01 — Foundations
The ground on which the figure of St. Anastasia the Pharmakolytria stands: the traditional account of her noble Roman birth and the world of the Diocletianic “Great Persecution” into which the legend places her, and — set against the legend — the historical core, which is not a biography at all but the secure attestation of a martyr Anastasia at Sirmium in the oldest martyrologies, around which the connected vita and the conflation of several distinct Anastasias later grew.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Great Martyr; Deliverer from Potions)
Anastasia belongs to the great company of martyrs whom the Church remembers from the last and fiercest of the Roman persecutions, that of Diocletian and his colleagues (303–313). The connected legend — the Passio Anastasiae — makes her a Roman noblewoman of high birth who used her wealth and freedom to serve the imprisoned confessors and who died at Sirmium in Pannonia. But the firm documentary ground beneath that legend is narrow: a martyr named Anastasia honored at Sirmium, attested in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, and a Roman cult of great antiquity attached to a titular church. This section sets the world of the persecution in which the tradition is set, and then states plainly the historical core and the conflation that the rest of the collection must reckon with.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Rome and the Great Persecution | The traditional account of Anastasia’s noble Roman birth and Christian upbringing; and the historical world of the Diocletianic persecution (303–313) — the edicts, the targeting of clergy and the well-born, and the confessors in prison whom the legend has Anastasia serve. |
| The Historical Core | What can actually be established: the martyr Anastasia of Sirmium in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum; the ancient Roman cult; and the conflation of several Anastasias — the central source-critical problem — set out with the named positions of Delehaye and the Bibliotheca Sanctorum. |
See Also
- The Passio and the Conflation — the full treatment of the source-critical tangle introduced here
- The Minister to Prisoners — the legend’s account of the ministry the persecution made possible
- Reading the Anastasia Tradition — the method for holding the secure cult and the developed legend together
- The Pre-Schism Church — the early Church of the persecutions
References
- Martyrologium Hieronymianum. Ed. G. B. de Rossi and L. Duchesne, Acta Sanctorum, Novembris II.1. Brussels, 1894.
- Delehaye, Hippolyte. Étude sur le légendier romain. Subsidia Hagiographica 23. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1936.
- Bibliotheca Sanctorum, vol. 1, s.v. “Anastasia.” Rome, 1961.
- Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History. Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. 1890.