Domnina, Berenice, And Prosdoce

Saint Domnina and her daughters Berenice (Bernice, Veronica, Verine, Vernike) and Prosdoce are venerated as Christian martyrs by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. In 303, the emperors Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding Christians' legal rights and demanding that they comply with traditional religious practices.

In the winter of 302, Galerius urged Diocletian to begin a general persecution of the Christians. Diocletian was wary, and asked the oracle of Apollo at Didyma for guidance. The oracle's reply was read as an endorsement of Galerius's position, and a general persecution was called on February 23, 303.

The persecution failed to check the rise of the Church. By 324, Constantine was sole ruler of the empire, and Christianity had become his favored religion. Although the persecution resulted in death, torture, imprisonment, or dislocation for many Christians, the majority of the empire's Christians avoided punishment. The persecution did, however, cause many churches to split between those who had complied with imperial authority (the traditores), and those who had remained "pure".

Thanks to Christ’s Resurrection, now even women disdain death. Before Christ, death was dreadful even for holy men like Abraham, Jacob, and Elijah. Death was fearful, in order that the grace of the era of Christ might become clearer. In the New Testament, Paul refers to death as the preferable condition, because it leads to a better life.

A great war is started against the Church, resembling a civil war. Christians are attacked by the authorities and people of their own country, and by their own relatives. During that time, these women abandon their house and relatives, and leave their country – a distressful journey for a mother and her daughters, who had had no previous experience of such hardships. Although devoid of guards and protectors, the honour of these women is protected by their faith in Christ.

They fly to Edessa, a rural but pious town, which receives and protects them for some time. While they live there, new decrees arrive, commanding that relatives betray their own relatives, children and parents, thus fulfilling a prophecy of Christ (Mark 13:12). The devil incites people to filicide. Thus the husband and father of the martyrs arrives at Edessa with soldiers, looking for his wife and daughters.

The three women give themselves up peacefully. They are taken to Hierapolis, where they drown themselves in a river, while the soldiers have their meal. Some people say that their husband/father helped them. Their drowning was a new baptism, i.e. martyrdom, and this kind of baptism can be administered even by women. Thus their mother became a priestess, baptising her daughters in martyrdom, and offering them as a sacrifice to God. She suffered a triple martyrdom – her own and of her two daughters.

The woman did not go to the court, because of her great eagerness to earn the wreath of her victory, even before the contest started. She was not afraid of torments, but was afraid about the virginity of her daughters. Her suffering was greater than any martyrdom, because she found herself compelled to assist in the death of her own daughters. The girls themselves are also admirable, because they did not resist. They left their shoes by the river, thus providing for the soldiers who could present them as a proof to the judge, and escape charges of treason. The author invites his audience to embrace the coffins (thekai) of the martyrs with fervour, because their bones have great power. Their veneration should not be confined to their feast-day.

According to Eusebius, Domnina was a Christian noblewoman from Antioch who had two young daughters. According to one account, Domnina and her daughters settled at Edessa, Mesopotamia. Her husband was a pagan.

Domnina was arrested by soldiers for her adherence to the Christian religion. Fearing that the soldiers would rape her and her daughters, they threw themselves into a river after they asked their guards for a chance to rest for a while or after the soldiers had become drunk with wine. All three women drowned.

The account of St. John Chrysostom tells a slightly different story: according to Chrysostom, Domnina, after jumping into the river, pulled her daughters in with her to prevent them from being raped. Chrysostom praised Domnina for her courage and Domnina's daughters for their obedience.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Domnina, Berenice, And Prosdoce
Syrian Christian saints
4th-century Christian martyrs
310 deaths
Groups of Christian martyrs of the Roman era
Year of birth unknown
Ante-Nicene Christian female saints
4th-century Roman women