Basilla of Rome

Saint Basilla of Rome, virgin-⁠martyr, was a young woman of Rome in the early Christian centuries, whom the Church commemorates on 20 May. The Orthodox calendars of Western saints place her martyrdom in the year 304, in the time of the great persecution under Diocletian, while other early sources set it earlier, under the emperor Valerian, around 257.

According to tradition, Basilla came from a noble Roman family; some accounts even make her a relative of the emperor Gallienus. Coming to faith in Christ, she received holy Baptism. She was betrothed to a pagan patrician named Pompeius, a man of her own rank, but once she had become a Christian she refused to marry him, wishing to remain a virgin dedicated to Christ.

One of her maids reported that her mistress was a Christian. Pompeius, seeing that his betrothed would not change her mind, denounced her to the authorities. Brought to trial, Basilla would not deny her faith and was condemned to be beheaded. So she received the crown of martyrdom.

Her body was buried on the Via Salaria near Rome, in the cemetery and catacombs of Saint Hermes. Some scholars hold that the cemetery was her own property. In the ninth century her relics were moved to the basilica of Saint Praxedes in Rome, and in 1654 relics honoured as hers were laid to rest at Bayeux in France.

She is venerated as a martyr both in the West and by the Orthodox who keep the memory of the saints of Rome from before the separation of the Churches. Her feast is kept on 20 May.