The Latin Martyrdom of *Columba (virgin and martyr of Sens, S01862) recounts how she was arrested and interrogated by the emperor Aurelian, how a bear protected her and her virginity, and how she was eventually executed by the sword. Written, probably at Sens (northern Gaul), in the 6th or 7th c. Full text, and full English translation.
E06285
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
Martyrdom of Columba of Sens (Passio sanctae Columbae Senonensis, BHL 1893)
(1.) Passio sanctae et beatissimae Columbe, virginis et martyris Christi, que passa est in civitate Senonas sub Aureliano imperatore; die pridie kalendas ianuarias. Deo gratias.
(2.) In diebus illis, adveniens imperator Aurelianus de partibus orientis, quum paganus esset, et idola coleret, ingressus est civitatem Senonas die viii kalendas ianuarias, cepit inquirere, quis ibi esset christianus. Cui ex officio nuntiatum est Columbam quandam Christiane religioni deservire. Quumque hoc audisset iussit eam suis conspectibus presentari. Quumque praesentaretur, dixit ad eam: Que vocaris? Respondit: Columba. Aurelianus dixit: Quem deum colis? Columba respondit: Nullum alium colo nisi unum Deum qui fecit caelum et terram, et omnem hominem ad imaginem suam formavit, et dedit nobis Spiritum suum Sanctum, ut confirmet nos in Eclesia catholica, in religioso actu perseverare. Aurelianus imperator dixit: Recede ab hac stultitia, et ad veram scientiam revertere, et sacrifica diis. Columba respondit: Dii, qui sunt manufacti, pereant, sed et ipsi, qui adorant eos: mici enim Christus Deus meus perpetuam vitam donare dignatus est.
(3.) Aurelianus imperator dixit: Quum sis puella iuvenis, facilia verba loqueris; sacrifice diis, ut salveris. Columba respondit: Non habes auditum quia, qui pie volute vivere in Christo, semper persequutionem patiuntur in hoc seculo, et paena mortis non timent, sed cum sanctis heredes erunt, et vivent in aeternum? Aurelianus imperator dixit: Doleo tibi, quum sis puella iuvenis, quasi annorum sedecim, et pulchra nimis: sacrifica diis, ne te turpiter inlusam vivam incendam. Columba respondit: Maior est Deus quam tu, qui potens est mici dare tolerantiam.
(4.) Tunc Aurelianus imperator iussit perquiri iuvenem, et precepit eam recludere in anfiteatrum. Tunc invenerunt iuvenem turpissimum, et dixit ei: Vade, homo iuvenis, in anfiteatrum, ubi inclusa est virgo Columba. Audiens autem ille iuvenis, gavisus est gaudio magno, quod data esset illi potestas in virginem, nomine Columbam. Et ingressus est cellam, in qua sancta Columba tenebatur. Et dixit ad iuvenem sancta Columba: Quid cum tanta ferocitate ad me venis, homo? Numquid possum tibi resistere, aut repellere te a me? Sed patientiam habe et sic audi verba mea, et noli mici vim facere, quia christiana sum: ne irascatur tibi ipse Dominus meus, et moriaris.
(5.) Conpunctus autem ille iuvenis non tetigit eam; et ecce ursa, fugiens de cavea anfiteatri, ingressa est cellam in qua sancta Columba inclusa tenebatur, et, aspiciens iuvenem, adprehendit eum, et deposuit eum in terra. Ursa autem intendebat in faciem sanctae Columbae quid iuberet de eo. Tunc beata Columba dixit ad ursam: Adiuro te per nomen Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ut non laedas eum in aliquo, sed permitte me loqui cum eo. Tunc ursa adiurata dimisit eum, et posuit se in ipso ostio, ne, aut ille dimissus fugam peteret, aut alius posset intrare. Tunc Columba dixit ad iuvenem: Ecce, fera, audito Christi nomine, dat honorem Deo, et tu, homo infelix, in tanto scelere inveniris? Aut promitte te christianum fieri, aut, si nolueris, devorabit te fera. Tunc iuvenis clamavit voce magna, dicens: Qui Christum non fuerit confessus, sanus hinc non discedat. Tunc iuvenis, egressus de cella, clamabat per totam civitatem, dicens: Sciatis, populi romani, non esset alium deum, nisi quem Columba colit.
