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Feb. 23rd, 2010 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichAlexander Akimetes (d. 430) was a Greek army officer who sold his goods and became a monk. He proved to be a zealot, and was imprisoned after he set fire to a pagan temple. When released, he went to the desert, where he converted a band of robbers and assembled them into a monastery. Then Alexander went on and established a monastery on the Euphrates. Still not willing to settle down, though, he then formed a traveling monastery, starting with 150 monks (later 300) that wandered from place to place. He seems to have founded a system of round-the-clock monastic worship, the monks chanting in shifts.
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Romana (early 4th cent.) According to her Vita, she was the Christian-influenced daughter of a Roman city prefect. To avoid marriage and thus preserve her virginity, she secretly left her home and fled with angelic assistance to Mount Soracte. Here she found pope Sylvester hiding in a cave, prostrated herself before him, and sought baptism. Marvelling at her angelic appearance, the refugee pope granted her wish. She then headed off in the direction of Todi but soon settled down in a set of caves where she lived in isolation for several months, subsisting on plant food and on water. The odor of her sanctity in time wafted on to Todi, some of whose Christians came out and formed a little eremitical community around her. Romana died here at the age of sixteen, on a 23d of February in some year during the reign of Constantine. Her parents came out from Rome and buried her on the site, where her cult continued to be maintained.
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Polycarp of Smyrna (d. ca. 155 or ca. 166) One of the leading figures of early Christianity, the apostolic father Polycarp was an elder of the church of Smyrna (today's Izmir in Turkey) who became its bishop c96. In that position he actively fought the heresies of Marcion and Valentinus and was very active on issues of Christian practice. He was a disciple of St. John (which one is not clear), a correspondent of St. Ignatius of Antioch, and a teacher of St. Irenaeus of Lyon. According to Jerome, his Epistle to the Philippians was still being read in church services in around the year 400.
Late in life Polycarp visited Rome during the pontificate of St. Anicetus to discuss a uniform date for Easter (the two couldn't agree, but agreed peaceably to differ, a model of fraternal charity that unfortunately later ages failed to follow).
When he was quite old public demand caused soldiers to arrest him; he invited them to dinner. When ordered to curse Christ, he said he'd been a Christian for 86 years without Christ doing him any wrong. He and 12 others were martyred at Smyrna in the town amphitheatre. Sentenced to be burned alive, when the flames left him unscathed he was stabbed to death by sword or spear instead.
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Romana (early 4th cent.) According to her Vita, she was the Christian-influenced daughter of a Roman city prefect. To avoid marriage and thus preserve her virginity, she secretly left her home and fled with angelic assistance to Mount Soracte. Here she found pope Sylvester hiding in a cave, prostrated herself before him, and sought baptism. Marvelling at her angelic appearance, the refugee pope granted her wish. She then headed off in the direction of Todi but soon settled down in a set of caves where she lived in isolation for several months, subsisting on plant food and on water. The odor of her sanctity in time wafted on to Todi, some of whose Christians came out and formed a little eremitical community around her. Romana died here at the age of sixteen, on a 23d of February in some year during the reign of Constantine. Her parents came out from Rome and buried her on the site, where her cult continued to be maintained.
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Polycarp of Smyrna (d. ca. 155 or ca. 166) One of the leading figures of early Christianity, the apostolic father Polycarp was an elder of the church of Smyrna (today's Izmir in Turkey) who became its bishop c96. In that position he actively fought the heresies of Marcion and Valentinus and was very active on issues of Christian practice. He was a disciple of St. John (which one is not clear), a correspondent of St. Ignatius of Antioch, and a teacher of St. Irenaeus of Lyon. According to Jerome, his Epistle to the Philippians was still being read in church services in around the year 400.
Late in life Polycarp visited Rome during the pontificate of St. Anicetus to discuss a uniform date for Easter (the two couldn't agree, but agreed peaceably to differ, a model of fraternal charity that unfortunately later ages failed to follow).
When he was quite old public demand caused soldiers to arrest him; he invited them to dinner. When ordered to curse Christ, he said he'd been a Christian for 86 years without Christ doing him any wrong. He and 12 others were martyred at Smyrna in the town amphitheatre. Sentenced to be burned alive, when the flames left him unscathed he was stabbed to death by sword or spear instead.
