Matrona of Thessalonica

Saint Matrona of Thessalonica was a young Christian slave girl of Thessalonica who died for her faith in Christ in the third or fourth century. The Orthodox Church remembers her on 27 March, and she is also honoured in the Roman Catholic Church, above all in Barcelona, where her feast is 15 March. In Barcelona she is patron of the city together with Saint Eulalia.

Matrona was the slave of Pautila (or Pantilla), a Jewish woman, wife of one of the military commanders of Thessalonica. She had been a Christian from her youth. Her mistress constantly tried to turn her toward Judaism, but Matrona prayed to Christ in secret and went to church in secret. When Pautila found out, she asked why Matrona did not go to the synagogue. According to her Life, Matrona answered that God is present in the Christian Church, but has withdrawn from the synagogue. Enraged, her mistress beat her, bound her and locked her in a dark room. In the morning she found her freed from her bonds. She beat her nearly to death again, bound her more tightly and locked her in, sealing the doors. For four days Matrona was without water or food, and Pautila found her once more unbound and at prayer. Struck again with clubs, Matrona gave up her soul to God. Her body was thrown down from her mistress's house. The Christians took it and buried it with honour outside the city walls, by the road.

Bishop Alexander of Thessalonica, the first bishop after the Edict of Milan of 313, moved her relics and built a church in her name, which is mentioned in the seventh century in the Miracles of Saint Demetrius. It is told that Pautila slipped from the place where the body had been thrown and fell to the ground. Outside the walls there was also a monastery dedicated to her, burned in the Slavic attack of 618 and rebuilt later.

Around 992 her relics were loaded onto a ship for Marseille, but a storm carried the vessel to Barcelona. There they were first placed in the church of Saint Fructuosus on Montjuïc, called "Santa Madrona" by 1403. In 1558 a new church dedicated to her was consecrated on Montjuïc, destroyed in 1713 during the War of the Spanish Succession. She is honoured in Barcelona and other places in Catalonia, and a hermitage on Montjuïc and churches at Madrona and Móra d'Ebre bear her name.