Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/250

236 23(5 B. DOMINICA TORRES Sfc. Indract planted his staff in the ground ; it immediately put forth roots and loaves, and in course of time became a great oak tree. Ho found in a little pool just enough fish for them all to eat, and every day the same number were ready there, neither more nor less, until one of his companions took one of the fish without his leave, after which the supply di- minished by one fish daily. Indract understood it as a sign that Gk)d wished them no longer to remain there, so taking leave of his sister, he hastened with his nine companions to Rome, to visit the churches and relics of the apostles. On their return they wore joined by Do- minica, and all set out for Glastonbury. On the way thither they stayed some days with St. Ina, or Yno, king of the West Saxons, who held his court at Pederton, while some of his attendants lodged in the neighbouring villages. One of these. Hone, a son of iniquity, supposing the pilgrims' scrips to be full of money, lay in wait for them with his accomplices when they got to Shapwith, near Glastonbury, and murdered them all in the night, throwing their bodies into a deep pit, where he hoped they would never be found. That night the king was not able to sleep ; he looked out of the window, and saw a pillar of fire in the sky over the place where the bodies were hidden. As he saw the same thing on the two following nights, he had the place searched, and the pil- grims buried with great honour at Glastonbury. The murderers were seized by demons, and tore themselves to pieces. The fiery pillar was also seen by a woman who had served idols from her childhood, and whom no preach- ing had been able to convert. She did not dare to approach the bodies of the holy men, but went and confessed her sins to a priest, and was baptized. Various miracles of healing are recorded of the relics of these martyrs. Henschenius, in AA^SS,^ from a Life taken from Malmesbury and Capgrave, and the Salisbury MarUjrology, St. Dominica was invoked in the Exeter Litany in the 1 1 th century. B. Dominica (:>) Torres. O.S.D. Of Chntilla, a village eight leagues from Valencia. She began her austerities at seven. She went with two companions to the hermitage of St. Mary Magdalene, at Massamagrel, took the habit of the Beatas of the order of B. John Micone, and was prioress. She appears to have had fits in consequence of her austerities, for, after many details of her wounds, vermin, starvation, etc., it is related that the devil tempted her as he did St. Anthony, and once knocked her off a bench where she was sitting, and threw her out of the window; she was not killed, but permanently injured. Once he locked her up in her cell, deprived her of the use of her hands and feet, tied her tongue, and hid her under a mat. Thus she lay for two days, until the nuns, tired of looking for her and call- ing her, got in at the window, and rescued her. She received the Holy Sacrament every day for forty years. She was charitable, and begged from the marquis the release of many prisoners, which he always granted, so great was his respect for her sanctity. She was so modest that she could not endure the word ^ flesh" to be mentioned even in a sermon. She obtained sundry favours from God by her prayers. In her last illness it was re- vealed to her that she should die at a certain hour on the festival of a saint of her order ; which happened on B. Louis Bertrand*s day. She was honoured as a saint by the people, who thronged to the bier, and carried off pieces of her garland as sacred relics. Pio. B. Dominica (0; Ongata, Sept UK 1022. Martyred in Japan on the same day and ^lace as Lucy Freitas. St. Domitiana, April 28, M. with St. Cyrillus and others. Their names were found in a very ancient martyrology in Lombardic characters at Monte Cas- sino. AA,SS, St. Domitilla ( l ). Flavi a Domitilla the Elder was the daughter of the Emperor Titus Vespasian (7i>-81), and niece of Titos Flavius Domitian, his brother and successor (81-0). She married her first cousin, Titus Flavius Clemens, son of Titus Flavius Sabinus, brother of Vespasian. The ruins of the villa of Flavia Domitilla are sti 11 to be seen at liome a