The Greek Martyrdom of *Tatiane (martyr of Rome, S02562), records the martyrdom of the saint and her burial inside the walls of the city. Written, probably in Rome and probably before the later 7th c.
E06784
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
Martyrdom of Tatiane (BHG 1699)
We have not examined this text in any detail, except for the passage which relates to her burial (quoted and translated below), but Constantinou 2005, 29 provides a brief summary of this Martyrdom, which we reproduce here:
'According to her legend, Tatiane is arrested by the soldiers of the pagan emperor Alexander while she is praying in a Roman church. She is brought before the emperor who is fascinated by her beauty. He asks Tatiane to enter the temple of Apollo to offer a sacrifice to the pagan gods. In the temple Tatiane prays to the Christian God. As soon as she ends her prayer, an earthquake takes place and both the statue of Apollo and a quarter of the temple are destroyed. Tatiane is then tortured. Unable to harm her, her executioners convert and are condemned to death. The cruel torture of Tatiane is continued by new executioners. Finally Tatiane is killed by the sword.'
The passage that then relates to her burial, reads as follows:
Ἦλθεν δὲ ὁ ἐπίσκοπος Ῥητόριος καὶ πᾶν τὸ ἱερατεῖον καὶ ἡ σύγκλητος Ῥώμης· καὶ ἤγαγον τὸ ἅγιον αὐτῆς λείψανον εἰς τὴν ἕκτην ῥεγεῶνα· καὶ ἔθηκαν ἐν ὀνυχίνῃ θήκῃ δοξάζοντες τὸν θεὸν τὸν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἐν κήπῳ καλουμένῳ Θαυμασίῳ· ἦν γὰρ ὁ τόπος πολύδενδρος ὡς εὐφροσύνη παραδεισιακή.
'Bishop Rhetorios and all the priesthood and senate of Rome came and they transferred her holy relic to the Sixth Region and put her to rest in a sarcophagus of onyx, glorifying the heavenly God, at a garden called 'Wondrous' (Thaumasios) – for it was a place full of trees, like a paradisiac delight.'
Text: Halkin 1973.
Translation: E. Rizos.
Summary: Constantinou 2005, 29.
Monarchs and their family
Torturers/Executioners
Source
For the manuscript tradition, see:http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/17893/
In addition, a further witness to the text is the so-called Martyrdom of Martina (BHG 1176), which in reality is simply that of Tatiane, with very little change apart from the martyr's name and date of death (see Halkin 1973, 12). This text is transmitted in a single manuscript:
http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/16947/
For the edition, see Bibliography.
Halkin (1973, 11) records the existence of a Latin translation of the Greek Martyrdom (BHL 7989), of which one manuscript dates from the 10th/11th c.
Discussion
Tatiane or Tatiana is a saint who acquired some prominence in the Greek East (and later Russia, where her name became very popular), but had little impact in the West, despite her Martyrdom being set in Rome. The tradition that she was buried within the walls of the city is repeated in the only other reference we have to her cult in our database, in the Itinerarium Malmesburiense, which records her amongst the very few saints buried inside the city (E07897). This reference suggests that our Martyrdom existed before the Itinerarium was written (in 642/683).A small church of Santa Tatiana (small because it is recorded to have had just one priest) is listed in the fourteenth century on the eastern edge of the Quirinal hill, within Rome's Sixth Region, where our Martyrdom records Tatiane's burial. The church is no longer mentioned after the fifteenth century (for it, Huelsen 1927, 27, no. 24, and 488).
Bibliography
Text:Halkin, F. (ed.), "Sainte Tatiana: Légende grecque d'une 'martyre romaine'," Analecta Bollandiana 89 (1971), 268-309.
Halkin, F. (ed.), Légendes grecques de "martyres romaines" (Subsidia Hagiographica 55; Brussels, 1973), 12-53.
Further reading:
Constantinou, S. Female Corporeal Performances: Reading the Body in Byzantine Passions and Lives of Holy Women (Uppsala, 2005), 29 and (passim) 30-58.
Huelsen, C., Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo: Cataloghi e appunti (Firenze: Leo Olschki 1927).
Christodoulos Papavarnavas
08/10/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S02562 | Tatiane, martyr of Rome | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Christodoulos Papavarnavas, Cult of Saints, E06784 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06784