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407 SS. IRENE, PELICDLA, AND MARCIANA 407 escaped with his son, but the son was tormented by a devil, and Hirtacus was seized with a dreadfdl cancer and killed himself. Behor, brother of Iphigenia, reigned in his stead. KM. MarL of Salishury. Her story is only known from the Acts of St. Matthew, which althouf^h old, are of very doubtful authority. AA.SS. Ordericus Vitalis, Hist, Eccles, St. Irais, Iraides, Hebais, Eais, Eaissa, or Rhais, Sept. 22, 23, 5, Oct. 5, V. M. c. 308. A nun at Alexandria, or Antinoopolis. She went out of her con- vent to fetch water, and saw the prefect of the city geting into a ship near the shore, with a number of Christians in chains ; priests, deacons, matrons, and virgins. She ran to them and asked why they were in chains. They said, " We go to martyrdom for the sake of our Saviour and that we may have eternal life." She obtained of the lictors, permission to go with them. They went to Antinous, where as they persisted in their religion, they were tortured, and at last all be- headed: Ira'is first and then the rest. BM,, Sept. 22. Menology of Basil, Sept. 23. Graeco-Slav. Calender, Oct. 5. AA.SS.y Sept. 5. St. Iraja, Sept. 24, M. with her brother Abadirus, occurs in the Coptic Calendar. Perhaps the same as Ira is. St. Irembertana, Bert an a. St. Irene (l), May 5 (Hbrena, Hebina, Penelope), V. M. 1st century. Patron of Lecce in Calabria, and of young girls. According to the Menology of the Emperor Basil, Irene was the daughter of a certain king named Lucinius. She was shut up in a tower at the age of six, with thirteen maids, and there she was instructed by the angel of God, and soon afterwards baptized by Timothy, a dis- ciple of St. Paul. She broke the idols her father had given her to worship; he was very angry, and had her tied to the feet of a wild horse. But, instead of hurting her, it bit off his hand and caused his death ; he was, -however, restored to life in answer to the prayers of Irene, whereupon he and his wife and 3000 of her subjects became Christians. At last, Irene was arrested by order of Ampelianus the governor, and, persisting in the worship of Christ, was tortured and beheaded. The scene of her martyrdom is vari- ously said to be Constantinople, Me- sembria, Callipolis in Thrace, and Magedon, which probably means Mace- donia, and is also called her birthplace. Henschenius places her martyrdom in the 1st century. She is probably the same person who, under the name of Hebina, is made the heroine of a legend placing her in the 4th century. She is the same as St. Herena or Herina, who is specially worshipped at Lecce in Calabria, where the inhabitants imagine her to be a native of their town, or to have fied thither from the persecu- tion of Lycinius, with her companion St. Vbnera or Veneranda or Para- scEVE (June 26 or 28). In 1418, when Mary, widow of Ladis- laus, king of Naples, was living at Lecce, an old chapel was discovered outside the walls, containing an image of the B. V. Mary, with SS. Herina and Venera on either side, with burning lamps in their hands. No one used to resort there, but as a light appeared over the roof every night for a year, the Aletians built a church there and called it Sta. Maria di Luce. BM. AA,SS. St, Irene (2) or Irenes, Sept. 18, M. with St. Sophia (12). BM. St. Irene (3), June 16, M. under Mark Anthony, c. 213. Canisius. SS. Irene (4), Felicula, and Marciana or Martiniana, VV., June 5, about 235, were among the ten martyrs commonly called companions of SS. Marcian and Nicander. (See Daria.) Whether they were ten or twelve in all, seems uncertain. In the persecution, under Galerius Maximianus, they were tortured, miraculously healed in prison, and finally walled up, men and women together, in a place built expressly for them, where they died of the efifects of the burning sun of Egypt, and of hunger and thirst. As long as they lived within the wall, their guards were instructed to keep telling them, "We have food and water ready. If you wish to escape &om your torments you have only to