Published : 2017-12-10

Hated by the World, Beloved by Christ

Martyrs in Prudentius’ “Peristephanon”

Abstract

Christ’s disciples, who lived in the first centuries of Christianity, were loyal citizens of Roman Empire. It is true, that they refused to perform pagan gods’ and caesars’ worship, but at the same time they prayed for the rulers and treated everybody with fraternal love. They remained enemies to their fellow citizens, though. Reading Prudentius’ Peristephanon, we discover this once again. Among the poet’s heroes we find soldiers Emeterius and Chelidonius (1), disliked and misunderstood teacher Cassianus (9) and young girl Eulalia, who runs away from the countryside family estate in order to profess her faith and die for it (3). Striving for communion with God, Prudentius’ martyrs part from their world and become strangers among their own colleagues, friends, relatives. Nevertheless in unity with their beloved Divine Saviour, who by shedding His Blood destroyed sin – the reason of every enmity, loneliness and alienation – they are not alone any more and love the world, which due to that ceases to be alien to them.

Keywords:

Prudentius, Peristephanon, Emeterius, Chelidonius, Cassianus, Eulalia, martyrdom, communion with God, love for God, alienation, fraternity



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Krynicka, T. (2017). Hated by the World, Beloved by Christ: Martyrs in Prudentius’ “Peristephanon”. Biografistyka Pedagogiczna [Biographical Studies in Education], 2(1), 15–37. https://doi.org/10.36578/BP.2017.02.02

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"Biografistyka Pedagogiczna" received funding for the years 2022-2024 from the funds of the Minister of Education and Science under the programme „Rozwój Czasopism Naukowych”.

Project duration: 2023-2024.

The amount of co-financing is 65 992,00 PLN

Contract number: RCN/SP/0434/2021/1