Dorothea
Saint Dorothea is a single name for two separate
4th century virgin martyrs, one in
Caesarea Mazaca in modern
Turkey, the other in
Alexandria, Egypt. Both have very sparse documentary evidence for their
acta.
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Saint Dorothea of Caesarea bearing a basket of roses to be given to the mocking Theophilus. |
The more famous of the two was
Dorothea of Caesarea, who died
circa 311. She was a martyr of the Roman emperor
Diocletian's persecutions, although her death occurred after his reign, whose legend features in a number of retellings. According to the
hagiographer Alban Butler, for example, Dorothea's parents were martyred before her by Diocletian, and a
Roman governor, Sapiricius, called her to an audience and demanded that she take a husband. When she refused, he had her put upon the
rack and given a choice of a husband, if she would sacrifice to the
gods, or death, if she refused. She claimed that she had a husband in
Jesus Christ and desired death. Sapiricius then put her in a cell with two women who had abandoned
Christianity, hoping that they would convince her, but, instead, she brought them back to religious faith. When she was again put on the rack, she smiled and said that she was truly blessed, for she had saved two lost souls and would be assured of paradise. She was sentenced to death, after further
tribulation. Her martyrdom occurred in
February, and as she was being led to her beheading, a man named Theophilus mocked her, asking her to send him apples or roses from her husband's garden. Upon her binding for decapitation, Dorothea saw a young girl with a basket of roses and apples and asked her to take them to Theophilus as a gift. The child was an
angel, and when Theophilus saw her bringing him roses and apples after Dorothea's martyrdom, he converted to Christianity and was later martyred himself.
Dorothea of Caesarea's life and martyrdom was the basis of
Philip Massinger and
Thomas Dekker's
The Virgin-Martyr (printed
1622). She is the patron saint of
horticulture.
The other Dorothea is
Dorothea of Alexandria, who was courted by the Emperor
Maximinus. She rejected his suit in favor of her own faith and her commitment to virginity, and he had her beheaded circa
320.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy is a
convent of active nuns, occupied primarily with teaching and the cultivation of flowers and produce. The order is named for Dorothea of Caesarea. Their most famous member is
Lucia dos Santos, the oldest of the three
Fatima visionaries.
*
Sainte-Dorothée, Quebec, a borough in
Laval, Quebec,
Canada*Butler, Alban.
The Lives of the Saints. Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, 1995. (Originally published 1878.)
Nihil obstat and
Imprimatur 1955.
*Englebert, Omer.
The Lives of the Saints. Christopher and Anne Fremantle, trans. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1994.
Nihil obstat and
Imprimatur 1951.
*Harvey, Sir Paul, ed.
The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.
