Baring-Gould’s sources: The so-called S. Jerome's Martyrology. Modern Roman Martyrology. Floras' additions to Bede. Usuardus, Ado, Wandelbert. Authority The Acts, which arc utterly fabulous and untrustworthy. A mere romance.] the reign of the Emperor Decius there lived in Rome two Christian damsels, Victoria and Anatholia, who were sought in marriage by two noble heathens, Eugenius and Aurelius Titus, and betrothed to them. But when the young men urged on the marriage, in the night the maiden Anatholia dreamt ~ that she saw an angel bearing a rich crown, and holding it before her eyes, he told her that this was the crown of virginity, and asked if she was disposed to relinquish it Moved by this vision, Anatholia refused to proceed to marriage, in spite of the entreaties of Aurelius, of his friend Eugenius, and her sister Victoria. To the latter she revealed her vision, and Victoria at once embraced the resolution to shake off her suitor, and dedicate herself to perpetual vixginity. The two young men, who had been formally betrothed to C l®iy f.

…the damsels, were not satisfied, and removed their brides to their country houses; Eugenius took Victoria to Tribulanum, and Aurelius placed Anatholia in Thora. Diodorus, the governor of the district in which Anatholia found herself, had a son named Anianus, who was possessed with a devil The virgin expelled the demon, and healed Anianus, whereat Diodorus, instead of being grateful, was filled with rage, and sent one named Festianus to make Anatholia either sacrifice or surrender herself to death. Anatholia, proving constant in her faith, was delivered up by Festianus to a jailor, named Audax, with orders that she should be enclosed for a night in a narrow dungeon with a large poisonous serpent.

The door was closed on the virgin, and in the darkness she heard the hissing of the huge reptile, and saw the green flash of its eyes. She prayed to God, and the venemous beast glided away from the cell without hurting her. On seeing which, Audax believed, and confessed Christ boldly before Festianus, who ordered him to be decapitated; Anatholia was run through with a sword. The body of S. Anatholia is preserved in the church of the village of that name near Pisa, but the lower jaw and two fingers have been removed to the church of S. Maria Maggiore at Rome. The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Audax at Subiaco. The relics of the two saints were discovered in the pontificate of Benedict VII., between 975 and 984, in the following manner: — Some hunters observed their dogs bark furiously, and avoid a certain spot in the wood at Thora. They communicated the feet to the abbot of Subiaco, who ordered the place to be examined, and two skeletons were discovered. In a dream he was informed of the names of those who had been exhumed, and that they were saints, and probably the Acts are the fruit of the same revelations.