Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/64

52 52 ST. MARY of the deed, bat be himself, in order to become a magician, hath written the profession of abjnration of his own free will, and brought it to me: therefore Thou hast no charge of him from hence- forth." He called this out three times. Anthemius, when he had heard these dreadful words, began to tremble all over and to exclaim, " Give me back my writing ; I am a Christian : I pray, I entreat ; I will be a Christian ; give mo back the confession I so wickedly wrote." As the unhappy man went on in this way^ the prince said to him, ** You cannot hayo that paper back now, but I will bring it in the dreadful day of judgment. You are mine from this moment. I have you in my power." Anthemius lay on his face on the ground, groaning and weeping until morning. After much agony of mind he shaved his hair, put on a rough tunic and sackcloth and decided to go and confess everything to a y(ry holy bishop, who was living some miles from Antioch; he was ashamed to confess his sins in his own city. When he arrived he threw himself at his feet and said, ''I implore you to baptize me." The bishop replied, "Have you not already been baptized ? " Then with many tears, Anthemius told his story and said, "In that unhappy hour when I wrote the renunciation of my Lord Jesus Christ, immediately a copious sweat broke from me, so that the clothes I had on my body were soaked with it ; from that time, I believe that as I abjured Him, so He has deserted me. Now, O venerable father, help me, for I repent of the ruin I have wrought for myself." When the servant of God heard this, he threw himself also on the ground and lay there weeping and praying beside Anthemius. After a long time ho arose and said to Anthemius, "I dare not absolve by baptism one who is already baptized. There is no second baptism among Christians, except the baptism of tears. But do not despair of your salvation nor of Divine mercy; but rather give yourself to God, praying to Him all the rest of your life. Hope not for any better way to recover your Christianity, for no other can be found." Then Anthemius went away, weeping and lamenting his crime. He sold all his goods, gave liberty to all his slaves of both sexes, and distributed all his money to the churches and to the poor, by the hands of faithful servants ; to the mother of the girl for love of whom he had desired to become a servant of the devil, he gave three pounds of gold and pro- cured her a place of abode in one of the churches, begging her to pray for him and promising that they should never be molested by him any more as he was going away, he know not whither, to rely entirely on the mercy of God and to weep away his sins. After this, he was seen no more. Thus Mary and her mother were delivered from the fear of their persecutor, and from the promise that Mary had made to him and the fear of breaking it. AA.S8, from her ActSj written from local tradition long afterwards and pre- served in a Greek MS. in the ModicsBian Library at Florence. St. Mary (35), Golinduca. St. Mary (36), Aug. 9, M. 730, at Constantinople. She was the wife of a patrician. The Emperor Constantino set a great statue of Christ over the brazen gate of his palace in Constanti- nople. It stood there until the icono- clastic rage broke out in the eighth century : then Leo, the Isaurian, ordered every image to be thrown down, and when the destruction of this famous statue was attempted, a riot ensued, which was punished with great severity ; not only the rioters but persons sus- pected of favouring the preservation of images were condemned to death ; among them, Mary with her two sons, and several others. AA.S8. compare Tueo- DOSIA (8). St. Mary (37), the Consoler, V., Aug, 1, 8th century. Sister of Hanno, bishop of Verona. She was buried in a church dedicated in her honour in that city. Eepresented holding in her right hand a lily, and in her left, balances, in one of which are two bodies, in the other a ring. The city of Verona suffered the horrors of famine in consequence of a drought that had lasted for several years. Hanno,