CONCERNING ST. THEODOSIA THE VIRGIN
Martyr at Caesarea in Palestine.
UNDER MAXIMINUS
PrefaceTheodosia, Virgin Martyr, at Caesarea in Palestine (St.)
BY G. H.
[1] Eusebius Pamphili, in the book on the Martyrs of Palestine, treats accurately of those who before his own eyes suffered in the city of Caesarea: among whom was St. Apphianus, crowned in the third year of Diocletian's persecution, whose Acts of Martyrdom we have just now given from chapter four of that work. Among the Martyrs who suffered at Caesarea In chapter six he describes the Martyrdom of St. Agapius, who suffered in the fourth year of the persecution on November XX. Then in the fifth year of the persecution, in chapter seven he recalls various Martyrs: and in the first place St. Theodosia the Virgin, who is also inscribed in various fasti on this second day of April; and to her he writes this eulogy.
[2] St. Theodosia praised by Eusebius. When the fifth year of the persecution was now being unfolded, on the second day of the month Xanthicus, which is before the fourth day of the Nones of April, on the very day of the Lord's Resurrection, again at Caesarea Theodosia the Virgin, born of the city of Tyre, a faithful and especially grave maiden, not yet eighteen years of age, approached certain prisoners who were freely confessing the kingdom of God before the praetorium, both to salute them, and (as is credible) to beseech them that, when they should have come to God, they would be mindful of her. When this was done, as though she had perpetrated some impious and nefarious deed, she is seized by soldiers and led to the President. He at once, being insane, and stirred by a certain bestial impulse of rage, when he had tortured her with bitter and dreadful torments, and furrowed her sides and breasts to the very bones with iron claws; ordered her, still breathing and enduring all with a joyful and cheerful countenance, to be plunged into the sea-waves. Thus far the text. The President was called Urbanus, as above is clear from the Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Apphianus, and is elsewhere noted by others.
[3] The cultus of this Virgin and Martyr is celebrated among the Greeks and on various days; Her cultus among the Greeks April 2. and first is referred to this second of April in the MS. Menaea of Paris of Cardinal Mazarin and of Dijon of Pierre-François Chifflet, with a eulogy taken from Eusebius just related; the same is found in the printed Menaea and in Maximus of Cythera and in the Menology of Sirletus, under the name of Theodora instead of Theodosia — which is followed by Galesinius and Baronius, but they call her Theodosia.
[4] Another day among the Greeks is the third of this month of April, on which she is mentioned in the Menaea of the Duke of Savoy at Turin and in the Ambrosian Library of Milan, Also April 3 in the codex marked with the letter O and number 148, with a eulogy almost the same and abridged from Eusebius' words. She is mentioned on the same day, and indeed in the first place in the Menology of Emperor Basil, whence the eulogy is taken — because some new circumstances are added — which we give here, with the eulogy of Emperor Basil, and it is as follows: On the third day of the month of April the contest of St. Theodosia the Virgin and Martyr. Theodosia the Martyr of Christ was born from the city of Tyre, who when she was in her eighteenth year of age, was caught for the reason that she was a Christian: and led to the President of Palestine, and questioned concerning religion, confessed Christ. Wherefore she was struck on her sides and breasts, and was ordered to deny Christ and to sacrifice to idols. But since she could not be persuaded to this, she was thrust into prison, and commanded to the keeper of the prison, that not only should he guard her carefully, but also that he should not permit anyone to enter to visit her, nor bring her food until she should deny Christ, and sacrifice to the gods. But many days now having elapsed, she was led out of the prison, and again was compelled to sacrifice to impure demons. And when she refused to hear this, she was first sharply tortured; then cast into the sea, and gave up her spirit to her Lord. Thus far the text.
[5] The third day assigned to her sacred cultus among the Greeks is the twenty-ninth of May, and this seems to be more celebrated than the rest. and most solemnly on May 29. For with greater praise she is mentioned in the already-cited Menology of Emperor Basil, the MS. Synaxarium of Clermont of the Society of Jesus at Paris, in the Menaea both printed and handwritten, likewise in Maximus of Cythera and in the Menology of Cardinal Sirletus. Moreover the entire Ecclesiastical office with its odes and hymns is performed in the Menaea concerning St. Theodosia, of whom this eulogy is there set forth.
