Saint Pelagia is an Antiochene saint, a virgin of fifteen years, who chose death by a leap from the housetop rather than dishonour, is mentioned by Ambrose (De virg. iii. 7, 33; Ep. xxxvii. ad Simplic.), and is the subject of two sermons by Chrysostom. Her festival was celebrated on 8 October (Wrights Syriac Martyrology). Antioch on the Orontes (Greek: Αντιόχεια η επί Δάφνη, Αντιόχεια η επί Ορόντου or Αντιόχεια η Μεγάλη; Latin: Antiochia ad Orontem, also Antiochia dei Siri), the Great Antioch or Syrian Antioch was an ancient city located on the eastern side (left bank) of the Orontes River about 30 km from the sea and its port, Seleucia Pieria. ... In traditional Christian iconography, Saints are usually depicted as having halos. ... John Chrysostom (347 - 407) was a notable Christian bishop and preacher from the 4th and 5th centuries in Syria and Constantinople. ... October 8 is the 281st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (282nd in leap years). ...

In the Greek synaxaria the same day is assigned to two other saints of the name of Pelagiaone, also of Antioch,; the other, known as Pelagia of Tarsus, in Cilicia. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Cilicia as Roman province, 120 AD In Antiquity, Cilicia (Κιλικία) was the name of a region, now known as Çukurova, and often a political unit, on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), north of Cyprus. ...

The legend of the one sometimes called Margarito and also the sinner is famous. She was a celebrated dancer and courtesan, who, in the full flower of her beauty and guilty sovereignty over the youth of Antioch, was suddenly converted by the influence of the holy bishop Nonnus, whom she had heard preaching in front of a church which she was passing with her gay train of attendants and admirers. Seeking out Nonnus, she overcame his canonical scruples by her tears of genuine penitence, was baptized, and, disguising herself in the garb of a male penitent, retired to a grotto on the Mount of Olives, where she died after three years of strict penance. This story seems to combine with the name of the older Pelagia some traits from an actual history referred to by Chrysostom (Horn. in Matth. lxvii. 3). The Greek epic poet Nonnus (Greek Nonnos), a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebaid, probably lived at the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century AD. He produced the Dionysiaca, an epic tale of the god Dionysus, a paraphrase of the Gospel of John... This entry incorporates text from the public domain Eastons Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897. ...

In associating St Pelagia with Saint Marina, St Margaret and others, of whom either the name or the legend recalls Pelagia, Hermann Usener has endeavoured to show by a series of subtle deductions that this saint is only a Christian travesty of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. But there is no doubt of the existence of the first Pelagia of Antioch, the Pelagia of Ambrose and Chrysostom. The legends which have subsequently become connected with her name are the result of a very common development in literary history. Saint Marina is one of the Great Martyrs of the Orthodox Church. ... Several Saints Margaret exist: Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque Saint Margaret of Cortona Saint Margaret of England Saint Margaret of Scotland Saint Margaret the Virgin Saint Margaret the Widow Saint Margaret of the Árpád dynasty (1242–1270) See also Margaret Sainte-Marguerite This is a disambiguation page — a... The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485 Aphrodite (Greek: Ἀφροδίτη, pronounced in English as and in Ancient Greek as ) was the Greek goddess of love, lust, beauty, and sexuality. ...

Sources and references

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by The Encyclopedia Press. ...

• Acta sanctorum, October, iv. 248 seq.; H. Usener. Legenden der heiligen Pelagia (Bonn, 1879); H. Delehaye, The Legends of the Saints (London, 1907), pp. 197205. (H. DE.)