Justina of Padua, St

Justina Of Padua, St.

patroness of Padua, and, together with St. Mark, of Venice also. According to the hagiographers she was a native of the former city, and suffered martyrdom there in 304, under Diocletian, and according to others under Nero. We have no details on the event, however. Her relics, which were lost, were recovered (?) in 1177, and are preserved in a church of Padua which bears her name. In 1417 a convent of Benedictines in the neighborhood reformed their rules, taking the name of Congregation of St. Justina of Padua. This reform was followed by another in 1498, under the care of Luigi Barbo, a Venetian senator, whom pope Alexander VI created first abbot of the order. The congregation spread, and the monastery of Mount Cassin, having joined it in 1504, was made its headquarters by Julius II. Moreri considers the legend of this saint's miracles as fabulous, yet the Roman Church commemorates her on the 7th of October. See Tillemont, Hist. de la Persecution de Diocletian, art. 55; Baillet, Vies des Saints, Oct. 7th. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gener. 27, 310.

emperor of the East, was born in 483 of an obscure family. He shared the fortunes of his uncle Justin, who, from a common Thracian peasant, was raised to the imperial throne, and, after the death of his uncle, Aug. 1, 527, was himself proclaimed emperor. He obtained great military successes over the Persians. through his celebrated general Belisarius, destroyed the empire of the Vandals in Africa, and put an end to the dominion of the Ostrogoths in Italy, which successes restored to the Roman empire a part of its vast possessions. But Justinian was by no means satisfied with the renown of a conqueror. Learned, unweariedly active, and ecclesiastically devout, he aspired to the united renown of a lawgivers theologian, and champion of the genuine Christian orthodoxy as well; and his, in some respects, brilliant reign of nearly thirty years is marked by earnest though unsuccessful efforts to establish the "true faith" for all time to come. Indeed, he regarded it as his especial mission to compel a general uniformity of Christian belief and practice, but by his persistency only increased the divisions in church, and state, as he was greatly misguided by his famous wife, who, though animated by great zeal for the Church, was blindly devoted to the Monophysites. Yet, however unfortunate the efforts of Justinian in behalf of Christian orthodoxy resulted, so much is certain, that his aim was noble and lofty, and that he was actuated by the holiest of purposes. It is said of him that he spent whole nights in prayer and fasting, and in theological studies and discussions, and that he placed his throne under the especial protection of the Virgin Mary and the archangel Michael, He adorned the capital and the provinces with costly temples and institutions of charity. Among the churches which he rebuilt was that of St. Sophia at Constantinople, which had been burned in one of the civil commotions. This church is esteemed a masterpiece of architecture. The altar was entirely of gold and silver, and adorned with a vast number and variety of precious stones. It was by this emperor that the fifth (Ecumenical Council was convened at Constantinople (A.D. 553) to secure the end for which Justinian was personally laboring — the union of the Church and the extirpation of heresies. His fame, however, rests chiefly on his great ability as legislator. Determined to collect all previous legislative Roman enactments, he entrusted to a number of the ablest lawyers of Rome, under the direction of the renowned Tribonianus, the task of a complete revision and digested collection of the Roman law from the time of Hadrian to his own reign; and thus arose, after the short lapse of seven years, the celebrated Codex Justinianeus, "which thenceforth became the universal law of the Roman empire, the sole text book in the academies at Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus, and the basis of the legal relations of the greater part of Christian Europe to this day." This body of Roman law, which is "an important source of our knowledge of the Christian life in its relations to the state and its influence upon it," opens with the imperial creed on the Trinity (for which, see Schaff, Church History, 3, 769) and the imperial anathema against the prominent Christian heretics. The whole collections of Justinian are now known under the style of Corpus Juris Civilis. The editions with Gothofredus' notes are much esteemed. The four books of Justinian's Institutions were translated into English, with notes, by George Harris, LL.D. (Lond. 2d ed. 1761, 4to, Lat. and Engl.). Justinian also wrote a libellus confessionis fidei, and a hymn:( ὁμογενης υἱος και λογος του θεου, etc.). (J.H.W.)