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Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

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July 29 · Martyr

St. Julitta

St. Julitta

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

July 29
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Martyr

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints · Baring-Gould original below · little is known

Julitta was a rich lady of Caesarea in Cappadocia. After Dioclesian's edicts of 303 put Christians outside the protection of the law, a powerful man seized much of her property by force.

Butler tells her story as an example of how the faith triumphed through those who seemed overcome. The text on this page gives about 303.

Early life

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

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 32 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

Her body was drawn out before the flames reached and consumed it, and was buried. A spring of sweet water bubbled up from her grave, and was thought to possess healing properties.

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 July 29 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 32 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman, Greek and Russian Martyrologieson the same day. Authority: — A homily on S. Julitta by S. Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea, pronounced about the year 375. There can be no question that the facts of this martyrdom are correctly given. S. Basil spoke on the scene of her passion, the memory of which was certain to have been handed down by eye-witnesses to their children in the 70 years that had intervened. S.Basil may have heard the details from eye-witnesses when he was a child.] S. Julitta was a wealthy lady of Caesarea in Cappadocia, possessed of farms, cattle and slaves. A powerful man of the town, by open violence, took possession of a portion of her estate. She appealed against him to the magistrates, and when he found that the case was going against him, he charged her with being a Christian. A tripod and incense were brought in, and the magistrate ordered Julitta to throw some grains on the fire before an image, in token that she offered sacrifice to Zens. She refused, declaring that she would rather yield her estates and life than thus imperil her soul. The magistrate ordered her to be burned to death. A great fire was heaped up and kindled, and Julitta was led to it; sheleaped into the flames or smoke, and sank down suffocated. rjuly 30.

Her body was drawn out before the flames reached and consumed it, and was buried. A spring of sweet water bubbled up from her grave, and was thought to possess healing properties.

Feast days

Feast: July 29

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

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

Also on July 29
St. Martha

St. Martha

July 29 · Virgin
Sts. Beatrix, Simplicius and Faus-

Sts. Beatrix

July 29 · Feast
F

St. Felix II.

July 29 · Feast
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story 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.