Saint Verena
4 Tut / 14 September
Saint Verena was a
fourth-century Egyptian holy woman, associated with the Theban Legion, who was
martyred in Switzerland.
Saint Verena’s unwavering faith, long life of Christianity
charity, and many miracles, contributed greatly to spread of Christianity among
the Alemanni in what is now Canton Argau, Switzerland. Her status in the German part of
Switzerland and in southwest Germany can be compared with that of Saint Ursula
in the Rhineland, Saint Odilia in Alsace, and Saint
Bridget in Sweden.
In addition
to numerous accounts of her life in various martyrologies, dating before 1000
A.D., there are two early records of Saint Verena,
the Vita prior and the Vita postenor.
The only
daughter of a distinguished Theban family in Upper Egypt, Verena
was entrusted, in her early years, to a bishop named Chaeremon,
who was to provide her with the necessary religious instructions for baptism.
After Chaeremon perished during the persecution under
Emperor Decius, Verena journeyed with some Christians
towards Lower Egypt, where a large number of believers had been assembled for
military service under Emperors Diocletion and Maximian. Among them were members of the Theban Legion,
commanded by Saint Mauritius, some of whom were her close relatives.
In
keeping with an old Coptic custom, whereby women followed their legionnaire men
folk to give them spiritual support and relief, Verena
went with the Theban Legion into Italy as far as Milian.
In Milian she stayed at the home of a holy man named Maximus for some years, frequently prisons and martyrdom
sites to confront and beleaguered saints. Upon hearing of the martyrdom of
Saint Victor of Solothurn and his Theban brethren, Verena
crossed the Alps to Agaunum (present-day Saint
Maurice en Valais) and went on to a place beyond the Aar River, not far from Castrum Saldurum (Solothurn). She
stayed at the home of a Theban fugitive, spending all her time fasting and
praying, ever striving for eternal salvation. To this end, she retired to a
narrow cave, where she led the ascetic and austere life of a nun. She lived by
means of her handwork, which an old Christian woman in the neighbourhood sold
for her to the heathen Alemanni.
A highly
venerated virgin, Verena came to be regarded as ‘the
mother of maidens’, to whom she devoted much of her time, trying to guide them
into the path of Christian virtue and piety, as well as to teach them proper
hygienic practices. She also performed many miracles of healing and restoration
of vision of Saint Mauritius who came to comfort her. She was released,
however, by the Roman governor, whom she miraculously healed. When her fame
spread on account of her miracles, she decided to flee from the region and
sought seclusion on a small island at the confluence of the Aar and the Rhine.
She freed the island from its countless serpents, nursed the sick, and healed
the blind and lame.
Later on,
Verena went to Tenedo
(present day Zurzach), where she found a church
dedicated to our lady, and decided to spend the rest of her life. She lived at
the local priest’s house, but his complete trust in her aroused in jealousy of
the other villagers. Even though she spent her time caring for the poor and
nursing the lepers, the villagers repeatedly tried to discredit her with the
priest. As a result, she begged him to build her a segregated cell where she
could spend the rest of her days in seclusion. Saint Verena
retired there for a solitary life of severe austerity, and lived for a future
eleven years, during which she continued to heal the sick and assisted all who
sought her help. On the day of her death, she was spiritually strengthened by a
vision of the Virgin. After her death, her body was enshrined in the crypt
built on the spot of her death, which became one of the most frequented
pilgrimage centres in that region, and around her tomb, the first ‘cloister’ of
the Canton Aargau was founded.
The high
place that Saint Verena occupied in Switzerland is
attested to by the number of religious foundations and churches consecrated in
her name. Though it is hard to make a precise inventory of these foundations,
it is known that there were at least eighty-two scattered in the various
cantons. In Germany, fourteen chapels were consecrated in her name. Her relics
were honoured as far away as Helmgersberg in East
Prussia and in Vienna.
In modern
times, the imperial house of the Hapsburgs has adopted Saint Verena as one of the main patrons of the dynasty. Her image
appears in Swiss religious statuary, where she is represented with a double
comb in her left hand and a water jug in the right, signifying her care for
girls and her use of healing water for the sick and the lepers. The same
representation appears on the coat of arms of the city of Stafa
in Canton Zurich. Among the very papular pilgrimage
centres of the saint are Saint Verena’s cavern (Verenaschlucht), between Oberdorf
and Fallern near Solothurn, and her chapel in
Coblenz.
Contemporary
Coptic sources contribute considerably to verifying the historicity of Saint Verena’s story and conform
specific details related to Egypt. At the beginning of the fourth century,
Eusebius of Caesarea confirmed, in his work on the history of the Coptic
Church, the existence of Bishop Chaeremon of Nilos at the place and time given in European sources. He
even quoted the account of his death during the Decian
persecutions given by the then contemporary Patriarch of Alexandria, Saint
Dionysius, the Great, in his letter to Bishop Fabius
of Antioch. Moreover, the name ‘Chaeremon’ is of
ancient Egyptian origin and means ‘Son of Amon’. The
name ‘Verena’ could be identified as the popular
Coptic short form of the Ptolemaic ‘Berenice’. The
Copts omitted the Greek suffixes ‘ioc’ and ‘ic’ and replaced then with ‘e’ or
‘a’ (according to Heuser); and the letter ‘b’ in
Coptic ‘Verena’ could also be of ancient Egyptian
origin, a compound of the Coptic and ancient Egyptian words vre,
meaning ‘seed’, and ne, meaning ‘the town, Thebes’, that is, ‘Seed of Thebes’.
