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Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

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March 27 · Virgin, Martyr

St. Augusta

St. Augusta

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

March 27
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Virgin
Martyr

Early life

Selected sentences from the original account, unaltered.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 196 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

He had a daughter named Augusta, young and fair, and her heart turned from the fierce gods of Germany to the Christ whom the bruised and suffering people of Serravalle adored, and to His spotless Mother, so pure and loving.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

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

Pray a little every day. Prayer runs all through this account.

Learn from the kind of life it was. Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Read more

The full original · 196 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Ferrarius, in his Catalogue of Saints. Not in the Roman Martyrology. Venerated at Serravalle, near Ceneda, on the Piavia. There is at Serravalle a church on a hill-top, containing her relics, and to this pilgrimages are made on August 1st, the day of the translation of her relics, but the anniversary of her martyrdom is March 27th, and that of the invention of her relics in Aug. 22nd. The story of this saint is purely traditional.

There was once upon a time, when the Roman empire was tottering to its decline, a certain duke of Friuli, named Matrucus, of Gothic race, who built for himself a great castle on the mountain dominating Serravalle, the ruins of which remain to this day. Now the people of that part were Christians, but Matrucus was a heathen. He had a daughter named Augusta, young and fair, and her heart turned from the fierce gods of Germany to the Christ whom the bruised and suffering people of Serravalle adored, and to His spotless Mother, so pure and loving. And she sought means of receiving instruction, and was baptized secretly. Now there were many things in his daughter's conduct which roused suspicion in the mind of Matrucus, and he set spies to watch her. One day, he was told that she was in the church praying, and he rushed in upon her, dragged her forth, and locked her up in a chamber of the castle. In ungovernable fury he afterwards beat out her teeth, and executed her with his sword, reproaching her with having despised the gods of their ancestors and degraded the honour of his house.

Feast days

Feast: March 27

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

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

Also on March 27
Sts. Philetus, Lydia and Companions

Sts. Philetus

March 27 · Martyrs
St. John of Egypt

St. John of Egypt

March 27 · Hermit
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St. Matthew of Beauvais

March 27 · Martyr
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day 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.