B

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

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September 3 · Virgin, Martyr

St. Basilissa

St. Basilissa

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

September 3
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Virgin
Martyr

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 0 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

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

Keep their day. Remember them on September 3 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 0 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology, adopted from the Greek Mensea and Menology, by Baronius. Authority: — Mention in the Mensea.] S. Basilissa was a little Christian child at Nicomedia, of nine years old, who was beaten, and then thrown to lions in the amphitheatre; as the beasts would not touch the child, she was taken away, the executioners carried her out of the city, and when she implored to be allowed to rest awhile, they placed her on a stone; she struggled to her feet, spread out her little arms in prayer, and her innocent spirit fled. The judge who had sentenced her, Alexander by name, is said to have been so shaken by the resolution and faith of the child, that he became a Christian and suffered martyrdom. But this is probably a late addition to the story, it is only found in the later and amplified narratives.

Feast days

Feast: September 3

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

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

Also on September 3
P

St. Phcebe

September 3 · Feast
St. Mansuetus

St. Mansuetus

September 3 · Bishop
M

St. Macniss of Connor

September 3 · Bishop
← 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, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). 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.