[6] St. Theodosia Martyr at Caesarea. When this sacred and holy Virgin was in her eighteenth year of age, having arisen from the city of Tyre, Eulogy from the Menaea, in the fifth year of the persecution contended for the faith at Caesarea. For already bound and about to suffer punishment, nevertheless with free voice she confessed Christ. The Judges now seated in the tribunal, she was brought to the President Urbanus. Whom he having in vain exhorted to sacrifice to idols, ordered her to be so excoriated that, her breasts and sides being lacerated, the cruel tyrant went so far that the bones and entrails appeared. When therefore he beheld the girl bearing all the tortures most patiently, and suffering all the torments silently without voice or groan; hortatorily he asked her that she would be willing to sacrifice to the gods. Then she, looking at him with fixed eyes, said with a pleasant and smiling countenance: O man, why do you wander so? Do you not see that by the testimony of Christ I have already been held worthy of the fellowship of the Holy Martyrs? Then the President, when he learned that he was mocked by the maiden, applied still greater torments to the Martyr, and at length ordered her to be cast headlong into the sea-waves, in which by a blessed end she completed her martyrdom. Thus far the text, with which agree the eulogies handed down in other Menologies and Synaxaria.
[7] and the Odes of the Ecclesiastical office. More than thirty odes are added, which exalt the magnificent triumphs of St. Theodosia over the vanquished malice of the tyrant and the hostile devices of demons. The tortures often repeated are inculcated, and the constancy of the Virgin is praised, therefore crowned by Christ her Bridegroom. The eternal glory granted to her after Martyrdom is expounded in various encomiums, and her intercession with God is besought, that there may be health for the sick and sure protection for all. In the adjoined verses is indicated her suffocation in the waters of the sea, and by Christ her transference and sustenance to waters of refreshment. And let these things drawn from the ancient monuments of the Greeks suffice.
[8] Acts from Latin MSS. are omitted. That the veneration of the same St. Theodosia was of old transferred to the Latins is indicated by the ancient Acts of her life and Martyrdom, which we have copied from the MSS. of Trier of St. Maximinus, of Antwerp of St. Bernard on the Scheldt, and another of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden. We have also found them in MSS. of Belfort, Budec, Rottendorf, and the Roman Lateran Church, of which Aringhi mentions in Book 1 of Subterranean Rome, chapter 16, number 31, and Baronius in his Annotations on this day. But we prefer to omit them, fearing lest many things from the Acts of other Martyrs, and perhaps of another Virgin, also called Theodosia, have been stitched or inserted. Further from all the accounts of the Greeks and of Eusebius himself, the eye-witness, it is clear that she died cast into the sea. But in the Latin Acts she is said to have been brought back to land by Angels, and to have carried in her hand the stone to which she had been tied. She would, according to the same Latin Acts, then have been again seized and in the amphitheater exposed to a lion, leopard, bear, bull and other beasts, but always unharmed, and there beheaded, would have ascended to the heavens like a golden dove: and would have appeared to her parents — and these things are said to have been done at Caesarea in Palestine on the Lord's day, the fourth (or according to others the third) of the Nones of April. Which things, although they seem to have been written more than eight hundred years ago, we prefer to omit, because in the silence of Eusebius and the earlier writers they are not sufficiently credible, and can at least be read in summary in Bonino Mombrizio, volume 2 folio 327, Vincent of Beauvais book 12 of the Speculum Historiale chapter 67 (who adds that he abridged these things from the acts) and Peter de Natalibus, book 4 of the Catalogue, chapter 25, who all say she suffered at Caesarea in Palestine.
