Saint Nonnus

The name Nonnus was a Levantine one, with eight of the nine Nonni listed in the Acts of the councils of Chalcedon and Ephesus from that area.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=88}} Some claim it to be a latinization or hellenization of an Egyptian title equivalent to "saint".{{sfnp|Lock|1911}}

A hagiography of St Pelagia attributed to James{{sfnp|Coon|1997|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w_1-t_K2ZuMC&pg=PA78 78]}} or Jacob{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=85}} ({{langx|la|Jacobus}}), deacon of the church of Heliopolis (modern Baalbek),{{sfnp|Bunson & al.|2003}} states that Nonnus was "a perfect monk" from Tabenna or "Tabennesum"{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=86}} in Egypt who, "by reason of his virtuous life", became bishop of Heliopolis,{{refn|group=n|This is per one of the Georgian versions, with the others leaving it ambiguous where in Syria Nonnus's seat lay.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=89}}}} converting "all its inhabitants" and baptizing {{nowrap|30 000}} Arabs.{{sfn|James the Deacon}} The monks of Ramsgate place his see at Edessa.[https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-nonnus/ Monks of Ramsgate. "Nonnus". Book of Saints] 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 27 March 2016

As Nonnus addressed a church council in Antioch, the town's most famous courtesan Margarita ("Pearl") passed by. Observing her beauty, Nonnus chastised the members of the assembly for taking less care of their souls than she did of her body.{{sfn|James the Deacon}} She appeared at his next Sunday sermon and Nonnus's sermon on hell prompted her to repent.{{sfn|James the Deacon}} She wrote him a letter and was permitted to see him with other witnesses; convinced of her sincerity, he took her confession and baptized her by her birth name Pelagia.{{sfn|James the Deacon}} After being pursued by the devil for a few days, she donated the property from her former employment to the church and lived with the deaconess Romana before departing for Jerusalem to disguise herself as a male hermit under the name Pelagius.{{sfn|James the Deacon}} The story significantly omits dates and (on 8 occasions) the name of the archbishop under whom Nonnus served.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=87}}{{refn|group=n|One Greek accountBHG 1479g. refers to the archbishop as Flavianus ({{abbr|r.|served}} 381–404), although Cameron dismisses its testimony.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=88}}}}

The historical St Pelagia — mentioned by St AmbroseAmbrose, De Virg., III, 7, 33.Ambrose, Ep. xxxvii. ad Simplic. and in two sermons by John ChrysostomChrysostom, Hom. in Matth. lxvii. {{in lang|la}} — was an Antiochene virgin who committed suicide to avoid rape during the Diocletianic Persecution.{{sfnp|Butler|1866|loc="8 October: St. Pelagia, Penitent"}} St Marina — the Latin equivalent of "Pelagius" — was another bride who disguised herself as a monk to escape an unwanted marriage.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=87}}{{refn|group=n|A third St Pelagia of Antioch was St Margaret, whose name derives from its earlier form "Margarita".}} Aspects of their stories were apparently combined with apocryphal accounts of Mary Magdalene,{{sfnp|Coon|1997|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w_1-t_K2ZuMC&pg=PA77 77–78]}} Biblical accounts of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and of Jesus and various women in the New Testament,{{sfnp|Coon|1997|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w_1-t_K2ZuMC&pg=PA80 80–82]}} and even with Greek myths regarding AphroditeHermann Usener to create the story of the harlot Pelagia. Chrysostom's {{circa|lk=no|390}} sermon also mentions an anonymous (but apparently famous) actress and prostitute "from a wicked city in Phoenice" (possibly Heliopolis) who seduced "the empress's brother" but converted "in our own day".{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=86–87}} Constantius II's wife Eusebia had two brothers, Eusebius and Hypatius, joint consuls in 359, who both lived for many years in Antioch.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=87–88}} In his account, attempts were made to lure her back to her former life by the Roman prefect and some of his soldiers, a role played by Satan in the hagiography.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=86}}

