Thomaïs of Lesbos

Life

Thomaїs was born in Lesbos to Michael and Kale. While Thomaїs's exact year of birth remains unknown, the estimated date range is between 909 CE and 913 CE. For many years, Michael and Kale were unable to have children, until one night when the Virgin Mary informed Kale in a dream that she would bear a daughter. At some point after Thomaїs's birth, the family moved to the Bosporus region in modern day Türkiye, possibly to the city of Chalcedon, where they raised her piously: "she continued to be strengthened in the virtues, devoted to the worship of God, and adorned by all forms of goodness".

At the age of 24, Thomaїs was forced to marry Stephen. She had no desire for married life and wished to remain a virgin; this resistance helps to explain why Thomaїs married at a later age than was expected of women in Byzantium. The couple lived together in Constantinople, they never had children and were of a lower socio-economic class – Stephen was a sailor and Thomaїs a weaver. She would sell the clothes she made, as well as give them to the poor.

Thomaїs was a victim of intimate partner violence throughout their marriage; Stephen would often beat her as punishment for her pious acts of charity, such as giving away their household income. Thomaїs was regularly out in the streets of Constantinople attending to the poor and visiting places of worship; it has been suggested that as a lower class woman, it was more acceptable for her to be out in public by herself. While imperial women were known for their acts of charity, this was often indirect, unlike Thomaїs who was "hands-on" when helping those in need. One example of her extreme charitable activity is when she came across a poor and naked man in the streets and so gave him the clothes off her back. Stephen, enraged by his wife's public nakedness, violently beat her. Thomaїs was a miracle worker, both while she was alive and after her death.

On 1 January, c. 947–951 CE, Thomaïs died aged 38 as a result of the "bodily sufferings" inflicted by Stephen over their thirteen year marriage. Thomaїs was buried in the grounds of the same convent, ta Mikra Romaiou (τὰ μικρὰ ´Ρωμαίου), that her mother, Kale, had held the position of superior. For forty days after her death, a series of miracles were posthumously attributed to Thomaïs. Upon witnessing her first posthumous miracle, the nuns moved the saint's remains into the church. The final recorded miracle is the healing of Stephen, who had been possessed by the devil as punishment for the abuse he inflicted on Thomaїs.

Miracles

In the version of Thomaїs's Life found in Acta Sanctorum Novembris and translated by Paul Halsall (1996), "Life of St. Thomaїs of Lesbos," in Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives in English Translation, ed. by Alice-Mary Talbot, 14 miracles are attributed to the saint.

Prehumous

During a religious procession a possessed man falls to the saint's feet and begs for the forgiveness of his sins. Thomaїs anoints the man with oil which heals him. This first miracle exposes the saint's virtuousness.

Thomaїs heals a eunuch, named Constantine, of paralysis and quinsy by anointing him with the same water she had just used to wash her own hands.

A possessed woman falls at the saint's feet while Thomaїs is at church, praying to an icon of the Virgin Mary. The woman is distraught and begs her for mercy, so Thomaїs heals her by anointing the woman with oil.

Thomaїs heals a sexually promiscuous woman, likely a sex worker, who suffered for six years of severe hemorrhaging. The saint heals the woman with oil, but only upon agreeing to the condition that she: "abandon all intercourse with men during the divine and great feasts, and <abandon also> the prohibited activities you habitually perform. Cast as far away as possible your wallowing in the mud of passions."

Another sex worker asks Thomaїs for help. The hagiographer emphasises the sexual immorality of this woman, as well as her further sins of material excess and greed. The saint heals the woman's breast cancer on the condition that she gets married and only has sexual intercourse with her husband.

Posthumous

A man who is possessed by a demon goes to Thomaїs's coffin and begs her for assistance. He is swiftly cured.

A nun is healed of demonic possession after hitting her own head on the saint's tomb.

A wealthy man of high birth and rank, named Eutychianos, was afflicted with palsy as a result of his immoral behaviour. This behaviour, however, had been caused by demons who had consorted with "sorcerers and wizards." Failing to gain a medical cure, Eutychianos is healed after visiting Thomaїs's tomb.

A man suffering from epilepsy and partial paralysis is cured when he visits the saint's tomb.

Thomaїs answers the prayers of an aggrieved fisherman, who had lost his fishing equipment and catch in a storm. Not only does she help him recover his nets, they are also filled with fish.

The nuns of the convent lose a prayer book. The saint reveals to them that the book can be found in her tomb.

