Martina of Rome

Saint Martina of Rome was a Christian virgin, put to death for Christ in 226 or 228, in the persecution under Alexander Severus. She is one of the patron saints of Rome.

Her life portrays her as a noble and beautiful virgin, the daughter of a former consul, orphaned at an early age. She testified so openly to her faith that she could not escape the persecution. Arrested and commanded to return to idols, she refused and was subjected to various tortures: she was scourged, condemned to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, which did not touch her, then thrown on a burning pyre, from which she escaped unhurt, and finally beheaded. Her life says that some of her executioners also became Christians and were themselves beheaded.

Her martyrdom took place at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, but her body was brought to Rome, where a church near the Mamertine Prison is dedicated to her; in the seventeenth century, when buried remains were found, Pope Urban VIII had the church repaired. She is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 30 January (new style).