Church History 8.12.3
Summary: A noble Christian woman of Antioch and her two virgin daughters, arrested and threatened with forced prostitution, resolved to escape by death rather than be defiled or deny God.
Greek text · Dindorf 4:366
καί τις ἱερὰ καὶ θαυμασία τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετὴν, τὸ δὲ σῶμα γυνὴ, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τῶν ἐπʼ Ἀντιοχείας πλούτω καὶ γένει καὶ εὐδοξίᾳ παρὰ πᾶσι βεβοημένη, παίδων ξυνωρίδα παρθένων, τῇ τοῦ σώματος ὥρᾳ καὶ ἀκμῇ διαπρεπουσῶν, θεσμοῖς εὐσεβείας ἀναθρεψαμένη, ἐπειδὴ πολὺς ὁ περὶ αὐτὰς κινούμενος φθόνος πάντα τρόπον ἀνιχνεύων λανθανούσας περιειργάζετο, εἶτα ἐπʼ ἀλλοδαπῆς αὐτὰς διατρίβειν μαθὼν πεφροντισμένως ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀντιόχειαν ἐκάλει, δικτύων δὲ ἤδη στρατιωτικῶν εἴσω περιβέβληντο, ἐν ἀμηχάνοις ἑαυτήν τε καὶ τὰς παῖδας θεασαμένη, καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων δεινὰ τῷ λόγῳ παραθεῖσα, τό τε πάντων δεινῶν ἀφορητότερον, πορνείας ἀπειλὴν, μηδὲ ἄκροις ὠσὶν ὑπομεῖναι δεῖν ἀκοῦσαι, ἑαυτῇ τε καὶ ταῖς κόραις παρακελευσαμένη, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ προδοῦναι τὰς ψυχὰς τῇ τῶν δαιμόνων δουλείᾳ πάντων ὑπάρχειν θανάτων καὶ πάσης χεῖρον ἀπωλείας φήσασα, μίαν τούτων ἀπάντων εἶναι λύσιν ὑπετίθετο, τὴν ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον καταφυγήν·
English · Claude translation
And a certain holy woman, admirable in virtue of soul though a woman in body, and otherwise renowned above all at Antioch for wealth, family, and good reputation, had brought up in the precepts of piety her two daughters, virgins distinguished by the bloom and beauty of their bodies. Since great envy was stirred up against them, searching out in every way where they were hiding, and then, learning that they were staying in a foreign place, deliberately summoned them to Antioch, they were already caught in the soldiers' nets. Seeing herself and her daughters in desperate straits, and setting before them in words the terrible things to be expected from men, and the most unbearable of all terrors, the threat of prostitution, she urged herself and the girls that they must not endure even to hear of it with the tips of their ears; and saying that to surrender their souls to the slavery of demons was worse than all deaths and every destruction, she proposed that there was one release from all these things: flight to the Lord.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Prostitution” renders πορνεία, elsewhere “sexual immorality”; here it means the threat of being forced into a brothel. Eusebius presents their choice approvingly; the church later discussed whether such suicides were permissible.
Cite this passage
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.12.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/12/3/).
Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.12.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/12/3/).
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