A woman with severe abdominal pain goes to Thomaїs's tomb and is quickly cured.

A monk called Symeon is upset after loosing his prayer stool. Thomaїs reminds the monk to whom he had last lent the stool, a friend who had no intention of returning it, and it is recovered.

Thomaїs's husband, Stephen, is possessed by a demon and tormented as punishment for abusing the saint. Stephen seeks healing from Thomaїs at her tomb and is cured.

Legacy

Saint Thomaïs is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as an example of piety in married life. She is recognized for attaining sainthood while living as a married laywoman rather than as a monastic or hermit. Accounts of her life also emphasize her endurance of spousal abuse, charitable activities, and reported miracles.

Type of saint

The life of St. Thomaїs is frequently compared with that of Saint Mary the Younger (c. 800 CE), both of which are Byzantine woman saints whose sanctity diverges from that of their predecessors: predominantly nuns and ascetics. Instead, the Lives of Thomaїs and Mary as married laywomen are rare, promoting the "sanctification of relatively ordinary married women […] outside of the confines of a hermitage or convent."

Endurance of domestic abuse

Paul Halsall argues that Thomaїs's pious acts of charity alone are not extraordinary enough to account for her sainthood. Rather it is her endurance of domestic violence which underpins her sanctity as well as her legacy as a martyr. Moreover, he suggests that the saint's overall resistance to marriage and her childlessness shows "a continuing conflict between the ideals of domesticity and the ideals of sanctity" in Byzantine society.

Domestic violence in the lives of saints was not necessarily new in this period. As well as Saint Mary the Younger, comparisons have been made to the Life of Saint Matrona of Perge (c. 400 CE), whose husband, Dometianos, was also abusive in response to her charitable acts outside of the home; he thought these were a smokescreen for illicit sex. Matrona, however, fled and joined a monastic community, living as a monk under the name Babylas. The lives of Thomaїs and Mary as victims of domestic abuse have also been compared to a contemporaneous life of the male saint, Philaretos the Merciful (c. 800 CE), who was verbally abused by his wife as a result of his pious charity, which she perceived as a detriment to their household.

Cult

A significant cult of St. Thomaїs never developed, she was not included in the Synaxarion of Constantinople, nor is there evidence of any iconography. However, Talbot has suggested that there was a local cult among ordinary women, because the saint was more imitable as a married laywoman. Moreover, it is possible that her cult garnered more attention in the late-Byzantine period, around c.1300 CE, due to new versions of the life appearing, and the existence of a well preserved manuscript from that period, which contains both versions of her Vita.

Renewed interest

In the 14th century, the Palaiologan period, there was a renewed interest in the life of St. Thomaїs, with three new hagiographical works.

Enkomion of St. Thomaїs, written by an anonymous author, who claims that his headache was cured at the saint's tomb.

Constantine Akropolites, who died in c.1324 CE, wrote a new version of the Life.

A metrical Synaxarion which recounts, in verse rather than prose, Thomaїs's life. It includes her endurance of domestic abuse and the same basic facts and events from her life that can be found in her earlier hagiographies.

Present-day

Saint Thomaїs of Lesbos is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day. Her feast day is celebrated on 3 January. Thomaїs is considered a "Patron Saint of Marriage."

Hagiographical texts

Four hagiographical works on the life of Saint Thomaїs of Lesbos have been catalogued in the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (BHG). The earliest attested version of the Life – BHG 2454 – is considered the primary vita and is estimated to have been composed around the mid-10th century. The other three, BHG 2455-57, are later versions, composed in the 14th century.

Editions

BHG 2454 - "Vita S. Thomaidis." Hippolyte Delehaye (ed.). In Acta Sanctorum Novembris. 4. Societe des Bollandistes. 1925: pp. 234–242.

BHG 2455 - "Vita S. Thomaidis." in Halkin, François (ed.). Hagiologie byzantine: textes inedits publies en grec et traduits en francais. Subsidia Hagiographica no. 71. Société des Bollandistes. 1986: pp. 185–219.

BHG 2456 - "Ἡ ἁγία Θωμαῒς ἡ Λεσβία." Phountoulis, Ioannis. M. (ed.). Poimen. 27.1962: pp. 8–10.

BHG 2457 - Akropolites, Constantine, "Laudatio S. Thomaidis". Delehaye, Hippolyte (ed.). In Acta Sanctorum Novembris. 4. Societe des Bollandistes. 1925: pp. 242–246.