Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/67

53 ST. ANASTASIA 53 St. Ana, V. Honoured in Ireland, Jan. 18, with St. Scoth (2). St. Anarguris, Jnly l. Patron, in some parts of Greece, of flocks and herds. In the isle of Scio, the peasants take a sick ox to the church of St. Anarguris, and pray for its recovery, vowing that, if it is cured, they will present it to the saint when superannuated. On July 1 numbers of old oxen are brought there and killed on the threshold, and the flesh is given to the poor. Macmillan'a Magazine, March, 1885, "Old Mythology in New Apparel," by J. Theodore Bent. SS. Anastasia (i) and Basilissa, April 15. 66. Boman matrons of high raiik and great wealth. Disciples of the Apostles. They were detected collecting and burying the relics of the Christians, and beheaded, after having their foet cut off, and tongues torn out. B.M. AA.SS, St Anastasia (2), Dec. 25, Oct. 26 and 28, V. M. at Borne, in the time of Valerian (253-260). Called " the Elder," because she lived a generation earlier than the great martyr Anastasia. She is honoured on the same day as Ana- stasia (5), and also on Oct. 26 and 28. She is in the B.M. Oct. 28. In the Menology of Ba^sil, Oct. 12, she was a nun under St. Sophia, from the age of 20. She was accused to Probus, an officer under Diocletian, of worshipping neither the gods nor the Emperor. He sent soldiers, who broke into St. Sophia^s house (called monaaterium, but there were, at that time, no monasteries in the modern sense of the word), and took Anastasia to their master. Sophia ex- horted her to endure all things bravely for the love of Christ. Probus advised her to renounce her religion. She had her breasts cut off, her tongue cut out, her teeth drawn, and her naols torn off. She asked for water, and one Cyrillus, who was standing by, gave it her, and obtained as his reward the martyr^s crown. Anastasia was beheaded, and left on the ground to be eaten by beasts and birds of prey. Sophia, who had prayed earnestly that her young disciple might not yield to the assaults of the enemy, came to take her body, and give thanks that she was now safe with Christ. Being a feeble old woman unable to walk without a stick, much less carry the mutilated body of Anastasia, she was assisted by two angels. B.M. St. Anastasia (3), Jan. 5, M. in Africa. AA.SS. St. Anastasia (4), July 29, M. AA.SS, St. Anastasia (5), Dec. 25, V. M. 304. Patron of Zara ; of Santa Severina, in Calabria ; and of weavers. Called in the Greek Church, *' The great martyr Anastasia, the dissolver of charms ; " called in the OrseccnSlav. Martyrologyy given in the AA,SS.j vol. 3, " Dissolver of chains and parmacolytria." One of the great patrons of the Western Church. Her name is in the canon of the Mass. It is also in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, and other ancient catalogues of martyrs. A very old church in Home is dedicated in her name. In the Acts of St. Chrysogonus. which, however, are not of undisputed authenticity, it is said that he was her spiritual director ; that she visited him in prison ; and that she was tortured and burned alive, by order of the prefect of Illyricum, in 304. Her body was removed to Eome, and buried in the church which bears her name; but afterwards translated to Constanti- nople. The Popes anciently said their second Mass on Christmas night in the church of St. Anastasia, whence a com- memoration is made of her in the second Mass. The story of her persecution and martyrdom is given, with variations, by Vega and Yillegas, quoting Ado of Treves, Bede, and other ancient hagio- graphers. According to these legends, she was the daughter of Protasius, or Pretaxato, a heathen Boman nobleman, and Fausta, or Flavia, who was secretly a Christian. Anastasia was brought up in the faith of her mother, with the assistance of St. Chrysogonus, a venerable priest of the Christians, whom both mother and daughter visited and assisted when he was obliged to conceal himself from the persecutions of the heathen. Fausta being dead, and Chrysogonus in prison, Protasius married St Anastasia, against her will, to Publius, a heathen. He was so angry at her unconcealed dis- like to the marriage, and at the report that she belonged to the despised and