She Refused to Marry
February 6, 2020
St Dorothy (detail) by the Master of the Rottal Epitaph; c. 1500 AD
ST. DOROTHY, or Dorothea, was one of many young women martyred in the first three centuries of Christianity because they wished to remain virgins and refused to adore idols. She was tried during the persecution of Diocletian at Caesarea in Cappadocia. The prefect Sapricius had her tortured her on the rack and after she refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, condemned her to beheading on February 6 in the year 311 A.D. There is a famous legend associated with her death:
St. Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter, and it is said that on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had been used to calumniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, in mockery, to send him “apples or roses from the garden of her Spouse.” The Saint promised to grant his request, and, just before she died, a little child stood by her side bearing three apples and three roses. She bade him take them to Theophilus and tell him this was the present which he sought from the garden of her Spouse. St. Dorothy had gone to heaven and Theophilus was still making merry over his challenge to the Saint when the child entered his room. He saw that the child was an angel in disguise, and the fruit and flowers of no earthly growth. He was converted to the faith, and then shared in the martyrdom of St. Dorothy. [Source]
Dorothea, often represented with an angel and a wreath of flowers, is regarded as the patroness of gardeners. Trees are blessed in some places on her feast day, Feb. 6.
May blessed Dorothy, Thy Virgin and Martyr earnestly entreat for us pardon from Thee, we beseech Thee, O Lord: for both by her chastity and by her acknowledgment of Thy power she ever pleased Thee well.
St. Dorothy, Lucas Cranach; 1530
