Saint Natsanet
| Saint Natsanet | |
| Founder of Alexandrian Nazarenism | |
| Veneration | |
|---|---|
| Venerated in | Autocephalous Nazarene Church of Alexandria |
| Feast day | Feast Day of St. Natsanet, kept at sunrise |
| Attributes | The four scrolls; shown receiving them at the Markion River; the patriarchal cross |
| Patronage | Alexandrian Nazarenism and its converts |
| Major shrine | Archbasilica of St. Natsanet, Markion City |
| Life | |
| Born |
Ertra |
| Cause of death | Poisoning, on her twenty-first birthday (martyrdom) |
| Resting place | Archbasilica of St. Natsanet, Markion City |
| Known for | Receiving the four scrolls of Holy Scripture; the Baptism of the Four Hundred |
Saint Natsanet was the founder of Alexandrian Nazarenism, the tradition of the Autocephalous Nazarene Church of Alexandria, and is venerated as its first and greatest saint. According to the tradition of the Church, she was a princess of Ertra who discovered the four scrolls of Holy Scripture at the Markion River, baptised several hundred followers into the new faith, and was put to death for it on her twenty-first birthday. Her body and the scrolls were carried to safety by her servant Esdras and three companions, who became the Four Patriarchs and carried the faith out into the world.
She is the central figure of Alexandrian Nazarene belief, and the Church holds that it preserves the faith and scripture revealed to her. Her feast is kept with services at sunrise, and the governing seat of the Church, the Holy See of St. Natsanet, bears her name.
Life
The life of Saint Natsanet is known through the hagiographic tradition of the Church, which sets it in the years before the founding of the Imperial Church. The account below follows that tradition.
Origins
Natsanet was born a princess in the ancient land of Ertra, the only daughter and heir of its royal house, which claimed descent from the divine and was worshipped by its people. She was raised to succeed to the Ertitite throne and, with it, to the veneration owed her family.
The four scrolls
On her eighteenth birthday Natsanet set out on a tour of the known world. In the twelfth month of her journey she came to Markion City, near the site of present-day Geneva, and while bathing in the Markion River with her servants she found a basket among the reeds holding four scrolls. That night, the tradition holds, she received a vision of Jesus Christ, who told her that the scrolls were Holy Scripture: the Psalms and Proverbs, the writings of an ancient people; the Gospel, of his own works as the Son of God; and the Revelations, of his works to come. He called on her to renounce her own divinity and to serve him instead.
The Baptism of the Four Hundred
The next morning at sunrise Natsanet gathered her servants and several hundred people of Markion City on the riverbank and preached to them the faith she had received, baptising more than four hundred new believers. This event, remembered as the Baptism of the Four Hundred, is the reason services are held at sunrise on her feast day. She remained in the city for a month and then spent two years preaching, baptising, and, according to tradition, working miracles in Christ's name before returning to Ertra.
Martyrdom
On her return Natsanet's father was appalled that she had renounced the divinity of their house, and he demanded that she recant. When she refused and continued to preach, she was condemned to death and killed by poison at midnight on her twenty-first birthday. Her father ordered that her body and the four scrolls be burned in public the following morning.
The scrolls and the Four Patriarchs
Before dawn a faithful servant named Esdras stole away with the body and the scrolls. With three companions, Jacobus, Thaddaeus, and Zacchaus, he bore them back toward Markion City over travels said to have lasted a year, during which the body of the saint did not decay and was held to be the source of many miracles. The companions transcribed four copies of each scroll, buried the originals with the saint, and raised an altar over the grave; that altar became the Archbasilica of St. Natsanet in Markion City, the holiest site of the faith.
The four were afterward remembered as the Four Patriarchs. Esdras was consecrated the first Bishop of Markion City and Patriarch of the West and received the Keys, the emblem of the Church's authority; Zacchaus became the first Bishop of Ertra and Patriarch of the East; Jacobus, Patriarch of the Near East; and Thaddaeus, Patriarch of the Near West. From them the apostolic succession of the Church is traced.
Veneration
Saint Natsanet is venerated as the founder-saint of the Alexandrian Nazarene Church. Her feast, the Feast Day of St. Natsanet, is marked by services held at sunrise in memory of the Baptism of the Four Hundred. In art she is shown receiving the four scrolls at the Markion River, often with the double-barred patriarchal cross of the Church.
Two of the Church's symbols bear her name: the Seal of St. Natsanet, a circular emblem showing the saint receiving the scrolls, used to authenticate official documents; and the Creed of St. Natsanet, the statement of the faith. The Holy See of St. Natsanet, the governing seat of the Church under the Archbishop of Geneva, is likewise named for her.
Legacy
As founder of Alexandrian Nazarenism, Saint Natsanet is honoured throughout the Alexandrian Nazarene world. Her relics rest at the Archbasilica that bears her name in Markion City, and altars and oratories are dedicated to her across the Church, among them the Oratory of Saint Natsanet in the San Sebastian Cathedral of Cárdenas. The University of St. Natsanet and the Seminary of St. Natsanet at Dos Gardenias, and the Collegium Sancti Natsanet at Geneva, carry her name into the learning of the Church.
