Anastasia nobilissima Romanorum filia, Praetaxati illustris, sed pagani. A matre sua Fantasta Christiana et a beato Chrysogono fidem Christi edocta est. Tradita autem Publio in uxorem languorem simulans semper se ab eius consortio abstinebat. Qui audiens eam cum una tantum ancilla in vili habitu Christianorum carceres circuire et iis necessaria ministrare fecit eam artissime custodiri, ita ut etiam eidem alimoniam denegaret volens autem eam sic perimere, ut posset in eius largissimis possessionibus lascivire. Putans igitur se mori dolorosas epistolas Chrysogono mittebat et ille consolatorias remittebat. Interea vir eius moritur et illa a carceribus liberatur.

Haec habebat tres ancillas pulcherrimas, quae sorores erant. Quarum una dicebatur Agapete, altera Thionia et altera Irenia. Quae cum Christianae essent et praefecti monitis nullatenus oboedirent, in cubiculum eas reclusit, ubi coquinae utensilia servabantur. Praefectus autem in earum ardens amorem ad eas ivit, ut suam libidinem exerceret. Qui in amentiam versus putans se tractare virgines cacabos, patellas, caldaria et similia amplectens osculabatur et, cum ex hoc satiatus fuisset, foras exiit nigerrimus et deformis et vestimentis concisis. Quem servi, qui eum pro foribus exspectaverant, sic aptatum videntes cogitantes, quod in daemonem versus esset, eum verberibus affecerunt et fugientes solum reliquerunt. Cumque imperatorem adiret, ut de hoc conqueretetur, alii virgis percutiebant, alii lutum et pulverem in eum proiciebant suspicantes, quod in furiam versus esset. Oculi autem eius tenebantur, ne sic se defornem videret. Videbatur enim ei, quod ipse et omnes albis vestibus essent induti. Quapropter mirabatur plurimum, cum sic eum omnes deridebant, quem in tanto honore habere consueverant. Putans vero, cum sic se deformem ab aliis didicisset, quod puellae sibi per artem magicam hoc fecissent, iussit eas coram se exspoliari, ut eas saltem nudas aspiceret. Sed statim earum vestimenta sic corporibus adhaeserunt, ut nullo modo exui valerent. Praefectus autem prae admiratione ita obdormivit stertens, quod etiam a pulsantibus non poterat excitari.

Tandem virgines martyrio coronantur et Anastasia ab imperatore cuidam praefecto traditur, ut, si eam sacrificare faceret, postmodum in uxorem eam haberet. Cumque eam in thalamum induxisset et eam amplexari vellet, statim caecus effectus est. Deos adiit quaerens, si evadere posset. Responderunt dicentes: "Quia sanctam Anastasiam contristasti, nobis traditus es et amodo semper nobiscum in inferno torqueberis."

Cumque domum reduceretur, inter manus puerorum vitam finivit. Tunc Anastasia alii praefecto traditur, ut eam in custodia detineret. Audiens enim, quod infinitas possessiones haberet, privatim dixit ei: "Anastasia, si vis esse Christiana, fac, quod praecepit Dominus tuus. Ille enim praecepit: 'Qui non renuntiaverit omnibus, quae possidet etc.' Omnia igitur, quae habes, mihi da et vade, quo volueris, et vere Christiana eris." Cui illa respondit: "Deus meus praecepit: 'Vende omnia, quae habes, et da a pauperibus et non divitibus.' Cum ergo dives sis, contra praeceptum Dei facerem, si aliquid tibi darem."

Tunc Anastasia diro carceri fame crucianda traditur, sed a sancta Theodora, quae iam per martyrium coronata fuerat, per duos menses esca coelesti pascitur. Tandem cum ducentis virginibus ad insulas Palmarias ducta est, ubi multi propter nomen Christi fuerant relegati. Post aliquos vero dies praefectus omnes ad se vocavit et Anastasiam ad palos ligatam ignibis concremavit. Alios vero diversis suppliciis interemit.

