ANASTASIA, saint, martyr. — This was a martyr venerated on 25 December, whose principal center of veneration was at Sirmium. The late Latin Passio, which is the original one, imagines, however, that A., having been widowed, set out from Rome to follow Chrysogonus, who had been imprisoned by order of Diocletian. After Chrysogonus was martyred, several other events of an entirely romantic character follow. These include the martyrdom of the saints Agape, Chione, and Irene, of the priest Zoilus, and of others (Theodota and her three sons). We know for certain that the patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius (458–71) had A.’s body brought from Sirmium and deposited it in the sanctuary he had dedicated ἐν τοῖς Δομνίνῳ ἐμβάλῳ (Theodore the Reader, II, 65; PG 86, 216; Synax. Constantinop., p. 336). Among the Greeks the saint bore the epithet φραμακαλότρια, perhaps in connection with miracles against poisoning. But the legendary writers also added an A. called “the Roman” or “the Virgin,” thereby complicating the already difficult hagiographical problem.
In the Roman basilica of S. A., the application of the cult of the martyr of Sirmium is merely the result of a later association with the name of the founder of the titular church. This basilica, situated at the foot of the Palatine, received donations from Pope Damasus (366–84; cf. De Rossi, Inscript., II, Rome 1861, p. 150) and therefore predates the cult of A.; it is only in the sixth century that the titulus sanctae Anastasiae is mentioned. Once Grisar’s hypothesis is rejected—that he had considered it a parallel to the Jerusalem sanctuary of the Anastasis—there remains the identification of the founder proposed with great acuity by Whitehead as a member of the Constantinian family.
The Basilica arose amid imposing imperial structures between the Palatine and the Circus Maximus. Among its classical and Christian constructions, no fewer than nine periods may be distinguished. Perhaps the Basilica originally had, according to Krautheimer, a single nave and was apparently of cruciform type. It was later transformed into a majestic three-naved basilica. — Vedi Tav. XCIV.