life did he follow? That he was a monk appears undoubted if only from the fact that he passed his life in a monastery, that he had its inmates under his discipline, and that these are expressly called monks in more than one place in the Life of St. Matrona of Perge praised above, which has Metaphrastes as its author. But Castellan today in his Universal Martyrology calls him an Acoemete; by what reason impelled he does this I am entirely ignorant.
[11] The Acoemetes indeed, or monks Ἀκοίμητοι, [it is doubtful whether to that of the Acoemetes, as Castellan seems to have thought,] so called by the Greeks because in their monasteries the divine Office was celebrated night and day without any interval of cessation, the monks being for that reason divided into three companies which succeeded one another for this purpose, were instituted at Constantinople in the same fifth century of the Christian era in which St. Bassianus flourished, as you will find in our Work, tome 1 of January, page 1018 and the two following; but that St. Bassianus embraced their manner of life or introduced it into the monastery founded by him, I nowhere find committed to writing. Nor can I be moved to assent here to Castellan by the fact that, unless St. Bassianus be believed an Acoemete, the manner of life which he professed cannot be assigned. For although the matter stands so, not a few monasteries nevertheless existed at Constantinople and elsewhere before the Acoemetes were instituted, and these certainly differed from the Acoemetes in the rules of life which they kept; and since it is so, why could not Bassianus have preferred one of these to the institute of the Acoemetes and further embraced it? Why may it not also have happened that he prescribed a new institute to be observed both by himself and by his monks? Certainly the two monasteries which he built here at Constantinople are asserted, in the shorter Life of St. Matrona which I have praised further above, in the words already recited at num. 6, to have observed the rule of life prescribed for them by St. Bassianus; and although these words can perhaps be understood of a rule which, first handed down by another, Bassianus only adopted, and the institute of the Acoemetes was also, in the lapse of time, as is understood from Theophanes, Cedrenus and Nicephorus Callistus (see tome 1 of January of our Work from page 1018), brought from their monastery at Constantinople into other monasteries both within and outside the city of Constantinople, nothing at all nevertheless impels me to hold even as probable that Bassianus embraced it or introduced it into the monastery founded by him at Constantinople.
[12] Although, therefore, it is altogether certain, as I have already taught above, that St. Bassianus was a monk by profession, [institute, he lives most holily, and with three hundred disciples, and among these St. Matrona,] it is nevertheless very uncertain and doubtful, as appears from what has now been said, whether he embraced the manner of life which was that of the Acoemetes. But whatever at length the manner of life to which the Saint devoted himself was, he at any rate lived most holily, as I have already said, in the monastery built by him, and obtained there not a few disciples who embraced it. That these were three hundred in number the Menology of Basil and the Constantinopolitan Synaxarion of Sirmond affirm in the elogia of our Saint transcribed here above; and although the Menaea number not three hundred, but only about three hundred disciples of St. Bassianus, yet both these and the said elogia of the Sirmond Synaxarion and of the Menology of Basil, with unanimous consent, reckon St. Matrona among the disciples of St. Bassianus. But who, and of what kind, was she? To the elogium of St. Bassianus which is extant in the Menology of Sirleto this following note is appended in the margin: In the manuscript copy there had been written: "This Matrona was a Macedonian". But whoever it is who thus indicated that Matrona, the disciple of St. Bassianus, was a Macedonian by sect, he very probably did so because, having read that Matrona, the disciple of St. Bassianus, was present at the translation by which the head of St. John the Baptist, found near Emesa in the year 453, was carried into this city, he thought her the same as the Matrona who, when the same head of St. John the Baptist was being translated under Valens from Cilicia into Bithynia and thence afterwards under Theodosius to Constantinople, is reported with us in tome 4 of June, page 713 and the two following, from Sozomen, to have accompanied that sacred pledge as its minister and guardian, and, as is clear from what is alleged there, was of the Macedonian sect.
[13] of whom, wrongly confused with another of the same name, But that this latter Matrona is different from Matrona the disciple of St. Bassianus becomes perfectly clear if only from the fact that, since the translation of the head of St. John the Baptist from Bithynia to Constantinople under Theodosius, last mentioned here, occurred in the year 390, as may be seen with us in the place just cited, the Matrona who was then the guardian of that sacred pledge must necessarily, in the course of the year 453, in which, as we have seen above, the same head of the Lord's Forerunner was found near Emesa, have been more than eighty years old, if she was still surviving among the living at that time; while Matrona, the disciple of St. Bassianus, who was present at the translation by which it, when it had been found there, was carried into the city of Emesa, was still young at that time, as is understood from the fact that, from what has been said, before that translation she embraced the monastic life, having assumed a man's habit, in the monastery of St. Bassianus, which, as I have taught, was not built before the year 450, and that she then, as Metaphrastes also relates in her Life, numbered no more than twenty-five years of age. Moreover, the Matrona who is said to have guarded the head of St. John under Valens and Theodosius closed her last day at Cosilaus near Chalcedon, having perpetually preserved her virginity; while Matrona, the disciple of St. Bassianus, completed the course of her life at Constantinople, having left the husband by whom she had borne offspring. But whether it came about for the reason already given or for any other cause whatever that the words reported above, in which Matrona, the disciple of St. Bassianus, is asserted to have been a Macedonian, were written in the manuscript copy of the Menology of Sirleto, I can by no means persuade myself that she was a Macedonian.