Inter quos unus erat, qui pluries propter Christum multis divitiis spoliatus semper dicebat: "Christum saltem mihi non auferetis. Apollonia autem corpus sanctae Anastasiae in viridario facta ibi ecclesia honorifice sepelivit. Passa est autem sub Diocletiano, qui coepit circa annos Domini CCLXXXVII.

St. Anastasia was a Roman lady of noble descent. Her father was an opulent and noble pagan; but her mother, who was a Christian, caused her to be baptized in her infancy, and secretly reared her in sentiments of Christian piety, in which she made great progress.

St. Anastasia had been married to a noble Roman, named Publius, who was a pagan; he loved his wife much, but having discovered her acts of piety, and that she was a Christian, from a loving husband he became a cruel tyrant, confined her to the house, and treated her like a slave. The saint, rejoiced that she could suffer for the love of Jesus Christ.

Publius, her cruel husband, having been appointed by the emperor ambassador to the King of Persia, gave orders to his domestics that they should maltreat his wife during his absence and that there should be no fear if she would be found dead upon his return. But God ordained that Publius met with an untimely death upon his journey; while the saint, having regained her pious labors in behalf of the prisoners of Jesus Christ.

St. Anastasia, inflamed with the love of God, occupied her time in consoling and succoring the Christians, particularly those who were in prison, who she exhorted to suffer for the faith. Having heard of the arrest of St. Chrysogonus, she hurried to his prison, and esteemed herself fortunate in having it in her power to be of service to him in this trial. He had been in prison for one year, during which he instructed his fellow-prisoners who were Christians, and converted many pagans to the faith. St. Anastasia rendered him such assistance, by reason of her extraordinary works of charity.

St. Chrysogonus, by order of Diocletian on November 24 in the year 303, was beheaded, but St. Anastasia continued her mission to the prisoners. One day upon an errand of charity, and having found that all the holy confessors had been butchered by order of the emporer, she wept bitterly. When officers of the court asked why she wept, she replied "I weep because I have lost my brethren, who have been cruelly put to death." Hence she was arrested and brought before the prefect, Florus, who got no satisfaction from her defence and so then he sent her to the emperor Diocletian. Diocletian was unsuccessful in exhorting her to abandon a religion which was proscribed thoroughout the empire, and so sent her back to the prefect Florus. He sent her to the pontiff of the capitol, Upian, in the hope that he could convince her to sacrifice to the gods.

Upian having used all his arts of persuasion in vain, said to her: "Now I shall give thee but three days to determine." Anastasia replied: "They are three too many; thou mayest imagine them already past. I am a Christian, and am anxious to die for Jesus Christ. From me thou shalt never get any other answer."

Upian then employed the assistance of three idolatrous women; but this having proved ineffectual, he made a second attempt himself, in which he had the effrontery to be guilty of some immodest action. This was instantly punished by the Almighty; for he was struck blind upon the spot, and seized by convulsions that within an hour terminated his life.

Florus, enraged at the death of Upian, caused the saint to be shut up in prison, with the intention of starving her; but the Lord miraculously preserved her life. Florus transferred her to another prison thinking the jailer had transgressed his orders to starve her - but she continued to live without food. Florus then ordered her to be put on board a ship with 120 idolaters - the ship was bored with holes and was supposed to sink. The ship soon filled with water, but instead of sinking went ashore; and the miracle worked the conversion of all these persons, who afterwards had the glory of suffering martyrdom for Jesus Christ. St. Anastasia was then conducted to the island of Palmarola, under sentence of death; she consummated her triumph in the flames.

A Christian lady obtained her body, and gave it honourable burial near Zara, in Dalmatia; but about the year 460, under the Emperor Leo, her relics were transferred Constantinople, and placed, as Cardinal Orsi writes, in the celebrated church of the Resurrection, called The Anastasia.

Return Home