Justina

Saint Justina of Lentini was a noblewoman of Lentini in Sicily, regarded as co-⁠founder of Christian veneration in the town together with her cousin Thecla. According to tradition, she died on 10 January 262.

Justina was brought up in the Christian faith and had weak sight, while Thecla had been paralysed for years. When the martyrs Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyrinus were arrested and imprisoned at Lentini, the two women learned of them, prayed together with the three brothers and with Saint Andrew, and received healing: Thecla regained movement and Justina her sight. In gratitude they supported the martyrs with material and spiritual help until their martyrdom, on 10 May 253. After their death the two cousins saw to their burial in a place called Strubilino, where a church was afterwards built, and they founded other churches, among them one dedicated to the Mother of God. They gave much alms to the poor and orphans.

Justina died at Lentini on 10 January 262, and Thecla two years after her. They were buried beside the martyrs in the church of Saint Alphius. Their veneration was officially approved for Lentini in 1610 by Pope Paul V. She is venerated in the Catholic Church and, according to some sources, in the Orthodox Church, as a saint of the undivided Church.