The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

The Life and Conduct of the Blessed and Holy Matrona (BHG 1221)

Summary:

Prologue
1. The account of Matrona’s life offers an important example of monastic virtue, following the model of Palladius’ Lausiac History (E03176).

Arrival in Constantinople and first ascetic experiments
2. Born in Perge of Pamphylia, Matrona is raised and educated as an aristocrat, before being married to Dometianos, from whom she has a daughter named Theodote. She is very devout and lives in chastity and asceticism. Accompanied by her husband, she goes to Constantinople where she visits the sanctuaries of the saints, and starts fasting and praying day and night. She is twenty-five years old and displays the feats of accomplished ascetics. She is guided to this practice by Eugenia, one of the consecrated virgins who celebrate all-night vigils at the shrines of the martyrs (Μία γὰρ ἦν τῶν ἐν ταῖς παννύχοις ψαλμῳδίαις σχολαζουσῶν καὶ τὰ μαρτύρων διὰ τοὺς μάρτυρας ἐπιδεικνυμένων. ‘She was one of those women who devoted themselves to all-night psalmody, displaying the martyrs’ traits for the sake of the martyrs’).

3. Dismayed by his wife’s attendance of nocturnal services, Dometianos suspects that Matrona prostitutes herself and forbids her from going to them. She convinces him to let her visit the shrine of the Holy Apostles, where she beseeches the Apostles to help her follow the monastic way of life she desires. When the shrine closes in the evening, she stays with an acquaintance of hers, a certain consecrated widow called Sosanna who lives by the shrine. Next day, they meets Eugenia and discuss Matrona’s plans. The first concern is her daughter, Theodote, whom Matrona decides to entrust to Sosanna.

Admission to the monastery of Bassianos
4. The second problem is how to escape her husband. She has a dream vision of herself being chased by Dometianos and rescued by monks, which she interprets as indicating that she must join a male monastery. Eugenia cuts her hair and dresses her as a eunuch. They first visit the Holy Apostles, where they are encouraged by the evangelical reading (Mark 8.34) and then Matrona is presented at the monastery of Bassianos, under the name Babylas, after the martyr *Babylas (bishop and martyr of Antioch, S00061). The frail eunuch amazes the monks with his endurance of hardships and deprivation, vying with and exceeding the ascetic achievements of men.

5. A monk named Barnabas, later to become abbot, notices the pierced lobes of Matrona/Babylas' ears and asks her about them; she replies with a fake story. From this point on, she is constantly concerned that she might be discovered and prays fervently for God’s protection.

6. Yet, her sex is miraculously revealed through dream visions to abbot Bassianos and to Akakios, abbot of the nearby Monastery of Abramios in the Triton. Both men had the charisma of prophecy.

7-8. Bassianos summons Matrona/Babylas in private and asks her about her presence in the male monastery. She recounts all her story.

9. Bassianos consoles her and instructs her to leave the monastery and stay with her friends, Eugenia and Sosanna, promising that the monastery will help her.

10. Returning to Sosanna’s house, Matrona finds that her daughter Theodote has died. While she hides there, rumours of her story spread through the city and reach Dometianos who goes to Bassianos’ monastery to protest. The monks deny ever having hosted a woman.

At the Monastery of Hilara in Emesa, and flight to Jerusalem
11. At the suggestion of his deacon, Markellos, Bassianos advises Matrona to go to Emesa [northwest Phoenicia] and join the monastery of Hilara. Markellos helps her to embark on a boat sailing to the East and gives her some bread blessed by Bassianos, which sustains her for the whole voyage. In Emesa, she is admitted to the monastery, and so much excels in virtue that the nuns hope to see her as their next abbess.

