Julian and Basilissa
Encyclopedia
Saints Julian and Basilissa (died ca. 304) were husband
and wife
. They were Christian
martyr
s who died at either Antioch
or, more probably, at Antinoe
, in the reign of Diocletian
, early in the fourth century, on 9 January, according to the Roman Martyrology, or 8 January, according to the Greek Menaea.
Their feast day is also given as 6 January, while a group of people martyred with Julian (Celsus, Marcionilla
, Anthony
, Anastasius
) have the feast day of January 9.
There exists no historically certain data relating to these two holy personages, and more than once this Julian of Antinoe has been confounded with Julian of Cilicia. The confusion is easily explained by the fact that thirty-nine saints of this name are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, eight of whom are commemorated in the one month of January. But little is known of this saint, once we put aside the exaggerations of his Acts.
, and further encouraged her to found a convent
for women, of which she became the superior, while he himself gathered a large number of monk
s and undertook their direction. The two converted their home into a hospital
which could house up to 1,000 people (thus, Julian is often confused with Julian the Hospitaller
).
Basilissa died a very holy death, but martyrdom was reserved for Julian under the persecutions of Diocletian
.
Celsus
, the young son of Marcionilla
, was martyred along with Julian. The priest Anthony (Antony)
was martyred at the same time, as well as a convert and neophyte named Anastasius
. Marcionilla's seven brothers are also said to have been killed.
, by the order of the governor, Martian, according to the Latins, at Antinoe, in Egypt
, according to the Greeks, which seems more probable. Unfortunately, the Acts of this martyr belong to those pious romances so much appreciated in early times, whose authors, concerned only for the edification of their readers, drowned the few known facts in a mass of imaginary details. Like many similar lives of saints, it offers miracle
s, prodigies, and improbable utterances, that lack the least historical value.
, and their veneration was well established before the eighth century. In the Martyrologium Hieronymianum
they are mentioned under 6 January; Usuard, Ado
, Notker of St Gall
, and others place them under the ninth, and Rabanus Maurus
under the thirteenth of the same month, while Vandelbert puts them under 13 February, and the Menology of Canisius
under 21 June, the day to which the Greek Menaea assign St. Julian of Caesarea. There used to exist at Constantinople
a church under the invocation of these saints, the dedication of which is inscribed in the Greek Calendar under 5 July.
Only a fragment of Ælfric's
Passion of St. Julian and His Wife Basilissa from his Lives of the Saints has survived, but the traditional legend is there: the two saints vow not to consummate
their marriage on their wedding night, and devote themselves to clænnysse ("chastity"). Julian suffers martyrdom by beheading
.http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/OddCouples/OddCouples.htm
Husband
A husband is a male participant in a marriage. The rights and obligations of the husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between cultures and has varied over time...
and wife
Wife
A wife is a female partner in a marriage. The rights and obligations of the wife regarding her spouse and others, and her status in the community and in law, varies between cultures and has varied over time.-Origin and etymology:...
. They were Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s who died at either Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
or, more probably, at Antinoe
Antinopolis
Antinopolis was a city founded at an older Egyptian village by the Roman emperor Hadrian to commemorate his deified young beloved, Antinous, on the east bank of the Nile, not far from the site in Upper Egypt where Antinous drowned in 130 AD...
, in the reign of Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
, early in the fourth century, on 9 January, according to the Roman Martyrology, or 8 January, according to the Greek Menaea.
Their feast day is also given as 6 January, while a group of people martyred with Julian (Celsus, Marcionilla
Celsus and Marcionilla
Celsus and Marcionilla were early Christian martyrs. Marcionilla was a married laywomen, and Celsus was her son. Together with Anastasius, Anthony, and Julian they suffered martyrdom during the persecutions of Diocletian.-External links:...
, Anthony
Anthony of Antioch
Anthony was an early Christian priest who suffered martyrdom with Anastasius, Julian, Celsus and Marcionilla, during the persecutions of Diocletian. He lived his life as a desert hermit and denounced the Roman way of life. He practiced celibacy and lived off roots and plants. He also shunned any...
, Anastasius
Anastasius of Antioch (martyr)
Anastasius was a Christian convert who suffered martyrdom with Anthony, Julian, Celsus and Marcionilla, during the persecutions of Diocletian.Anastasius is one of the 140 Colonnade saints which adorn St. Peter's Square.-References:...
) have the feast day of January 9.
There exists no historically certain data relating to these two holy personages, and more than once this Julian of Antinoe has been confounded with Julian of Cilicia. The confusion is easily explained by the fact that thirty-nine saints of this name are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, eight of whom are commemorated in the one month of January. But little is known of this saint, once we put aside the exaggerations of his Acts.
