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79 ST. APHRODISIA 79 gives rise, in some cases, to a malti- plication of saints. St Antonina (2), June 12, M. at Nioea, in Bithynia. In the persecution nnder Diodetian and Maximian, sbe was scourged, hung on the eqnulens, her sides torn with hooks, burnt with lamps, and finally killed with a sword. B,M. AAJSS. St Antonina (3) of Gea, March 1, M. Bepresented with a barrel near her, or being put into a cask or sack. Said by the Spanish hagiographers to have been born at Gea, in the pro- ▼inoe of Beira, in Portugal. Accused of deriding the gods, she was tortured in ▼ariouB ways, then shut up in a vessel and drowned in a lake near Gea, under Diocletian. She is one of the most popular of the Portuguese saints. This rhyme is common among the peasants of the province, and refers to her— " Antonina peqnena, Dos olhos grandee, Matarao-na idolatras £ feros gigantes/* "Idolaters and savage giants killed little Antonina of the large eyes." St. Antonina (3) is given in the Boman Mariyrology. Accorduig to Hensohenius, AAJSS^ tihls is no other than St. Anto- nina of Nicea, in Bithynia ; her worship yraa introduced into the Latin Ghuroh from the Greek, in the 16th century; and the word " Gea " has been introduced by mistake for *< Nicea " by some of the copyists of old calendars. Antonina of Nicea has also been set up as another saint of the island of Gea, or Geo. St Antonina (4), May 7, M. in Africa. AA.SS. St Antonina (5), June 2. One of 227 Boman martyrs commemorated this day in 8L Jerome's Martyrdogy. AA,SS. St Anysia (1), Dec. 30. +304. v. M. A young lady of Thessalonica, who was so b^utiful and had such quantities of money, slaves, jewels, and all kinds of splendid things, that she knew not what to do. She said to her- self ** How can I be saved with all this wealth?'' One Sunday, during the persecution under Diocletian, as she was going through the Cassandriote Oate on her way to church, or to the secret meeting-place of the Ghristians, she met a soldier, who rudely stopped her, and asked where she was going. In her fright she made the sign of the cross. He thought she was making game of him, seized hold of her, and insisted on having an answer. She said, **I am a servant of Ghrist, and I am going to my Lord's assembly." " I will not let yon go there," said the soldier. *'I will take you to pour a libation to the gods, for to-day we worship the sun." As she tried to get away from him, he pulled her veil, and rudely touched her face. cried the maiden, angry and terrified. The soldier drew his sword, and plunged it in her side. She fell, and all the ground was stained with her blood. The crowd first pitied her youth, and then abused her for contemning the gods. The Ghristians buried her two stadia from that gate, and when the persecution was over, they built a house of prayer on the spot, to the left of the public road. Such is the story given by Simeon Metaphrastes, Migne's edition, iii. 747. It is also in Surius, Baronius, the Meno- logy of the Emperor Basils Butler, Mar- tin, etc. St. Anysius, bishop of Thessalonica, is commemorated with St. Anysia. (B,M. and Oreek Synaxary.) Baring-Gould, Lives, says Anysius received his name from the circumstance of Anysia's mar^ tyrdom being fresh in the memory of the Ghristians of Thessalonica when he was bom. He was bishop there at the time of the memorable massacre under Theodosius the Great, in consequence of which St. Ambrose forbade that Emperor to enter the church at Milan, in 389. St Anysia (2), Dec. 31, M., is said by the Bollandists, Orseco-Slav. Calendar^ to mean Anastasia ; but this compiler ventures to think it is Antsia (!)• St. Apersia, July 25. Gommemo- rated in the Arabtco-Egyptian Martyro- logy. AA,SS. St. Aphra, Afra. St. Aphrodisia, Nov. 5. There was a church in her honour at Beziers,. where St. Gerald, bishop of Beziers^
 * May Ghrist Jesus rebuke thee, devil 1 "