03 — The Martyrdom
The close of the legend: Anastasia’s wandering ministry across Illyricum, her association with the martyrs Agape, Chionia, Irene, and Theodota, her own arrest and the road to Sirmium, and the martyrdom by fire — each reported as the Passio attests it and pinned against the one secure historical datum, the Sirmium martyr-cult of the oldest martyrology.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Great Martyr; Deliverer from Potions)
This section carries the connected legend of St. Anastasia the Pharmakolytria to its end. The first file follows her out of Rome and across the Balkan provinces, serving the persecuted Christians from prison to prison, and binds her — in the Passio’s telling — to a circle of fellow-martyrs whose independent cults the legend fused. The second sets the martyrdom at Sirmium and applies the attestation-pinning discipline of the repository (METHODOLOGY §3.5): the death by fire is reported as the Passio’s account, pinned to that legend, while the one secure historical fact behind the whole dossier remains only the Sirmium martyr-cult of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum — a cult and a place, not a manner of death. The source-criticism that governs the collection — the fusion of distinct cults, the Sirmium-versus-Rome conflation — is visible at its sharpest here, at the wandering and at the death.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| following-the-martyrs.md | The wandering ministry across Illyricum and the association with Agape, Chionia, Irene, Theodota, and Chrysogonus; the arrest and the road to Sirmium. Source-critical: the Passio fused several independent cults (Delehaye), and the Thessalonican virgins are genuinely attested martyrs of 304. |
| the-death-by-fire.md | The martyrdom at Sirmium — burned at the stakes about 304 under Diocletian. The manner of death is pinned to the Passio; the one secure datum is the Sirmium martyr-cult of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum. Disputed notes on the instruments of death and on the dating and the Sirmium-versus-Rome conflation. |
See Also
- The Minister to Prisoners — the ministry the wandering extends across Illyricum
- The Widow and Her Faith — the widowhood that frees her to follow the martyrs
- The Historical Core — the Sirmium attestation, the secure datum behind the martyrdom
- Rome and the Great Persecution — the persecution backdrop
- The Passio and the Conflation — the full source-critical treatment of the fused cults
- Reading the Anastasia Tradition — the method for the secure cult on a developed legend
References
- Passio Anastasiae (Latin) and the Greek Passio of Anastasia (BHG 76–81).
- Martyrologium Hieronymianum. Ed. G. B. de Rossi and L. Duchesne, Acta Sanctorum, Novembris II.1. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1894.
- Delehaye, Hippolyte. Étude sur le légendier romain: Les saints de novembre et de décembre. Subsidia Hagiographica 23. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1936.
- The Martyrdom of Agape, Irene, and Chionia. In Herbert Musurillo, ed. and trans., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.
- Bibliotheca Sanctorum, vol. 1, s.v. “Anastasia.” Rome: Istituto Giovanni XXIII della Pontificia Università Lateranense, 1961.
- Eusebius of Caesarea. Ecclesiastical History, Book 8.