ON ST. MAMELTA, MARTYR, IN PERSIA,
PROBABLY IN THE 5TH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
The Martyrologies; death shortly after baptism; distinction from St. Mamlacha; the churches of Constantinople.
Mamelta, martyr, in Persia. (S.)
J. V. H.
Various Martyrologies record the saint, Our Daniel Papebroch already wished, in his Greek Ephemerides Preface, volume I of May, p. XLV., that the Acts of St. Mamelchta or Mamelta might some day be found: but to this very day it has been possible to find nothing about the holy martyr besides what is read in the sacred Ephemerides. In the metrical October of the Greeks, under the 5th day of the same month, Papebroch, in the place cited, reports the following little verse:
Πέμπτῃ βλῆτο λίθοις καὶ θυμὸν ἀφῆκε ΜΑΜΕΛΧΘΗ.
On the fifth Mamelchta is overwhelmed with stones and breathes her last.
On the same day Siber recites a double verse in the metrical Martyrology of the Greek Church P. 318.:
Ὁμοῦ λελουμένην μὲ, Χριστὲ, προσδέχου, Μαμέλχθα φησὶ, καὶ λίθοις βεβλημένην.
Mamelchta cries out: Christ, receive me, now washed, and covered with a shower of stones.
The Calendar of Constantinople also celebrates the memory of St. Mamelchta on two days, namely the 5th of October and the 6th of June, but brings nothing besides the bare name. Of this Calendar, however, I shall treat more fully below.
[2] but most fully the Menology The present-day Roman Martyrology illustrates St. Mamelta more, in these words: "In Persia, of St. Mamelta, martyr, who, converted from the worship of idols to the faith by an angelic admonition, was stoned by the Gentiles and plunged into a deep lake." Which eulogy the Menology of the Emperor Basil unfolds still more particularly under the 3rd day before the Nones (the 5th) of October, on which the Greeks keep the memory of the saint. Ἡ ἁγία Μαμέλχθα ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐκ Περσίδος, ἱέρεια δὲ τοῦ ναοῦ Ἀρτέμιδος, ἔχουσα καὶ ἀδελφὴν χριστιανήν. Κατενεχθεῖσα δὲ εἰς ὕπνον, εἶδεν Ἄγγελον Θεοῦ δεικνύοντα αὐτῇ τὰ μυστήρια τῶν χριστιανῶν. Καὶ ἀναστᾶσα ἔμφοβος, διηγῆται τῇ αδελφῇ. Ἡ δὲ ἄγει αὐτὴν πρὸς τὸν ἐπίσκοπον. Καὶ μαθῶν ἐπίσκοπος τὰ τῆς ὀπτασίας, εἶπεν αὐτῇ, ὅτι ὀφείλεις χριστιανὴ γενέσθαι· ἣν εὐθέως ἐβάπτισε, καὶ ἐδέξατο αὐτὴν ἡ ἰδία ἀδελφή. Ὅθεν μανέντες οἱ ἕλληνες, ἐτιμωρήσαντο αὐτὴν, καὶ ἀπέκτειναν ἐν λίθοις, ἔτι τὰ ἐμφώτια τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος περιβεβλημένην. Καὶ ἐῤῥιψαν εἰς λάκκον βαθύτατον· ἐξ οὗ οἱ χριστιανοὶ μόλις αὐτὴν ἀνήγαγον. Προσελθὼν δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ τῶν Περσῶν ὁ ἐπίσκοπος, καὶ αἰτήσας, ἐλαβεν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ καταλῦσαι μὲν τὸν ναὸν τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος, οἰκοδομῆσαι δὲ ἐκκλησίαν ἐπ᾽ ὀνόματι τῆς ἁγίας Μάρτυρος· ἣν καὶ κτίσας, ἐν αὐτῇ τὸ τίμιον αὐτῆς ἀπέθετο λείψανον.
[3] of the Emperor Basil: Which words, from the edition of Cardinal Annibale Albani, run thus in Latin: "St. Mamelchta was from Persia, a priestess indeed of the temple of Diana, but having a Christian sister. And when in sleep she had seen an Angel of God showing her the mysteries of the Christians, roused from sleep with terror, she disclosed the whole matter to her sister: by whom she is brought to the bishop. And the bishop, having understood the symbol of the vision, said: 'You must become a Christian.' And at once he baptized her, received from the sacred font by the hands of her sister. Wherefore the Gentiles, seized with vehement fury, killed her, tortured with many torments and overwhelmed with stones, while she was still clothed in the shining garment of sacred baptism, and plunged her into a very deep lake: from which she was with difficulty drawn out by the Christians. And the bishop went to the king of the Persians, and obtained that, the temple of Diana being overthrown, he might raise a church in the name of the holy martyr: and when he had built it, he laid her precious relics there." Thus the Basilian Menology, which we have as the chief, not to say the only, source on the deeds of St. Mamelta.
