T

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

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October 17 · Widow, Martyr

St. Tryphonia

St. Tryphonia

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

October 17
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Widow
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 October 17 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, Ado, Usuardus, &c. Authority: — The utterly worthless Acts included in some copies of those of S. Laurence.] The Acts say that Decius the Emperor and Valerian the Prefect, when condemning SS. Laurence and Hippolytus, were possessed with devils. Valerian gave a great howl, and died on the spot; but Decius lingered on three days. This so moved Tryphonia, his wife, that she was baptized along with her daughter Cyrilla, and died next day. The Roman Martyrology does not insert the whole of this nonsense, but confines itself to this statement: “ At Rome, S. Tryphonia, wife of Decius Caesar, who was buried in the crypt of S. Hippolytus.w The wife of Decius, however, was Herennia Cupressenia Etruscilla.

Feast days

Feast: October 17

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

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

Also on October 17
H

St. Hero

October 17 · Bishop, Martyr
S

St. Solina

October 17 · Virgin, Martyr
L

St. Louthiern

October 17 · Feast
← 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.