St. Fausta: A Brave and Clever Mother

St. Fausta of Sirmium. http://catholicsaints.info/saint-fausta-of-sirmium/

In the third century A.D., a Christian mother, Fausta, was married to a pagan Roman nobleman whose name was Praepextatus.  The couple lived in an important Roman colonial city called Sirmium.

The gospel came to Sirmium in the earliest days of Christianity.  Andronicus (a man) and Junia (a woman) receive a brief but tender greeting in Paul’s letter to the Romans.  An ancient tradition includes these two among the seventy-two disciples sent by Jesus to preach the good news, as recorded in the gospel of Luke, chapter 10.  It was Andronicus and Junia who first shared the gospel in a place called Pannonia, where Sirmium was located, and Andronicus would later be named Bishop of Pannonia.

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners; they are prominent among the apostles and they were in Christ before me.
~Romans 16:7

After this the Lord appointed seventy[-two] others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.
~Luke 10:1

Saints Andronicus and Junia with St. Athanasius. See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Situated in modern-day Serbia, Pannonia was divided in the year 296 by the Emperor Diocletian into several regions, with one of them called Pannonia Secunda, where Sirmium was located.  The estimate of the number of residents of Sirmium varies widely from as few as 7,000 to as many as 100,000, but what is known for sure is that at least five Roman emperors were born in Sirmium, and as many as ten emperors used the city as a base for military operations throughout the course of the early centuries A.D.

A scale model of Sirmium. By mediaportal.vojvodina.gov.rs [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Built on the Sava River (at that time called the Savus), Sirmium was an important military and strategic center since the Sava flows into the Danube River.  The centuries of the later Roman Empire marked a golden age for Sirmium.  A large hippodrome for horse racing was built in the late third century.  The city also had many workshops, a mint for producing coins, a theatre, temples, public baths, markets, luxury villas, and eventually even an imperial palace.

It is this illustrious city that marks the setting for our story.  Praepextatus appears to have been unaware that Fausta, his wife, was a Christian.  Only one of their children is known--a daughter named Anastasia who was born around the year 280.  Fausta baptized the infant without Praepextatus’s knowledge and secretly taught her the faith from a young age.  When the child was old enough, Fausta arranged for her to be taught by a Christian Roman officer named Chrysogonus.

Saints Chrysogonus and Anastasia. See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Fausta died of natural causes, and soon after, Praepextatus arranged for the beautiful Anastaia to be married to the pagan Publius Patricius.  At first, the marriage was a good one, but somehow Publius discovered that his new bride was a Christian, whereupon he abused her mercilessly and repeatedly and kept her enslaved in their home.  She patiently endured this suffering, and rejoiced that she could suffer for Christ.  Perhaps the discovery of Anastasius' faith resulted in the exposure of Chrysogonus’ Christianity, because he was imprisoned during this time.  Yet somehow, Chrysogonus was able to send letters of encouragement to Anastasia from prison.  Mercifully, Publius drowned soon after and Anastasia was freed from his abuse.  A very young widow, she never remarried but spent the rest of her days secretly visiting the imprisoned and helping the poor.  She is known to have interceded successfully for many who were poisoned so that the poisons had no effect.  Because of these deeds, Anastasia’s reputation spread wide and both she and her teacher Chrysogonus were martyred during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian.  Like St. Lucia, Anastasia died during the Great Persecution of 304.

St. Fausta. This statue is located in the colonnade by the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. http://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints/St%20Fausta-35/StFausta.htm

Fausta is remembered for her faithfulness as a Christian mother by raising her daughter, Anastasia to become a virtuous, patient, and courageous young woman in a very dangerous age.