Domnina of Syria

Saint Domnina of Syria

Miniature from the Menologion of Basil II
Died ~460
Syria
Venerated in Maronite Church Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church;
Feast March 1

Saint Domnina of Syria, also known as Domnina the Younger,[1] was a 5th-century ascetic.[2] Her name is mentioned in the Byzantine Synaxarium.[2] and according to Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, Domnina was born to a rich Syrian family.[2]

She became a disciple of Saint Maron.[3]

As a young woman she constructed a straw-covered hut made with millet stalks[1] in the garden of her mother's house, located in Cyrrhus near Antioch.[1]

She passed all of her life there, to the point where she became extremely thin.[2] She only ate lentils soaked in water[3] and went to church in the morning and in the evening. Domnina covered her face in a veil so that no one could see her face.[3] She had 250 female followers, who passed the time doing manual labor and "assigning their hands to card wool, and consecrating their tongues with hymns."[1]

Theodoret writes, in his Religious History (chap. XXX in Patrologia Graeca), that Domnina acquired such a state of religious ecstasy that she could not speak without weeping as she was considered to have been inspired by the love of God.[2]

She died between 450 and 460 AD.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Guita G. Hourani (n.d.). "Domnina: A Female Disciple Of Saint Maron". Marunoye. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Antonio Borrelli (6 Feb 2003). "Santa Domnina". Santi e beati. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Fr. S. Janos (1996–2001). "The Nun Domnina of Syria". Holy Trinity Orthodox. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
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