ON ST. THEODORA OF ALEXANDRIA, IN EGYPT,
V century.
A CRITICAL-HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Theodora of Alexandria, in Egypt (S.)
BY J. S.
§ I. The Saint's cult among the Greeks, and her memory among the Russians, Copts and Latins: her twofold Acts, but fabulous.
[ ] The Greeks today in all the sacred Fasti everywhere mention S. Theodora of Alexandria in the first place, The Saint venerated with an Office among the Greeks, and in their Fasti and venerate her with an ecclesiastical Office, which may be seen in the printed Menæa. Many things are said generally in that Office in praise of the Saint, but it does not please me to heap them up here, because they are not historical. She is there announced in Greek in those words to which this Latin answers: On the same XI day, the memory of our holy mother Theodora of Alexandria. But no eulogy is added
that is historical. In the Typicon of Sabas she is announced in the same words, and she alone indeed at this day: and there too an Office is prescribed. In the Sirletian Menology this is the announcement: The commemoration of our holy mother Theodora of Alexandria, under the emperor Zeno. Brief commemorations of this kind are read also in many manuscript Menæa, Menologies, and catalogues of Saints of the Greeks, which are had collected among us, but it is not necessary to heap them up. To dispatch it in a word, I have consulted none of the ritual books of the Greeks in which the Saints are reviewed in order of days, in which I have not found S. Theodora. A more prolix eulogy from the Basilian Menology I shall give below.
[2] The Russians or Muscovites, imitating the Greeks everywhere, also briefly announce S. Theodora in their Calendars and Menologies at this day. as also announced by the Russians and the Copts: Passing over other very brief ones, I subjoin a single eulogy from the Slavo-Russian Menology, which the baron de Sparwenfeld turned into Latin from the Slavonic speech. It runs thus: Of our holy mother Theodora at Alexandria: she hid herself from her husband in a man's habit, and was saved in a monastery of men, in the year CDLXXII. This epoch of S. Theodora's death makes her in some measure older than the epoch adopted by most of the Greeks from the Acts: but of these matters more at large afterward. In the sacred Fasti of the Copts of Egypt and Ethiopia, which Job Ludolf published, S. Theodora is announced on the XI day of the first month of the Abyssinians, which indeed for the greater part corresponds to our September; but not so exactly that the XI day of that month is also the XI of September, but rather the eighth day of September. Hence in the Prætermissi at the VIII of September I noted that Theodora is found on that day in Ludolf, and also in the Coptic Menology with a brief eulogy. That eulogy, though it has been dislocated by a translator not sufficiently skilled in Latin, I transfer hither: And holy Teodor, who was in Alexandria, who took the garment of a man (that is, of a male) … and imposed on herself the name Tadros (Theodorus) and thus for a long time led her life in great virtue, and afterward rested in the Lord. Some intervening words, which I have omitted on account of grammatical faults and excessive obscurity, hint at something of Theodora's lapse.
[3] among the more recent Latins she is mentioned on different days: The older Latin martyrologists seem to have been ignorant of S. Theodora. Nevertheless for some centuries now certain writers have begun to make mention of her on different days. Molanus mentioned the Saint on this day thus: On the XI day, of the holy mother Theodora of Alexandria. Baronius in the Roman Martyrology has thus of her: At Alexandria, of holy Theodora, who, when she had incautiously fallen, repenting of the deed, persevered with wonderful abstinence and patience in a holy habit, unrecognized, until her death. The author of the manuscript Florarium of Saints at the X of July mentions Theodora of Alexandria, the elect: and at the XII of the same month Theodora the virgin. That by both, even though in the second place she is called a virgin, this our Saint was designated, our Sollerius believed in the Prætermissi at the said days. With Sollerius I altogether agree, because at the X she is also mentioned in the Hagenau Usuardine codex in these words: Likewise of holy Theodora the elect, of whose penitence there is a reading. But Greven on the XII day of July celebrates our Theodora with this eulogy: Of Theodora, a religious woman, who in the time of the emperor Zeno, deceived by a sorcerer, when she had committed adultery, being presently pricked in conscience, entered a monastery of men, and, falsely accused of a crime, bore it most patiently, and, shining with miracles, at last rested in peace. These things are drawn from the Acts: but the author of the Florarium called her a virgin carelessly. Peter de Natalibus, bk. 6, chap. 109, gave a faithful enough compendium of the Acts, except that he says she died on the XVI of the Kalends of August. Hence Ferrari mentioned her in the General Catalogue at the XVII of July, as Maurolycus had already done before him.
