Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/162

150 150 ST. PHILOMENA Neapolitan nobleman wanted a body of a saint for his new domestic cbapeL He was taken to the dead-room to oboose. When be came near the body of St. Pbilomena his beart warmed to it. He cbose it and took. it borne witb all proper ceremony. No sooner was it placed in a nice glass coffin in the cbapel, tban the lady of the bonse re- covered from an incurable disease of twelve years* standing. Anotber lady was cured of cancer in ber band. Otber miracles followed. Sncb crowds came to the cbapel tbat tbere wus no room for tbem. Tbe saint's body was tben taken to the cbnrob of Mngnano, wbere more miracles occurred, and before long, tbe saint appeared in visions and told ber story to a priest, a nun, and an artist. Sbe said sbe was the daughter of a Greek prince who greatly desired to bave a cbild and having long invoked bis gods in vain, at last listened to the persuasions of Pnblius, a Christian physician, who promised tbat if the prince and his wite would become Chris- tians and pray to the one true God, they should bave a child — tbat child was Pbilomena. At the age of thirteen, she was brought to Home wbere Diocletian offered ber his hand and kingdom, and as she declined, she was scourged and thrown into the Tiber, shot with arrows, and finally beheaded. La Thaumaturge by Tobie, bishop of Lausanne. Ott, Die Legends, Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art. According to Dr. Littledale, it is not at all certain tbat her name was Philu- mena. The inscription was '^Liimetio, Pax Tecum Fi" which most probably means. Light and Peace be with thee. It was, however, unmistakably the body of a martyr and was probably of the beginning of the fourth century. St. Pbilomena (2), July 5, V., was never heard of until 1527, when her body was discovered, in good preservation and adorned with fresh flowers, under tbe altar of the church at San Severino in the Apennines; a writing was tied to her neck, setting forth tbat she was translated thither by St Severinus, in tbe time of Totila, king of the Groths, and tbat she belonged to the noble family of Clavella, which, however, can not be traced farther back than the tenth century. Her name was inserted in the B.M. early in the seventeenth century. AA.SS. St. Philonilla, Oct. 11, sister of St. Zenai's. B.M. St. Philothea, Dec. 7, V. M. nth or 13th century. There are two different accouDis of her life and there is a differ- ence of nearly two hundred years in their dates, but the Bollandists do not appear to think they refer to two different saints of the same name. The first story is that she was the daughter of a rich and miserly carpenter of Ternov in WaUachia, who insisted on ber marrying a rich young man of the name of Stephen Mazias. As he was a drunkard and a profSane swearer and otherwise objectionable, Philothea, with tbe connivance of ber mother, left ber home, the day before tbat fixed for the marriage, in the dress of a pilgrim, in- tending to take refuge in a convent in Macedonia which bad branches in Moldo Wallacbia. One of the maid-servants of her family voluntarily followed, to share ber fate. Several supernatural circumstances attended the journey for tbe first few days and then Philothea was warned in a dream of ber mother's serious illness, and returning with all haste, found her dead. Her father would not let her into the bouse. Stephen and all the neighbours upbraided ber as tbe cause of her mother's death. After a time, her father took her back to act as a servant in the house, but be was very angry tbat sbe gave food and money to beggars and pilgrims, and one day, seeing her give half a loaf to a blind man, he struck her with his axe and killed ber, 1060. Seventy-two years afterwards, Basil, the metropolitan, de- creed tbat she should be worshipped as a saint. A church was built in ber honour at Ardzeschul, where many pil- srims resort to kiss ber band and fore- bead, which are cased in silver. She is the patron of a lunatic asylum near the town. Tbe otber story is that sbe lived in the thirteenth century; suffered much from the cruelty of her step-mother, and