Sts. Faith, Hope and Charity
Faith, Hope and Charity, Saints, the names of two groups of
Roman martyrs around whom a considerable amount of legendary lore has
gathered; though the extent of sound historical data possessed
concerning them is so slight, that until very recent times the most
eminent scholars failed to distinguish between them. However, the extent
and antiquity of their cult and the universality with which their names
are found not only in the various early martyrologies of the Western
Church, but also in the Menaia and Menologies of the Greeks, render the
fact of their existence and martyrdom unquestionable.
Setting aside the
purely legendary accounts that have come down to us (see Migne, P.G.
CXV, 497; Mombritius, Vitae Sanctorum, II, 204), we find that in the
reign of Hadrian, a Roman matron Sophia (Wisdom), with her three
youthful daughters, Pistis, Elpis, and Agape (Faith, Hope and Charity),
underwent martyrdom for the Faith, and were interred on the Aurelian
Way, where their tomb in a crypt beneath the church afterwards erected
to St. Pancratius was long a place of resort for pilgrims, as we learn
from various indubitable documents of the seventh century, such as an
Itinerarium
(or guide to the holy places of Rome compiled for the use of pilgrims)
still preserved at Salzburg, the list, preserved in the cathedral
archives of Monza, of the oils gathered from the tombs of the martyrs
and sent to Queen Theodelinda in the time of Gregory the Great, etc.
Martyrdom of St. Sofia’s daughters and St. Sofia burying them. From the Vatican Digital Manuscript Library.
Later surely than the reign of Hadrian, but at what time is
uncertain, another band of martyrs, Sapientia (Wisdom) and her three
companions, Spes, Fides and Caritas (Hope, Faith and Charity), suffered
death and were buried near the tomb of St. Cecilia in the cemetery of
St. Callistus on the Appian Way. Despite the meagreness of these
authentic details, the explicit references in the documents cited to a
band of martyrs, mother and daughters, whose names are always given in
Greek, and who are buried on the Aurelian Way, and to another band of
four martyrs, interred on the Via Appia, whose relationship is not
indicated and whose names, though the same as those of the martyrs of
the Aurelian Way, are yet always given in Latin, certainly point to
distinct groups. Nor is the coincidence in names remarkable, seeing that
the early Christians so often (according to De Rossi) took in baptism
mystical names indicative of Christian virtues, etc. Thus Sophia,
Sapientia, Fides and the like are common names in early Christian
inscriptions and martyrologies. The Roman martyrology names on 1 Aug.,
“the holy virgins, Faith, Hope and Charity, who won the crown of
martyrdom under the Emperor Hadrian” and, on 30 Sept., “St. Sophia,
widow, mother of the holy virgins, Faith, Hope and Charity”. In some
places, on 1 Aug., St. Sapientia is also venerated; but generally owing
to the confusion of the two groups, none of the second group receives
special recognition. In the Eastern Church the feast is kept on 17
September.
John F. X. Murphy (Catholic Encyclopedia)
