Firmina

Saint Firmina the Martyr was a Christian virgin of the early centuries, patron of the city of Civitavecchia. The cathedral of Amelia is dedicated to her. The Church remembers her on 24 November.

She is said to have lived in the third century and to have suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian, around 304, but all we know of her comes from a Life written no earlier than the sixth century, supplemented by later oral traditions sometimes at variance. In the simplest form of the legend she was of high rank: her father, Calpurnius, was prefect of Rome. Olympiadis, a high official, tried to seduce her but was brought by her to the Christian faith and was put to death for it. She left her family and devoted herself to prayer in seclusion near the city of Amelia in Umbria, where she suffered martyrdom and was buried. Other versions say she was killed and buried at Civitavecchia.

Many miracles are attributed to her, among them the calming of a violent storm during a sea crossing to Centumcellae, now Civitavecchia. She is said to have lived for a time in a cave near the port. She is often linked with two other virgin martyrs of Umbria, Felicissima and Illuminata. It has been suggested that all three are local cults of one saint, the African martyr Firmina named in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum in October. Her burial at Amelia is celebrated on 24 November, and at Civitavecchia on 20 December, but the procession at Civitavecchia is held on 28 April. Her statue is carried to the harbour and placed on a ship, while the other vessels sound their horns. At Amelia the procession follows the city's statutes of 1346. Her emblem is the martyr's palm.