12. In that period, the head of *John the Baptist is miraculously revealed in Emesa. A farmer sees fire rising over a field for several days and reports the prodigy to the bishop. The latter interprets this as a supernatural portent and, accompanied by his clergy, goes to the spot and starts digging. A pot containing the head of the Baptist comes to light and a crowd of lay people and monastics gathers to bring the relic into the city with psalmody and honours, including Matrona and the other nuns. The Baptist's head exudes myrrh (myron, fragrant liquid), confirming the miracle, and the crowd gathers to collect it. As Matrona joins them to take some, she finds herself compelled to assist the bishop and priests in dispensing the myrrh. A man born blind approaches and, bypassing the clerics, goes straight to Matrona and beseeches her to anoint his eyes. He is immediately cured. The miracle causes Matrona’s fame to grow and the locals revere her as the holy woman who had lived as a monk in a male monastery.

13. The rumour reaches her husband, Dometianos, who comes to Emesa seeking her. Pretending that he comes as a pilgrim, he requests to meet her, but Matrona leaves the monastery secretly and goes to Jerusalem.

14. Her fame is such that her presence in Jerusalem is noticed and Dometianos hears about it too. He comes to the holy city and hears from certain women that she has no permanent abode, but sleeps at whatever shrine she happens to be on the day – mainly in the Anastasis, Golgotha, or at the shrine of *Mary (mother of Christ, S00033) [this was probably the basilica known as the Nea or her tomb shrine in Gesthemane)] With their help, he sets off to find Matrona in the city. She narrowly escapes him, but is found by the women. She flies first to Mount Sinai and, when Dometianos hears about it, she goes to Berytus [Beirut] where she settles in a pagan temple in the wilderness.

The eremitic community in the temple of Berytus
15. In the temple, she faces a demonic assault, but manages to cast the demons out of the building.

16. She finds some vegetables which help her relieve her thirst, and soon discovers a spring of water which miraculously causes edible plants to grow around it every day, which provide her sustenance.

17. The devil tempts her, taking the form of a beautiful woman who tries twice to convince her to leave the wilderness and go to Berytus, but Matrona resists.

18. The demon reappears in the form of an ugly old woman and threatens to arouse against her the city of Berytus, especially the pagans who still revered that shrine. He finally threatens that, although he has failed to bend her in her youth, he will return when she is old. One day, while she is performing the evening prayers, three men appear and pray behind her. She is afraid to ask them who they are, but they approach her, ask her to pray for them, and leave.

19-23. Her fame grows and many men and women from the city visit her, especially aristocratic ladies. One of them comes with her young daughter, Sophrone, who decides to stay with Matrona. Several other daughters of pagan families join Matrona who converts them to Christianity. The relatives of one of them are enraged by the conversion of their daughter and threaten to burn down the temple with Matrona and her companions inside, but the threat is not realised. Matrona sends the girl to the clerics, in order to be catechised and baptised. When they return her to the monastic community, Matrona gives her the name Euche (‘Prayer’). Other girls join and the community reaches the number of eight. The fame of Matrona’s holiness grows in the region.

The establishment of Matrona’s monastery in Constantinople
24-25. Matrona desires to return to Constantinople to see Bassianos and her brethren, but she hesitates, fearing her husband. She considers going to Alexandria or Antioch, but a revelatory dream convinces her to go to Constantinople.

26. She reveals her plan to two noblewomen from the city visiting her. They are distraught by the news, but they propose that Matrona joins two aristocratic women from the city, who are about to sail to Constantinople.

27. The bishop is notified and Matrona’s pupils are entrusted to the spiritual care of two deaconesses.

28. Matrona takes with her Sophrone and, together with the two noblewomen, they have an unusually fast and calm journey to the capital. They dock at the port of Perama, by the church of *Eirene (martyr of Magedon, S02162), and Matrona notifies the deacon Markellos of her arrival. He meets her and she recounts all her story since her departure from Constantinople.

29. Their arrival is announced to Bassianos who orders that a house be rented for them. The monks find a lodging near the church of *Thomas (the Apostle, S00199) in the quarter of Anthemius. Accompanied by the two noblewomen, Matrona and Sophrone visit Bassianos who gives them his blessing. Moreover, he gives Matrona three pieces of blessed bread and three monastic girdles and cloaks, signifying his blessing for her to establish her own monastic community.

