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36 36 ST. MARTBtA Chnrch. AA,SS. BaiUet, « St. Simeon Stylites." Guerin. St. Martha (14), Jnne 24, M., honoured in the Abyssinian and Coptic Churches. Not the same as any otiber Martha. AA.SS, St. Martha (15), abbess of Eildare, who died in 758. Colgan. B. Martha flO), May 24, lOth cen- tury. Abbess of Malvasia in the Pelo- ponnesus. One day while she was praying in the church of her monastery, an aged monk came up to her and begged her to give him her jacket. She an- swered him, "As the Lord liveth, brother, I haye but two jackets, one is at the wash, and on account of my infirmity, I cannot do mthout the other, which I am now wearing. Were it otherwise, I would gladly give it to you." The man, however, continued to beg, in the name of Christ, that she would give him one. At last she did so. He instantly disap- peared, and from that moment she was cured of her infirmity and had no need for warm clothing. Every one perceived that the beggar must have been St. John the Evangelist. AA,SS. B. Martha (17), July 5, Cistercian nun at La Cambre near Brussels. She ministered with great charity and patience to Adelaide (10) when she had the leprosy. Called " Blessed " by Henriquez, Bucelinus and others. AA.SS., Prseter, St. Martha (J 8;, Nov. 8, also called Mary, -f- 1300. Daughter of the Grand- duke Demetrius, who was closely related to Alexander Nevski, grand-prince of Eussia. She married Dormont, duke of Pskov. After his death she renounced the world and led a religious life. She was buried in the church of St. John the Baptist, where she is honoured with public worship. Slavonic Calendar in the AA.SS., Oct. vol. xi. St. Marthana ( l ). A holy deaconess or abbuss who, in the 4th century, pre- sided over a community of Eenuntiants at Scloucia. She went to Jerusalem to pray at the holy places, and there made the acquaintance of St. Silvia; they became dear friends and met again with great joy when Silvia visited Seleucia on her way to Constantinople, probably about 385. These Eenuntiants were an extremely self-denying sect, who re- nounced all private property. Pilgrimage of St. Silvia. St. Marthana (2), Mabtha (12). St. Martia or Mabcia-Matidia, March 3. Her name is the first in a list of martyrs in eighteen of the oldest and most reliable martyrologies. Martia and her companions are mentioned in an ancient Anglo-Saxon edition of St Jerome, discovered in the seventh cen- tury. They suffered perhaps in Spain, perhaps in Africa. Some writers, con- founding her with Matidia Augusta, have called her a sister of the Emperor Trajan and disciple of St. Clement, but Trajan had no sister who was a Christian. His niece, Matidia, was the wife of Adrian. AA.SS, St. Martina, Jan. 1, 15, 30, Dec. 31, -f- 230. Patron of Eome. She was the daughter of a consul of Eome and deaconess in the Christian church in the time of the Emperor Alexander Severas and Pope Urban I. She was ordered to sacrifice to Apollo, and replied, '^ Com- mand me to sacrifice to Jesus Christ, that will I do, but to no other Grod." They dragged her to the altar of Apollo, and she prayed that his image might perish. Immediately, part of the temple fell down, destroying the statue of the god, killing the priests and causing the devil to depart shrieking from the idol's shrine. She was struck on the mouth, and eight executioners wore commanded to inflict divers tortures on her, but she was defended by four angels who avenged on the eight men each injury they did to the young saint. They tore off her eyelids and the angels tore off theira. She prayed for their conversion, which occurred while they were tearing her with hooks; they declared themselves Christians, and were immediately hung up and torn with hooks by other execu- tioners. She was condemned to be killed by a lion; but instead of hurting her, he crouched at her feet. Then she was hung on four stakes and cut with swords, and at last she was beheaded. At the moment of her death, a great earthquake shook the city: a circumstance which increased the number of converts from paganism. Her martyrdom occurred