[4] which has that the saint had her own sister as godmother, Certain things narrated in the Legend, though brief, would not have escaped a man curious about Christian archaeology. First of all, we have that St. Mamelta was received from the sacred font by her sister, long since a Christian, καὶ εδέξατο αὐτὴν ἡ ἰδία ἀδελφὴ. That the use of sponsors or godparents, who were called ἀνάδοχοι by the Greeks, is very ancient, we have already from Tertullian, who in the book On Baptism, chapter XVIII Works of Tertullian, p. 465, Plantin edition of Pamelius, year 1584., calls the sponsors sponsores, saying: "For what need is there, if it is not so necessary" (he treats of deferring baptism for little ones outside the case of necessity), "for the sponsors too to be thrust into danger? who themselves too may fail of their promises through mortality, and be deceived by the development of an evil disposition." Whence also St. Augustine, in Letter XCVIII, otherwise XXIII, to Boniface the bishop Works of St. Augustine, volume II, column 266, Maurist edition, year 1679., calls godparents fidedictores, and St. Caesarius of Arles calls the same, by an appellation derived from the civil law, fidejussores (sureties) Works of St. Augustine, volume V, Appendix, column 441.: "Those," he says, "who with religious love desire to receive sons or daughters, let them not cease, both before they are baptized and after they have been baptized, to admonish them about chastity, humility, sobriety or peace, and let them acknowledge themselves to be their sureties." It is worthy of note, and bears more nearly on our matter, that in the Eastern Church, though heterodox, godparents come under the same name of sureties, as Joseph Simonius Assemani shows in his Bibliotheca Orientalis Volume III, part 1, p. 536..
[5] and still in white garments Another point not wholly to be despised occurs in the Greek Legend, namely that St. Mamelta was stoned while still clothed in the shining garment of sacred baptism: Ἔτι τὰ ἐμφώτια τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος περιβεβλημένην. It is, namely, well enough known that it was a universal custom, as much in the East as in the West, that a white garment was put on the newly baptized, in which they were clothed for eight days: of which rite a trace is still preserved in present-day rituals, for example the Roman, which prescribes that, the anointed place, namely the crown of the head of the newly baptized, having been wiped, the priest place on his head a white cloth in place of the white garment. Similarly the Greek Church too has in the office of holy baptism Goar, Euchologion, p. 355.: Καὶ ἐνδύων αὐτὸν τὰ ἀμφία λέγει: Ἐνδύεται ὁ δοῦλος τοῦ θεο:ῦ ὁ δεῖνα χιτῶνα δικαιοσύνης. "And clothing him in his wrappings, he says: The servant of God N. is clothed with the tunic of justice." The Eastern liturgical books have similar things, which may be seen in Joseph Simonius Assemani in the place cited [Whoever wishes to know more about these rites of baptism may consult Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticae, book XI, chapter VIII, and book XII, chapter IV. Selvaggio, Antiquitates Ecclesiasticae, book III, chapter III, § V, chapter V. Binterim, Denkwürdigkeiten, volume I, part I, 159 and 187.].
[6] died clothed: Nor must this be passed over, that the baptismal garment in which St. Mamelta was clothed is designated by the word ἐμφώτια (the lexicons render ἐμφώτεος as "shining"); which indeed I have not found among the archaeologists whom it was permitted me to consult, for signifying the white garment: for the Greeks commonly called the baptized still clothed in white garments λευχειμονοῦντες, from the verb λευχειμονέω, "I am clothed in white": they also used the word Σαβανον, that is, a rather rough cloth or towel suitable for drying in the baths, as the lexicographers hand down. But in truth Sabanum signified not so much a white garment as the towel with which those coming up from the sacred font were dried. Finally, it will be worth while to have observed that in the image of St. Mamelta the garment has an ornament toward the shoulders like a slit, which does not occur in other women depicted in the Basilian Menology, except in the holy martyr Domna on the 27th of December, who was herself also a priestess of the twelve gods in the palace. In men of senatorial or military rank, and indeed in eunuchs, the same ornament recurs. But the significance or interpretation of an ornament of this kind escapes me.