[14] some things here, partly also concerning Bassianus I am so disposed in mind because I have been able to find nothing anywhere, though the matter was most diligently discussed, from which she might become even in any way suspect of the Macedonian sect. Nor indeed, if she had been a Macedonian, would she, when she first renounced the world, have handed herself over to be imbued with the precepts of the monastic life by Bassianus, a man above all Catholic, at Constantinople, as we have already seen; and that we should not suspect that she became a Macedonian after she had set out hence from Bassianus to Emesa, as we have likewise seen, is opposed by the return afterwards of the woman, honoured as a Saint by the Greeks, to Constantinople, to the same St. Bassianus, after travelling through various regions, and by other things, narrated in her Life praised above by Symeon Metaphrastes, which are an argument that this Saint was then also held by her in the highest esteem. These things, therefore, and at the same time because no less than those which preceded Matrona's departure from Constantinople to Emesa they partly concern St. Bassianus, I exhibit here in summary, to which I shall presently subjoin the remaining things to be said about our Saint. When Matrona, the disciple of St. Bassianus, who, as I taught above, was present in the year 453 at the translation of the head of St. John the Baptist into the city of Emesa, had given sight to a blind man with ointment taken from there, Domitian her husband, roused by the report of this matter, spread most quickly in every direction, and driven by the new hope thence conceived of finding his wife, whom he was seeking everywhere, came to Emesa; but she, scenting that the man was there, presently, in order to escape the danger of falling into his hands, set out first to Jerusalem, then to Mount Sinai, and then to Berytus, where she also joined some disciples to herself, and at length returned to Constantinople, seized with the desire of meeting Bassianus and divinely roused to it in her sleep.
[15] Having arrived there, Marcellus the deacon, at whose persuasion, from Bassianus to Emesa to the monastery of virgins
she had been sent before, and from the Life of Matrona by Metaphrastes she summons, and, being asked by him the cause of her return, she answers that she was led solely by a vehement desire of meeting those from whom she had received her first instruction in the spiritual life, and chiefly Bassianus, to undertake the arduous labour of a long journey, disregarding old age and the weakness of women, and then she sets forth what had befallen her after her departure from the city of Constantinople; and Marcellus, having at once narrated each thing to Bassianus, is ordered by him to provide Matrona as soon as possible with some quiet dwelling, removed from tumult, not far from the monastery, to which he might have easy access, and when he, at once obeying the command of his Master, had done this, Matrona is placed as soon as possible in a suitable house which he had prepared. To which place (they are the words of Metaphrastes himself in Lippomano) when the great Bassianus had come, and had spoken with her, and had said what was fitting, and had moreover learned from her of the things which had befallen her, and had imparted to her the things which she needed, he asked her whether she had need of anything else; and when she had said that there were other sisters at Berytus and that they wished to come to her and to live together, he at once signifies this by letter to the bishop of Berytus, and ordered him to send to her as soon as possible those whom Matrona was asking for by name. These, therefore, having been sent and living with Matrona, showed her the utmost obedience.
[16] But Matrona, who by the excellent virtues with which she shone contracted into a summary, was becoming better known day by day and more agreeable to not a few women of the first nobility, not very long after builds a monastery, the ground and other things necessary for the work having been supplied to her by the wife of the Patrician Sporacius, who acknowledged that she had received from her the benefit of her restored health, and together with the sisters who had come to her from Berytus she moves into that new building, leaving the former one into which she had first been introduced by the order of Bassianus, and thereafter occupies it perpetually up to her death, which she met in the hundredth year of her life, having enlarged it not a little with the means offered to her by Athanasia, a very rich woman who had committed herself to her discipline, and accepted with the counsel of Bassianus. Such is the summary of the things which are narrated by Metaphrastes about Matrona after she had returned to Bassianus at Constantinople. And this indeed declares most clearly that St. Bassianus was then also held in the highest esteem by Matrona; and since even then, as is related in the same summary, and consequently also in the Life written by Metaphrastes, Bassianus took care of Matrona and ordered the house to be prepared for her by Marcellus in which she then also stayed for some time with the sisters summoned to her from Berytus by Bassianus, hence, I think, it came about that, although Matrona herself very probably built, as is related by Metaphrastes from what has been said, the monastery at Constantinople which took its name from her, it is nevertheless asserted in the shorter Life of Matrona, in the words transcribed here at num. 6, to have been built by Bassianus; but although on this account that literary monument may perhaps not without reason be accused of error in assigning the Founder of the monastery of St. Matrona, it nevertheless very probably rightly affirms that the same manner of life was observed in it as in the monastery of St. Bassianus.
