Comasia

Holy Martyr Comasia is a Roman martyr, between the second and the fourth century, patroness of the town of Martina Franca in Apulia, together with Saint Martin of Tours.

No written sources about her have survived. The saint's body, found in the catacombs of Saint Agnes on the Via Nomentana, was given in 1646, with the blessing of Pope Innocent X, by Cardinal Sacrati, keeper of the cemetery of the martyrs, to the inhabitants of Martina Franca. The papal letter that accompanied the body, dated 10 September 1645, is kept with the relics in the collegiate church of Saint Martin of the town. In case of drought prayers are made to her and processions are held with her relics, which once arrived from Rome in a torrential rain; in a torrential rain too a silver statue of the saint arrived from Naples in 1714. Until recently the name Comasia was very common among the women of the town. Her commemoration is kept on 5 November. She is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured in the Catholic Church, without synodal canonization.