[9] The ancient veneration of the same Virgin is indicated by the Latin Martyrologies, four copies of St. Jerome have these words on April III: Veneration in the Latin Fasti: At Caesarea in Palestine the birthday of St. Theodosia the Virgin. The same words are read on the said day in the MSS. of Arras, Tournai, Laon and others. In the Martyrology of Rabanus, many things from the already cited Acts are related in this way: III Nones of April. Birthday of Theodosia the Virgin, who suffered in the times of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian in the city of Caesarea, under the Prefect Urbanus. For she, having left her parents, fled to the prison, where the Confessors of Christ were shut up, was seized by soldiers, and led to the tribunal of the Judge Urbanus. Who standing before him, was neither deceived by his flatteries, nor terrified by threats: but filled with the wisdom of God, she refuted the false Gods of the Gentiles by argument before the President. Whence also, bound with cords by the tyrant and struck with scourges, she could not be overcome. Afterwards various torments were applied to her, that is, red-hot pans, lions and beasts, from which she suffered no mark. Then cast into the sea, but by the help of God more quickly freed therefrom, finally her head being cut off by the sword, she fell asleep in peace, and completed her martyrdom, being honorably given to burial by the Christians. Thus Rabanus. But Ado on day 11 April with the Latin Acts says she was first plunged into the sea, then cast to beasts, and attributes it to Caesarea in Cappadocia, where there is no sea. Usuard says she suffered in the same way at Caesarea in Cappadocia, but omits the submersion in the sea. Hence Galesinius proposes two Theodosias, but he is sufficiently refuted by Baronius.
[10] The fifth year of the persecution, as is clear from what was said above in the Life of St. Apphianus, Time of the Martyrdom. corresponds, at least up to April, to the year of Christ CCCVIII. But because at that time the feast of Easter fell on March XXVIII, it was possible for her, at the Easter festival, on the fifth or fourth day before the Kalends of April, to have been taken, and after several days on April II or III to have been killed.
The body, or a notable part of it, to have been once transferred from Palestine to Constantinople, and the memory of this event is celebrated more festively on May XXIX in all the Greek Menaea and Synaxaria, from this we are persuaded, that the cultus of this holy Virgin was most celebrated in the Imperial City, whether the body was brought from Palestine to Constantinople, commended by the singular prolixity of the whole Ecclesiastical Office. For the Menaea and Synaxaria above cited were in large part composed for the use of the Constantinopolitan churches; whence it comes that they extend themselves more in adorning and expounding the proper feasts of that city. That this was a proper feast of the Constantinopolitans is also gathered from the metrical Ephemeris, which proposes a single Saint for each day, which on the said XXIX May has thus:
Εἰκάδι ἡδ᾽ ἐνάτη Θεοδοσίην πόντος ἔμαρψε
On the twenty-ninth Theodosia was drowned in the sea.
Whence was this feast so proper to the Constantinopolitans, and that on a day other than that of the martyrdom undergone, if not from the occasion of the body translated there, or some such similar thing? The Muscovites too or Russians, having borrowed their sacred fasti from Constantinople, confirm this celebrated cultus there; for in their tables, which we saw at Amsterdam in the house of the most illustrious Lorenzo van der Hem, they represent only the one Theodosia on that day of May. Further, our conviction concerning the body translated to Constantinople has been recently confirmed by the most strenuous Francesco Nigri the Venetian, Priest and Apostolic Protonotary, in his work "The most happy Trophy of the Virgin Theodosia over the tyrant," addressed to the most happy Victory Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara. When the autograph of the little book was held by Georgio Cardoso the author of the Portuguese Hagiology, Don Gaspar Ibañez de Segovia Peralta, Marquis of Agropolis, indicated it to us, and signified that, after a long introduction describing the persecutions of the Church through several chapters, one comes to the matter through these words: But we, about to describe the contest of Theodosia, most modest Virgin and most happy Martyr, shall easily accomplish a tripartite work, if in the first place we examine her family and condition of life, in the second place her constant confession of the Christian faith and triumphant martyrdom, and lastly those miracles by which this most blessed Virgin has both formerly endowed us and daily does not cease to endow us — with a brief argument and easy discourse we shall pursue.