[17] being brought forward, having joined to himself, between the year 458 That is my opinion, because, since St. Bassianus, as long as he remained surviving among the living after the return of St. Matrona to him, governed for the most part, as it appears, by his counsels and cares the aforesaid monastery which she then founded at Constantinople, he would not seem likely to have easily permitted any other manner of living to be observed in it than that which was kept by his monks, and which had been kept for some time by Matrona herself when she lay hidden among them under a man's habit before she withdrew to Emesa. The matter is indeed by no means certain; but since nothing occurs by which it might be made certain, I now proceed to the remaining things which are to be observed in the elogia of St. Bassianus transcribed here above, and first I investigate how long he still remained surviving among the living after Matrona had returned to Constantinople, or rather when about he passed from this mortal life to the immortal, having already joined to himself three hundred disciples, as I taught above. A temple was built to St. Bassianus, as I shall show presently below from the Sirmond Synaxarion, the printed Menaea, and the Menologies of Sirleto and Basil, by the emperor Marcian; and since it is so, it is indeed not unfittingly concluded from this that our Saint was taken from the living before the year 458, since certainly Marcian, who, as I have already said from the consensus of the learned, died in the year 457, did not build a temple to St. Bassianus while he was still living among men.
[18] and departs from the living, and the year 453, It may indeed be replied that St. Matrona, having regard to what we have reported above from her Life by Metaphrastes, having returned from the city of Berytus to Constantinople, while Bassianus was still living, after she had been present at Emesa, still young, at the translation of the head of St. John in the year 453, was already an old woman at that time, and that this, as will become plain to one who considers it, cannot be true if St. Bassianus departed this life before the year 458. But although it is so, and therefore the epoch of the death of St. Bassianus, marked so early, cannot be reconciled with what Metaphrastes writes in the Life of St. Matrona, it nevertheless appears that one must stand rather by the ecclesiastical books of the Greeks praised above, which with unanimous consent assert that from which it follows that Bassianus truly died before the said year 458, than by Metaphrastes alone, who attributes to St. Matrona the words in which she declares, while, having returned to Constantinople while Bassianus was still living, she sets forth to Marcellus the cause of her return (see num. 14), that she was already then an old woman, especially since this writer, not otherwise than the author of the Menology of Basil, who most expressly affirms, as I shall presently teach, that a temple was erected to St. Bassianus by Marcian, was more than four centuries removed from the age of St. Matrona, nor did he draw all the things which he writes in the Life of St. Matrona from notices proved and certain on every side (see tome 4 of June of our Work, page 721, num. 131). Further, since these things are so, and St. Bassianus, who, when St. Matrona was returning to Constantinople, had not yet died, from what has been said, was certainly still surviving among the living while she previously was present at the translation of the head of St. John the Baptist made in the year 453, judging it rendered sufficiently probable from all that has just been alleged that he passed to the Saints above between this year and the year 458, I now subjoin a few things about those which are narrated to have followed the death of the Saint.
[19] That St. Bassianus, when he had come to Constantinople under the emperor Marcian, and by a temple, by the emperor Marcian, as from the things so shone with virtues and miracles that the emperor even built under his name a temple which is seen even today, the elogium transcribed here at num. 2 from the Great printed Menaea of the Greeks affirms, and consequently also the Menology of Sirleto, which, as I said, agrees exactly with the Menaea; and although neither this nor those expressly and distinctly note which emperor built the temple under the name of St. Bassianus, they nevertheless seem to indicate that the thing was done by Marcian, since in the words immediately preceding that affirmation they speak only of the emperor Marcian, who, as is agreed among the learned, died in the year 457. Nor does it appear that one must pronounce otherwise of the Sirmond Synaxarion, which, after it has asserted at the beginning that St. Bassianus flourished under the emperor Marcian, then, having interposed some things, hands down to memory towards the end that a temple was built by the emperor to the Saint, renowned for infinite miracles in life and after death, without his name being expressed there. So I judge, not only because both in the said Synaxarion and in the Menaea and the Menology of Sirleto the name of no other emperor than Marcian is read, but also, and chiefly indeed, because the elogium of our Saint transcribed here at num. 3 from the Menology of Basil has at the beginning, Bassianus, … having set out for Constantinople under the pious emperor Marcian, on account of his virtue at once became known to the emperor, who not only honoured him as a father, but also built buildings in his name, which are extant up to this day, and by these words, since an emperor different from Marcian cannot be designated by them, it is most plainly signified that a building, or rather, as it is in the Greek, τὸν ναὸν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι ἀυτοῦ, that is, a temple under his name, namely Bassianus's, was built by him, nor is there reason why the Menology of Basil should here be deservedly judged to be discordant either with the Menaea together with Sirleto's, or with the Sirmond Synaxarion.
