Maxentia

Saint Maxentia (Maxence) of Beauvais was an Irish virgin and hermit of the 5th century, beheaded because she refused to marry. She was, in some accounts, a princess from Scotland, a daughter of King Malcon, converted by Saint Patrick, or, in others, from Ireland.

To keep her virginity, which she had consecrated to God by vow, she fled to France and lived as a hermit on the bank of the Oise near Senlis, in the diocese of Beauvais. The pagan chieftain who had sought her as a bride tracked her down and found her at Pont-⁠Sainte-⁠Maxence; she refused again to marry him, and he cut off her head. In the tradition, Maxentia is counted among the cephalophores (head-⁠bearing saints). Other details are not reliable. Her day is 20 November, by the Western calendar (new style). She is honored as a saint of the undivided Church.