Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Carthaginian Kalendar. Some copies of Mart, of Jerome, as Crispinus; Usuardus, Ado, &c. Authorities: — S. Augustine on Ps. cxxxvii., and another sermon on Ps. cxx., and the genuine and trustworthy Acts in Ruin art.] SI0 many of the Acts of Martyrs are forgeries, or have been amplified by later hands, that it is a pleasure to come upon those which are undoubtedly genuine. Such are the Acts of S. Crispina, and they shall be given unaltered, or only slightly abbreviated. When Diocletian and Maximian were consuls, on the nones of December, at Thebeste, where Anulinus was pro-consul, the clerk of the court said, in the tribunal of justice, “ Crispina, of Thagara, who has disregarded the imperial commands, if it please you, shall be heard.” Anulinus the judge said, “ Let her be brought in.” Then the blessed Crispina was introduced. Anulinus the pro-consul said, “ Have you heard the •S’. Crispina.
…decree ?” The blessed Crispina replied, “ I know not what that decree is.” Anulinus said, “ It is to this effect, that you should sacrifice to all the gods for the welfare of the emperors.”
Crispina. “ I will never sacrifice, except to the One God and to our Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, who was bom and suffered.”
Anulinus. “ Put away this superstition, and bow to the worship of our gods.” Crispina. “I daily worship my God, and I know no other.”
Anulinus. “You are hard and audacious, and will call down on you the severity of the law.” Crispina. “ Come what may, I will suffer for my faith.” Anulinus. “ You will lose your head if you do not obey the commands of the emperors; all Africa has submitted, and you shall be made to do so.”
Crispina. " I will sacrifice to the Lord who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are therein, but never shall I be forced to do sacrifice to demons.” Anulinus. “Then those gods will not be accepted by you to whom you are forced to give honour to save your life?”
Crispina. “ True worship does not use compulsion.” 1 Anulinus. “ But will you not formally, with bent head, offer a little incense in the sacred temples?” Crispina. “ I have never done this since my birth, and I will not do so as long as I live.”
Anulinus. “ Do it, however, just to escape the severity of the laws.” Crispina. “ I have no fear for the event. But I fear God, who, if I obeyed, would cast me off as sacrilegious.” 1 This noble sentiment thus stands, “Nulla devotio est, quae opprimi coegit in Titos.”
Anulinus. “ You cannot be sacrilegious if you obey the law.” Crispina. “ Would you have me sacrilegious before God, that I might not be so before the emperors ? God is great and omnipotent: He made the sea, and the green herbs, and the dry earth. How can I prefer His creatures to Himself ?”
Anulinus ordered her hair to be cut off, and her head shaved. As she remained unmoved, he said, “ Do you wish to live, or persist in your intention to die, like Maxima, Donatilla, and Secunda,1 your companions?” Crispina answered, “ If I wished to die, and give over my soul to destruction, I should do to your demons what you require.”
Anulinus said, “ I will cut off your head if you persist in mocking our venerable deities.” Crispina replied, “ I should indeed lose my head if I took to worshipping them.”
Anulinus the pro-consul said, “ You persist, then, in this opinion ?” Crispina answered, “ My God, who is, and was, He ordered me to be bom; He gave me salvation by the water of Holy Baptism; He is with me, to support my soul, and stay it from committing sacrilege as you desire.” Anulinus said, “ We can endure this impious Crispina no longer.”
The acts of the trial were read over, and then Anulinus gave command that Crispina should suffer by the sword. Crispina exclaimed, “ I give praise to Christ, I bless the Lord, who has thus deigned to deliver me out of your hands.”
She suffered at Thebeste on the nones of December. 1 In Ado's Martyrology on July 30, but said to have suffered at Tuburbo. D^SO S. Sabas.