(6.) Tunc ira accensus Aurelianus imperator misit ad anfiteatrum, ut Columbam exhiberet. Euntes autem milites, invenerunt eam orantem simul cum ursa, et, redeuntes, dixerunt: Non possumus eam tibi exhibere, quia ursa intus est cum ea. Tunc Aurelianus imperator iussit ut ligna exhiberent, et ignis incenderetur, ut ursa et Columba arderent. Quum populi ignem succenderent, ursa caepit rugire, et fremitum dare. Dixit autem sancta Columba ad ursam: Noli timere neque pavere, quia hodie neque incendio cremaveris nec capieris, sed morte tua, ubi dies tuus inveneris, morieris. Tunc illa ascendit tectum domus, et egressa foris per medias turmas populi civitatis portas exivit, et ad silvam perrexit.
(7.) Adclamantes autem populi, dixerunt ad imperatorem, ut super ignem aquam infunderent, ne Columba viva arderet. Post ignem extinctum, iussit Aurelianus Columbam exhiberi, ad quam et dixit: Quae est ars tua vel maleficia, ut feras silvestres tecum pariter essent? Columba respondit: Nulla maleficia novi, nisi Christum Dei Filium colere, qui mici misereri dignatus est. Aurelianus imperator dixit: Iam tibi testatus sum, ut Christi nomine non nominares: quod si fecisses, morte turpissima morereris. Columba respondit: Melius est felicius mori, quam infeliciter vivere. Infeliciter enim vivit, qui a lege Christi separatur, et precepta eius non obaudit. Tunc Aurelianus imperator, ira accensus, iussit eam duci extra civitatem, dicens: Columbam, quae divinis legibus adsensum noluit adcomodare, ut omnipotentibus diis debita sacrificia clementer exhiberet, gladio percuti iubeo.
(8.) Quumque egressi fuissent milites, et deducerent eam miliarium unum semis extra civitatem, rogavit eos, ut eam permitterent orare, qui fecerunt ita. At illa anabolagium suum novum dedit eis. Orante illa, insonuit vox de caelo, dicens: Veni Columba, aperti sunt tibi Caeli. Congaudet paradisus, devictis omnibus conluctantionibus tuis; stat Dei Filius, qui tibi coronam in capite ponat, et suscipiant te angeli Dei. Tunc milites contendebant, qui eam decolleret. Unus autem, eiusdem civitatis miles, nomine Baruca, dedit aliis denariis viginti, ut permiserunt eum; et abstulit caput eius.
(9.) Acta sunt autem haec aput Senonas civitatem, die pridie kalendas ianuarias, sub Aureliano imperatore.
(10.) Regnante Domino nostro Iesu Christo; cui est honor et gloria, virtus et potestas in secula seculorum. Amen.
'(1.) The martyrdom of the holy and most blessed Columba, virgin and martyr of Christ, which was endured in the city of Sens under the emperor Aurelian [r. 270-275]. On the day before the kalends of January [= 31 December]. Thanks be to God.
(2.) In those days, the emperor Aurelian came from the East, and, since he was a pagan and worshipped idols, when he entered the city of Sens on the eighth day before the kalends of January [= 25 December] he began to enquire who was a Christian there. He was duly informed that a certain Columba was a follower of the Christian religion. When he heard this, he ordered that she be brought before him, and, when she was, he said to her: "What is your name?" Columba replied: "Columba." Aurelian said: "Which god do you worship?" Columba replied: "I worship no other god but the one God, who made the heavens and the earth, and made all men in his likeness, and gave us his Holy Spirit, to strengthen us in the catholic Church to be resolute in our religious duty." Then Aurelian the emperor said: "Abandon this foolishness, return to true knowledge and sacrifice to the gods." Columba replied: "Gods made by human hand will perish and so too will those who worship them: Christ, my God, has deigned to grant me eternal life."
(3.) Aurelian the emperor said: "As you are but a young girl, you speak loosely; sacrifice to the gods, that you may live." Columba replied: "Have you not heard that those who choose to live piously in Christ always suffer persecution in this world and do not fear the death penalty; they will share the inheritance of the saints and live for all eternity." Aurelian the emperor said: "I am saddened for you, since you are a young girl of around sixteen years and very beautiful: sacrifice to the gods, lest I have you burnt alive in disgrace for your foolishness." Columba replied: "God is greater than you, his power will grant me due fortitude."