[4] a eulogy from the Basilian Menology. The Menology published by order of the emperor Basil celebrates Theodora, with the rest of the Greek Fasti, at the XI of September, and adorns her with this eulogy: Holy Theodora flourished under the emperor Zeno. She, of notable beauty, and daughter of wealthy parents, had married a man pious and fearing God. But a certain rich man, being stirred by the devil, burned with love of her, and, a procuress being employed, gained his desire. After the sin was committed, Theodora, since she repented of the deed, and could not endure the disgrace, having put off her woman's robe, put on the manly habit of a poor man, and, entering a monastery of men, named herself Theodorus: while meanwhile her husband lay in perpetual mourning and squalor for her sake. She endured such great temptations of demons, and undertook so grievous a contest against them, that she not only washed away the stain of her sin, but was also held worthy by God of the gift of many miracles. But the monks thinking her to be a man — for she had used every effort to lie hidden — when after her death they were washing her, found her a woman, extolling God with praises. With these nearly agrees the eulogy which is read in a manuscript Greek Synaxary, which was communicated to our Elders from the manuscripts of Sirmond: in this, however, there is added that false accusation on account of which she is said to have been cast out of the monastery, as we shall see in giving the compendium of the Acts.
[5] A twofold Greek Life of S. Theodora — one by an unknown author, The Greek Acts twofold, the other by Metaphrastes — Allatius assigns in his work On the Writings of the Simeons, pp. 120 and 126. Both are to my hand, not only in Greek but also in Latin. The former we have in Greek from Vatican codex 1190; and the same once rendered into Latin from Vatican codex 240, as I find noted above. The other, whose author is Metaphrastes, we received in Greek from the Medicean manuscript of the king of France. And this has been printed in Latin in Lippomano, vol. 6, at the XI day of September, and in Surius at the same day. These Lives, moreover, I have compared with one another, to see what Metaphrastes had changed in the older. But after the collation I found that the same facts are narrated in both; and that nothing was added by Metaphrastes except a certain oratorical ornament, and now and then brief observations by which he tried to make certain facts more likely. Moreover, some things minutely set forth, and thus by no means likely, he wished to narrate more generally, some minutiæ being passed over.
[6] As regards now the credit to be given to the aforesaid Lives, but both fabulous and to be omitted. Tillemont, vol. 16, in Theodora and Marina, rightly observes that the Life of S. Theodora which Metaphrastes wrote is not so composed as to deserve credit. Hence he says that the other Life of Theodora must be consulted, and that it must be seen whether it is better written and more worthy of credit. And that I have compared this Life with the lucubration of Metaphrastes I have already noted: nay more, when I observed that the old Latin rendering was not accurate, I set myself to prepare a new one. But I began to weary of that labor when I saw more and more that many things are inserted in those Acts which must necessarily be held for fables, because they could not have become known to the writer of the Life, if she lay so hidden until death in a man's garment that she was believed by all to be a man, as the biographer himself asserts with other writers. This single observation also brings it about that many other chapters of the Life, which are such that of themselves they appear far more wonderful than credible, deserve no credit. For these causes I have judged that both Lives are to be omitted, since both appear equally fabulous, or at any rate so defiled with not a few fictions that the true things, if there be any, cannot be separated from the false. Nevertheless, that the reader may have some knowledge of the older Life, and lest I should seem to pass it over undeservedly, I shall explain nearly the whole in a brief compendium.