[11] and hence her cultus among the Venetians? In this last part this Venetian Priest and writer (who flourished around the year MCCCCLXXX, as Gesner testifies in his Bibliotheca) relates how appearing to a certain pious nun the Blessed One indicating her name, also ordered her life to be sought out; and hence she first became known to the other virgins of the same monastery, then to other Venetian matrons; and her patronage having been attested by several miracles, at length compelled the writer himself, bound by the bond of a vow, to collect her Acts, which he did while at Rome within the Octaves of All Saints in the year MDXIII. And this last part of the aforesaid little work, having been faithfully transcribed, was already submitted to the press and printed, when that fatal fire of the Blavian Press carried off almost the whole second day of April, and imposed on us the necessity of commenting anew on whatever you now read. But the most humane, as I have said, Gaspar, outstanding not only in the prerogative of nobility but also in the excellence of erudition, having learned of the misfortune that had occurred, took care that the same thing be transcribed once and again, until at length a third time it came into our hands, as we give below. The second part, which, like the first, we omit, ended in the bare assertion of the body having been translated from Palestine and brought to Constantinople by the faithful, without indication of time or of the church to which and where the translation was made. We have also inquired whether at Venice, in the convent of Corpus Christi of the Order of St. Dominic, or elsewhere, any cultus of St. Theodosia remained; but we received no satisfactory answer: and yet in the aforesaid codex there is a proper Office of St. Theodosia: and in the miracles number 4 it is said, that in many monasteries both of monks and of nuns it is yearly celebrated with supreme devotion from the year 1440, to that day on which these things were being written in the year 1513.
[12] Part of the Relics in the monastery of Derbes: Sammarthani volume 4 of Gallia Christiana, in the enumeration of the Abbots of the monastery of Derbes, thus speaks of their XXII abbot Rogerius: MCVIII he encloses in a certain shrine the body of St. Theodosia the Virgin, formerly brought here by St. Bercharius; who, founder of the monastery, by a blessed death as Martyr migrated to Christ in the year DCLXXXV, October XVI; concerning the same St. Theodosia the Derbes Martyrology thus continues the eulogy described by Usuard. After much time, her body with great devotion was carried to the monastery of Derbes by the Brothers of that place, and with great and due honor was placed: and there by divine disposition she rests, acquiescing to those piously asking for her saving intercessions. Thus after the Passion of St. Bercharius these words are recited by Nicholas Camuzat, in the Promptuary of the Antiquities of the diocese of Troyes page 112, without any mention of St. Bercharius as the author of the said Translation: which also Saussay judged to have been made much later, in the Gallican Martyrology, writing thus on this day: At Liège the celebration of the birthday of St. Theodosia the Virgin … a portion of whose sacred Relics from the East, whether also at Liège? with certain precious pledges of the Saints, was brought, and with the highest honor in the time of the most pious Bishop Notger was received, and there propagated the cultus of that holy athlete of Christ. But in order that at length the blessed Virgin might be wholly assigned to the Patronage of Gaul, whatever remained of her most sacred body, by divine favor was carried to the innermost bosom of Gaul, in the Derbes monastery of the Diocese of Troyes, with great veneration preserved and venerated. Further Notger, a holy man, ordained Bishop of Liège, presided for XXXVI years, as Alberic writes in his Chronicle, placing its beginnings in the year DCCCCLXXII; at which time, according to Saussay, the later Translation of the Relics to Derbes would have taken place. But concerning this we labor the less: and we would rather know, whence Saussay received those things which he relates about the Relics brought to Liège; since neither in the Breviaries or Martyrologies of Liège, printed or MS., nor in the History of Liège of Bartholomew Fisen or the Flowers of the Church of Liège, does any vestige appear of that singular cultus, which Saussay's words indicate as most well-known.
[13] some body of St. Theodosia at Bologna. At Bologna among the Nuns of the Most Holy Trinity is held in veneration the body of St. Theodosia the Virgin and Martyr, translated there from Rome in the year MDCXXII, and this day April 2 has been chosen for her cultus, because of the name inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, although there are different Virgins and Martyrs.
[14] In the same way among the Spaniards there is held in great veneration a certain Virgin and Martyr Theodosia, as Juan Marieta teaches in book 4 On the Saints of Spain chapter 66, where he has these things: Near the city of Vitoria, upon a rock between Salvatierra and the town of Santa Cruz de Campezo, another in Spain, in the kingdom of Alava is buried the body of a certain Saint surnamed Theodosia, concerning whom I have not found any history. On the second day of April Usuard treats in his Martyrology of a certain Saint of this name, and the townspeople of this region celebrate on the same day the feast of this our Theodosia with such veneration that scarcely any village fails to come in procession under a canopy and with litanies, that God through this Saint's merits may come to meet all their needs. Thus far the text. The indicated Vitoria is the chief city of the kingdom of Alava, on the borders of Guipuzcoa and Biscay, from which Salvatierra is distant XVI miles, and from this the Church of St. Theodosia is six miles. And these things only seemed able to be known about this St. Theodosia, when behold recently in the Pseudo-Dexter Chronicle these words were inserted for the year 430: At the same time there were brought to Spain the relics of the sacred Virgin Theodosia, who suffered at Caesarea of Palestine under Maximian, and were borne with the greatest honor to a not ignoble town of Cantabria called Salvatierra. These things there: which, not as fictitious, but as most certain, were soon inserted into the Spanish Martyrology of Tamayo de Salazar; now also by men famous for learning in Spain itself they are rejected.
