Summary
Saint Domnina of Syria (Greek: Δομνίνα Συρίας) also known as Domnina the Younger, was a 5th-century ascetic.[1] Her name is mentioned in the Byzantine Synaxarium.[1] and according to Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, Domnina was born to a rich Syrian family.[1]
Saint Domnina of Syria | |
|---|---|
 Miniature from the Menologion of Basil II | |
| Died | ~460 Syria |
| Venerated in | Maronite Church Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Feast | March 1 |
Life edit
She became a disciple of Saint Maron.[2]
As a young woman she constructed a straw-covered hut in the garden of her mother's house, located in Cyrrhus near Antioch.[3]
She passed all of her life there, to the point where she became extremely thin.[1] She only ate lentils soaked in water[2] and went to church in the morning and in the evening. Domnina covered her face in a veil so that no one could see her face.[2] She had 250 female followers, who passed the time doing manual labor and carding wool.
Theodoret writes, in his Religious History (chap. XXX in Patrologia Graeca), that Domnina acquired such a state of religious ecstasy that she could not speak without weeping as she was considered to have been inspired by the love of God.[1]
She died between 450 and 460 AD.[2]