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Fusca was a fifteen-year-old girl of Ravenna who, with her nurse Maura, was taught the faith and baptized.

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February 13 · Martyrs

Sts. Fusca and Maura

Sts. Fusca and Maura

Fusca was a fifteen-year-old girl of Ravenna who, with her nurse Maura, was taught the faith and baptized.

Traditional feast

February 13
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

February 13
Secondary source · Wikipedia

Represents

Martyrs

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Baring-Gould (1897) · original text below · little is known

Fusca was a fifteen-year-old girl of Ravenna who, with her nurse Maura, was taught the faith and baptized. Her pagan parents tried persuasion and threats to turn her back; once her father rushed to strike her, but her mother held him back.

The prefect Quintianus heard of her conversion and had her and Maura brought before him. He had Fusca scourged and run through with a spear. She fell into Maura's arms, and the old nurse begged to die with her; she was killed too. Their relics are at Torcelli, and in art they hold a spear.

Early life

Selected sentences from the original account, unaltered.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 165 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

THE blessed Fusca was a young girl of Ravenna, aged fifteen, who, with her nurse Maura, had been instructed in the faith of Christ, and had been baptized by S. Hermolaus. Her parents, who were heathens, were exceedingly annoyed, and endeavoured by persuasion and threats to turn their daughter from her confidence in God; and on one occasion her father was so far exasperated as to rush upon her to strike her, but the mother interposed and restrained him. The maiden fell into the arms of Maura, and the old woman, clasping her bleeding mistress, implored the man to despatch her also; this request was readily complied with, and the nurse and her young charge died together.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Stay faithful when it costs you. This account is about holding firm under pressure.

Share your faith, in words and by example. Preaching and conversion are central here.

Read more

The full original · 165 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. It is doubtful whether these martyrs suffered under Caracalla, or under Decius. The Roman Martyrology says "under Decius;" the Acts are silent on this point. Baronius says under Decius, in the year 254; but Decius fell in 251. There exist several editions of the Acts, all apparently derived from the original authentic account of their passion, and differing from one another in no important particular.

THE blessed Fusca was a young girl of Ravenna, aged fifteen, who, with her nurse Maura, had been instructed in the faith of Christ, and had been baptized by S. Hermolaus. Her parents, who were heathens, were exceedingly annoyed, and endeavoured by persuasion and threats to turn their daughter from her confidence in God; and on one occasion her father was so far exasperated as to rush upon her to strike her, but the mother interposed and restrained him. The Præfect Quintianus, hearing of the conversion of Fusca, sent for her, together with her nurse, and having scourged her, ordered the executioner to run her through with his spear. The maiden fell into the arms of Maura, and the old woman, clasping her bleeding mistress, implored the man to despatch her also; this request was readily complied with, and the nurse and her young charge died together.

The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of these holy martyrs are preserved at Torcelli. In Art they are represented holding a spear.

Feast days

Feast: February 13

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from Sts. Fusca and Maura's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on February 13
St. Polyeuctus

St. Polyeuctus

February 13 · Martyr
C

St. Castor

February 13 · Priest, Confessor
M

St. Martian

February 13 · Hermit
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897), digitized text from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897), digitized text from Project Gutenberg. Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.