Saint Drosella

Now, it came to pass that a daughter of the emper or, name Droselle Daughter of Emperor Trajan and Christian catechumen. d Drosella, already a catechumen, no doubt through the pers uasion of her sainte Matidie Aunt of Drosella who encouraged her conversion. aunt Saint Matidia, heard of the way of life of these holy eras of Jesus Christ, and sought their company. Often, during the night, she would escape from the imperial palace, and, accompanied by a few handmaidens, would come to take part in the exercises of the pious community. Despite the most meticulous precautions, these outings aroused suspicions: they were warned by one of the emperor's advisors, named Hadrian, who a Adrien Abbot sent to England to restore monastic discipline. spired to the hand of the former. Trajan, informed, gave orders to soldiers to watch all persons leaving the palace, to follow them to the place where they were going, and to bring them back by force along with their accomplices. The opportunity did not take long to present itself: the guards saw this evening, but without recognizing her, the princess slipping out with her companions: they followed them to the house of the five pious virgins and arrested the entire holy assembly in the name of the emperor. One can judge the astonishment and anger of Trajan when, the next day, he saw his daughter in the midst of these abhorred Christians. He began by having her placed in solitary confinement in a room of the imperial residence where everything was attempted, but in vain, to tear the faith from her heart. Then he had the five Christians brought to him, whom he regarded as guilty of high treason. As they refused to find evil in what was good and to burn incense to idols, he condemned them to a torture unheard of until then. They were stripped—these pure virgins—of all their clothing; they were gathered into the same bathtub and molten tin and lead were poured over their bodies. The innocent doves did not take long to expire in this horrible torment, and their souls went to heaven to plunge into the bath of eternal delights. This was on March 21, in the year 116, approximately.

To insult the Christians, and above all to insult a virtue unknown in the world before them—holy modesty—Trajan ordered that the cauldron, the lead, and the tin that had been used for the torture be melted down, and that with the whole, five statuettes of vestals be fashioned, which would be sent naked to the entrance of the bath where the martyrdom of the five virgins had taken place—so deeply had corruption entered into pagan customs! So deeply was human nature sunk in the mire! So little consciousness did the world have, before Jesus Christ, of its horrible degradation!

It is perhaps the case, here, to say a word about the origin of convents for girls. From the second century—all ecclesiastical histories attest to it, the Greek menologies speak of it—there were women who, privately or in community, led the pure life of virgins: they served the priests out of charity or piety. Hence their name of Apopetes, which expresses their mission of devotion. There were also deaconesses who helped especially with the administration of baptism, as long as this Sacrament was administered by immersion. But they were not nuns in the sense that has since been attached to this word: they were so in substance, not in form. They lived in their own homes, solitary or gathered in small numbers; they did not forbid themselves works of external mercy—just like our modern congregations—and escaped the whirlwind of the world through this sort of voluntary retired life. As for the first founder of monasteries for girls or widows properly so-called, it is difficult to designate her with certainty. The greatest number, however, recognize Saint Syncletica, a contemporary of Saint Anthony, as the mother and founder of t sainte Syncétice Considered the founder of the first religious women properly so-called. he first nuns properly so-called. Could it be because we possess the instructions of Saint Syncletica to her nuns and that no other monitories have reached us, that general opinion has pronounced itself in her favor? This seems quite probable to us. We have become so accustomed to accepting ready-made opinions when they do not contradict apostolicity—one of the marks of the true Church—that we are tempted to believe it. Be that as it may, we have just seen a small convent in full operation in Rome, from the beginning of the 2nd century. Because Saint Basilissa, Saint Callinica, and their companions did not leave us a code of religious rules, does that mean they were not true nuns regarding the practice of the evangelical counsels? Simple reason leads us to see clearly that the Gospel was practiced as perfectly, if not more so, at the cradle of the Church than in the following centuries. Therefore, in our opinion, there have always been monks and solitaries, nuns and religious women, persons of both sexes making prayer and the exercise of works of mercy their sole occupation.