MAMA, Saint, Martyr. - Much venerated in the ancient Christian East and commemorated in the Hieronymian Martyrology on 17 August and in the Greek Synaxaria on 2 September. His body rested at Caesarea in Cappadocia, and over his tomb, toward the middle of the 4th century, the brothers Gallus and Julian the Apostate, then exiled to Macellum, erected a basilica (Sozomen, Hist. eccl., V, 2). His feast was celebrated with a great concourse of people.

From the discourses delivered in his honor by St. Basil and by St. Gregory Nazianzen it can be gathered only that he was a shepherd and that he died during the reign of Aurelian. The Passio, written toward the end of the 4th century by three self-styled bishops, is highly legendary. According to it, M. was educated by the bishop of Caesarea, Tamasius; at the age of 12 he withdrew into a cave where he lived together with wild beasts. Captured by soldiers and brought before the tribunal of the governor Alexander, after various torments he was shut up in prison and left for a month without food. Finally he was brought into the amphitheater to be exposed to the beasts, but he died without their having touched him.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Tillemont, IV, pp. 338-62; Acta SS. Augusti, III, Paris 1867, pp. 423-46; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 447; H. Delchaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, Brussels 1933, p. 174 ff.; id., Passio sancti Mamatis, in Anal. Boll., 58 (1940), pp. 126-141; Martyr. Romanum, p. 344.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec7_mama_santo_martire, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Mama, santo, martire}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1934}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mama-santo-martire} }

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Mama, Saint, Martyr

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