Anthousa d'Antioche
IVe siècle
The voice of a mother who dares to say what she carries, without demanding anything.
Who was Anthousa d'Antioche?
Widowed at twenty in Antioch, with an infant, she refused to remarry and raised her son alone; he would become John Chrysostom. It was she who had him given the best education in the city. When he wanted to leave for the desert she spoke to him, and he set her words down himself: that is almost all history keeps of her, and it is enough.
In their own words
My child, it was not the will of Heaven that I should long enjoy the benefit of thy father's virtue.
I held on as I was, in the midst of the storm and uproar, and did not shun the iron furnace of widowhood.
None of these things, however, induced me to enter into a second marriage, or introduce a second husband into thy father's house.
Do not plunge me into a second widowhood; nor revive the grief which is now laid to rest.