30-31. At Bassianos’ orders, the other virgins left by Matrona in Berytus are brought to Constantinople and join her monastery. Bassianos instructs the deacon Markellos to cater for every material and practical need of Matrona’s house in the same way as he did for his own monastery.

32-36. Matrona’s fame spreads through the city and the empress Verina visits her, wishing to hear her story and receive her blessing. Matrona offers her pieces of the blessed bread with wine and, to the astonishment of the empress, asks for nothing. The wife of the West Roman emperor Anthemius (467-472) becomes a friend of Matrona. At her suggestion, Antiochiane, the wife of the patrician Sphoracius (founder of the famous church of the martyr *Theodore (soldier and martyr of Amaseia and Euchaita, S00480)), seeks a cure for her illness from Matrona. As a sign of her gratitude for the cure, Antiochiane offers Matrona one of her estates to build her monastery there. Through the care of the deacon Markellos, they choose the estate of Severiana, then a rose garden, in an intramural area with several monasteries, including that of Bassianos. Eugenia, her first companion in asceticism, joins her.

37. The number of the nuns grows to twelve and the nunnery flourishes.

38. Two aristocratic women on their way home from the annual festival of the martyr *Laurence (deacon and martyr of Rome, S00037) during which the martyr’s relics exude myrrh, pass by the monastery and are attracted by the psalmody of the nuns.

Τῇ γὰρ ἐτησίῳ ἑορτῇ τοῦ καλλινίκου μάρτυρος Λαυρεντίου [Διομήδους P.] πανδημεὶ τῆς πόλεως συνδραμούσης εἰς τὸν ἅγιον αὐτοῦ οἶκον — ἡ γὰρ σύναξις αὐτοῦ μεγάλη γίνεται καὶ ἐνδόξως ἐπιτελεῖται διὰ τὸ ταύτην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκ τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ λειψάνων μῦρον εὐῶδες ἀναδίδοσθαι εἰς τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν τῆς μαρτυρίας αὐτοῦ — ἐν ταύτῃ οὖν μετὰ πάντων συνέδραμον καὶ δύο ἀδελφαὶ, τῷ μὲν τρόπῳ εὐσεβεῖς, τῷ δὲ γένει περιφανεῖς, ἐπὶ τὸ μετασχεῖν τοῦ ἁγίου μύρου. Καὶ δὴ μετασχοῦσαι, ὡς καὶ πάντες, τῆς εὐλογίας, μετὰ τὴν πλήρωσιν τῶν ἁγίων μυστηρίων καὶ τὴν ἀπόλυσιν τῆς θείας συνάξεως (...)

‘Now, on the annual feast of the victorious martyr Laurence [[Diomedes in the Paris manuscript]], when all the city gathered together in his holy house (for his feast is a great one and is celebrated gloriously, myrrh (myron) from his holy relics being distributed on this day to the honour and glory of his martyrdom) on this <feast>, then, there were two sisters, pious of manner and noble of birth, who came together with the others to receive a portion of the holy myrrh. When they had received the blessing with all the others, after the completion of the holy mysteries and dismissal of the festal offices…’


38-45. The younger of these women, Athanasia, is so impressed by Matrona that she wishes to join the monastery to the consternation of her sister. Matrona and Markellos convince her to return home and see whether her desire for monastic life persists. Athanasia is only eighteen years old and not ready for the harshness of monastic life. Soon her only child dies and, after a three-day visit to the monastery, she starts practising asceticism on her own at her country estate. Some time later, her husband attempts to steal her money, which provides her with an excuse to split from him. She beseeches Markellos and Matrona to accept her in the monastery, but they hesitate. Finally, she convinces her husband to allow her to join the monastery, and she entrusts herself and her property to Matrona.