[7] First, Theodora is said to have lived at Alexandria joined to a husband in the time of the emperor Zeno, The chief points of the Acts are narrated in a compendium when Gregory was prefect of that city. This epoch I shall afterward refute, certainly as less probable. Then Theodora is wonderfully praised for the gifts of nature and of grace, and her piety is extolled beyond likelihood. Meanwhile she is said to have been solicited to adultery and long to have resisted; but at last to have consented, when a certain woman, accused of magic, had said that God did not know sins committed after sunset. The sin being done, she was wholly overwhelmed with grief before her husband, and on the next day went to a certain nun, and asked whether God knew a sin committed in the dark. These things certainly are neither likely nor credible: nor does the biographer seem to have been able to know by what fraud Theodora was led to sin, since her sin itself was always unknown to the monks, if until her death she was held for a man. Nevertheless, if anyone think the fable-monger should be believed, she, having received a true answer, presently returned home, exchanged her own garments for her husband's clothes, and went away to a convent far distant. These things are so narrated as if they were done in broad day, without any likelihood of truth.
[8] and are shown to be fabulous But the biographer, going on, feigns the monks of that convent cruel and superstitious. For he says that Theodora was left before the gate of the monastery until at sunset wild beasts should flock thither, that she might be received if she were not hurt by the beasts. When they had seen her unhurt, she is said to have been brought in, and questioned on many points and instructed with various admonitions. But on the next day she is said to have accomplished so much labor as cannot be done by one man, even the most robust, much less by a woman by no means used to labor, such as Theodora is described at the beginning. Thus the biographer says she served the monastery for eight years. Afterward she is said to have been sent with camels to the city, and then to have seen and greeted her husband, who had been warned by an angel to be on that road where he should see his wife; and who, since he did not recognize her and believed himself deceived, is said to have heard again by an angelic revelation that she whom he had seen in a monk's habit was his wife. But we do not believe such things, unless they are narrated by a writer worthy of credit. The same must be said of Theodora's fasts, in which he says she fasted first one day, then two, afterward four days, and at last from Sunday to Sunday.
[9] the chief points of the Acts Equally or more incredible are the things which follow. For she is said to have killed, in a plainly ridiculous manner, a crocodile in a neighboring lake which was devouring all who came near. A monk devoured by a wild beast she is said, the beast having been killed by an imprecation, to have recalled to life. Nay, she is said also to have used a lie, that she might not betray those by whom she had been brought into the greatest danger. Then, after the threats of the devil appearing to Theodora, she is again said to have been sent to the city. But night coming on, she put the camels in the stable of another monastery, and there herself slept at the camels' feet. Then a certain girl is said to have solicited Theodora, whom she believed to be a man, in vain to unchastity, and to have conceived by another. Then that girl is said to have accused Theodora, who was called Theodorus, of that sin, so that without any form of trial Theodora was cast out of the monastery, and compelled to bring up the child that was born. She bore all these things patiently,
and nourished the infant with sheep's milk received from shepherds: and saw meanwhile the devil appearing in the form of her husband, and blandly urging her to return home, but in vain. But the fable-monger would not have known such an apparition, if it had really happened: for certainly Theodora did not narrate it, lest she should betray herself as a woman. Meanwhile the monks are said to have wondered at her patience, and the demon is asserted to have wished in various ways to terrify her in vain, and to have tempted her otherwise.
