Sophia Of Milan

Saints Faith, Hope and Charity ( la, Fides, Spes et Caritas), are a group of Christian martyred saints, venerated together with their mother, Sophia ("Wisdom").

Although earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology commemorated Saints Faith, Hope and Charity on 1 August and their mother Sophia on 30 September, the present text of this official but professedly incomplete catalogue of saints of the Roman Catholic Church has no feast dedicated to the three saints or their mother: the only Sophia included is an early Christian virgin martyr of Picenum in Italy, commemorated with her companion Vissia on 12 April; another early Christian martyr, Saint Faith (Fides), of Aquitania (southern France), is celebrated on 6 October, a Saint Hope (Spes), an abbot of Nursia who died in about 517, is commemorated on 23 May, and saint Charity (Caritas) is included, although saints with somewhat similar names, Carissa and Carissima, are given, respectively under 16 April and 7 September. Their feast day of August 1 was not entered in the General Roman Calendar, and they have since been removed from the Roman Martyrology.

References of the time of Gregory the Great suggest two groups of martyrs, mother and daughters, one buried on the Aurelian Way and the other on the Via Appia.
According to the ''Passio'', Sophia was a widow of Milan who gave away her possessions and moved to Rome with her daughters. Her daughters were martyred before her and she buried them at Via Appia. She died a natural death three days later while praying at the grave of her daughters.
The oldest version of the ''Passio'' is BHL 2966. Caesar Baronius introduced the saints to the Roman Martyrology in the late 16th century.

Their tomb in a crypt beneath the church afterwards erected to Saint Pancratius was long a place of resort for pilgrims, as detailed in various documents of the seventh century, such as an Itinerarium (or guide to the holy places of Rome compiled for the use of pilgrims) still preserved at Salzburg, the list, preserved in the cathedral archives of Monza, of the oils gathered from the tombs of the martyrs and sent to Queen Theodelinda in the time of Gregory the Great, etc.

Saxer (2000) notes that early Christians from the 4th century indeed often took in baptism mystical names indicative of Christian virtues, and Sophia, Sapientia, Fides are attested as names of Christian women in Catacomb inscriptions. The veneration of the three saints named for the three theological virtues probably arose in the 6th century based on such inscriptions. Critical scholarship is unanimous in assuming that the hagiographical tradition is spurious, likely inspired by Latin inscriptions referring to the theological either to concepts of Holy Wisdom, Faith, Hope and Charity.Sauser (2000), citing B. Kötting in ''Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche'' vol. 4, 120f. Her veneration is first recorded in the late 6th century, her being mentioned in the inventory of holy chrisms collected on behalf of Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards.V. Saxer, "Sophia v. Rom" in: ''Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche'' vol. 9 (1993)
733f.
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The veneration of Sophia of Milan became indistinguishable from that of Sophia of Rome in the medieval period. Relics either of her or of Sophia of Rome were transferred to the women's convent at Eschau in Alsace in 778 from where her cult spread to Germany. She is the patron saint of widows. A 14th-century fresco of the saints is in St. Agnes chapel in Cologne Cathedral.

References

* Migne, P.G. CXV, 497; Mombritius, ''Vitae Sanctorum'', II, 204
*

See also

*St Trophimus' Church, Eschau, where their relics are venerated
*St Faith of Aquitaine
*Holy Wisdom

External links

*

Martyr Sophia and her three daughters at Rome
Orthodox synaxarion (OCA)

Saint Sophia
( Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faith, Hope And Charity
Christian child saints
2nd-century births
2nd-century deaths
2nd-century Christian martyrs
2nd-century Christian saints
Ante-Nicene Christian female saints
Groups of Christian martyrs of the Roman era
Groups of Roman Catholic saints
Groups of Eastern Orthodox saints
Saints trios
Consecrated virgins