The mention of a meeting of the Syrian bishops is unhelpful for dating, as more than thirty Synods of Antioch were conducted in late antiquity. John of Ephesus records a persecution of Baalbek's pagans as late as 580{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=89}} and no record apart from copies of Pelagia's hagiography lists a Nonnus as a bishop of Heliopolis,{{sfnp|Cameron|2016}} although his story is sometimes conflated{{refn|group=n|As in Theophanes.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=85}}}} with the Nonnus known to have been a bishop of Edessa in Mesopotamia and who attended the 451 Council of Chalcedon.{{cite news|url=http://www.austindiocese.org/newsletter_article_view.php?id=887|title=So who was St. Pelagia the Penitent?|work=Catholic Spirit|publisher=Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin|last=Gibson|first=Mary Lou|date=October 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928120032/http://www.austindiocese.org/newsletter_article_view.php?id=887|archive-date=2007-09-28}}{{refn|group=n|VossiusVossius, De Hist. Graec., Bk. II, Ch. 20. and GamsGams, Series Episc. argue in favor of Nonnus of Edessa having served as bishop of Heliopolis on the theory that he might have been translated there at the time of the restoration of Bishop Ibas in the early 450s. Tillemont argued against the idea.Tillemont, Mem. Eccles., Vol. XII, p. 664.{{sfnp|DCB|1882|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=O945AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA53 "Nonnus (4)"]}}}} This Nonnus has been further conflated with the contemporary poet Nonnus of Panopolis, but this is probably a mistake.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|pp=85 ff}} Another Nonnus present at Chalcedon was the bishop of Zerabenna in Arabia, which lay under the jurisdiction of Antioch.{{sfnp|Cameron|2016|p=90}}

• Other people named Nonnus
• SS Pelagia the Harlot, Pelagia the Virgin, Marina the Monk, & Margaret the Virgin

{{Reflist|group=n}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{citation |title=A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects, and Doctrines; during the First Eight Centuries, being a Continuation of 'The Dictionary of the Bible', Vol. IV |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O945AQAAMAAJ |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=William |editor2-last=Wace |editor2-first=Henry |display-editors=0 |location=London |publisher=John Murray |date=1882 |ref={{harvid|DCB|1882}} }}.
• {{citation |contribution=Nonnus |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-pwoTFp31kC&pg=PA611 |title=Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, Rev. ed. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-pwoTFp31kC |isbn=1-931709-75-0 |date=2003 |publisher=Our Sunday Visitor |location=Huntington |last=Bunson |first=Matthew |author2-last=Bunson |author2-first=Margaret |author3-last=Bunson |author3-first=Stephen |display-authors=1 |ref={{harvid|Bunson & al.|2003}} |page=611 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001033216/https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=l-pwoTFp31kC |archive-date=2015-10-01 }}.
• {{citation |last=Butler |first=Alban |author-link=Alban Butler |title=The Lives of the Saints, Vol. X: October |date=1866 }}.
• {{citation |contribution=The Poet, the Bishop, and the Harlot |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AyaCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA81 |pages=81–90 |title=Wandering Poets and Other Essays on Late Greek Literature and Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AyaCgAAQBAJ |last=Cameron |first=Alan |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2016 |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-026894-7 }}.
• {{citation |last=Coon |first=Lynda L. |title=Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity |contribution=Pelagia: God's Holy Harlot |pages=77–84 |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_1-t_K2ZuMC&pg=PA77 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_1-t_K2ZuMC |date=1997 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=0-8122-3371-9 }}.
• {{citation |contribution-url=http://chrysostompress.org/saints-1008-pelagia-the-nun |author=James the Deacon (Jacobus Diaconus) |contribution=The Eighth Day of the Month of October: The Life of Our Holy Mother Pelagia the Nun, who was Once a Harlot, Written by James, a Deacon of the Church of Heliopolis, from The Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints, Vol. 2: October, compiled by St Demetrius of Rostov |ref={{harvid|James the Deacon}} |publisher=Chrysostom Press |title=Orthodox Classics in English |location=House Springs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206122557/http://chrysostompress.org/saints-1008-pelagia-the-nun |archive-date=2010-02-06 }}.
• {{citation |last=Lock |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Lock |editor-last=Wace |editor-first=Henry |editor-link=Henry Wace (priest) |editor2-last=Piercy |editor2-first=William C. |display-editors=0 |title=Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature from the First to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies |location=London |publisher=John Murray |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jxxNCgAAQBAJ |contribution=Nonnus (2) |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jxxNCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT1837 |pages=1837–39 |date=1911 }}.

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Category:Syrian Christian saints

Category:5th-century bishops in the Roman Empire