MIRACLES OF ST. THEODOSIA
By Francesco Nigri, Apostolic Protonotary. From the MS. of Don Gaspar Ibañez, Marquis of Agropolis.
Theodosia, Virgin Martyr, at Caesarea in Palestine (St.)
FROM MSS.
[1] Translated to Constantinople, she shines with miracles. But when it seemed to the most high and good God that it was unbecoming for the body of the most blessed Virgin Theodosia to lie among the most foul executioners; by His inspiration certain Christians from the city of Caesarea took care to transfer the most holy members a to the city of Constantinople, and on the fourth b day before the Kalends of June not many years later in a worthy monument they enclosed them. Where God began, through the merits of this most holy maiden, to show such miracles among the peoples, that almost the whole world flowed together to her sepulchre. For the blind receiving restoration of sight, the lame right walking, the maimed wholeness of limbs, the ailing health, the frantic sanity, the sick health, the cast down raising up, the afflicted consolation, the needy relief, the shipwrecked a port of safety, the young correction, the old strengthening, heretics faith, the faithful stability, — receiving these things, they carried the name of so great a Virgin to the stars.
[2] With the course of many years passed, when on account of wars and dissensions (as is wont to happen) the city of Byzantium had often suffered the depopulations of enemies, her name is divinely made known to a certain nun at Venice, with the discords and most savage battles growing by the day, the most celebrated memory of Theodosia (as in such things is wont very often to happen) together with the celebrity of other things both public and private, began somewhat to fail. Whence, when in the most illustrious city of Venice the name of so great a Virgin was still held unknown, in the convent of certain most holy nuns, c which had been dedicated to the most healing body of Christ, a certain venerable nun was leading a celibate life, whose name was Bartholomea: who formerly with the first Sisters had entered, to serve God, that new temple. She perhaps, desiring to hear the decision of a certain doubt, which she could perceive by no readings of the Scriptures, when on the most holy feast of John and Paul d, at nighttime, as our weakness requires, she had given herself to rest, heard such a clear voice: O how wise Theodosia, who was ignorant of no article of the Christian faith whatever. When Bartholomea had heard this, not once only, but three and four times that night repeated; having first admired the name of the unknown Virgin, she resolved with a most devout mind, to celebrate her solemnity among the other divine Offices; but she was ignorant on what day especially, or with what office she should be able to perform it: nor had she known her life e; nor at what time, leaving death behind, she had passed to life. She therefore went to a nun, joined to her in both love and benevolence; and laying out the whole course of this matter to her in secret, diligently consulted what she should do.
[3] The most holy Virgins unroll the Martyrology f, if perchance they could there find the life of Theodosia: but since they found nothing of these things there, on the following night, a certain Virgin, about eighteen years old, clothed in a green garment, and crowned with a most beautiful crown g, with starlike eyes, appeared to the aforesaid Bartholomea in sleep; and as though a boxwood branch, which she was carrying in her hands, offering it to her, most sweetly said: Who thought her worthy of her sight plant the branch stained with blood next to the partition: for it seemed to her to be at that partition h where now in the same church is erected the chapel, to be dedicated to St. Jerome and St. Theodosia. Which when the Virgin had planted, and it suddenly seemed wonderfully to grow, she understood not obscurely that Theodosia had formerly ended her life by Martyrdom, and that the branch planted had grown so suddenly, indicated that small knowledge of her at first was to be increased into the greatest devotion of all. And when on many days afterward, and very often indeed, once both waking and sleeping concerning such a Virgin she felt many words related through the spirit, her mind more daily directed to the Virgin, she began to inquire into her Passion with highest diligence. Which when she had found in the book of histories of Vincent i, with the greatest pleasure she read it through, and from the exposition of her faith before the tyrant at length found the decision of the former doubt which she had: whence she often read such a history with a most devout mind.
