Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.
December 3
December 2
Virgin
Martyr
What is certain is that Pope Simplicius consecrated a basilica in Rome holding the body of the martyr Bibiana, and it still stands. Nothing more is known historically.
Legend: she was the daughter of Flavianus and Dafrosa, persecuted under Julian the Apostate (emperor 361–363, raised Christian, who tried to restore paganism). She buried her mother and sister in their own house, then died under torture, and the house later became her church.
Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 128 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.
…been in vain solicited to evil by an old woman to whom she was confided, was tied to a pillar and scourged to death. Either there had been such a martyr in an earlier persecution, which is probable, or the romance which passes as her acts had acquired sufficient credence to impose on a pope a century later. For it would appear that Pope Simplicius built a church over her remains, near the Licinian palace.
Stay faithful when it costs you. This account is about holding firm under pressure.
Learn from the kind of life it was. Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.
The earliest mention in an authentic historical authority of St. Bibiana (Vibiana), a Roman female martyr, occurs in the "Liber Pontificalis" where in the biography of Pope Simplicius (468-483) it is stated that this pope "consecrated a basilica of the holy martyr Bibiana, which contained her body, hear the 'palatium Licinianum' " (ed. Duchesne, I, 249). This basilica still exists. In the fifth century, therefore, the bodily remains of St. Bibiana rested within the city walls. We have no further historical particulars concerning the martyr or the circumstances of her death; neither do we know why she was buried in the city itself. In later times a legend sprang up concerning her, connected with the Acts of the martyrdom of Sts. John and Paul and has no historical claim to belief. According to this legend, Bibiana was the daughter of a former prefect, Flavianus, who was banished by Julian the Apostate [Roman emperor 361–363 who tried to restore paganism]. Dafrosa, the wife of Flavianus, and his two daughters, Demetria and Bibiana, were also persecuted by Julian= Dafrosa and Demetria died a natural death and were buried by Bibiana in their own house; but Bibiana was tortured and died as a result of her sufferings. Two days after her death a priest named John buried Bibiana near her mother and sister in her home, the house being later turned into a church. It is evident that the legend seeks to explain in this way the origin of the church and the presence in it of the bodies of the above mentioned confessors. The account contained in the martyrologies of the ninth century is drawn from the legend.
…been in vain solicited to evil by an old woman to whom she was confided, was tied to a pillar and scourged to death. Either there had been such a martyr in an earlier persecution, which is probable, or the romance which passes as her acts had acquired sufficient credence to impose on a pope a century later. For it would appear that Pope Simplicius built a church over her remains, near the Licinian palace. Pope Urban VIII. discovered the bodies of Bibiana, Demetria, and Dafrosa, and placed them in a porphyry shrine under the high altar. The office for S. Bibiana is a semi-double in the Roman Breviary. The pillar at which she was scourged to death is shown at Rome in the church bearing her name.
Feast: December 2
Traditional: December 3
One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Bibiana's story, and a nudge to keep going.
Image: Santa Bibiana by Bernini.jpg · RealRome · CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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.
Image: RealRome, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
From “Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Bibiana,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907–1914), via Wikisource. Public domain. Matched by name and feast date; text unedited except for our bracketed notes in grey.
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.
