Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/324

312 312 ST. ZOE MERETRIX days she was taken out and hung by her neck and hair from a high tree, over a fire of most offensive refase, the smoke from which speedily snffocated her. Her body was then thrown into the Tiber, lest the Christians should take her and make a goddess of her. It was, however, rescued and was eventually pre- served in the church of St. Praxedis. When the story of her death was related by Sebastian to Tranquillinus, he ex- claimed, " Women obtain the crown of martyrdom before us. Why do we live ? " B.M. AA.SS. Butler, "St. Sebastian," Jan. 20. Stadler. Baillet. St. Zoe (3) Meretrix, Feb. 13, + c. 400, a holy penitent. Martinian was a youth of extraordinary beauty, who left the world and its vanities and led an angelic life in a hermitage, which he built on a mountain near CsBsarea in Palestine. He easily overcame various temptations of the devil, but at last a woman overheard two men talking of the holiness of this young anchorite. Urged by the devil, she stopped them and said, " Who is this that you admire so much? what are his good works? or what is the use of his life ? If I chose I could take his sanctity from him like leaves off a tree! Wherein is a man worthy of praise, who shuts himself up like a beast of the field and does not dare to look temptation in the face? Don't you know that where there is no fire, the grass will not be burnt ? If the fire were brought to the grass and still the grass did not bum, — you might wonder: the same may be said of Martinian." Having made an agreement with these men that she would persuade the holy man to renounce his innocence of life, in the evening she dressed herself in rags and put a coarse, tattered veil over her head. She took her beautiful embroidered clothes and her jewels in a bag, and went in the midst of a storm of wind and rain to Martinian's cell. She called out in a doleful voice, " Have pity on me, O man of God, for I have lost my way, leave me not to be devoured by the wild beasts, despise not a poor sinner, for I also am one of God's creatures." When the saint saw her so ragged and so wet ho had compassion on her, but he was sorely perplexed and knew not whether it wonld be a greater sin to depart from his rule and admit a woman within his door, or to let her perish. He prayed that God wonld defend him in this un- expected danger, and he opened the door, and let her in. When he had lighted the fire, he said, " Woman, warm thyself and wait upon thyself, for I may not remain with thee." He brought her some of the dates which were his usual food, and said, "Eat, and take care of thyself, and to-morrow go in peace." Then he went into his inner cell and shut the door. When he had sung his psalms and said his prayers he went to sleep on the ground as usual about the third hour of the night. The woman got np in the night, took her clothes out of the bag and adorned herself to the best advant- age. The anchorite rose up early and having sung the psalms, came out of his cell to send away the woman. When he saw her so splendidly dressed he did not recognize the beggar of the night before. He was dumb with astonishment for some minutes, and at last he said, " Who art thou, and how camest then in hither, and what diabolical garments are these?" She told him she was the woman who had come the night before and that she had done it because of the fame that she heard of his beauty. She then began to argue with him that his conduct was not scriptural, asking him if eating and drinking and marriage were forbidden by God, quoting St. Paul in favour of her own opinions, asking him which of the prophets or patriarchs was unmarried or did not raise up heirs for the kingdom of heaven, and reminding him that Enoch, who was a married man, was counted worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven without tasting of death. Martinian an- swered, "If I make thee my wife, whither can I take thee or how can I feed thee, seeing I have nothing ? " But she said, " Care thou for none of those things, for I have lands and servants and much silver and gold ; only come with me and live in my home." Then he promised to do so. But God had pity on His servant, who had prayed to Him so often, and would not let him fall away from tho path of righteousness. So Martinian