[4] But at a certain time of night, while in her most honorable little chamber the aforesaid Bartholomea rested, there appeared to her the most blessed Theodosia, clothed in a green garment, and seemed to extend to her an imperfect crown. At whose imperfection when she marveled; and the cause she could not entirely understand; having been led to it on the following day the part of her martyrdom which was lacking in the first history k, she understood this to be the imperfect part of the crown, and again which formerly by the blessed virgin had been offered to her. Having therefore obtained from the well-known Bartholomea a perfect history of this most blessed Virgin in every part of her, through the agency of Fantino Dandolo, a Venetian Patrician, as illustrious as religious, from the General Vicar of the Preachers l, to whom that convent of Nuns had been entrusted, she most easily obtained that by the Sisters a solemn office annually in their chapel, she arranges the feast day to be held. as soon as we have said to be erected, should be celebrated, which from the year of the Lord's salvation forty above one thousand four hundred, to this very day has advanced into such veneration, that in many convents both of Monks and of Nuns, with the highest devotion annually it is solemnly celebrated.
[5] There was besides in the Venetian City Francischina, a certain venerable matron, the mother namely of Andrea Ingenierius, who then governed the house dedicated to Bl. Thomas and the people committed to him there, matron being sick that is, of a most upright Priest: who, when oppressed by so many diverse and various sicknesses that she could scarcely open her eyes, having been admonished by a Constantinopolitan maid, whom in those days her husband had bought, to commend herself to the most Blessed Theodosia, who was daily performing many miracles at Byzantium; the most devout matron, the venerable name of Theodosia written on the wall, as best she could, the saint being invoked, she is healed: adoring on bended knees, began to cry out with such a prayer: O most holy Virgin, whose name, once unknown to me, I now suppliantly honor, whom I desire as my perpetual protectress, free me, most pious Virgin, from such and so many pains. For I vow to you, as a monument to posterity that I was saved by your present aid, solemn altars and solemn gifts. With the prayer suddenly made, she who formerly could not move herself from her bed, conceived in herself such fortitude, and again from the remnants of the illness: that she seemed to rise not from any sickness, but rather from sleep.
[6] A few months afterward, when from a certain troublesome sickness, under a Doctor's care, the aforesaid matron had been freed, there remained nevertheless a certain little piece of coldness, in the right part of her head, which seemed able to be removed by no art of physicians. But when a certain friend of the household, a citizen of the city of Constantinople, happened by chance to come into her house, and had brought with him a little piece of a cloth with which the most blessed Virgin's body m was covered; and had touched the place of this sickness, suddenly all that coldness was driven away, and the head of the matron was freed entirely from every disease.
[7] But when, three years having passed, this venerable matron desired to have at her house an image of the Most Blessed Theodosia; there came a certain Byzantine painter, who wished to sell a most beautiful panel of this kind. Of whom when the price was asked, he seemed to demand too much. Whence when he was rejected by her, and again her image being purchased. who hoped to buy it at a smaller price from Venetian painters, behold suddenly she was seized by the heaviness of the former disease, so that, tortured by her former pains, she seemed to be almost forced again to pour out her very life. Recognizing, however, the most devout matron, that she had sinned against Theodosia's benevolence, because she had esteemed money more than her image, having summoned her husband and most beloved son, she orders that Byzantine Painter to be sought throughout the whole city; that from him, being found, the image of the most holy Virgin should be bartered for whatever money. Which when first brought into the house, and the venerable matron before it had poured out prayers, and not without many tears had begged pardon for her committed sin, suddenly she was restored to her former health.
