Saint Basilissa

At that same time, the admirab le Saint Eugen sainte Eugénie Companion in faith and martyrdom of Basilla. ia, of whom we shall speak on September 23rd, came to Rome with Saint Protus and Saint Hyacinth, her servants, after her father, Philip, governor of Egypt, had been martyred in Alexandria; Basilla, being informed of this, sent word to her through a faithful intermediary that she greatly desired to be instructed by her in Christianity, and that she urgently begged her to give her instructions by letter, because, being watched by her fiancé and those of her household, she could not, without danger, go to find her. Eugenia, considering that letters were much weaker than the spoken word, sent her eunuchs, to whom she herself owed her own conversion, and let her know that she could have full confidence in them. Indeed, they spoke to her with such force, and instructed her so perfectly on all points of our religion, that she would no longer delay in receiving holy baptism. Saint Cornelius, who occupied the chair of Saint Peter m ost worthily, w Saint Corneille Pope who instructed and baptized Basil. ent to her house, finished instructing her, regenerated her in Jesus Christ, and inspired in her such esteem for chastity that she also resolved never to have any other spouse than Him whose alliance consecrates, purifies, and perfects virgins.

Thus, by one and the same sacrament, she became the daughter and the spouse of Jesus Christ, and felt herself so inflamed with His love that she would have wished to shed all her blood from that moment for the confession of His divinity.

Christianity having bound her very closely to Saint Eugenia, they began to work together, with great courage, to attract Roman ladies and maidens to the faith, and their zeal was so successful that Saint Cornelius and the priests of the Church were extremely busy baptizing the persons they converted. Outside of this pious employment, they were in continual prayer, in order to merit, through their groans and tears, the ruin of idolatry and the change of this great city, "which," as Saint Leo says, "had made it a religion to reject no superstition."

In one of these colloquies with God, Eugenia had a revelation that Basilla would soon be a martyr, and Basilla had a revelation that Eugenia would be one as well, which they communicated to each other immediately, so as not to deprive themselves of the greatest subject of joy they could have in this life.

Valerian Valérien Roman emperor under whom the martyrdom took place. and Gallienus were then emperors, and as their corrupt lives gave them a particular aversion to Christianity, which was their condemnation, they had issued very severe edicts to exterminate those who professed it (257). This led a servant of Basilla to believe that she would gain something by denouncing her mistress and accusing her of being a Christian; she therefore went to find Pompeius, her fiancé, and told him "that it was in vain that he expected to marry Basilla, if he did not promptly make himself her master. The Christians had already taken possession of her mind, and, since that time, she thought no longer of goods, nor of pleasures, nor of bodily adornments, nor of marriage; Helenus, her guardian, was in league with her, and it was for this reason that he had always deferred her marriage; Protus and Hyacinthus, eunuchs of Eugenia, had come to see her and had made her learned in the sorcery of this sect; finally, she had a very close connection with Eugenia, daughter of Philip, and they spared nothing, either of them, to attract all sorts of people to the religion of the Crucified".

Pompeius, learning this news, was extremely surprised; he first went to find Helenus, Basilla's guardian, to make his complaints to him and to summon him to let him see his fiancée. Helenus, to get rid of him, told him very wisely that the right of his guardianship was finished, Basilla having reached the age of majority. If Basilla consented to see him and to marry him, she was perfectly free to do so: that concerned her. Irritated by this answer, Pompeius ran to Basilla's house and ordered the porter to announce him. Basilla had him answered: "To see you, to listen to you, and to receive your visit, I would need a motive; I have none", implying that she found this request for a private interview with a young virgin, whom the very gaze of a man should not reach, to be highly improper.

We shall not attempt to describe the turmoil of young Pompeius before such an answer. He protests that justice will be rendered to him. But, before loudly asserting all his rights, he wishes to strike a final blow at Basilla's heart by sending her skillful matrons charged with shaking her resolution.

Basilla spoke to them in this manner:

"Between a wise person and a fool, there is this difference: the fool knows neither how to repel real evils nor how to seek true goods, whereas the wise person is always in quest of the good in order to arrive at the better. If receiving my mortal fiancé is good, choosing an immortal spouse is a better thing. All my happiness is to consecrate my virginity to Him. I have resolved it, and it is not the vain promises of the century that will shake my courage. The joys of time are nothing in my eyes; I compare them to those spring flowers which, barely bloomed, wither and fall. Therefore, let those among you who love wisdom lend an ear to the words of my mouth; let them pursue not only what is good, but what is better, and, in a generous disdain for perishable things, let them aspire only to the eternal ones. Let us not lean on man; let us trust in God, who sent His glorious only Son from heaven to earth, to teach us to love Him, to render Him love for love. There is life, and what the world calls death is the happy passage to true life. You are not unaware of who it is that I love: it is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, glorious mother who remained a virgin! He descended as God into her womb to become man there, and, barely born, behold Him adored as a king. If He served as a disciple, He taught as a master. If He was tempted as a weakling, He conquered as the Almighty. He was sold as a slave, but He reconquered His freedom as sovereign Lord. He was looked upon as a prophet, and He was the Christ! He suffered as a criminal; He died as a man, but He resurrected Himself as God. And, to strengthen faith in His divinity, He ascended to heaven in the presence of many witnesses. And those who saw Him ascend, confirming their testimony by works, restored sight to the blind, health to the sick, cast out demons, healed lepers, and raised the dead. These are the great things divinely accomplished in favor of man; this is the price that God attaches to our souls and with what love He has loved them!"

These words of Basilla inflamed with love for Jesus Christ all these matrons, who had come to her with a completely different design. They no longer wanted to leave Basilla, and none of them consented to carry the answer to Pompeius.

Desperate at this silence, he went to the Senate, where he made great complaints: firstly, against all the Christians who despised the gods of the empire, and were putting it, he said, on the eve of its ruin, by preventing marriages and the honest generation of children, without which armies, cities, or republics cannot subsist; then, he directed his complaints against Basilla, who, having been promised to him since her childhood, refused to marry him, after he had waited so long for her to come of age, and had rejected in the interval other very considerable matches that had presented themselves. The Senate was moved by his prayers and tears, and a portion of the senators joined him to go and find the Emperor Gallienus and ask him for justice. The E l'empereur Gallien Roman emperor associated with the reign of Valerian. mperor, who was already full of hatred against the Christians, had no difficulty in granting them what they asked. He condemned Basilla to accept her fiancé or to perish by the sword. He added very severe penalties against anyone who would harbor a Christian in their house.

As a consequence of this decree, Basilla was told to choose between the hand of her fiancé and death. She did not hesitate; she replied: "I have a fiancé, who is the King of kings, Jesus Christ, Son of God. I cannot prefer a mortal fiancé to Him, for the pleasure of an earthly king. What is terrible is to fall into the hands of the true King, of the living God!" After these words, she was seized by the executioner, who, by cutting off her head, allowed her soul to fly, all pure, into the bosom of Jesus Christ, whom she had preferred to all the things of the world.