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Mar. 12th, 2010 03:24 amPeter, Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and Migdon/Maxima (d. 303) The Emperor Diocletian having discovered that Peter, one of his officers of the bedchamber, was a Christian, ordered him to be tortured. Then Gorgonius and Dorotheus, two other officers, filled with indignation, exclaimed, "Why, sire, dost thou thus torment Peter for what we all profess in our hearts?" The emperor at once ordered them to execution, together with Migdo, a priest, and many other Christians. Dorotheus and Gorgonius were tortured and then executed; Peter was saved for last and was killed in a particularly nasty way: bits of his flesh were torn off, salt and vinegar were rubbed into the wounds, and then he was roasted to death over a slow fire.
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Theophanes the Chronicler/the Confessor (d. 817 or 818) Theophanes was born to a very wealthy Greek family and a marriage was arranged for him at a young age, but he and his bride decided to live as siblings together and then separated when the girl's father died. Theo became a monk, then built the monastery of Megas Agros ("Great Acre") on his own estate at Mount Sigriane on the southern side of the Propontis and ruled it as abbot. He was an ascetic and a historian, producing a major chronicle. Emperor Leo the Armenian, though, decided that a monk so well born and highly regarded would make a good defender of iconoclasm. He summoned Theophanes to court; Theo refused to denounce icons, and was flogged and imprisoned for two years. When he was very frail he was exiled to Samothrace, where he died shortly after his arrival. His fellow sufferer St. Theodore the Studite wrote a panegyric on the translation of his relics. Theophanes is also the author of an important chronicle covering the years 285-813, a continuation of that of George the Syncellus. In the 870s this was translated into Latin by Anastasius Bibliothecarius and thus became known in the Latin West.
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Seraphina/Fina (d. 1253) In 1238 Seraphina was born to poor parents in San Geminiano (Tuscany). She contracted a fatal illness around age 10, became paralyzed, and spent the rest of her life desperately repenting her sins (apparently the worst of them was that she had once accepted an orange from a boy) and showing great patience and perseverance in the face of her physical trials. Before her death she was credited with a great many miracles; in a vision, Gregory the Great told her she would die on his feast day... and she did - at the moment of her death all the bells in town started ringing, flowers bloomed on the plank on which she lay, etc. She was 15 when she died, people in this area of Tuscany have named the white violets which bloom at this time after their patron.
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Theophanes the Chronicler/the Confessor (d. 817 or 818) Theophanes was born to a very wealthy Greek family and a marriage was arranged for him at a young age, but he and his bride decided to live as siblings together and then separated when the girl's father died. Theo became a monk, then built the monastery of Megas Agros ("Great Acre") on his own estate at Mount Sigriane on the southern side of the Propontis and ruled it as abbot. He was an ascetic and a historian, producing a major chronicle. Emperor Leo the Armenian, though, decided that a monk so well born and highly regarded would make a good defender of iconoclasm. He summoned Theophanes to court; Theo refused to denounce icons, and was flogged and imprisoned for two years. When he was very frail he was exiled to Samothrace, where he died shortly after his arrival. His fellow sufferer St. Theodore the Studite wrote a panegyric on the translation of his relics. Theophanes is also the author of an important chronicle covering the years 285-813, a continuation of that of George the Syncellus. In the 870s this was translated into Latin by Anastasius Bibliothecarius and thus became known in the Latin West.
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Seraphina/Fina (d. 1253) In 1238 Seraphina was born to poor parents in San Geminiano (Tuscany). She contracted a fatal illness around age 10, became paralyzed, and spent the rest of her life desperately repenting her sins (apparently the worst of them was that she had once accepted an orange from a boy) and showing great patience and perseverance in the face of her physical trials. Before her death she was credited with a great many miracles; in a vision, Gregory the Great told her she would die on his feast day... and she did - at the moment of her death all the bells in town started ringing, flowers bloomed on the plank on which she lay, etc. She was 15 when she died, people in this area of Tuscany have named the white violets which bloom at this time after their patron.
