Matrona of Perge (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Ματρώνα) of the 6th century was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

female

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

known for temporarily

cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...

as the monk ''Babylos'' to avoid her husband after she decided to live following the sentence in

chapter 7 Chapter Seven refers to a seventh Chapter (books), chapter in a book. Chapter Seven, Chapter 7, or Chapter VII may also refer to: Albums * Chapter Seven (album), ''Chapter Seven'' (album), a 2013 album by Damien Leith. * Chapter VII (album), ''Ch ...

, verse 29 of the

First Epistle to the Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church i ...

, "those who have wives ustbe iveas if they had none".

Life

Matrona was born in Perge about 430. Pious and charitable, she was married to Domitianus. They had one daughter. She persuaded Domitianus to move to Constantinople, where she would visit the churches. When she would attend night vigils, her jealous and suspicious husband accused her being a prostitute. Wishing to lead an ascetic life, she abandoned her home and stayed with an acquaintance, Susanna, to whom she entrusted her daughter. Afraid her husband would find her, she cut her hair, dressed in men's clothes, and presented herself at the monastery of St. Bassianus as a

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

named ''Babylos''. The monks received her and she became a member of the community, and was set to work in the garden. After about three years, Bassianus realized the ruse and Matrona returned temporarily to Susanna. But as her husband continued to search for her Bassianus suggested that she go to a woman's monastery in Emesa, where she eventually became abbess. She became famous for her miraculous gift of healing. Her husband subsequently found her and followed her to Jerusalem, Syria, and Beirut, where she lived as an ascetic in an ancient pagan temple. When Bassianus learned of this he decided to establish a small monastery for Matrona and others not far from his own. The nuns under the leadership of Matrona were granted a unique privilege by Bassianus, "He did not give her woolen girdles and veils such as women were accustomed to wear, but men's wide black leather belts and men's white mantles. And these they wore continuously". She is known for opposing the

Monophysite Monophysitism ( ) or monophysism ( ; from Greek , "solitary" and , "nature") is a Christological doctrine that states that there was only one nature—the divine—in the person of Jesus Christ, who was the incarnated Word. It is rejected as ...

policy of the emperor

Anastasios I Anastasius I Dicorus (; – 9 July 518) was Roman emperor from 491 to 518. A career civil servant, he came to the throne at the age of 61 after being chosen by Ariadne, the wife of his predecessor, Zeno. His reign was characterized by refor ...

. St Matrona died at the age of 100. Her life was told through a ''vita prima'' whose author and exact time period remains a mystery.vita prima, Medieval Sourcebook
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Hippolyte Delehaye Hippolyte Delehaye, S.J., (19 August 1859 – 1 April 1941) was a Belgian Jesuit who was a hagiographical scholar and an outstanding member of the Society of Bollandists. Biography Born in 1859 in Antwerp, Delehaye joined the Society of Jesu ...

thought the text to be of dubious value.

References

{{reflist 6th-century Christian saints 6th-century women Byzantine female saints Anatolian Greeks Ancient Christian female saints Cross-dressing saints Anatolian Greek women