Petronilla

Saint Petronilla was a Christian virgin of Rome, venerated as a martyr from antiquity, who died at the end of the first century or, according to some, in the third century. An old tradition regards her as the daughter of the Holy Apostle Peter, but more recent research shows that she was not a daughter in the flesh. She is commemorated on 31 May.

Who she was Petronilla was regarded as Peter's daughter, perhaps because of the similarity of the names. It is believed that she may have been a convert of the apostle, that is a spiritual daughter, or a disciple or servant of his. It is told that Peter healed her of palsy. More recent research has shown that she belonged to the Roman family of the Aurelii; the mistake arose from a misunderstanding of an inscription. An inscription from her sarcophagus, preserved in the Liber Pontificalis, reads, to the golden Petronilla, sweetest daughter, and notes from the sixteenth century read the first word as Aureliae, whence the name Aurelia Petronilla. The name Petronilla comes from Petro or Petronius, and since the grandfather or great-⁠grandfather of the Christian consul Titus Flavius Clemens was called Titus Flavius Petro, it is very possible that she was related to the Christian Flavii. This would also explain why she was buried in the catacomb of Domitilla.

In stories connected with her it is said that she was so beautiful that Peter shut her in a tower to protect her from suitors, and that a pagan king, Flaccus, wishing to marry her, caused her to go on a hunger strike, of which she died.

Tomb and veneration Almost all the lists of the sixth and seventh centuries of the tombs of the great martyrs of Rome mention Petronilla's tomb on the Via Ardeatina, near Saints Nereus and Achilleus. The excavations in the catacomb of Domitilla confirmed this. In the catacomb her church was found, in which Nereus and Achilleus were also buried. In a crypt behind the altar of the basilica a painting was found on the stone of a tomb in which Petronilla receives into heaven a woman named Veneranda, with the inscription Petronilla Mart(yr); the painting was made shortly after 356. It is therefore clear that in the fourth century Petronilla was venerated in Rome as a martyr. The marble sarcophagus with her relics was moved to the basilica of Saint Peter in the time of Pope Paul I. Later it was found in her chapel in the old basilica, in the time of Pope Sixtus IV.

In the stories about Saints Nereus and Achilleus and in the Liber Pontificalis she appears as a virgin rather than as a martyr. Her veneration spread widely after the building of the basilica, in the fourth century. She is commemorated on 31 May.