E02490: The Martyrdom of *Eugenia (virgin and martyr of Rome, S00401) and Companions is written in Latin. Original version 5th or 6th c.; later version from before late 7th c. It narrates the conversion and disguised life as an abbot of the noble Roman Eugenia; the conversion and martyrdom of her father Philippus; of the conversion and eventual martyrdom of Basilla (martyr of Rome, buried on the via Salaria vetus, S00684), the niece of the emperor Gallienus; and of the eventual martyrdom of Eugenia and her eunuch companions, *Protus and Hyacinthus (martyrs of Rome, S00464). Eugenia is said to be buried on the Via Latina.

Martyrdom of Eugenia (BHL 2667 and BHL 2666)

Summary:

BHL 2667
Eugenia is the daughter of a patrician Roman, Philippus, and his wife Claudia, who also have two sons, Avitus and Sergius. Late in the reign of the emperor Commodus, in the emperor's seventh consulship, the family moves from Rome to Alexandria in Egypt, where Philippus has been appointed prefect.

There Eugenia matures not only as a beauty but also as a brilliant student of classical literature and philosophy. At age sixteen, however, preferring chastity to a society wedding, and inspired to become a secret Christian by reading the Acts of Paul and Thecla, Eugenia gets parental permission to take a country trip with her eunuch slaves (and fellow students), Protus and Hyacinthus, ostensibly for recreation but in fact to seek out further Christian teaching. While rereading and discussing Thecla’s story during their journey, the three encounter a procession of psalm-singing Christians, and Eugenia determines to join their community.

To ensure she is not separated from her companions, she has them cut her hair short, and she dons men’s clothing. Giving their retinue the slip, the three enter the nearby monastery, which is governed by a saintly bishop, Helenus. He is famed for a miracle of carrying burning coals in his cloak as a child, and more recently as the vanquisher, in a more dramatic ordeal by fire, of a smooth-tongued magus, Zereas, who sought to undermine the people’s faith in the scriptures. Eugenia introduces herself to Helenus as Eugenius, the brother of her two companions. Helenus, clairvoyantly, sees through Eugenia’s disguise; he commends her manly courage, agrees to admit the three companions to his community, supervises their instruction and baptises them personally, while keeping Eugenia’s true identity and gender secret.

Meanwhile her family is grief-stricken at her disappearance (her litter having arrived home empty) and her father eventually sets up a golden statue of his lost daughter, believing that she has been taken up by the gods. As for Eugenius/Eugenia, he/she so impresses the other monks with her piety and learning that three years later she is elected to succeed the deceased abbot; her saintliness then further manifests itself in her humility as abbot, her monastic discipline and her healing powers.

All goes well until a wealthy widow, Melantia, whom Eugenia has cured of a fever, falls in love with what she thinks is her handsome young physician and beseeches ‘him’ to give up his ascetic life in favour of the God-given worldly comforts and pleasures of life with Melantia. Eugenia tries to convince Melantia that worldly pleasures are illusory and fatal to the soul, but when the amorous widow becomes physically demonstrative in her desire for Eugenia, the latter is forced to repulse and rebuke her wooer in harsh terms as a ‘daughter of darkness’ (the Greek word melania means ‘blackness’) and ‘friend of the devil’.

The embarrassed, angry woman, fearing Eugenia may denounce her publicly, decides on a pre-emptive strike, rushes to the prefect Philippus in Alexandria and formally accuses her former physician of attempted rape, whereupon the saintly abbot and all her monks are arrested and jailed. At a public trial before the prefect Philippus in the amphitheatre, where Eugenia and her monks are to be executed by ‘the bites of the wild beasts’, Eugenia exonerates herself by first explaining that just as the 'activity of the Christian mind in loving God is manly' (viriliter in amore dei agit animus christianus) so she has ‘performed' the perfect man (virum gessi perfectum) by dressing as a male and preserving her virginity for Christ. She then dramatically rips her tunic from the top down, uncovering her face and breast (scidit tunicam a capite) to reveal her womanly identity as the daughter of the prefect.

A joyful family reunion ensues (while Melantia and her estate are consumed by fire from heaven); Eugenia’s father, mother and brothers are converted to Christ; the churches of Egypt are reopened after being closed for eight years, and Philippus is soon elected bishop of Alexandria, even while still prefect. Some die-hard Alexandrian pagans, however, complain to the emperors, who eventually dispatch a replacement prefect, Perennius, with orders to eliminate Philippus.

