[873] See ante, [p. 428]. The following is from Salonæ: FL · IVLIVS DIACONVS ET AVRELIA MERIA CONIVX EIVS HOC SARCOFAGVM (sic) SIBI VIVI POSVERVNT—“Flavius Julius, a deacon, and Aurelia Meria, his wife, while living, erected this sarcophagus for themselves.” See, also, the epitaph of Tettius Felicissimus, [p. 474].
[874] The following is from the island of Salamis: Οἶκος αἰώνιος Ἀγάθωνος ἀναγνώστου καὶ Εὐφημίας.... “The everlasting dwelling of Agatho, a reader, and Euphemia...." She was probably his wife.
[875] Thus, St. Paul calls Phœbe a διάκονος, translated “servant,” of the church at Cenchria.—Rom., xvi, 1. The Christian ancillæ quæ ministræ dicebantur, whom Pliny tortured, were probably of this class.
[876] 1 Tim. v, 9.
[877] Concil. Chalcedon, c. 14.
[878] Tertul., de Veland. Virgin., c, 9. Olympias, a Christian matron of Constantinople, of noble rank, widowed at eighteen, became a deaconess, and devoted her immense fortune to charity. She was long the devoted patroness of the persecuted Chrysostom.
[879] Cypr., Ep., 62.
[880] The Fathers are enthusiastic in the praise of perpetual virginity. “It has the higher dignity, as vessels of gold and silver compared to earthenware,” says Jerome.—Adv. Jovin. “The thirty-fold increase of Scripture,” he asserts, “refers to marriage, the sixty-fold to widowhood, but the hundred-fold to virginity.”—Ad Ageruchiam. “Marriage replenishes earth,” he adds; “but virginity, heaven”—Nuptiæ terram replent, virginitas paradisum. “These sacred virgins are the necklace of the church,” says Prudentius, “and with these gems she is adorned”—Hoc est monile ecclesiæ! His illa gemmis comitur!—Peristeph., H., 3. They became in a mystical sense the spouses of Christ, and Jerome blasphemously addresses the mother of Eustochium as the mother-in-law of God—Socrus Dei esse cœpisti—Ad Eustoch. Both Jerome and Chrysostom, however, acknowledged, and unsparingly lashed, the evils to which the celibate system in their time had led. “She is the true virgin,” says the latter, “who careth for the things that belong to the Lord.”
[881] In one example, of date A. D. 525, we find the phrase NONNAE ANCILLAE DEI, in which we see, perhaps, the origin of our word nun. Jerome had previously applied the word nonnæ to either widows or virgins professing chastity.—Ad Eustoch., c. 6.
[882] See article on “The Rise of Monachism,” by the present writer, in London Quarterly Review, October, 1873.