Crispina

Holy Martyr Crispina of North Africa was a woman of Thacora (Tagora), condemned for the Christian faith at Theveste (Tebessa) in December 304, in the persecution of Diocletian. She is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured in the West and in the East.

The proconsul Annius Anullinus tried her and asked whether she knew that the law required her to offer sacrifice to the gods for the welfare of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Crispina answered that she did not know the decree, that her Christian faith did not allow her to sacrifice to false gods, that she knew no other God than the One worshipped by Christians, and that she would never offer sacrifice to demons. The proconsul told her that the whole province of Africa had submitted and threatened her with torture, and she answered that she would gladly endure it for Christ. He told her she would be forced to bow to the idols and offer incense, and she said she would never do so as long as she lived. When the proconsul said she could live long or die in agony before being beheaded, she answered that she would thank God if she obtained this, and that she would gladly lose her head for the Lord, for she refused to sacrifice to those deaf and dumb statues.

Anullinus lost patience and ordered the record of the trial to be read, then pronounced sentence: death by the sword, since Crispina persisted in her superstition and refused to sacrifice to the gods according to the law. The Saint said: "Thanks be to God, Who has deigned to free me from your hands." She made the sign of the Cross and stretched out her neck to the executioner. She was beheaded on 5 December 304, in accordance with the fourth edict of Diocletian. Saint Augustine mentions her in Sermons 286 and 354.