[10] chapters, Those temptations, that I may not be too long, I pass over; and I proceed to other matters. First, the abbot is said to have taken the infant away from Theodora; then, after she had lived seven years outside the monastery, to have brought her back also to the monastery, because someone was said to have had a revelation that her sin had been forgiven her. She is said therefore to have been shut in a cell with the child, whose father she was believed to be, for two years. At last, being called out on account of a scarcity of water, if we believe the fable-monger, she drew water from a dry lake, and all the lakes were straightway filled with waters. After these things, returning to her cell with the boy, she gave him various admonitions and foretold to the boy her own approaching death; and she is said to have died immediately, the boy alone being present. But the abbot at the same time had a revelation of the glory which Theodora had obtained in heaven. Then, coming to her cell with the monks, he found her dead. Then he ordered the abbot of the other monastery, by whom Theodora had been accused, to be summoned, that he might see that she was a woman and had been falsely accused. Moreover the abbot is divinely commanded to send for Theodora's husband, who was already hastening thither of his own accord to see his dead Wife. Finally, the abbot having died, that Theodorus whom Theodora had brought up as her son is chosen abbot: and thus the whole fable is closed: for by no other name is that inept lucubration worthy.
§ II. It is inquired whether at least some chapters of the Acts seem sufficiently certain: certain Sayings of Theodora which can probably be attributed to her.
[ ] No chapters of the Life seem certain; some are in some measure probable: Since the Life of S. Theodora is doubtless defiled with many fables, it can further be asked whether at least some of the facts there asserted — such as those which I gave at num. 4 from the Basilian Menology — can be held for certain and undoubted. I answer that the whole account of the Menology seems drawn from the Acts, and that therefore neither the assertions of that Menology nor those of the other Greek Fasti about the deeds of Theodora are to be held for undoubted or sufficiently certain historically. The same must be said of the eulogy which Peter de Natalibus composed from the Acts, and of the things which Nicephorus, bk. 17, chap. 5, narrates of Theodora; since all those things flowed from the same impure source. For these causes I should not dare to hold even the lapse of Theodora as plainly undoubted, still less her monastic life in a man's garment and among monks; although I should not wish to brand these also as certainly false. But that accusation of intercourse with a girl, and consequently the rearing of the boy, I judge altogether fictitious, both because it is reported by a fable-monger and in a manner not likely, and because nearly the same things are reported in a more likely manner of S. Marina, as may be seen among us at the XVII of July; and finally because that accusation is omitted also in various Fasti.
[12] certain sayings can probably be attributed to S. Theodora: Cotelier in the Monuments of the Greek Church, vol. 1, p. 465, published among the Sayings of the Fathers certain ones concerning mother Theodora. But it cannot certainly be said whether these are of our Theodora of Alexandria, whom the Greeks venerate today. Nevertheless there are various things which make this likely and probable enough. For she too led a solitary or monastic life near Alexandria, or at any rate in Egypt, because she is read to have questioned Theophilus the patriarch of Alexandria. Secondly, in the Greek Fasti today's Saint is everywhere called mother Theodora, just as she is also named who is in Cotelier. Thirdly, this Theodora doubtless had a celebrated reputation for virtues, because her sayings were written down. Yet I find among the Greeks no Theodora whose those sayings can be, except today's. To her therefore they can probably be attributed, especially since she of whom Cotelier treats and our Theodora lived in the same fifth century: for it ought not to detain us that the fabulous Acts make the Saint a little later. Wherefore I shall presently subjoin the said Sayings, not indeed as certainly, but only as probably belonging to S. Theodora. But first I shall discourse a little about this Saint's age.
