06 Works, Today, March 22nd, is Saint Drosis' Day, With Footnotes - #80

Martyr Drosis

St. Drosis, the daughter of the Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD). In 99 AD Trajan revived a decree prohibiting secret gatherings which was in truth a ruse to prohibit Christian rituals. 

Eugène Delacroix, (1798–1863)

The Justice of Trajan, c. 1840

Oil on canvas

Height: 495 cm (16.2 ft); Width: 396 cm (12.9 ft)

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen 

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.

As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish author Walter Scott and the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.

However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible." MoreFerdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix

Many Christians were martyred for disobeying this law. As a visible deterrent for other Christians these martyrs were kept unburied. Five nuns, Aglaida, Apolliniaria, Daria, Mamthusa and Thais, assumed the task of burying these holy persons. They secretly gathered their bodies, anointed them with spices, wrapped them in shrouds, and buried them in their nunnery. When Drosis learned about the nuns she secretly left the palace to assist them in collecting the martyred Christians.

Martyr Drosis of Antioch, and five virgins: Agalida, Apollinaria, Daria, Mamthusa and Taisia

Adrian, one of Trajan’s advisors, was engaged to Drosis. In order to advance himself Adrian obtained Trajan’s permission to set guard over those who had been killed and arrest anyone who tried to bury them. St. Drosis and the five nuns were eventually apprehended.

Trajan sentenced the five nuns to death by throwing them into a furnace used for preparing copper fixtures for a public bath project. Trajan excluded his daughter from this punishment ordering she be held separately within the palace. He hoped her feelings about Christianity would change.

Hans Sebald Beham, (1500 - 1550)

TRAJAN'S JUSTICE, c. 1537

Engraving

111 x 79 mm ( 4 1/4 x 3 1/8")

Private collection

Sebald Beham (1500–1550) was a German painter and printmaker, mainly known for his very small engravings. He was one of the most important of the "Little Masters", the group of German artists making prints in the generation after Dürer.

He produced approximately 252 engravings, 18 etchings and 1500 woodcuts, including woodcut book illustrations. He worked extensively on tiny, highly detailed, engravings, many as small as postage stamps, placing him in the German printmaking school known as the "Little Masters" from the size of their prints. These works he printed and published himself, while his much larger woodcuts were mostly commissioned work. The engravings found a ready market among German bourgeois collectors. He also made prints for use as playing cards and wallpaper.


His engravings cover a range of subjects, but he is especially known for scenes of peasant life, and scenes from classical myth or history, both often with an erotic element. More on Sebald Beham

Many Roman non-Christian citizens were invited for the opening ceremonies of the baths. The first idol worshiper who entered the facility immediately died as did the subsequent idol worshiper until it was impossible for any unbeliever to enter the facility. The priests suspected a magical spell so Adrian recommended that the copper fixtures be removed and melted. In order to disgrace the nuns the copper was used to create five naked statues in their likeness which were placed at the entrance to the baths. After their installation Trajan dreamt of five pure lambs in Paradise while an Awesome Shepherd said to him “Irreverent Caesar! Those whose images you placed there to be dishonored have been taken away from you by the Good Shephard Christ and brought to this fine paradise where in time your daughter, the pure lamb Drosis, shall also be.”

Awakening and enraged that these holy women could mock Trajan after their deaths he ordered two huge furnaces be placed at each corner of the city. An imperial edict was posted which said: “Galileans who worship the Crucified, rid yourselves many tortures and spare us also from these labors and let each of you voluntarily cast himself into this furnace.” Many Christians willingly went to their martyrdom. St. Drosis was one of them.

While the guards fell asleep, St. Drosis, dressed in her royal attire left the palace and heading to the ovens. Since St. Drosis was not yet baptized she wondered, “How can I go to God without a wedding garment that is without being baptized for I am impure. But, O King of Kings, Lord Jesus Christ, for Your sake I give up my imperial position, so that you can make me gatekeeper of Your Kingdom. Baptize me Yourself with your Holy Spirit.”

Lives of all saints commemorated on March 22

After praying in this manner, St. Drosis anointed herself with chrism she had taken along with her and after immersing herself in water three times, she said: “the servant of God Drosis is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” For seven days the saint hid, fasting and praying. Christians found her and she told them her story. On the eighth day, the holy Martyr Drosis went to the scorching ovens and cast herself into the fire. More on St. Drosis

Menaion Icon for March (19th Century, Russia)

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