Potamiaina

Saint Potamiaina (also Potamiana , Potamiaena , Potamina , Potamiöna or Potamiena ; † approx. 205) from Alexandria was a student of Origen and a Christian martyr . Her commemoration day is June 28th and the commemoration day of the transfer of the bones is June 7th.

Tradition reports that the virgin Potamiaina and her mother Marcella were sentenced to death by slow immersion in boiling pitch. She had previously been threatened with rape by gladiators, which is why she is venerated as the patron saint of rape victims. When she was led to her execution, she was protected by the Roman officer Basilides . Potamiaina assured him of this kindness because of her intercession in heaven .

Basilides converted to Christianity and was therefore soon condemned to death by the sword. In prison he was visited by other Christians (possibly Origen among them) who asked him about the circumstances of his conversion . Basilides reported that Potamiaina appeared to him in a dream three days after her death and put a crown on his head as a sign of his imminent martyrdom. The next day Basilides was executed.

Subsequently, Eusebius and Origines report of further apparitions of the Potamiaina. These passages are among the earliest reports of a saint's influence after his death.

The martyrs Basilides, Potamiaina, Marcella and six other pupils of the origins are commemorated in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum .

swell

1. ^ Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica (Church History) VI, 3-5
2. ↑ Origenes Contra Celsum I, 46

literature

• Nicolaus Heutger:  Potamiaina. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 7, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-048-4 , Sp. 863-864.
• R. Knopf, G. Krüger (Ed.): Selected Martyrs Acts. 3rd edition Tübingen 1929, p. 44 f.
• Juha Stump: Potamiaina and Basilides. Historical novel. Asaro Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-934625-86-X