Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/49

ST. MARY Jan. 1, but her festival is the 30th* JB.Jtf. Ganisins, Mart. Der Kitchen Kalendar, Flos Sanctorum, Leggendario, AA.SS. Baillet (Jan. 30) says her AcU are not authentic, bat that she was held in yeneration at Borne from the time of her martyrdom, and a chapel was erected in her honour, over her tomb at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, where multitudes resorted on the Ist of January, although the festival was afterwards changed to other days, to avoid interfering with commemorations of greater importance. Before the finding of her relics, the monks of St Francis of Araceli boasted that they possessed St. Martina's head. Her bones were said to be at Sta. Maria Maggiore, and her whole body at Piacenza ; but in the time of Urban YIIl., 1634, her body was found in a ruined vault under her church. She was in a sarcophagus of terra cotta, placed on a long slab of stone, enclosed between two walls and covered with earth and pebbles. In the same sarcophagus were other bodies separated by partitions, one of which was of lead, one of marble, and one of earth like a large tile ; the names of SS. Martina, Coucordius and Epi- phanius were inscribed respectively on three of the compartments, the other was not named; but the epitaph de- scribed them all as having suffered death in the cause of Christianity. The head of Martina was separate from the body, in a rusty iron bowl, and was easily ascertained to be that of a young girl. Her Ads are almost identical with those of Pris(;a and Tatiana, neither of which are authentic : those of Prisca are supposed to be the oldest of the three and the basis on which the other two were written. St Martiniana. (See Irene (4).) St. Martyria (l) or Mabtyrius, May 21, M. at Bavenna. AA.SS. Henschenins from Bede and other martyrologies. St Martyria (2), June 20, M. at Tomis. AA.SS. St. Marvenne, Mervtin. St Marvia, perhaps Merwin. St Mary (l), the Prophetess, July 1 (Mariamxs, Miriam). The Martyrology of Salisbury says, '*St. Mary the Pro- phetess, sister of Moses and Aaron, As Moses was/guyder of the men/amonge/ ye/childer of/israell, so was she of the women." When Moses was bom in Egypt, the cruel edict of Pharaoh was in force, condemning every male child among the Hebrews to death. His mother concealed him for three months, and then being no longer able to do so, put him in " an ark of bulrushes " and laid it in the flags by the river's brink ; Miriam, his sister, stood at a little dis- tance to see what would happen. When Pharaoh's daughter found. the child and had compassion on him, Miriam sug- gested that she should employ one of the Hebrew women to nurse him ; and fetched his mother (Exodus ii.). Miriam next appears after the crossing of the Bed Sea (Exodus xv. 20), where she is styled Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron. She headed the Hebrew women in a great service of praise and song. In Numbers xii. we find that Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he had married an Ethiopian woman. As a punishment Miriam was smitten with leprosy. When Aaron confessed the wickedness of himself and his sister and prayed to Moses for her restoration, Moses interceded with God and was promised that she should re- cover in seven days. During that time the whole nation halted for her while she was kept outside the camp. She died at Kadesh in the desert of Zin (Numbers xx. 1 ). Her tomb was shown in the time of St. Jerome. The prophet Micah (vi. 4) mentions her as one of the great leaders and deliverers of the Israelites. Josephus numbers her among the old Testament Saints. The Christian Calendars honour her, July 1, with her nephew Eleazar, and great-nephew Phineas. According to Josephus, she had a husband named Hur. Moham- medan legend makes her identical with Mary, the mother of Jesns, and says she was miraculously kept alive to fulfil her blessed destiny. Smith's Die. of the Bible. Stadler, Lexikon. AA.SS, St Mary (2), Ist century, Mother of the Saviour, March 25 Annunciation, Aug. IT) Assumption, Feb. 2, July 2 Visitation (to Elisabeth), Aug. 6 Our