[8] In the year of the Lord's salvation one thousand four hundred and forty-five, there occurred such an abscess in the body of the aforesaid matron; which when by no means could be cured by the physicians, who had spent almost all their industry upon her, the venerable old woman was left so exhausted and so consumed by the disease, The same laid low unto death, that her spirit now seemed to be forced to be breathed out. And when almost all the grieving household was engaged in mournful tears, her most pious son came near, and before the most sweet mother, with an image of the blessed Virgin set up, such for her, on bended knees, not without tearful groaning, prayers he poured forth: Virgin most radiant, like a little dove, whom a milky feather surrounds: Virgin most holy, her son imploring the saint, brilliant with royal crown: Virgin most merciful, who are wont to deny your most benign aid to none fleeing to you: why do you delay to bring help to your most devout handmaid, who has always loved you, always honored you, always longed to carry you fixed in the fibers of her little heart? Why do you leave desolate this house, already for many years committed to you? Behold most blessed Virgin, all our hope hangs from your will: come therefore to those calling upon you: stretch forth your right hand to those petitioning: deign to free this poor little handmaid of yours; for you can, Lady, console the afflicted old age of her husband, and console no less the anxious and mourning youth of her son. For I in your praise and honor, a solemn fast to you, on bread of sorrow and water of tears, vow yearly; that posterity may know that our family has been firmly established by your protection. suddenly recovers, This prayer completed, somewhat the pain seemed to rest from the sick matron, and the former groans and savage sighs were for a while laid down, and as though coming into a calm sleep, she ceased a little from her crying out. Whence when the domestics now reckoned her dead, filling the rooms with tearful voice, they began to depart. But behold, not after a long space of time, the matron rose free, and leaping up in the bed, with most sweet voice she chanted: Let the holy faith live, let Theodosia the Virgin live. At which voice the family, stirred up, ran together; asking in wonder what this thing was. To those inquiring the most devout woman explained that she had seen the most blessed Virgin hurrying to her, who, having in her right hand a pyx, full of many relics of the Saints, had ordered her to cry out with such an exclamation, and had restored her to her former health.
[9] From that time the excellent husband of the aforesaid matron began and again imperiled, she is kept unharmed. to come into such devotion for the most blessed Martyr, that each year, at all his own expense in the church of St. Thomas, he took care that her feast be solemnly celebrated, and with the sacred ceremonies performed, he used to invite his kinsmen and friends to his house for a friendly banquet. But when on a certain day, the banquet being completed, and the tables removed, he was showing to his friends certain materials wonderfully wrought by his ingenuity, by which he especially excelled, he brought forth into the midst a copper vessel n, which, placed near the fire, by a certain marvelous art, of its own accord emitted such a vapor, that as it was working a sudden fire was kindled. But when perhaps overheated by too much fire, from the too great violence of the enclosed air, it burst, and struck the forehead of the aforesaid matron who was watching so forcibly, that all thought her killed by such a blow: for another piece of the bursting vessel tore the whole curtain of the chamber. But with Most Blessed Theodosia's suffrage favoring, the venerable matron remained unharmed.
the same warned about a fire in the school, Such was the devotion of the aforesaid matron and of her whole household for this most blessed Virgin, such the affection, and such the observance, that she could do nothing at all, unless she had the most sweet name of Theodosia in her mouth. This waking she named, this sleeping she so contemplated, that very often many future things she saw in sleep, which she learned from the most blessed Virgin. When therefore one day her aforementioned son, a venerable Priest, publicly taught organ music in the city of Venice, and in winter time in his public school, to calm the winter cold, he kept burning coals in a pot, by which the freezing limbs of the students could be refreshed; and on the following night, she sends her son to extinguish it: by some accident, through the vaulted timber of the school a fire had been scattered, so that the beams were beginning as it were to catch fire; the matron, awakened, who had seen such an accident, Theodosia revealing, in dreams, crying out rouses her son from sleep; and having narrated the vision, sends him blazing to the school; who, when he had arrived there, having found it as his mother had said, at length extinguished the fire with the highest labor.
[11] When the most devout priest had for many years venerated this most blessed Virgin, those infected with plague are helped. and celebrated her solemn feast every year, not only when his predecessor, a most upright man, had died, did he succeed to his place by common consent. But also the people committed to him, and, as it were, all the Venetian people, he led into devotion to this most holy Virgin to such a degree that when the city was infected with the pestilent disease with which it often suffers; many indeed men, and many women, who were laboring with such a disease, at his urging, making vows to the most devout Virgin, were suddenly freed.
