Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-18

1
and slanderer. Yet he has been canon
lied with the blood of Hypatia on hi
hands, and all that can be said in mitiga
ton OF the scandal is that he is by NJ
means the only scoundrel who has beer
honored in the same way by the sam,
Church.
| 1t is not, however, with Cyril that W,
propose to deal in this article, but with
very curious illustration of the elasticity O
Rome which has been brought to mind BY
remark of the Monitor. That paper OBJ
serves innocently {" 1t is actually amazing
to reflect with what zeal the anti. Catho
sic and non. Catholic press denounce the
murder of the pagan Hypatia, when they
"overlook the horrid murder and the bar
"barous treatment of SO many Christian
| women of the world. A st. Catherine
| "of Alexandria is never mentioned BY
"these mourners over the fate of Hypatia,
"yet this beautiful Christian virgin was
g torn limb from limb, by order of the ty.
Grant Maximin," etc. Now we have
here proof that the Monitor is ignorant
of the history of its own Church, but what
is very much more interesting, we have an
illustration of the manner in which the
Church of Rome has often doubled upon
it's own track, and utilized its own crimes
and the virtues of its opponents. For the
fact is that Hypatia and ST. Catherine OF
Alexandria are one and the same, and that
under the name of st. Catherine the Church
worships the pagan philosopher who was
so barbarously murdered by its own
members. 1t is true that this is
by no means solitary instance of the kind.
Rome has sought to absorb whatever
threatened opposition. Thus Catholics
worship Gautama Buddha under the ap-
pellation of st. Josaphat, and thus the
heather god Pan was converted into a
French saint under the name of st. Foutin,
and continued to be worshiped, with the
rites of the Lampsacene, as late as the
seventeenth century.
The Monitor evidently does not know
that Hypatia is the reality of which ST.
Catherine of Alexandria is the shadow.
but because this is so; because the story
of Hypatia is history, and the story of
st. Catherine is fiction, the world continues
to pay attention to the first, and to ignore
the second. The authorities for the iden-
tity of Hypatia and Catherine are numer-
Gus, but two will suffice here. The ninth
edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica
(Article Hypatia) says: "The story of
" Hypatia appears in considerably dis
"guised yet still recognizable form in the
"legend of ST. Catherine as recorded in
" the Roman Breviary Nov. 25), and still
more fully in the Martyrologies. In
Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art
appears the following: "In the original
oriental legend the locality assigned for
the story of St. Catherine was at least
"w well chosen, and with view to proba.
bility. Alexandria, famous for its philo.
" sophical aud theological schools, pro-
" duced, not one, but many women, who,
-" under the tuition of Origen and other
" famous teachers, united the study of
Greek literature with that of the Pro.
"phets and Eyangelists some of them also
" suffered in the cause of Christianity.
Is But it is curious fact connected with
Is the history of st. Catherine, that the
" real martyr, the only one of whom there
sis any certain record, was not Chris
A." tan, but heather and that her op-
"pressors were not Pagan tyrants, but
" Christian fanatics" Then follows the
story of Hypatia, which is too familiar to
need recapitulation.
1t is curious circumstance that the
legend of st. Catherine of Alexandria,
which did not arise until the eighth CEN
fury, should have introduced to the Chris.
5ian world one of the most popular saints.
Yet so it is, and in this way Christeudom
or long time worshiped, under the
disguise which monkish fantasy had thrown
,ver her, that daughter of Theon, that |
friend of Orestes, that CONTENDER of Chris |
,ianity, whose heretical brains had been |
dashed out upon the very steps of the
Altar by the pious club of Peter the Reader,
Icting under the orders of that other saint, |
Cyril of Alexandria. 1t is no doubt true
hat martyrdom in and by the Church was
Tery common In patristic times, aud that
he various sects-there were nearly ninety
# them about CyriPs time-were always
eady to torture and roast one another
When they had the power. Nothing was
in those days than the slaughter
# Christians by Christians, nor could this
'e considered particularly wonderful in an
ge which canonized Cyril of Alex
ndria, and which seems to have
bought little or nothing of the
act that one Bishop was kicked
o death by another Bishop in an eccle.
iastic Council. The early Christians, in
act, were accustomed to thin one another
ut, and they showed quite as much zeal
this work as In prosecuting the heather.
here is, however, something very curious !
, the circumstances which converted the
hurch's victim into her Saint, and which
laced her in the preposterous attitude Of