medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Kollyridians? According to Epiphanius of Salamis, they were active in Thrace.
Cheers,
Jim
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From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: November 19, 2016 12:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [M-R] FEAST - Many Saints for the Day (November 19): The Forty Women Martyrs of Heraclea
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The Forty Women Martyrs of Heraclea (d. early 4th cent.?) are entered under today (19. November) in the partially preserved originally fourth-century Gothic Calendar in Milan as having suffered at Beroea in Thrace (today's Stara Zagora in Bulgaria). They are entered under today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology and under 1. September in some Byzantine synaxaries as martyrs of Heraclea in Thrace (today's Marmara Eregli in Turkey). Other Byzantine synaxaries make them martyrs of Adrianople (today's Edirne in Turkey). The (ps.)-HM calls them _sanctae mulieres cum viduis_ ("holy women [consecrated virgins?] together with widows"). Their legendary Greek-language Passio (BHG 2280; epitome, BHG 2281) makes them widows and virgins arrested in the Licinian persecution along with their deacon Ammon (also Ammos) at Beroea and executed at Heraclea. The perhaps eleventh- to thirteenth-century anonymous Bios of the fifth-century St. Elizabeth the Wonderworker (BHG 2121) retrojects to Elizabeth's own time a veneration at Heraclea of the entire group, Ammon included.
In its revision of 2001 the Roman Martyrology, in accordance with its now frequent preference for the testimony of the earliest sources, dispensed with Ammon and entered this commemoration under today (19. November). Previously the RM had entered it under 1. September as that of Ammon and forty holy virgins whom he had instructed in the faith; modern Byzantine-Rite churches celebrate these saints on that day.
Some period-pertinent images of the Forty Women Martyrs of Heraclea:
a) as depicted (martyrdom; at left, Ammon with a hot helmet placed on his head) in the late tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Cittą del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. gr. 1613, p. 4):
http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1613/026
http://tinyurl.com/q35tuvt
b) as depicted (lower register) in a September calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) in the nave of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gracanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/nachvl7
c) as depicted (at right) in a September calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Decani monastery near Pec in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/2cvmmhj
Best,
John Dillon
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