46. With Bassianos’ blessing, Matrona undertakes the management of the assets bequeathed to the monastery by Athanasia. A new three-storey building is constructed for the monastery comprising a burial crypt on the first, a winter oratory on the second, and a summer oratory on the third floor. The remaining money is distributed to other monasteries around Matrona’s, and also in Jerusalem, Emesa, and Berytus.

47. Athanasia becomes an exemplary nun, and spends fifteen years in Matrona’s monastery. Her piety is such that she avoids reading the stories of martyrs, lest she pronounces the names of the pagan gods – however, she is extremely devoted to them and fervently venerates their reliquaries. Three of her maids and two of her eunuchs follow her example in monastic life.

47. (…) αὕτη ἐξ ὑπερβαλλούσης εὐλαβείας, ἵνα μὴ τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν βδελυκτῶν θεῶν διὰ τοῦ οἰκείου στόματος αὐτῆς παρενέγκῃ, παρῃτεῖτο τοὺς τῶν ἁγίων καὶ καλλινίκων μαρτύρων ἀγῶνας ἀναγινώσκειν, καίτοι τιμῶσα τοὺς μάρτυρας πλέον πάντων· τοῖς γὰρ λάρναξι τῶν ἐνδόξων αὐτῶν λειψάνων προστιθεῖσα τὴν ὄψιν, τὰ ὦτα, τὸ στῆθος καὶ πᾶν μέλος αὐτῆς συνεχῶς προσαγιάζεσθαι ὑπερβαλλούσῃ ἀγάπῃ κατησπάζετο αὐτούς (...)

‘(…) this woman [Athanasia], out of her extraordinary piety, that she might not pronounce by her mouth the names of the abominable gods, declined to read <accounts of> struggles of the holy and victorious martyrs, though she honoured the martyrs above all. For she constantly pressed her face, ears, breast and all her limbs upon the chests containing their glorious relics, in order to sanctify herself, and clove them with extraordinary love (...).'


48. The monastery flourishes in every manner, but Matrona in her old age faces constant temptations by the demon who had assaulted her in the temple of Berytus.

49. Shortly before her death, Matrona has a vision of life in heaven.

Epilogue
50. The author of this text has based the narrative on the account of a certain Eulogia, a companion of Matrona from the beginning, who witnessed the saint’s feats herself or kept notes of Matrona’s teachings. Some of the information got lost during the turmoil which befell the church in the following years [the pro-Monophysite policies of the emperors Zeno and Anastasius]. Matrona was a faithful imitator of her spiritual father, Bassianos.

51. Bassianos started his ascetic career in the desert where the monastic habit of his order was revealed to him by God, and the rules of monastic life were taught to him by an angel. He founded several monasteries following his rule all over the world, two of which in Constantinople – his own and Matrona’s. Matrona imitated him in everything and her nuns used the habit of his monks (the schema with a cross, a black leather belt, and a white cloak) rather than the habit of female monastics.

52. Matrona died at the age of about 100 on 7 November. She had spent 25 years as head of her cenobitic monastery.


Text: Delehaye, Acta Sanctorum.
Translation: Featherstone in Tablot 1996, lightly modified.
Summary: Efthymios Rizos, Giovanni Hermanin de Reichenfeld.

Other liturgical acts and ceremonies

Saint’s feast

Cult building - monastic
Cult building - independent (church)

Explicit naming of a child, or oneself, after a saint
Composing and translating saint-related texts
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Oral transmission of saint-related stories
Visiting/veneration of living saint

Miracle during lifetime
Healing diseases and disabilities
Material support (supply of food, water, drink, money)
Miraculous behaviour of relics/images

Unspecified relic
Bodily relic - head
Myrrh and other miraculous effluents of relics
Public display of relics
Touching and kissing relics

Women
Ecclesiastics - abbots
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Relatives of the saint
Pagans
Monarchs and their family
Aristocrats

Source

Discussion

Bibliography