Passio SS. Florae et Lucillae
by Peter Damian
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/144/passio-ss-florae-et-lucillae/
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## PROLOGUE.

[1025A]

We have learned, on the Psalmist's testimony, that God is wonderful in his saints [n: (Psal. LXVII)], not only in this, that he works wonderful signs through them upon those who are sick, but also in this, that they themselves, recovering through him from the common weakness, were made strong in war. For the weakness of men longs to flee death, and most of all if it is to be inflicted with torments. But the holy martyrs, overcoming this weakness through the grace of God, not only endured the torments offered them, and through them poured out their life, but also of their own accord offered themselves to tyrants and executioners for the most savage punishments. Of such a kind of men I would say, with the best right, that by a divine gift they had exchanged their strength: since what is loved by nature they lay down with none compelling them, [1025B] and what is naturally shuddered at, they themselves willingly pursue. And indeed this strength of mind, however wonderful it is in men themselves, and worthy of the highest praise, is far more wonderful and more praiseworthy in the *501* female sex, which by the coldness of its nature is timid and soft; and as it is most unfit for wars, so it hates swords and arms, and shudders not only at the sight but even at the mention of blood. I have set these things first so that you may understand, dearest brothers, of what kind and how great are the virgins to whose feast you are gathering: in whom we ought to venerate not only their religion, nor their virginity only, but their martyrdom as well — and not any sort of martyrdom, but such a one as they themselves ran to of their own accord from distant regions, no differently than to the highest delights. In [1025C] which act of the highest fortitude they not only shone out, but also, by the example of their virginity, brought a king of the barbarians, not yet reborn in the water of baptism, to the same contest, to be undertaken with the same eagerness in a most holy emulation. And if we compare these virgins and the king with one another in an act of such great virtue, in sex indeed they surpass him by their devotion and their example; but they are surpassed by the king in this, that he, not yet regenerated in Christ, began his first service at so great a height of perfection that he became a martyr before he received the sacrament of the faith; and he who had not been washed with water was washed in his own blood. O truly a very great spectacle, [1026A] to behold him who had not been a Christian stretch out his neck for Christ; and him who had not yet been reborn in baptism be set before very many of the baptized by the palm of martyrdom! But let the history itself now speak to us; let it set before us the origin of these saints, the course of their life, and the glory of the contest they completed.

## CHAPTER ONE. *The devotion of these holy virgins, their captivity, and their freedom in captivity.*

That the city of Rome went before all cities in every kind of nobility, and was the head of the world, is manifest. For if you consider the time before the birth of Christ the Lord, you find the Romans masters of affairs; but if after, you see her made head of the world through the see of blessed Peter; [1026B] if you turn over in your mind the men who came forth in her, you will find them cautious in counsel, vigorous in arms, highest in fortitude, outstanding in justice, moderate in all things. The one thing that had been lacking before Christ — namely the devotion of faith — brought in through Peter, so ennobled the city which until then had surpassed the others in all else, that in this too she goes before the rest. For what would suffice to count how the native-born of this city have been renowned in Christian times in war and in peace? Their number indeed overcomes estimation, and overcomes belief as well. But among those who purchased the heavenly kingdom by their torments, these women assuredly, to whose feast *502* you are gathering, hold a special dignity. For putting on a manly spirit, born at Rome, they deserved to live most religiously at Rome, and at last at Rome to die [1026C] most steadfastly. The glorious virgins Flora and Lucilla, then, sisters, in the times — so far as can be understood, and as it is given us to know — of Antoninus surnamed Pius, when at Rome they burned in the divine sight with their holy manners, and outwardly, according to the propriety of their names, flowered and shone, chose the apostolic life, by which they might withdraw themselves from the love of earthly things, and offer up the sanctified vessels of their body by the sanctification of chastity; and they who had learned that the angels fell through pride, might prepare for themselves through humility an ascent to the heavens. When therefore by these and other good deeds they were pleasing to God and to men, the Lord willed [1027A] to test them through tribulations, as gold through fire, that he might make them more glorious in his sight. For when God had furnished the holy virgins with the virtue of fortitude, he did not will that they should lie hidden, but that they should go forth into the field of contest: so that they who had conquered the sufferings of their body and the temptations of the devil might overcome the world itself. Taking his beginning therefore from lighter things, by his holy counsel, in the way in which he draws good even out of evils, he permitted the holy women to be carried off from their own region, that they might both receive the merit of patience, and announce the name of Christ to foreign nations, and bring them to his worship.