[20] The author of the elogium transcribed here at num. 4 from the Sirmond Synaxarion affirms indeed towards the end that the temple of St. Bassianus was built by the emperor in the twelfth region of the city of Constantinople, which are adduced here, appears, named the Deuteron or Second, πλησίον τῆς ἀγίας Ἄννης, near St. Anne's, that is, near the edifice sacred to St. Anne which, as Procopius, a contemporary author, teaches in book 1 On the Buildings, chapter 3, Justinian, emperor not earlier than the sixth century, built. But what if he does this using anticipation, as they say, not because the emperor built the temple of St. Bassianus near that very sacred edifice of St. Anne, already existing at the time when it was being built, but because he built it near the place where this edifice was afterwards built and existed in his age? Certainly, since, as it appears, he can not absurdly be so expounded, so also that author ought to be expounded, because otherwise he would have to be said to conflict with the author of the Menology of Basil, who, as I have already taught, most clearly relates that a temple was erected to St. Bassianus by Marcian, and because authors who seemingly oppose one another are not to be set in collision among themselves, but, if it can be done, reconciled. Nor does it matter that it is affirmed by the Menology of Basil that St. Bassianus, when, worn out with old age, he had passed to the Lord, was buried by his disciples in the buildings which bear his name, or rather, as it is in the Greek, ἐν τῷ δηλωθέντι ἀυτοῦ ναῷ, that is, in his aforesaid temple.
[21] built, in which For although its author thus insinuates that St. Bassianus was buried in that very temple which he had previously narrated to have been erected by Marcian under the name of this Saint of ours, and thus seems to indicate that it was built by Marcian for St. Bassianus while he was still living, which is certainly false, he is nevertheless not to be so understood, but must be judged, sufficient accuracy in writing not having been employed, as sometimes elsewhere, to have written that St. Bassianus was buried in the temple which Marcian had built under his name, not because the Saint was committed to the earth in this very temple, already erected for him before he died, but because he was committed to the earth in that place where Marcian afterwards built it, or even because, having first been deposited in another place, he was afterwards translated thence to the said temple, when it, which, as I judge, to the monastery,
founded before by Bassianus, was added, had been brought to completion. But indeed, someone will perhaps still say, if the temple at Constantinople which had its name from St. Bassianus was truly built by Marcian, who was taken from the living, as has been said, in the year 457, it will follow that the Saint, since he was still surviving among the living after the year 453, as is gathered from what has been said above, obtained an edifice sacred to his name already from the second or third year after his death. I confess it is so; but what then? This indeed appears incredible if one regards the customs of our age, but not of the fifth century, in which St. Bassianus flourished. For then, and for a long time still afterwards, when monks, or men of any other state whatever, who were believed to have lived holily, had wrought miracles in life and after death, the honours customarily paid to the Saints were at once paid to them, without many discussions being first employed and without the forms of law, which were afterwards most wisely introduced, being premised.
[22] and obtained an annual cult, is honoured. Indeed, even in centuries not so far removed from our age, when the usage had long since been introduced of not referring the Servants of God into the Roll of the Saints with solemn rite until their causes had been most diligently as well as most rigidly discussed, it has nevertheless now and then happened that those who had become renowned for many miracles in life and immediately after death obtained that honour when scarcely one or two years had elapsed after their death. So, that I may set before the reader's eyes here at least one of the many examples of this matter which could be brought forward, St. Peter Martyr, when he had been killed by an impious assassin in the year 1252, in the next following year, illustrious for many miracles, was enrolled in the number of the holy Martyrs by Innocent IV, supreme Pontiff. Since, therefore, these things are so, and St. Basianus, as his elogium transcribed here at num. 4 from the Sirmond Synaxarion testifies at the end, wrought infinite miracles both after death and in a life holily led, it ought indeed to seem incredible to no one that a sacred edifice was erected to him by Marcian when he had departed from the living only one or two years before. Nor does the Saint seem to have been honoured only with a sacred edifice built for him when only a short space of time had elapsed after he had exchanged this mortal life for the immortal, but also with a feast which was celebrated in it annually. Certainly that his annual festival was at least at some time celebrated there is attested by the elogium reported above, with which he is adorned in the Sirmond Synaxarion, which, as soon as it has narrated towards the end that a temple was built to St. Bassianus in the Deuteron, subjoins that his σύναξιν, that is, festival, is celebrated there.