[13] The Saint probably died before the middle of the 5th century. The fabulous Acts fix the Saint's flight to the monastic life under the emperor Zeno, and this some martyrologists have adopted, yet not all. The Russians fixed the Saint's death in the year 472, that is, two years before Zeno's reign. But the Sirletian Menology fixes rather her death under Zeno than the beginning of her monastic Life. In the Typicon of Sabas, and in the printed Menæa, nothing is said of S. Theodora's age, perhaps because she was commemorated in the Typicon long before the Acts were written. However that may be, the Acts certainly, since they are plainly fabulous, can have no authority for determining the Saint's age. Moreover Tillemont observed that we cannot cling to the epoch of the Acts, because thus Theodora would have prolonged her life down to the patriarchate of Peter Mongus, who infected all Egypt, and especially the monasteries, with the Eutychian heresy. For these causes I judge that no account is to be had, for the Saint's age, either of the Acts or of those Martyrologies into which something from the Acts has been inserted. And so, since Theodora — who can probably be believed the same as ours — lived with Theophilus of Alexandria, who died in the year 412, and probably survived him; I fix the death of S. Theodora broadly in the V century, and suspect that she died before the middle of the V century, when the Eutychian heresy was not yet known.
[14] Theodora's sayings on redeeming the time, Now I subjoin the said Sayings from Cotelier in Latin only, because the Greek text can be consulted there.
Amma, or mother, Theodora asked pope Theophilus about the Apostle's saying, what it is: Redeeming the time. And he answered her: The expression shows gain: for example, is a time or occasion of insult at hand for thee? By humility and patience buy the time of the insult; and draw the gain to thyself. Is a time of disgrace at hand? Buy it by endurance, and make gain. And thus all contrary things, if we will, turn to gain for us.
[15] on the pursuit of patience, Mother Theodora said: Strive to enter by the narrow gate. For just as trees, unless they have been exposed to rains and winter storms, cannot bear fruit: so also for us this world takes the place of winter; nor shall we be able to be made heirs of the kingdom of heaven except through many tribulations and temptations.
[16] on keeping quiet and avoiding faint-heartedness, She said again: It is good to lead a quiet life: for a prudent man acts in quiet. And truly it is a great thing for a virgin or a monk to have quiet; especially for the younger. But know that where a quiet ordering has been set forth, straightway the evil one approaches, weighs down the soul, in listlessness, in faint-heartedness, in thoughts. He weighs down the body also in infirmities, in weakness, in a slackness of the knees and of all the members; and dissolves the strength both of soul and of body: and hence that saying: I am sick, and cannot recite my office. Nevertheless if we keep watch, all these things will be shaken off. For there was a certain monk who, when he came to the recitation of the office, was seized with cold and fever, and labored under a heaviness: then he spoke thus with himself: Behold, I am in ill health, I am now dying: I will rise then before death, and finish my prayers. And by that thought he did violence to himself, and recited the office. And when the prayer had reached its end, the fever also ceased. And again the brother resisted this thought, and pronounced his accustomed prayers, and overcame the thought.
[17] The same mother Theodora reported besides: A certain religious man was assailed with reproaches by someone, on bearing injuries, and he says to him: I too could return the like; but the law of God shuts my mouth. She narrated this also: A certain Christian, disputing with a Manichean about the body, spoke thus: Give a law to the body, and thou wilt see that the body belongs to the Creator.
[18] The same said again: A teacher ought to be a stranger to the love of ruling, foreign to vainglory, on various virtues, far from pride, not made a mockery by flattery, not blinded by gifts, nor conquered by the belly, not held fast by anger: but patient, gentle, humble as far as may be: he ought to be upright and enduring, diligent and a lover of souls.
[19] on humility, Thus again she spoke: Neither monastic rigor, nor vigils, nor any labor whatever procures salvation; but sincere humility alone. For there was a certain anchorite who cast out demons; and he asked of them: By what do ye go out? By fasting? They answered: We neither eat nor drink. By vigils? They said: We see no sleep. By withdrawal? We dwell in the solitudes. By what therefore do ye go forth? They replied: Nothing conquers us but humility. Dost thou see how humility is a victory against demons?
[20] on temptations. This narrative also was mother Theodora's: There was a certain monk who, oppressed by a multitude of temptations, said: I withdraw hence. And when he was taking up his sandals, he saw another man also taking up his sandals, who said to him: Is it because of me that thou goest out? Behold, whithersoever thou goest, I will go before thee.