(4.) Then Aurelian the emperor ordered that a young man be found, and that she [Columba] should be shut up in the amphitheatre. They sought out a most dissolute youth, and he [Aurelian] said to him: "Go, young man, to the amphitheatre, where the virgin Columba is imprisoned." Hearing this, the youth was filled with great joy, since he had been granted power over this virgin named Columba. He entered the cell where the holy Columba was held, and the holy Columba said to the youth: "Why, man, are you approaching me with such savagery? I am in no way able to resist you or keep you away from me. But be patient and hear what I have to say, and do me no violence because I am a Christian: lest my Lord be angry with you, and you die."
(5.) The young man was moved by this and did not touch her. Then, remarkably, a female bear, that had escaped its cage in the amphitheatre, entered the cell where Columba was imprisoned, and, seeing the youth, seized him and thrust him to the ground. The bear looked Columba in the face to know what she wanted it to do. Then Columba said to the bear: "I command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you in no way harm him, but allow me to speak to him." At this command, the bear released him and placed itself in the doorway, both to prevent the released man from fleeing, and to prevent anyone else from entering. Then Columba said to the youth: "Look how a wild beast, hearing the name of Christ, honours God, while you, unhappy man, find yourself in such evil ways. Either promise to become a Christian, or, if you refuse, the beast will eat you." Then the young man cried with a loud voice, saying: "If I do not confess Christ, I will not leave here in one piece." Leaving the cell, he proclaimed throughout the whole city: "Know, you Roman peoples, there is no other god than the one whom Columba worships."
(6.) Roused to fury, Aurelian the emperor sent to the amphitheatre, that Columba be brought before him. The soldiers who went found her praying with the bear there, and, returning, they said: "We cannot bring her before you, as there is a bear in there with her." Then Aurelian the emperor ordered that wood be brought and fire be lit, in order to burn both the bear and Columba. When the people lit the fire, the bear began to grumble and growl. The holy Columba said to the bear: "Do not fear and be frightened, for today you will not be burned in the fire nor recaptured, but you will die your own death where and when that day finds you." Then she [the bear] got onto the roof of the building and, passing through the crowds of people and leaving through the gates of the city, reached the woods.
(7.) The people cried out, saying to the emperor that water should be poured onto the fire to prevent Columba being burned alive. When the fire was extinguished, Aurelian ordered that Columba be brought before him and said to her: "What magic and evil arts do you have, that you can have a wild beast together with you?" Columba replied: "I know no evil arts, unless it is the worship of Christ Son of God, who has deigned to have mercy on me." Aurelian the emperor said: "I have already told you not to name the name of Christ: that if you did so, you would suffer a terrible death." Columba replied: "It is better to die well than to live badly, for he lives badly who is not under Christ’s law and does not obey His commands." Then Aurelian the emperor, roused to fury, ordered that she be taken outside the city, saying: "I order that Columba, who refuses to follow divine law and to offer due sacrifices to the omnipotent gods, be executed by the sword."
(8.) When the soldiers had left, taking her a mile and a half outside the city, she asked them that they allow her to pray, which they duly did. She gave them her mantle, which was new, and, as she prayed, a voice from heaven was heard saying: "Come Columba, Heaven is open to you, and paradise rejoices together, for you have won all your struggles; the Son of God is here to place a crown on your head, with the angels of God to take you up." Then the soldiers argued over which one of them be selected to kill her. One of them, a soldier of that city named Baruca, gave the others twenty denarii that they allow him to do it. And he struck off her head.
(9.) These things happened at the city of Sens on the day before the kalends of January, under the emperor Aurelian.
(10.) In the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory, strength and power for ever and ever. Amen.'
Text: Fábrega Grau 1955, 116-118.
Translation: B. Ward-Perkins.