A year and three months after becoming bishop, he is assassinated by the new prefect’s agents in church. After burying him near their charitable foundations in Nitria, Eugenia and her mother and brothers return to Rome, where the Senate appoints Eugenia's brothers Avitus proconsul of Carthage and Sergius vicar of Africa! Their sister and mother busy themselves with quietly preaching Christianity and virginity to the virgins and matrons of Rome; Eugenia befriends a certain Basilla, niece of the emperor Gallienus, and sends Protus and Hyacinthus to her as a gift, ostensibly as slaves so as not to arouse suspicion, but actually as Basilla’s tutors in Christianity prior to her baptism by the bishop of Rome, identified here as Soter.

Basilla’s conversion is said to have occurred shortly before the great persecution under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus [of 258-260]. Bishop Cyprian of Carthage is martyred, and, although influential supporters protect Bishop Soter, both Basilla and Eugenia foresee each other’s coming martyrdom. Eugenia announces to her community of Roman maidens that 'the time for the grape harvest has come' (Ecce! Vindemiae tempus est) and makes a farewell address to them in praise of virginity, contempt of worldly things (contemptus mundi), and heavenly rewards.

Basilla’s conversion to Christianity and virginity naturally upsets her patrician fiancé, Pompeius, who is apprised of it by a treacherous housemaid. He sends a posse of Roman matrons to Basilla to bring her to her senses but they are themselves converted by her preaching on virginity and on the life of Christ, whereupon Pompeius angrily complains to the emperor that the future of the Roman family and state is being imperilled by such pernicious ideas, with the result that Basilla, again refusing to marry Pompeius or recant her faith, is executed in her own home by imperial command. Martyred also are her catechism tutors, Protus and Hyacinthus, when they reject a sacrifice to Jupiter.

Eventually Eugenia too is arrested. After refusing to sacrifice to the goddess Diana (whose statue she destroys by prayer), she survives attempts to drown her in the Tiber and to burn her to death in the furnace of the imperial baths (Eugenia’s mere presence permanently disables the heating system!). After ten days in prison (where she is fed and comforted by Christ himself), she is executed in her cell on Christmas Day, appearing later to her mother, Claudia, in a joyful vision at her tomb. After the peaceful death of Claudia the following Sunday (she is buried next to Eugenia on the via Latina), the two brothers, Avitus and Sergius, convert many pagans to Christianity before they too 'left this light for the kingdoms of the stars' (de hac luce ad syderea regna migrarunt).

Text: Mombritius 1910, II, 391-397. Summary: Whatley 2012, 109-111, adapted by M. Pignot.


BHL 2666
§ 1: In the seventh consulship of Commodus, the emperor sends Philippus to Alexandria as prefect of Egypt. His wife Claudia, his sons Avitus and Sergius, and his daughter Eugenia accompany him from Rome. Among his tasks is religious policy, as he fights against magic and restricts freedom of worship for Jews and Christians.

§ 2: Eugenia is well educated in Greek and Latin eloquence, as well as in philosophy. She is clever, with a capacious memory, so that she remembers everything she hears and reads. She is also beautiful of face and elegant in body; but yet more beautiful in mind and better formed in chastity. Hence, in her fifteenth year, she is asked to marry Aquilius, son of the consul Aquilius. Asked about this by her father, she responds that marriage is death. Meanwhile she begins to read the teachings of Paul, and so begins her conversion to Christianity.

§ 3: As the Christians are ordered to quit Alexandria, Eugenia asks for permission to go to the family’s estates outside the city. On her way she hears the Christians chant: ‘All the gods of the peoples are demons, but our God made the heavens’ [Psalm 96:5]. Hearing this, Eugenia appeals to her eunuchs Protus and Hyacinthus, who are well educated like her. She recalls their knowledge of the vain philosophers Aristotle, Plato, Epicurus, Socrates and the Stoics. She asks them to compare that wisdom with what the Christians are singing; they should therefore read the prophets and philosophers. She would rather be their sister in wisdom than their mistress. Therefore she orders that they all go off to the Christians, since Eugenia has heard of the bishop (episcopus) Helenus, who is very busy, and of the priest (presbyter) Theodorus, who has performed healing and exorcism miracles. Since women are not accepted in the community she will shave her head. They are to carry her in a litter.

§ 4: Christ’s grace is with them: they go to the monastery (monasterium) and see Helenus, bishop of Heliopolis, himself arriving with a crowd of ten thousand men chanting (as is the custom in Egypt): ‘The way of the just is made right, and the journey of the saints is prepared.’ Eugenia asks Protus and Hyacinthus to consider the force of this argument, and recalls the previous chanting of the psalm. Eugenia says they should join this happy throng.

§ 5: They join the Christians and ask who is the elder, sitting alone on a cart drawn by an ass. They hear that this is Helenus himself, who grew up in a monastery. He has performed many wonders: as a child he carried burning coals in his cloak without being hurt. Recently, the magician Zareas came and sought to seduce the p