Now there was in those times in the parts of Africa a barbarian king named Eugegius, who, hostile to the Roman regions and attempting to lay them waste, brought the holy virgins, among the rest of the captives, [1027B] God so willing, into his own region: and when he saw that they were outstanding in youth and beauty, he burned with love for them. And when he was taking care that women's finery should be furnished them with royal splendor, the virgin Flora, prudently perceiving what the barbarian intended, said to him: See what you do. For we have a most powerful bridegroom, who, stirred by injuries to us and to himself, will drive his fury against you. The barbarian rages on hearing this; and swollen with the vanity of pride, thinking that no one could be found who could exercise vengeance upon him, with troubled mind and arrogant voice he answered: And who is this bridegroom of yours, and of what power, that he can avenge his injuries or yours upon me? But Flora, the virgin of the Lord, in no way trembling, and setting a manly confidence into a woman's thought, said: We have as bridegroom God [1027C] and the Lord Jesus Christ, who founded heaven and earth out of nothing, and all things that are contained within the compass of heaven. Whom all things serve, to whom nothing can be difficult; to this Lord God we have pledged our very selves, him we serve with unstained heart and body. And how discordant it is, how impious, and how impossible, that this should be violated, should be defiled, should serve your lust — *503,* you may see. For it cannot persuade you that, if you set about violating the temple of God, which we are, you will go unpunished [n: (I Cor. III, VI)]; rather you ought to persuade yourself, more surely than surely, that you will straightway be destroyed by him whom you provoke in injuries done to us. Hearing this, the most unconquered king, marveling at so great a steadfastness in a woman, at her eloquence and her love of chastity, is struck with fear at the Lord's prompting; and changing into religion the impure [1027D] desire with which he had prepared violence for the virgins, he venerates the highest and true God in their hearts; and at once he ordered a private and adorned chamber to be prepared for them, to which no entrance should lie open to any of the men, but to maidens alone, whom he had appointed to the perpetual service of the holy women. He commanded these also not to withdraw from their service, but to serve them with the utmost reverence, [1028A] as handmaids of the God who dwells in the heavens.

The holy sisters therefore, seeing so great a providence of God concerning them, by which he had made a protector out of a robber and a defender of modesty out of a corrupter of it, and had changed a prince's court into a monastic cloister, marveled at the divine counsel and gave great thanks to the author of all good things, who had made them, even set in captivity, find so great favor with a foreign king; for whose safety and likewise perpetual salvation they frequently prayed to God, as was just, lest they should be marked with any stain of ingratitude. Meanwhile the king's mind is being formed toward the faith, and he so trusted in their holy prayers that, when about to set out for war, he most urgently [1028B] commended himself to them. And when he was bidden by them to be of good courage, or heard that he would return home safe, then, as though fortified by a heavenly oracle, conceiving a sure hope of victory, he went down into battle and always, at God's prompting, carried back the victory. By these most evident signs of their holiness the king, understanding that he was protected by God through their prayers and helped in all his doings, pursued the virgins with greater honor, and held them as mothers, judging himself blessed, and his kingdom too, which was protected by the merits of the handmaids of Christ and made firm by their prayers.