Legend
Forced by his family to marry, he agreed with his spouse, Basilissa, that they should both preserve their virginityVirginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
, and further encouraged her to found a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
for women, of which she became the superior, while he himself gathered a large number of monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s and undertook their direction. The two converted their home into a hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
which could house up to 1,000 people (thus, Julian is often confused with Julian the Hospitaller
Julian the Hospitaller
Julian the Hospitaller, also known as Julian the Poor, was a legendary Roman Catholic saint. His story is today believed by scholars to be fully legendary.-History:There are three main theories of his origin:...
).
Basilissa died a very holy death, but martyrdom was reserved for Julian under the persecutions of Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
.
Celsus
Celsus and Marcionilla
Celsus and Marcionilla were early Christian martyrs. Marcionilla was a married laywomen, and Celsus was her son. Together with Anastasius, Anthony, and Julian they suffered martyrdom during the persecutions of Diocletian.-External links:...
, the young son of Marcionilla
Celsus and Marcionilla
Celsus and Marcionilla were early Christian martyrs. Marcionilla was a married laywomen, and Celsus was her son. Together with Anastasius, Anthony, and Julian they suffered martyrdom during the persecutions of Diocletian.-External links:...
, was martyred along with Julian. The priest Anthony (Antony)
Anthony of Antioch
Anthony was an early Christian priest who suffered martyrdom with Anastasius, Julian, Celsus and Marcionilla, during the persecutions of Diocletian. He lived his life as a desert hermit and denounced the Roman way of life. He practiced celibacy and lived off roots and plants. He also shunned any...
was martyred at the same time, as well as a convert and neophyte named Anastasius
Anastasius of Antioch (martyr)
Anastasius was a Christian convert who suffered martyrdom with Anthony, Julian, Celsus and Marcionilla, during the persecutions of Diocletian.Anastasius is one of the 140 Colonnade saints which adorn St. Peter's Square.-References:...
. Marcionilla's seven brothers are also said to have been killed.
Julian's Martyrdom
During the persecution of Diocletian he was arrested, tortured, and put to death at Antioch, in SyriaSyria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, by the order of the governor, Martian, according to the Latins, at Antinoe, in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, according to the Greeks, which seems more probable. Unfortunately, the Acts of this martyr belong to those pious romances so much appreciated in early times, whose authors, concerned only for the edification of their readers, drowned the few known facts in a mass of imaginary details. Like many similar lives of saints, it offers miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s, prodigies, and improbable utterances, that lack the least historical value.
Veneration
In any case, these two saints must have enjoyed a great reputation in antiquityAncient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
, and their veneration was well established before the eighth century. In the Martyrologium Hieronymianum
Martyrologium Hieronymianum
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum was a medieval list of martyrs, one of the most used and influential of the Middle Ages...
they are mentioned under 6 January; Usuard, Ado
Ado (archbishop)
Ado , archbishop of Vienne in Lotharingia, belonged to a famous Frankish house, and spent much of his middle life in Italy. He held his archiepiscopal seat from 850 till his death on the 16 December 874. Several of his letters are extant and reveal their writer as an energetic man of wide...
, Notker of St Gall
Notker of St Gall
Notker the Stammerer , also called Notker the Poet or Notker of Saint Gall, was a musician, author, poet, and Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall in modern Switzerland...
, and others place them under the ninth, and Rabanus Maurus
Rabanus Maurus
Rabanus Maurus Magnentius , also known as Hrabanus or Rhabanus, was a Frankish Benedictine monk, the archbishop of Mainz in Germany and a theologian. He was the author of the encyclopaedia De rerum naturis . He also wrote treatises on education and grammar and commentaries on the Bible...
under the thirteenth of the same month, while Vandelbert puts them under 13 February, and the Menology of Canisius
Canisius
Canisius may refer to:* Saint Petrus Canisius* Henricus Canisius, canonist and historian* Theodorich Canisius, a Jesuit academic; half-brother of St...
under 21 June, the day to which the Greek Menaea assign St. Julian of Caesarea. There used to exist at Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
a church under the invocation of these saints, the dedication of which is inscribed in the Greek Calendar under 5 July.
Only a fragment of Ælfric's
Ælfric of Eynsham
Ælfric of Eynsham was an English abbot, as well as a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres. He is also known variously as Ælfric the Grammarian , Ælfric of Cerne, and Ælfric the Homilist...
Passion of St. Julian and His Wife Basilissa from his Lives of the Saints has survived, but the traditional legend is there: the two saints vow not to consummate
Consummate
Consummation or consummation of a marriage, in many traditions and statutes of civil or religious law, is the first act of sexual intercourse between two individuals, following their marriage to each other...
their marriage on their wedding night, and devote themselves to clænnysse ("chastity"). Julian suffers martyrdom by beheading
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
.http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/OddCouples/OddCouples.htm