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Commemorated on November 9
The
Nun Matrona was born in the city of Pergium Pamphylia (Asia Minor) in the V
Century. They gave her in marriage to a well-off man named Dometian. When her
daughter Theodotia was born, they resettled in Constantinople. The twenty-five
year old Matrona loved to walk to the temple of God. She spent entire days
there, ardently praying to the Lord and weeping for her sins.
At
the church the saint made the acquaintance of two pious women-elders, Eugenia
and Susanna, who from the time of their youth asceticised there in work and
prayer. Matrona began to imitate the God-pleasing life of an ascetic, humbling
her flesh by abstinence and fasting, for which she had to endure criticism by
her husband. Her soul yearned for a full renunciation of the world. After long
hesitation Saint Matrona decided to leave her family and besought the Lord to
reveal, whether her intent was pleasing to Him. The Lord heard the prayer of
His servant. Once during a light sleep she had a dream that she had fled her
husband, who was in pursuit of her. The saint concealed herself in a throng of
monks approaching her, and her husband did not notice her. Matrona accepted
this dream as a Divine directive to enter a men's monastery, where her husband
would not guess to look for her. She gave over her daughter for raising to the
woman-elder Susanna, and having cut her own hair and disguised herself in men's
attire, she went to the monastery of the Monk Bassion (Comm. 10 October). There
the Nun Matrona passed herself off as the eunuch Babylos and was accepted into
the number of the brethren. Apprehensive lest the monks learn that she was a
woman, the saint passed her time in constant quietude and much work. The
brethren marveled at the great virtue of Babylos. One time the saint with the other
monks was working in the monastery vineyard. The newly-made monk Barnabos noted
that her ear-lobe was pierced and asked about it. "It is necessary,
brother, to till the soil and not watch other people, which is not proper for a
monk", – answered the saint.
After
a certain while it was revealed in a dream to the Monk Bassion, the hegumen of
the monastery, that the eunuch Babylos – was a woman. It was likewise revealed
to Blessed Akakios, hegumen of the nearby Abrahamite monastery. The Monk
Bassion summoned Saint Matrona and strictly demanded an answer, for what
purpose she had infiltrated the monastery, whether to corrupt the monks or
shame the monastery. With tears the saint told the hegumen about all her past
life, about her pursuing husband, hostile to her efforts and prayers, and about
the dream-vision, directing her to go to the men's monastery. Becoming
convinced that her intent was pure and chaste, the Monk Bassion sent off Saint
Matrona to a women's monastery in the city of Emesa. In this monastery the
saint dwelt for many years, inspiring the sisters by her high monastic
achievement. When the hegumeness died, by the unanimous wish of the nuns the
Nun Matrona became head of the convent.
The
fame about her virtuous activities, and about a miraculous gift of healing,
which she acquired from the Lord, spread far beyond the walls of the monastery.
Dometian also heard about the deeds of the nun. When Saint Matrona learned that
her husband was come to the monastery and wanted to see her, she secretly went
off to Jerusalem, and then to Mount Sinai, and from there to Beirut, where she
settled in an abandoned pagan temple. The local inhabitants learned of her
reclusion, and began to come to her. The holy ascetic turned many from their
pagan impiety and converted them to Christ. Women and girls began to settle by
the dwelling of the nun and soon there emerged a new monastery. Having
fulfilled the will of God, revealed to her in a dream, the saint left Beirut
and journeyed to Constantinople where she learned, that her husband had died.
With the blessing of her spiritual father, the Monk Bassion, the ascetic
founded in Constantinople a women's monastery, to which transferred also
sisters from the Beirut convent founded by her. The Constantinople monastery of
the Nun Matrona was known for its strict monastic rule and the virtuous life of
its sisters.
In
extreme old age Saint Matrona was deigned a vision of the coelestial paradise
and the place prepared for her there after 75 years of monastic work. At the
age of one hundred, the Nun Matrona, having blessed the sisters, quietly
expired to the Lord (about the year 492).
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
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