Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/223

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ST. SALOME 211 working hard to support her infirm grandmother. One day there was a tnmnlt in the town, and Salaphtha found the Bishop, St. Porphyry and one of his disciples hiding from the violence of the rioters, on the roof of her house. Al- though she was not a Christian, she knew Porphyry to be a holy man, and throw- ing herself at his feet, asked his blessing. The fugitiyes requested her to bring them a mat and let them remain concealed on the roof until the city was quiet again. She did so and brought them also a share of her humble food, which consisted of bread, cheese, olives, and cooked vege- tables, begging them not to despise her poverty. They accepted her hospitality and in return instructed her in the Christian religion. When the insurrec- tion was over and the bishop had re- turned to his church, Salaphtha brought her aunt to him and he baptized them both. He explained to Salaphtha that although a Christian, she was at liberty to marry and might serve God in the world. She wept and said, *' If 1 can be the spouse of the King of glory, why should I leave Him and marry a poor mean man?" When her grandmother died, the bishop gave Salaphtha the regular habit, commended her to the care of a deaconess, named Manaris, with whom she lived an austere and saintly life and was a pattern to many. Henschenius considers it uncertain whether she should be included among the saints, but gives the foregoing ac- count of her from an old Oreek Life of St. Porphyry, bishop of Graza, by his disciple Mark. AA.SS. St. Salbina,probablySABiNA. AA,SS. St. Salfa, Falsa or Salsa, May 20, M. in Africa. AA.SS. St. Salla, or Sallop, July 9, V. Abbess. Stadler. St. Salla Rua, Scallerva or Scal- LERiA, March 13, M. with others at Nicomedia. AA.S8. St. Sallustia, Salustia. St Salome (l) or Solomonla, Aug. 1, Oct. 24, M. B.C. 167, mother of the Maccabees, seven brothers who were carried captives from Jerusalem to An- tioch by Antiochus Epiphanes. Salome courageously witnessed the tortures and death of her sons and then shared their martyrdom. After the death of six of them, she was exhorted by the persecu- tors, under Antiochus, to save the life of her youngest and only remaining son, by persuading him to eat swine's flesh, in token- of submission to the heathen con- queror ; but she bade him not grieve and shame her by cowardice and apos- tasy. The history of the persecution is in the Boohs of the Maccabees. These martyrs, with the old priest Eleazar who was put to death on the same occasion, were the first pre-Christian saint6 honoured with a regular worship by Christians, and although other Old Testament saints are mentioned in Chris- tian calendars — chiefly those of the Eastern Church — the Maccabees alone are honoured with an oflice or com- memoration in the Breviary. Their relics were deposited in the great church of St. Peter ad vincula in Rome, and their festival is that of its dedication. E.Jif. AA,8S, Baillet. Men. Basil. Butler. In the GrsBCO-Slavonian Calen- dar this Saint is called '* St. Salomonia, wife of Eleazar.*' Her name is not in the Books of the Maccabees nor in the B.M. Martinov. St. Salome (2) called in the B.M. Maby Salome, Oct. 22. 1st century. Wife of Zebedee. Mother of St. James the Greater, and of St. John the Evange- list. She is said by the Greeks to be the daughter of St Joseph, but there is no authority for this. A legend of St. Anna (3) makes Salome her daughter by her third husband. Salome was a native of Galilee. Her husband and sons were fishermen of the lake of Gen- nesaret. It appears that when her sons left their nets to follow Christ, Salome followed Him also. She prayed Him to grant that they might sit next to Him in His kingdom. He replied that that honour was not His to give, but granted that they should share His sufferings. St. Matt. XX.) She ishonoured separately, ci 22, and on various days, conjointly with the holy women who ministered to our Lord, witnessed His death, and made preparations to embalm Him. (St. Matt, xxvii. 56. St. Mark xv. 40). A ground- less tradition says that she migrated to o