Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Sarum, York, Hereford, and Anglican Reformed Kalendars; some copies of the Martyrology of Jerome, Usuar dus, Wandelbert, Notker, Ado, &c. Authority The Acts, not trustworthy. The Acts of SS. Caprais and Faith vary in several particulars from those of S. Faith alone. All versions of the Acts are too late to be relied upon.] ACIANUS, governor of Spain under Diocletian and Maximian, was at one time at Agen, in Aquitania, and hearing that a certain noble damsel, named Faith, living in Agen, was a Christian, he summoned her before his tribunal and ordered her to renounce the faith of the Crucified. “ From a child,” answered the maiden, “ I have served the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart, and have confessed his name.” Dacian produced the ordinary arguments, tried persuasion and threats in vain, and then sentenced her to be stretched over a fire on a brazen grate with her hands and feet tied to four posts. She endured the agony with great fortitude. The executioners raked up the coals under her and poured on fat, and the blaze rushing up enveloped her. According to one version of the Acts, a heavy fall of snow veiled her body as it lay on the burning bed, and the shower only ceased when she was dead. Many other Christians, moved by her heroism, surrendered themselves and were executed with the sword.

The arm of S. Faith was anciently shown at Glastonbury. The crypt of S. Paul’s Cathedral, London, is dedicated to S. Faith, and was at one time enriched with some of her relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor]. Her head is shown at Agen.

In art S. Faith is represented as a maiden with a palmbranch and a grate.