«Деревья были высотой с кипарис, а их листва непрерывно опадала»
„The height of the trees was like that of cypress trees, and their leaves were falling without ceasing”

Author(s): Nina Braginskaya
Subject(s): Media studies, Studies of Literature, Communication studies, Theory of Communication, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis; prophetic dream; martyrs in the paradise; trees of rose; mystic Rosalia
Summary/Abstract: The article explores a difficult passage from "Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis" (ΧΙ, 5-6, Satur’s description of the staying of the executed martyrs in paradise). The bewilderment of publishers and translators is caused by the spectacle of the trees that lose their leaves in the Garden of Eden, instead of eternal blossom or bearing fruit, which was the topic of “heavenly text”. As a way out, they chose the marginal reading “the leaves were on fire” or the conjecture “the leaves were singing”. However we are not talking about the species of rosewood, but about the unprecedented huge not bush but tree of the rose, which continuously drops fragrant petals, never exposing the branches. In the practice of Romans, a shower with rose petals correlated with both – the solemn glorification of the triumphant and the mourning commemoration of the departed, called Rosalia, since the grave, crypt, monument were decorated with roses. In the Passio the grave meeting of the living, who remained on earth, and the souls of the dead martyrs, takes place in the Eden under the shade of a rose tree, which is mystically identical to visiting their graves decorated by rose bushes.

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