Composing and translating saint-related texts
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miracle with animals and plants
Miracles causing conversion
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Monarchs and their family
Soldiers
Torturers/Executioners
Source
Several distinct early recensions of the Martyrdom of Columba (Passio sanctae Columbae senonensis) have been identified (BHL 1892-1896), all apparently with the same basic story: the arrest and first interrogation by Aurelian; the sending to the amphitheatre, where her virginity is threatened, but protected by a bear; the failed attempt to have her burned alive; the second encounter with Aurelian; and her decapitation.The recension we have reproduced and translated (from the Pasionario Hispanico, ed. Fábrega Grau 1955, 116-118) is a markedly short version of the story, written in very basic Latin (two reasons that made it comparatively easy to include the whole text and a full translation). Other versions, while telling the same basic story are more elaborate. For instance, BHL 1896 (published by the Bollandists from a ninth-century manuscript in the Belgian Royal Library), which we have also consulted, is in a much more literary style, with considerably expanded and elaborated dialogue, and with some additional plot-flourishes: in particular, before he begins to threaten her, Aurelian attempts to win Columba over, by her offering her marriage to his own son, and with it power within the empire, ('because of your great beauty', prae magnitudine pulchritudinis tuae), all of which Columba rejects, comparing Aurelian's actions to Satan's temptation of Christ.
The central and most distinctive section of the story - Columba's imprisonment, and the sending of a man to rape her; the miraculous intervention of a normally savage beast; her successful conversion of the man, by telling him he will otherwise be eaten; the threat of being burned alive to both martyr and beast; the latter's fear and successful escape - are all lifted, in part word-for word, from the account of the travails of Daria, martyr of Rome, as recorded in the Martyrdom of Chrysanthus and Daria (for which, see, E02487, §§ 23-25; Lapidge 2018, 266-267). There is, however, one interesting and rather charming difference between the two accounts: Daria, in her Martyrdom, is protected by a male lion; Columba, more appropriately, by a female bear.
In Gallic hagiography, the emperor Aurelian, who reigned between 270 and 275, came to play a major role as a persecutor. He features, in particular, in an interrelated group of Martyrdoms from Burgundy; there is, however, no other reason to link our Martyrdom with these texts.
The Martyrdom of Columba certainly existed by the end of the seventh century, since several elements of Columba's story feature in prayers to her contained in the Orationale Visigothorum (E05172), a text which cannot be later than around 700. How early the Martyrdom might be is less clear, since the first unequivocal evidence of her cult is comparatively late: a mention of a basilica of Columba at Sens in the will of Bishop Desiderius of Auxerre, datable to 605/627 (E05912). Probably her cult, and with it perhaps this Martyrdom, was already present in the sixth century; but it is strange, and perhaps significant, that there is no mention of Columba in the extensive late-sixth-century works of Gregory of Tours, where we would expect to find her (for instance, in his Glory of the Martyrs).
Discussion
Gaul is not rich in Martyrdom accounts, but it is still remarkable that Columba's is the only late antique Gallic Martyrdom that we have for a woman. (Blandina, one of the Martyrs of Lyon (S00316), plays a major role in some of the accounts of the persecution in that city (see, in particular, E05557), but she does not appear to have had her own late antique Martyrdom.)Columba's Martyrdom, with its tale of how she was exposed to sexual violence, but then protected from it, clearly derives from the model of several virgin martyrs of Rome (of whom Agnes, S00097, is the best known); indeed, as outlined above, the author of the Martyrdom of Columba appropriated details of the plot, and even some of the precise wording, of the Roman Martyrdom of Chrysanthus and Daria (E02487).
Bibliography
Editions:Fábrega Grau, A., Pasionario Hispanico II (Madrid, 1955), 116-118. [= BHL 1893, the text we have entered in full]
Hagiographi Bollandiani, Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum Bibliothecae Regiae bruxellensis, I (Bruxelles, 1886), 302-306. [= BHL 1896]
Further reading:
De Gaiffier, B., "La mention de sainte Colombe de Sens dans le calendrier de Cordoue," Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique 73 (1972), 193-197 (= De Gaiffier, B., Recueil d’hagiographie (Brussels, 1977), n. x).
Lapidge, M., The Roman Martyrs. Introduction, Translations and Commentary (Oxford 2018), 250-269.
Beaujard, B., "Sens," in: J.-Ch. Picard et al., Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, vol. 8: Province ecclésiastique de Sens (Lugdunensis Senonia) (Paris: Boccard, 1992), 19-32, at p.29.
Van der Straeten, J., "Les Actes des martyrs d'Aurélien en Bourgogne," Analecta Bollandiana 80 (1962), 115-144.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
12/04/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01862 | Columba, virgin and martyr of Sens | Columba | Certain |
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