medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Eutropia (d. 250 or 251, very conjecturally) is a poorly documented martyr of Alexandria in Egypt. According to her synaxary notices (usually under today, sometimes under 25. May), she was brought before a Roman judge during a persecution, refused with heroic constancy to apostasize, was tortured with hooks and with fire, told the judge on the following day that his fire had been too cold, and, having again refused to apostasize, was sentenced to death by decapitation. In at least one version Eutropia is said to have come to the attention of the authorities in consequence of her having visited imprisoned Christians.
Some have dated Eutropia's suffering to the Decian persecution on the basis of her judge's having the same name as does his otherwise unattested counterpart in the premetaphrastic Passio of the attested Decian martyr Epimachus of Alexandria (BHG 593). Given that Epimachus experienced sufferings similar to those attributed to Eutropia (according to St. Dionysius of Alexandria's report as excerpted by Eusebius, he was tortured with iron hooks and burned with quicklime), one might think rather that the accounts of her suffering have been modeled upon those of the better known Epimachus.
In the originally tenth-century Synaxary of Constantinople Eutropia has the seventh entry under 30. October. This is also her feast day in modern Byzantine-Rite churches and her day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Eutropia of Alexandria:
a) as depicted (martyrdom) in the later tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613, p. 149):
http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1613/0171
http://tinyurl.com/35xwvty
b) as depicted (martyrdom) in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George in Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/jneotew
Best,
John Dillon
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