## CHAPTER II. *The virgins' deliverance from captivity, their return to Rome, and their martyrdom together with the man who carried them off.*

[1028C]While the holy virgins, then, were living religiously and holily in the African region under king Eugegius, and the king was pursuing them with unbroken services and kindnesses, the twentieth year was already passing since they had been taken captive from their own city. After this space of time, the Lord Jesus, willing to draw his most faithful brides *504* out of the toilsome contest of the present world, and to lead them into the heavenly bridal chamber itself, and knowing them to be most ready to undergo martyrdom, did not will that they should be adorned with domestic triumphs only, but that they should go forth into the field, and, the contest being increased, end a glorious life by the triumph of a glorious martyrdom. For not in vain does our king gird his soldiers with the strongest arms — which he would surely then be doing, if he strengthened any for martyrdom and did not set the contest [1028D] before them, and allowed them to yield to nature in peace.

Their bridegroom therefore appears to them in a vision under the silence of the dead of night, and addresses them with these words: Beloved brides, make no further delay in these regions, but arise and return to your own country, where you must be consummated through martyrdom. Hearing this, the virgins, rejoicing with great joy for so great a message and benefit, gave the highest thanks [1029A] to Christ their bridegroom, and in the morning told their prince of it, asking that it might be permitted them to return to their country, according to the oracle made to them, to obtain the palm of martyrdom. Then indeed the king, hearing this and weighing that it was at once impious and impossible to resist the divine commands, and considering with deep reflection that up to then he had by the presence of the virgins been not merely preserved in matters of war but increased, and through them made glorious in all things, fearing destruction for himself and for his life through their absence, determined to give himself as a companion for their journey, and said to them: Since you must depart, and it is not whole and sound for me to linger in these regions after your going, if you permit it, I too will come with you. And when they assented and desired that this be done, [1029B] and asserted besides that he himself would most surely be joined to the Christian flock, then, as though moved by a divine answer, having left kingdom, sons, and wife, he is made the companion of the handmaids of Christ; and he who had once carried the virgins off from their own regions in barbarian fury, was leading them back like a most loving father. If you compare the one with the other, you behold the changing of the divine right hand. For there you find Eugegius a most ferocious wolf, here a most gentle lamb. Then he sought to seize what was another's, to corrupt virginity, to kill the innocent; but now he counts his own goods as nothing, defends chastity, desires to die for Christ, and of his own accord hastens from far-off regions to lay down his life for Christ. Let the gentiles and unbelievers marvel at these things; let those marvel who do not know that God is wonderful [1029C] in his saints [n: (Psal. LXVII)], as we said before. For we ought not to marvel at such things, but to love them, knowing that all things are possible to those who believe.

While M. Antonius Verus and Commodus Aurelius, therefore, were ruling at Rome — namely in the year of the Lord one hundred and eightieth or thereabouts — the holy virgins Flora and Lucilla, sisters, entering the city of Rome with king Eugegius to undertake martyrdom for Christ, find, *505* by the doing of the prefect of the city, Helius by name, the fury of the gentiles raging against the worshippers of Christ. Fearing him not at all, they showed themselves openly, and being seized by his officers, are presented to Helius the prefect of the city. Questioned by him about the Christian worship, they declare themselves Christians without hesitation, adding that after a captivity of twenty years they had returned to Rome [1029D] by Christ's command for martyrdom. To whom Helius asserts and presses that the emperors' decree is this: that Christians sacrifice to the gods, or be put to death by grievous punishments. To this the virgins answered that they were ready to lay down their own life for the living and true God, for which they had come by divine revelation from far-off regions of the world. Then the impious Helius, seeing that they could not be moved from their holy purpose, ordered them to be condemned to a happy shedding of blood. And in accordance with his command, with Eugegius standing by and [1030A] marveling at their steadfastness, they were struck in the head by the lictors and obtained the crown of martyrdom.

