BERNICE (Veronica), Prosdocia and Domnina, Saints, Martyrs. - Their very peculiar martyrdom, which took place in Antioch, is attested by Eusebius of Caesarea and by St. John Chrysostom. D., very well known for her beauty and wealth, at the outbreak of the persecution flees from the city with her two daughters, B. and P., comely in gracefulness of form and in the flower of youth. Soldiers are dispatched to track down the fugitives, who, once caught, are brought back to Antioch. But when they reached a river, aware of the fate awaiting them, the mother urges her daughters to throw themselves into it to escape dishonor; having dressed themselves in festive attire and asked the soldiers to be allowed to step away for a moment, they plunged into it and were drowned. Such strength of spirit won the praise of Christian antiquity, as St. Augustine attests (De civitate Dei, I, 26). The Martyrologium Hieronymianum commemorates them on April 15, while the Greek Synaxaria commemorate them on October 4.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VIII, 12, 5; St. John Chrysostom, Homilia: PG 50, 620-40, 644; Martyrologium Hieronymianum, pp. 191-92; A. Wilmart, Le souvenir d'Eusèbe d'Emèse. Un discours en l'honneur des saintes d'Antioche B., P., et D., in Analecta Bollandiana, 38 (1920), pp. 253-84.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec2_bernice_veronica_prosdoce_e_do, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Bernice (Veronica), prôsdoce e domnina, sante, martiri}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1446--1447}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/bernice-veronica-prosdoce-e-domnina-sante-martiri} }

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Bernice (Veronica), Prosdocia and Domnina, Saints, Martyrs

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