ST. THEOPHILA 25Q made a co-heir with Christ than to keep my promise and be condemned to ever- lastmg tortnre. Bnt yon who promised allegiance to onr God on condition of his helping yon ont of the difficulty of a moment, have not only failed to keep that promise bnt have tortured His servant Theodula." Beothus's head was immediately struck off with a sword. Theodula was put on an instrument of torture called a craticula^ with pitch, oil and boiling wax, but as soon as her sacred body was in the midst of the fire, the eraticula flew in pieces, hurting and burning many of the people. She was then led back to prison, and next day a new funeral pile was lighted for her, which she ascended with Evagrius, Macarius, and many others, and died happily. AA,SS. Cahier. St. Theognia, Jaa 5, V. daughter of St. Eufbexia, honoured at Menis in Sicily. AA.S8. St. Theola, Dtjla (l). Mart of Salisbury. St. Th^ole, Theodula. Cahier. St. Theonefana, Tenestina. St. Theonia, mother of St. Elerius, and superior of the nuns among whom he placed St. Winifbkd. AA.S8.^ Nov. 3. St. Theonilla, Aug. 23, M. c. 285. An elderly widow ; one of six Christians brought before Lysias, proconsul of Cilicia, at iEgea. Immediately after the death of Domnina (2) on the rack, Theonilla was presented to the pro- consul, who said to her, "Tou have seen the fire and the tortures with which the other Christians have been punished, therefore sacrifice at once to the gods." She answered, *' I fear not your punishments but the eternal tor- ments which destroy both body and soul." Lysias ordered her to be beaten and bound. He ordered her to be hung up by her hair and struck on the face, and had her stripped. Theonilla said,
- It is not only me that you injure and
insult, but in my person you disgrace your own wife and mother." In answer to questions, she said she had been a widow three and twenty years and had accustomed herself to fiEUiting, watching, and prayer, ever since she had forsaken the unclean idols of the heathen. They shaved her head to increase her con- fusion, they girded her with thorns, they stretcjied her ont between four stakes, and finally they laid live coals on her stomach, and under this last torment she died. Lysias then ordered her to be sewn up in a sack and thrown into the water. This was done to prevent the surviving Christians from burying the bodies of their friends or preserving their relics. Theonilla is commemorated with Domnina and her child, and the brothers SS. Claudius, Asterius, and Neon. B.M. Their authentic Acts are preserved. AA.S8. Butler. Baronius. Surius. Ruinart. Martyrum Acta. The Menology of Basil gives the story differently and makes her day Oct. 29. Accoiding to this authority, Theonilla and her brothers went to Mopsuestia and appealed to Lysias, the prefect of Cilicia, to recover their inheritance from their step-mother. Lest the property should be given to them, she denounced them as Christians ; in consequence of which, the brothers were bound with chains and led out of the city; hung on posts outside the walls; stuck with nails, and so died. Theonilla was hung up by her hair, and beaten until she rendered up her soul to God. St. Theophano, Dec. 16, -f 882 or 892. Daughter of Constantino Marti- niake and Anna; she was married to Leo VI. (886-911), the philosopher or the wise, so-called through the ignorance of the populace, who credited him with a knowledge of astrology. She was crowned by her father-in-law, Basil the Macedonian. She and Leo lived in the Magnaura Palace. She was extremely charitable and devout ; was unassailable by the vice of jealousy and never re- membered an injury. A few days after her death she began to work miracles. Leo built a church in her honour. Theophano has been confounded with an earlier and with a later empress of the same name. Ferrarius. Baronius. Lebeau. Finlay, History of Oreece. Du Fresne. St. Theophila (l), Feb. 6. (See Bbvooata.)
