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PELAGIA, ST

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 62 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PELAGIA, ST . An Antiochene See also:saint of this name, a virgin of fifteen years, who See also:chose See also:death by a leap from the housetop rather than dishonour, is mentioned by See also:Ambrose (De virg. iii. 7, 33; Ep. See also:xxxvii. ad Simplic.), and is the subject of two sermons by See also:Chrysostom. Her festival was celebrated on the 8th of See also:October (See also:Wright's See also:Syriac See also:Martyrology). In the See also:Greek synaxariathe same See also:day is assigned to two other See also:saints of the name of Pelagia—one, also of See also:Antioch, and sometimes called Margarito and also " the. sinner "; the other, known as Pelagia of See also:Tarsus, in See also:Cilicia. The See also:legend of the former of these two is famous. She was a celebrated dancer and courtesan, who, in the full See also:flower of her beauty and guilty See also:sovereignty over the youth of Antioch, was suddenly converted by the See also:influence of the See also:holy See also:bishop See also:Nonnus, whom she had heard See also:preaching in front of a See also:church which she was passing with her See also:gay See also:train of attendants and admirers. Seeking out Nonnus, she overcame his canonical scruples by her tears of genuine penitence, was baptized, and, disguising herself in the garb of a male penitent, retired to a grotto on the See also:Mount of See also:Olives, where she died after three years of strict See also:penance. This See also:story seems to combine with the name of the older Pelagia some traits from an actual See also:history referred to by Chrysostom (See also:Horn. in Matth. lxvii. 3). In associating St Pelagia with St Marina, St See also:Margaret (q.v.), and others, of whom either the name or the legend recalls Pelagia, See also:Hermann Usener has endeavoured to show by a See also:series of subtle deductions that this saint is only a See also:Christian See also:travesty of See also:Aphrodite. But there is no doubt of the existence of the first Pelagia of Antioch, the Pelagia of Ambrose and Chrysostom.

The legends which have subsequently become connected with her name are the result of a very See also:

common development in See also:literary history. See Acta sanctorum, October, iv. 248 seq. ; H. Usener. Legenden der heiligen Pelagia (See also:Bonn, 1879) ; H. Delehaye, The Legends of the Saints (See also:London, 1907), pp. 197-205. (H.

End of Article: PELAGIA, ST

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