After their departure, king Eugegius, seeing that Flora and Lucilla, his mothers and mistresses, had been crowned through so great a steadfastness and had left him surviving them, burning with love of the martyrdom whose examples had already gone before in the female sex, offered himself unbidden to the prefect, saying: Put me away along with them, since both are my mistresses, and after their departure I refuse to live. And being asked who he was, he declares his name and his country, and makes known the whole history of the virgins and his own, adding that he sought death for the name of Jesus Christ. Helius drew back and called into doubt that this man, who was not a Christian, should wish to die for Christ. To whom king Eugegius said: [1030B] The pouring out of my blood will make me a worshipper of Christ, who will not hold me a stranger to his grace. After which confession of faith the venerable man is beheaded at the prefect's command. Thus the glorious virgins Flora and Lucilla, with king Eugegius, by the severing of the head and by death won immortality on the fourth day before the Kalends of August; and angelic spirits led them to the bridal chamber of the highest Bridegroom, whom while they lived, and in death, they followed with the whole affection and love of their mind, for whom they most gladly despised riches, pleasures, honors, and life itself, than which nothing is dearer to a man. Resting in him and blessed, in exchange for voluntary poverty they won inestimable and true riches; for temporal fastings, eternal feasts; for the contempt of a most foul itch, honor and perpetual [1030C] delights; for the ridiculous and childish things of this life, true, solid, and everlasting honors; and for a momentary and fragile life, they earned a perpetual one.



## CHAPTER III. *The burial and translation of the holy bodies.*

Their bodies were gathered by the faithful and buried with Christian devotion in the suburb of the city of Ostia, where they rested for *506* seven hundred years and more, that is, until the year of the Lord nine hundred and one. At which time the religious father John, bishop of Arezzo, chancellor of the palace, sought and received the holy bodies of Saints Flora and Lucilla and of king Eugegius from Benedict III, Roman pontiff of that name. And taking religious care that they be carried by his own household [1030D] toward Arezzo, he himself returned by another way, lest he suffer any hindrance from the Romans. But since God willed to spread abroad the names and merits of the virgins for his own glory and theirs, it happened on a certain day that the bishop's household with the holy bodies lodged between a lake, Disortium by name, and the marsh of Arezzo. And the dwellers of the place, and chiefly its lords, recognizing the holy [1031A] relics from the reverence of the place and the religion of the household, obtained by God's prompting a certain particle of them. And in order that, according to the apostolic admonitions, they might be grateful for such great benefits of God, they founded a basilica in honor of God and of blessed Mary and of Saints Flora and Lucilla, and had it dedicated by their holy relics. They ordered also that the name of their town and of their lordship be named from the name of Saint Flora, whereas before the town was called Amia, and they themselves were called the counts of Amiata.

Departing therefore from the town of Saint Flora and from its religious counts, they were pursuing the journey they had begun, and were already drawing near to the plain of Arezzo, when behold, by God's counsel, the beast of burden that was carrying the holy bodies would allow itself to be led no further by any urgings or blows. The attendants were astonished, and looking to one another [1031B] and not knowing what the martyrs meant by this, do not fail to make known to the bishop, who had already reached Arezzo, what had befallen them. Then the devout prelate, having received the message and accompanied by a very great multitude of clergy and people, went out to meet the saints, and, holy prayers having been sent up first and sprinkled with tears, tried by himself to move that beast. And when he too could not, taking counsel with his men, they let the beast go, he knowing for certain that that place had been chosen by the saints to which of its own [1032A] accord the pack animal should hasten. And this being done, the brute animal, led by the angels of God and by the holy martyrs, as though breaking out from a prison, climbed at a most swift course the mountain which was then called Titanus, and halted in the very place appointed for the saints from heaven, which is distant from the city of Arezzo by nearly two miles. There, by the brief devotion of the faithful, a basilica was made, and a monastery of monks, which by the holiness of those dwelling in it and by the intercession of the virgins grew up wonderfully for many years with frequent and great miracles. Because of the renown of this monastery and the devotion to the holy women, a castle was founded there, and from Saint Flora — as also the whole mountain itself — it received the name by which it flourished for very many years.

*But the monastery in the year of the Lord one thousand [1032B] one hundred and ninety-three was destroyed through the Guelf and Ghibelline factions of the men of Arezzo. And this* *507* *desolation being accomplished, it was translated with the holy relics into the city of Arezzo, where to this day the holy virgins are venerated with great reverence of the people. But the castle afterward, in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and ninety-six, was destroyed on account of the same factions, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.*
