Dorothy, St.

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DOROTHY, ST.

Died Caesarea, Cappadocia, c. 304. She is numbered among the martyrs of the diocletian persecution. The Passio narrating her life is full of legendary material, stating that she was born in Caesarea, and that, after converting two women sent to make her apostatize, she was beheaded. She was greatly honored during the Middle Ages, became a favorite subject for German and Italian artists, and is represented holding a basket containing three roses and three apples and attended by an angel. Her feast was removed from the universal calendar in 1969.

Feast: Feb. 6.

Bibliography: The Icelandic Legend of Saint Dorothy, ed. k. wolf (Toronto 1997). a. schrÖder, Dorothy, tr. h. h. rosenwald (Recklinghausen, Germany 1967). r. van doren, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912), 14:684. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 1:261262.

[e. g. ryan]

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Dorothy, St.

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