(4TH CENT.)
[Greek Menæa, and Menologium of the Emperor Basil. Inserted in
the Roman Martyrology by Baronius. Authority:--The account in the
Menologium.]
Antonina is said to have lived in the city of Nicæa, in the reign of
Maxentius. On account of her refusal to offer incense to the gods she
was stripped of her clothes, hung up, and her sides torn with rakes.
Then she was thrust into a sack, or earthen vessel (it is uncertain
which), and was drowned in a lake near the city. A head and body are
shown at Bologna as those of S. Antonina, "but whether of this one or
of another we are not able to divine," say the Bollandists. A curious
instance of the facility with which some forgeries may be detected is
connected with S. Antonina. Canisius published an edition of the Greek
Menologium in the 16th century; in it occurred a mistake. S. Antonina
was stated to have suffered at Cæa, a misprint for Nicæa. Shortly
after, the Jesuit, Hieronymus Romanus de Higuera, forged a chronicle of
Flavius Dexter, Bishop of Barcelona, in the 4th century. He had seen
the Menologium of Canisius, and, as there was a Ceija in Spain, he
inserted S. Antonina in his Spanish Chronicle as having suffered there,
and this blunder was partly the means of the detection of the forgery.