Baring-Gould’s sources: Greek Menaea, and Menologium of the Emperor Basil, in the Roman Martyrology, Irene on April 5th, as also in those of Bede, Rabanus, Ado, Notker, Usuardus &c. Authority: — An account in the acts of S. Anastasia (Dec. 25th) and S. Chrysogonus (Nov. 24th). These are in Latin, and older than the 7th century, for, in 692, S. Aldelm wrote an eulogium on these saints. The name of S. Anastasia was inscribed in the canon of the Sacramentary of S. Gregory (d. 604), and the veneration of SS. Anastasia and Chrysogonus was certainly very widespread before that The Latin Acts are not however at all trustworthy, having undergone considerable amplification, but they have suffered less alteration than the extant Greek Acts.] Agape, Chionia and Irene, were three sisters, virgins, young, beautiful and God-fearing, who lived near Aquileia in the reign of Diocletian. Now after that S. Chrysogonus had suffered at Ad-aquas-graduatas, an old priest named Zoilus took up his body and hid it in a wooden chest in the cellar of his house. And after some days, the martyr appeared to Zoilus and said, “ That most wicked Diocletian will cause Agape, Chionia and Irene to be seized in nine days, and they shall receive their crown; but do thou bid Anastasia comfort them. And as for thee, for that thou art aged, and hast pleased the Lord, thou shalt rest with the Saints.” Then Zoilus told his dream to Anastasia, and after that, he peacefully fell asleep in Christ. Anastasia visited the three sisters, and spent a night with them, and on the morrow returned to Aquileia. But Diocletian had the virgins apprehended, and brought before him, and he bade them renounce their madness and adore idols, then would he find them suitable husbands from among the officers of his household, “ Most sacred emperor," said Agape; “ Thine is the care of the nation, thine the care of the republic, thine the care of the army, and dost thou thus speak against the living God without whose aid thou canst avail nothing ?” The emperor turned to Chionia and said, “Do thou answer; — thy sister is crazed." “ My sister is of sound mind, answered Chionia, “And rightly does she reject unrighteous offers." Then he spoke to the youngest, Irene, and bade her be wiser than her sister. “ What I" she exclaimed; “Is that sound sense which adores an idol made by an artificer, and made as the artificer desires, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing; if the maker wills, he makes a smirk on his god's face, if he wills, he puts tears into his eyes; if it suits his taste, the god is capering on one toe, or if otherwise, he is sprawling on the ground. I prefer to such sound sense the madness of my sister.”

Diocletian [Roman emperor 284–305, who began the ‘Great Persecution’ of Christians in 303], very angry, ordered the three sisters into prison, where they were visited and comforted by S. Anastasia. But when the emperor went into Macedonia, he gave orders that the Christian prisoners should be brought in his train; and Agape, Chionia and Irene were committed to the custody of a certain governor, Dulcitius, who became inflamed with love for the three comely sisters. Here, in the legend, follows a scene which may have provided the comic element in a mediaeval miracle play. On the journey, the three damsels, for lack of a better jail, were locked into a kitchen. During the night, after a banquet, Dulcitius visited their prison, to see that all was secure. It was very dark; but he heard the voices of the sisters singing psalms, and Dulcitius, being very drunk, groped his way about the kitchen after them; and when he thought he had caught one, he kissed, and he had laid hold of a sooty copper, or a black saucepan by mistake. 1 He ran here and there, but was eluded by the objects of his pursuit, and he always caught and bestowed his endearments upon the dirtiest and sootiest of the kitchen utensils. At last he emerged from the temporary prison, quite unconscious of the begrimed condition of his clothes and the black patches on his face. Early in the morning, Dulcitius solemnly took his place in his judgment hall, and was greeted by a burst of merriment from his clients and servants. Furious at this unseemly conduct, the governor, who was a man punctilious in all that touched his dignity, walked straight to where the emperor lodged, to complain of the outrage that had been committed upon his office. Why, as he traversed the street, the faces of the passers-by suddenly assumed an expression of amusement or astonishment, he was at a loss to conceive. He ruffled up, adopted a prouder air and a more magisterial stride, and went straight between a row of aghast ushers, right up into the imperial presence. The dbioucment may well be left to the imagination of the reader. Suffice it to say that Dulcitius swept home like a whirlwind, and when he had washed his face, he ordered the three sisters who had exercised their sorcery upon him to be brought into his presence and stripped naked. But the loss of natural sleep in the night, his exploits in the kitchen, and the sudden shock in the imperial palace, had been too much for the governor. When the maidens were brought in and placed before him, before the second part of his mandate could be executed, Dulcitius was noisily sleeping, niger totua et cacabatua eftectua.

(dormiebat stertens). In vain was he shaken by his at tendants, they could not wake him — and at last ! — a scene to bring down the house in the Miracle Play — exit Dulcitius carried by the servants in the magisterial chair, nodding and snoring. 1 Diocletian, having heard the story, ordered the maidens to be tried and executed by Count Sisinnius. Agape and Chionia were by his orders cast into the fire, where they died, but Irene, the youngest, fairest, frailest, he reserved for a more fiendish trial. He threatened her with exposure in a den of infamy. 44 Yet will I not forsake my God,” she answered. 44 Those pollutions to which the mind does not consent, do not condemn. Saints of God have had the blood of your sacrifices forced into their mouths and down their throats, but they were not therewith defiled.” 44 What I they were not corrupted by eating the blood of sacrifice 1” exclaimed Sisinnius.

Irene answered, 44 Nay, not corrupted thereby, but crowned; for pleasure bringeth penalty, but necessity wreatheth a crown.” 2 Then he ordered her away, but God delivered her soul from evil, for one of the attendants, perhaps out of rough charity, shot her. In the Acts, as we have them, another admixture of the grotesque spoils the authenticity and beauty of the old and true story. Sisinnius finds that instead of being carried whither he ordered, she was perched on the summit of a mountain. Thereupon he mounts his horse, strikes his spurs in, and gallops to the spot, but though he gallops without drawing rein from early mom till late eve, the horse does nothing more than career round and round the mountain. Then one of his men drew a bow, and with an arrow transfixed Irene. 1 Qul snblatus indc in sella dormiens, tunc expergefactus est, cum domum suatn falssct iugressus.