[7] Joseph Simonius Assemani, in his Bibliotheca Orientalis Volume I, p. 190., somewhat insinuates that our Mamelta is the same as St. Mamlacha, Assemani is refuted, who confuses Mamelta with Mamlacha: who suffered with two other virgins, Abiat and Hati. Which opinion of his uncle Stephen Evodius Assemani seems to accept as an undoubted fact, when he says Acta Martyrum Orientalium et Occidentalium, part I, p. 103, note 10. that the Roman Martyrology calls Mamlacha Mamelta, and, having recited the eulogies both of the Roman Martyrology and of the Basilian Menology, adds: "Whence it (the Menology) took this eulogy is wholly hidden from us; and we are with the greatest difficulty brought to believe it likely that King Sapor, raging so against the Christians, granted licence to raise temples to martyrs." And indeed he would rightly have relegated the Basilian Legend to fables, granted that Mamlacha is the same as our St. Mamelta: but our Stefano Morcelli, in his Commentaries on the Calendar of Constantinople, calls this into doubt with solid reasons, in my judgment; whose words I report Volume II, at the 6th of June, p. 127.: "Assemani," he says, "thinks that her martyrdom belongs to the year 344, since he judges that mention is made of her in the history of the Martyrdom of SS. Narses the bishop and Joseph his disciple, which, written in Chaldaic by Bishop Maruthas, he published from the Nitrian Vatican codex I, and translated into Latin. And these are the words of the translation: 'With a like end the virgins Abiatha, Hates and Mamlacha, from the province of Beth Garmai, consecrated the Christian faith, put to death by King Sapor, when he happened to be staying in that place.' He judges, namely, that this virgin Mamlacha is plainly the very Mamelchta of the Greeks and Mamelta of the Latins. Indeed I should willingly come over to his opinion if what is related of the end of the holy virgin Mamlacha agreed with what we read in the Basilian Menology of the martyrdom of Mamelchta: but we detect no slight difference in this. For first, it appears that no companions are ascribed to her. Then the authors of her death are made out to be οἱ Ἕλληνες, not King Sapor, and the kind of death is added by which she was extinguished at the very moment of baptism, the white garments not yet laid aside: Καὶ ἀπέκτειναν ἐν λίθοις ἔτι τὰ ἐμφώτια τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος περιβεβλημένην. Finally, the things which are narrated at the end about the bishop, to whom the king of the Persians granted that, the shrine of Diana being overthrown, he might build a church and dedicate it to the martyr Mamelchta, in which he is also said to have laid the relics of the martyr, indicate an altogether different time." Thus Morcelli: to which it may be added that Mamlacha, who is treated in Assemani, is placed by him in the Order of the Daughters of the Covenant, or Deaconesses Acta Martyrum, part I, p. 52.; whereas our Mamelta passed as it were in one step from the priesthood of idols to an illustrious martyrdom.
[8] St. Mamelta seems to have suffered in the 5th century; Since, therefore, it is not likely that Mamlacha and Mamelta are the same martyr, Assemani's conjecture about the time of the passion, which he fixes as the year of Christ 344, also collapses. But since in those things which are still preserved about St. Mamelta nothing occurs which determines the time of her martyrdom more closely, her death seems to fall in those times in which the kings of the Persians ceased from persecuting the Christians.
For from the Menology adduced above it is clear that death was inflicted on the saint by the Gentiles, with no sentence of a judge intervening, and accordingly in a popular tumult. Then the king permitted, at the request of the bishop, that, the shrine of Diana having been overthrown, a church should be built under the title of the holy martyr. Wherefore it pleases me well enough to assign the fifth century to the martyrdom: for in the 22nd year of this century, as Pagi has it Critica in Baronium, at the year 422, § XI., Theodosius made peace with the Persians, in order to spare the blood of the Christians dwelling in Persia. A truce of a hundred years was then sanctioned, nor is it to be doubted that the emperors of Constantinople wished to keep safe and sound the peace agreed for the Christians, which also continued until the year 502. In that interval, therefore, I should think the martyrdom of St. Mamelta happened, and that, since the saint had been overwhelmed with stones in a tumult, the king, lest he be arraigned before the Romans as guilty of a broken treaty, permitted the temple of the idol to the Christians, that they might build a church. However likely these things may be, they cannot repair the loss of the ancient Acts, which Papebroch lamented.
[9] and Constantinople once had a double festival. For the rest, that the cult of St. Mamelta was once celebrated in the Church of Constantinople is shown by the already praised Morcelli from the double feast instituted in her honour, namely on the 5th of October and the 6th of June. On which occasion he shrewdly notes: "This other day (the 6th of June), dedicated to the memory of the same martyr, provides no slight argument why we should judge that her relics were at length translated to Constantinople, and that some chapel or church was consecrated to her name in the imperial city. And this, as we said (at the 5th of October: for the year in the Greek Calendar begins from the beginning of September), seems to have to be held the day of the translation, since the other calendars have nothing today about Mamelchta: whereas most of them make mention of her on the 5th of October. Although even the very dedication of a church could have been cause enough why the feast should be kept again on this day; just as we shall show a little later that there was a twin celebration of Cosmas and Damian in the imperial city on that account." Rightly, therefore, had Morcelli pronounced at the 5th of October that this day was sacred to the martyrdom of St. Mamelta.