Mustiola

Mustiola was a martyr of Chiusi in Tuscany, in the third century. She is commemorated on 3 July and on 23 November. Her story rests on tradition, and the source adds a fanciful part. Our sources show her venerated at Chiusi, not in the calendar of the Orthodox Church.

According to tradition, a Christian named Irenaeus was seized because he had buried another Christian, who had just received the death of a martyr. Irenaeus was brought to Chiusi, where Saint Mustiola came to his aid, a cousin of the emperor Claudius II, whose betrothed, Lucius, had been put to death by the emperor Aurelian because he was a Christian. In a fanciful account by Adamo Rossi of Perugia, a ring of Saint Joseph and of the Most Holy Mother of God was given to Saint Mustiola. The theft of this ring is linked to a known episode of the fourteenth century.

Mustiola was also seized and, after Irenaeus had received the death of a martyr, she was beaten to death. It is said that, trying to flee from the Roman guard, she crossed Lake Chiusi using her cloak as a boat. It is also said that every year, on 3 April, at dawn, the trace of the saint's cloak can be seen on the shore of the lake.

She was buried in 274 in a tomb raised in her honor. Then her coffin was moved to the cathedral of Saint Secundianus.