408 ST. IRENE deny your Grod." They sang hymns to the end and their prison was their sepulchre. AA,8S. St. Irene (5), April 16, M. Contem- porary of S^. Paschal and Leonides. She was at prayers with some other Christians in an oratory in her own house in Greece, when she was seized and brought before the governor of the place. On being questioned, she declared that Christ was the true Gk)d, the Saviour of men and the destroyer of false gods. The governor having other important business on hand, did not at once con- demn her to death, but let her be beaten and thrown into prison until he should have time to attend to her. Some time afterwards she was again brought before him, and after having her tongue cut out and her teeth drawn, was beheaded. AA,8S,, from Basil's Menology. St. Irene (0). (See Agape (3).) St. Irene (7), May 5 ^Erina, Herena), V. M. Burnt witn SS. Ireneus and Peregrinus, at Thessa- lonica, under Diocletian. AA,SS. St. Irene (8), Jan. 22 (JErena, Herena, Serena, Syrena), + c. 300. Eepresentcd with a vase containing the blood of martyrs. Widow of Cas- tulus (March 26), who was zetarus^ that is, manager of the dining-rooms, in the palace of Diocletian. Irene received and befriended the persecuted saints, washed the wounds of St. Sebastian, and recovered him when he had been shot with arrows and left for dead. AA.SS. St. Irene (9), Feb. 21, Dec. 11 (Erena, Heira, Hirena), V., -f 370, a native of Home and sister of St. Damosus, Pope. She often used to pray all night in the catacombs. AA.SS, Smith and Wace. B, Irene (10), Salaphtha, St. Irene (li}, Oct. 20, V. M. (553 (Iria, Arem, Aren J. Patron of Santarem. Martyr of chastity. Eopresented as a nun enceinte, with a knife or dagger sticking in her throat. She lived in a Benedictine convent at Nabancia (now Thomar), with many holy nuns, two of whom were her aunts Costa and Justa. They all used to go onco a year to St. Peter*s church, near the residence of Castinaldo, the pious lord of Thomar. lie had a son, Britold, who on one of these oocasions saw Irene and fell ill for love of her. When his parents bad vainly tried every means to cure him or dis- cover the cause of his malady, the true state of the case was divinely revealed to Irene, who went and prayed for him and argued with him. Finding her obdurate to all his love-making, he said, ** If yon ever grant to another what yon have refused to me, I will certainly kill you ; and if after I have died for love of yon, you give yourself to any other man, a friend of mine will kill you for my sake.*' Irene answered, Neither for you, nor for any one else will I ever be false to my vow of virginity." With this com- fort, he had to be content. He recovered, and his grateful parents built a larger house for the nuns. Two years after this, Satan entered into .a monk named Bemigius, so that he entertained a sinful passion for Irene. After trying many devices to seduce her, he gave her a potion which caused her to swell as if she were with child. When Britald heard it, he sent a soldier to assassinate her and throw her into the river. The soldier found her praying, at a place since called Pego di Sa^t Iria, on the bank of the river Nabana, in the morning twilight after matins. He gagged her with some of her clothes, cut her throat, and threw her into the stream. Meantime her friends thought she must have eloped with some man, but her history was revealed to the abbot of a monastery far down the Tagus. Her body had floated down the Nabana into the Ozeohar or Zezere, and down that into the Tagus as far as Santarem. When the venerable abbot went with a numerous attendanoe to the bank of the stream, there was a tremendous flood in the river ; but when the waters subsided, the body of the saint was found on a little eminence whence it proved impossible to remove it; so they buried her there, and a church was soon raised over her, called Sant Iria, and the town which grew up there is called by her name corrupted into San- tarem, about thirty miles from Lisbon. Britald and Bemigius went to Bome and did penance. B.M. The legend is in AA.SS. and in Martin's Surius. See also Murray's Handbook of Portutja!.
