ON ST. THEODORA, A MATRON,
AT ROME,
After the beginning of the fourth century.
SYLLOGE.
Whence knowledge of the Saint is drawn: her memory in some Fasti: the translation of her body from Arinianum to Rome.
Theodora, a matron, at Rome. (S.)
U. S.
All the knowledge which is had about this holy Matron in the Roman Martyrology and in some Fasti is drawn from no other source than the Acts of SS. Abundius and Abundantius, given on the preceding day. Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy recalls the Saint's memory with this brief elogium: The Saint's memory in some Theodora, a noble Roman matron worshipping Christ, while Diocletian and Maximian were persecuting the Christians, diligently ministered to the holy martyrs while they lived: and after their slaying she took care that their bodies should be sought out, collected, and buried. These bodies of the holy martyrs Abundius, Abundantius, Marcianus, and John she, coming by night to the place of martyrdom with her servants, placed upon her own vehicle and carried away to her estate near Mount Soracte at the twenty-eighth milestone from the City, and there at Arinianum, embalmed with spices and wrapped in linen cloths, she buried them. And she, having long been engaged in offices of this kind of piety, at last flew away to her reward in heaven on the XV Kalends of October. At the end he subscribes: From the Martyrol. and the Passion of SS. Abundius and Abundantius. He doubtless designates the Roman Martyrology of Baronius, in which the Saint is briefly announced on the present day in these words: At Rome, of St. Theodora, a matron, who in the persecution of Diocletian diligently ministered to the holy martyrs.
[2] Our Saint is also mentioned by Gallonio, De Virginibus Romanis, page 46, Fasti: she is to be distinguished from others of the same name. by Arthur in the Gynæceum, and by Bartholomew Piazza in the Hemerologium sacrum on this day. But it is not necessary to transcribe their words; for they contain nothing peculiar, and only praise the charity she showed in the service of the holy martyrs. Ferrarius in an annotation observes, first, that the distance of the town of Arinianum from the City noted in the Acts needs correction, since it is not 28 but only 20 miles. Cardulus suspects, as we said on the preceding day in the Annotations to the Passion of SS. Abundius and Abundantius, letter ee, that this difference arises from the fact that miles were formerly shorter than they now are. Ferrarius observes, secondly, that our Theodora is to be distinguished from her who is recalled on the 1st day of April in the Roman Martyrology. He brings this reason, that she was the sister of St. Hermes the martyr, and lived and was crowned with martyrdom under the emperor Hadrian, nay Trajan, in the year 117, as was said on the 1st day of April in our Work. She is also distinct from others whose name is Theodora, and who are reviewed by the older martyrologists, as is clear both from the regions to which they are ascribed and also from other circumstances. Greven in the Supplements of Usuard, in our Sollerius, on the XXVIII day of December has it thus: Of Theodora, a Roman matron; and if she is the same as ours, I do not know why she was referred by Greven to that day.
[3] Few of her deeds are known: Other deeds of St. Theodora we do not know, than that in her house the faithful of Christ lay hidden, as the Passion of SS. Abundius and Abundantius reports at our num. 2: that she committed to burial the twenty-three anonymous martyrs, of whom the same Passion speaks, together with John the presbyter, in the crypt at the slope of Cucumer, situated on the old Salarian Way, as we said from Aringhi in the Annotations to the Passion of SS. Abundius and Abundantius, letter r; that she announced their glorious contest to Abundius and Abundantius as they were living in the Mamertine prison, and that she also buried them honorably, together with SS. Marcianus and John, on her own estate. The place where St. Theodora's estate was situated I gave in the Preliminary Commentary on SS. Abundius and Abundantius etc., num. 34, from the praised Aringhi, Roma Subterranea, book 4, chapter 40, num. 2. Aringhi adds in the same place: Where moreover Theodora herself, joined to the martyrs by a worthy fellowship of merits, was laid to rest with equal honor also. The other deeds of Theodora, as also the year of her death, are undiscovered: whence I have broadly fixed her death after the beginning of the fourth century.
[4] her body carried from Arinianum to Rome. Cardulus in his Notes on the History of SS. Abundius and Abundantius, letter k, has this among other things about our Theodora: Wherefore not undeservedly below (in the History of the first translation of SS. Abundius and Abundantius, in our Appendix, num. 14) she is called Blessed, and her image is mentioned as painted on a wall at Arinianum. From the History of the translation just praised it is clear that at the beginning of the eleventh century, by the order of the emperor Otto III, St. Theodora's body was carried, together with the bodies of SS. Abundius and Abundantius and of other martyrs, to the recently built basilica of St. Adalbert, now called St. Bartholomew's, situated on the Tiber Island; in which church St. Theodora's body still rested in his own age, as Bartholomew Piazza is authority in the Hemerologium sacrum. The miracle which is narrated in the history of the same translation, in our num. 16 of the Appendix on SS. Abundius and Abundantius etc., because it is brief, I also transfer hither: And while those who were carrying them (the bodies of SS. Marcianus and John) were passing by the church of blessed Eutychius the martyr, they saw water begin to flow down from the image of blessed Theodora which was painted there, so that even the priests who were celebrating the vigils there could wash their faces from it. Which almighty God is to be thought to have shown for this reason, that by the absence of the holy martyrs the place in which they had been buried, on the estate of blessed Theodora, remained captive. And indeed this flowing of water had neither been seen before, nor was seen afterwards.