Devota of Corsica

Saint Devota of Corsica was a virgin who suffered for Christ in the time of Diocletian's persecution, around 303. She is the patron of Corsica and of the Principality of Monaco.

According to tradition she was born around 283 at Mariana in northeastern Corsica and gave herself wholly to the service of God. She lived in the household of the senator Eutychius. When the prefect Barbarus arrived on the island with a fleet and learned that the senator was sheltering a Christian, he demanded that she be handed over to be forced to sacrifice to the emperor. Eutychius refused and was poisoned; Devota was imprisoned and tortured, and died under torment, either racked or stoned.

The governor ordered her body to be burnt, so that it should not be venerated, but Christians saved it from the fire and placed it in a boat bound for Africa, piloted by Gratianus, with a priest, Benedict, and a deacon, Apollinaris, so that it might find a Christian burial there. A storm overtook the boat; a dove guided it to Les Gaumates, today part of Monaco, where a chapel of Saint George stood. A chapel was built there in her honour. Tradition says that flowers bloom before their season on her feast, 27 January.

The chapel of Sainte-⁠Devote is first mentioned around 1070 and became the parish church in 1887. Her relics were taken to the monastery of Cimiez during Moorish incursions and later brought back to Monaco. The legend of Saint Devota is one of the oldest traditions of the Principality. She is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 27 January (new style).