DAMARIS (DAMARIDE, Δάμαρις, variant Δάμαλις). - A woman converted by the preaching of St Paul in Athens (Acts 17:34).
Δάμαρις, as a woman’s name, is not found outside the New Testament; it does, however, appear in Latin inscriptions as Damalis (Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, Onomasticon, III, Leipzig 1918, p. 23), which corresponds to Δάμαλις. As a common noun, this means “young woman.” The presence of D. at the Areopagus meeting has led some to suppose that she was a woman of questionable conduct, since, unlike the Macedonian custom, the Athenian one excluded honourable women from such public assemblies. Yet the rigour of this rule had been considerably softened under the influence of Hellenistic culture.
On the other hand, if we take the text of Acts strictly, it is not stated that D. was converted as a result of Paul’s discourse at the Areopagus. If, as seems likely, Acts 17:34 refers to Paul’s entire stay in Athens (Acts 17:16–34) as the context for the outcome of his preaching there, D. might instead have belonged to the “God-fearers” whom the Apostle met in the synagogue (17:17), or, in any case, have heard him elsewhere than at the Areopagus. There is no foundation for the view that she was the wife of Dionysius, as Chrysostom supposed (De sacerdotio, IV, 7: PG 48, 669). The wording of Acts gives no hint of any connection between the two.
The Greeks commemorate her on 4 October.
Teodoric of Castel San Pietro