[12] But that miracle is set forth first as far more outstanding and wonderful than the rest, which the most clement God willed through the merits of His most blessed Virgin to show in me. The writer himself placed in great grief When, not many years ago, I had been placed in a certain great adversity, and did not know whither to turn, to whose aid to flee; but was daily in tears, daily in groanings; at length directing my mind and heart to the most blessed Theodosia, I began with tearful voice to pray her thus: Alas, most benign Virgin, most glorious Martyr, why do you leave your servant thus desolate? why do you permit this soul to fail in so many torments? Remember, I beseech you, most pious Virgin, how great a solace you once were to the Confessors of Christ, who, supported by your aid, at length emerged from darkness into light: to me also lying in so great a calamity stretch forth your benign hand. Regard, most merciful Virgin, and vowing piously that he will write her Passion, the tears of my parents, who daily fail in mourning and squalor. Console them, most benign Virgin, who also once pitied the tears of your parents. Regard the groans of my sister, a miserable little maiden, in whose sole hope once all my hopes were placed, now abandoned, the miserable virgin's heart is broken, the little heart is smashed with grief, the weary virginal breast breaks with sighs. For I vow to gather your Passion, scattered here and there, into a most beautiful style with your help, and to prepare a most celebrated office, by which the most holy men and most holy virgins, engaged with it, may all be entirely led into devotion for you. Hear therefore, most blessed Virgin, the prayers of a virgin dedicated to you: hear the voices of a most miserable Priest, who has determined to place all his hopes in you alone. Either free me from this darkness, Virgin, who are wont with the highest piety to free those given to sorrow; or rather dissolve this unhappy little soul from its most miserable body.
[13] she appearing, he is comforted, When I had said these and similar things weeping, a certain most sweet sleep suddenly seized me. And behold, I see the most blessed Theodosia coming to me, crowned with a most beautiful crown; whom when I had seen, I seemed to cry out with the loudest voice: Help me, most holy Virgin, for I perish: come to my aid, for I am consumed by weariness. But she with cheerful countenance and joyful face, seemed to return to me these most sweet words: Why are you consumed with so great a grief, dearest son? why do you indulge so much in tears? Fear not anything, nor doubt: for I am always with you, and I will not leave you, but not after many days I will free you from this grief; and I will console your parents and your most beloved sister. Bear therefore all things with an equal mind: for perhaps in the future you will rejoice to have borne these torments. Let your heart be comforted, and suddenly after my departure rise, and compose my history, as you have promised, in a most beautiful style, so that those reading may praise God together, and be kindled into devotion. These things said, the most blessed Virgin departed. But I who before, consumed by disease, and rising up whole, could in no way lift myself up, in the silence of the late night rose up so robust, and free from every evil, that I seemed to have risen not from sickness, but from a most pleasant sleep. And giving thanks first to God, and to His most blessed Mother, then to the glorious Theodosia, having invoked divine help first, that I might fulfill my vows, I reduced into one body the Passion of this most blessed Virgin, selected from many and various Greek codices; and I did it so much more willingly, as my whole house, although small, is the more devout to such a Virgin.
[14] But hear a marvelous and stupendous thing. When at the beginning of Lent I had found various books of this Passion, both Greek and Latin; and wished out of all of them to make only one body, having first performed divine service in the chapel of St. Francis, which was near, and the most devout prayer being completed, in a brief time he completes the work: that for this work to be done the most blessed Virgin would bring gracious assistance, whose business was being transacted; having returned home, and the same Virgin's name invoked, I began to weave the beginning of the history; and among eight lessons, which daily partly publicly partly privately I read, from the beginning of that Lent, to the holy day of Easter only, in so brief a space of time, I both gathered the fragments of the history into one, and wrote it, and brought it to its final end. Who would doubt, most blessed Theodosia, that this was done by your help? For the small powers of my little wit are not hidden from me, which unless you had brought help, would have trembled to undertake such a province. To you therefore praise, to you glory, to you thanksgiving, most happy maiden, who surpass the rest in splendor, exceed in beauty, excel in sanctity.
[15] and he concludes by exhorting all to her cultus. Run therefore peoples to this most pious Virgin: run nations: come boys, come girls; hasten youths, hasten old men: cultivate her, love her, love her, celebrate for her the sweetest praises, fulfill vows to her. For as she has helped me, and very many others, by her aid; so also you she will not cease, day by day, to heap up with many and various gifts. That at length triumphing over the most bitter enemy of human nature, with our Savior as leader, you may marvelously prevail to attain the palm and to obtain the glory: to whom be praise, honor, and glory, forever and ever. Amen. From the city of Romulus, eight days before the Pantheon o, from the Christian redemption, in the year thirteen above one thousand five hundred.