05 — Sources and the Legend

The source-critical centerpiece of the collection: how the single saint of later devotion was built. Two files treat, first, the Passio Anastasiae (BHG 76–81) as a fifth-century literary romance that fused several originally independent cults — the Sirmium martyr, the Roman titular saint, “Anastasia the Widow,” and the linked martyrs Chrysogonus, Agape, Chionia, Irene, and Theodota — and the distinct Anastasia of Rome the Virgin-Martyr (29 October) whose old blurring with the 22 December Great Martyr is part of the record; and, second, the ancient Roman titular church of Sant’Anastasia and the saint’s commemoration at the Christmas-dawn Mass.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Great Martyr; Deliverer from Potions)

This section is the source-critical heart of the collection, expanding the problem set out in The Historical Core into its full treatment. Where Section 01 establishes that a martyr Anastasia was genuinely honored at Sirmium and at Rome, this section shows how the connected saint was assembled: the literary romance that unified several cults, and the ancient Roman church and Christmas liturgy that gave the cult its deepest documented roots. The discipline throughout is that of METHODOLOGY.md: the Passio is cited as the source of the narrative, never as historical fact; the conflation is reported as certain and its arithmetic, origin, and dating as contested, in structured [Disputed: ...] notes; and the securely documented cult is held apart from the developed legend.

Files in This Section

File	Description
the-passio-and-the-conflation.md	The full source-critical tangle: the Passio Anastasiae (BHG 76–81) as a fifth-century romance; Delehaye’s demonstration that it fused the Sirmium martyr, the Roman titular saint, “Anastasia the Widow,” and the linked cults of Chrysogonus of Aquileia, the Thessalonican virgins Agape, Chionia, and Irene, and Theodota; the distinction of the 22 December Great Martyr from Anastasia of Rome the Virgin-Martyr (29 October); and the disputed number of fused figures, the Sirmium-versus-Rome origin, the founder-versus-martyr titulus, and the date of the Passio.
the-roman-titular-church.md	The basilica of Sant’Anastasia al Palatino, the titulus Anastasiae, attested at the Roman synod of 499; the founder-versus-martyr question of the church’s name; and the saint’s commemoration at the second (dawn) Mass of Christmas Day — the statio at Sant’Anastasia, embedded in the oldest Roman Christmas liturgy in the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries.

See Also

• The Historical Core — the Sirmium and Roman anchors this section expands
• Reading the Anastasia Tradition — the method for a secure cult on a composite legend
• Martyr and Healer — the stable core beneath the conflation
• The Cult East and West — how the unified cult spread
• The Xenia flagship method — the model for a cult older than its biography
• St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Thecla — Great-Martyr women whose legends are likewise developed over slender record

References

• Passio Anastasiae (Latin) and the Greek Passio (BHG 76–81).
• Delehaye, Hippolyte. Étude sur le légendier romain. Subsidia Hagiographica 23. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1936.
• Delehaye, Hippolyte. Les origines du culte des martyrs. 2nd ed. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1933.
• Martyrologium Hieronymianum. Ed. de Rossi and Duchesne. Brussels, 1894.
• Bibliotheca Sanctorum, vol. 1, s.v. “Anastasia.” Rome: Pontificia Università Lateranense, 1961.
• The Roman Sacramentaries (Gelasian, Gregorian) and the acts of the Roman synod of 499.