Balbina of Rome

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Quirinus with his daughter Balbina. 18th century print

Balbina of Rome is one of the early Christian churches unknown saints and martyrs , whose veneration began in the 6th century. Her feast day is March 31st . The name Balbina comes from the Latin balbus ("stammering, stuttering").

She is shown with a chain in her hand, an angel pointing to heaven and a lily scepter, an attribute of virginity. St. Balbina is called against sore throat and goiter . An old Christian cemetery on the Via Appia and the church of Santa Balbina all'Aventino on the Aventine in Rome probably go back to a Balbina as the founder, who was later venerated as a saint. As a result, the fictional legend about this saint was invented.

Legend

The creation of legends about Balbina depends on the acts of St. Alexander , in which she mostly plays a secondary role. From the 6./7. Acta Balbinae , created in the 19th century, Ado von Vienne developed an independent version and linked her martyrdom with March 31 in his Martyrologium Adonis , while Florus von Lyon linked the event with June 18 in his continuation of the Martyrology of Beda . Usuardus adopted Ado's approach, which found its way into the Martyrologium Romanum in this way .

According to Alexander's files, her own files, and the files of St. Quirinus , Balbina was the daughter of the Roman tribune Quirinus. In the dungeon she met the bishop of Rome , Alexander, who was guarded by her father. When Balbina kissed Alexander's chains, she is said to have been freed from her throat ailment. Quirinus was baptized with his entire family after the wonderful recovery of his daughter and other miracles caused by Alexander, which aroused the enmity of the Emperor Hadrian and suffered the martyrdom of beheading. Alexander's files do not yet know anything about Balbina's martyrdom, which was only invented later. In Beda's version of the legend, Balbina's healing did not take place through Alexander's chain; rather, Alexander commissioned Balbina to find the chains of St. Peter , and only after she had found the chains after a long search - allegedly in Jerusalem - was she cured of her suffering. This connection between Balbina and Petri Kettenfest goes back to the files of Alexander, who accordingly commissioned her with the search only after her healing. At the end of the legend, Ado added an alleged burial of the saints in the Praetextatus catacomb .

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Balbina  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Remarks

  1. ^ Acta Sanctorum Martii. Volume 3, pp. 900-903 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ See also Richard Adelbert Lipsius : The Acts of Alexander of Rome and the Chain Celebration of Peter. In: Journal of Scientific Theology. Volume 14, 1871, pp. 120-140, here pp. 127-132.
  3. ↑ Victor Saxer: Balbina . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 1 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1993, Sp. 1365 .
personal data
SURNAME Balbina of Rome
BRIEF DESCRIPTION early Christian martyr and saint
DATE OF BIRTH 1st millennium
DATE OF DEATH 1st millennium