This holy Roman Virgin descended from a famous consular family. Left an orphan at a very young age, she dedicated herself with all the ardor of her youthful soul to the works of Christian piety, distributing with the utmost liberality the riches that her parents had left in great abundance. There was no misery that she did not help: no one ever knocked on her door in vain. In the poor she saw Jesus himself, the Divine Master who had said: “What you have done to the least of your brothers, you will have done to me.”
Since Christian charity was unknown in the pagan world, it was soon suspected that Martina was a follower of that Nazarene who came to preach, through his Apostles, a universal brotherhood even in Rome itself.
The enemies of the Christian name kept their eyes on her. and having ascertained the matter, they did not hesitate to accuse her of being a Christian.
Fearing what could happen to her, and what actually happened to her, of being arrested and killed, she immediately distributed all that she still had left to the poor and to the Church, to have that treasure in heaven that “thieves do not steal and moths do not affects”. She had no sooner made this drawing of herself than she was accused and brought before the Roman principal.
She was tempted in a thousand ways, promises and threats were made to her to sacrifice to the gods of the empire. But the Virgin, strong in the strength of Christ, always replied firmly that she “was a Christian” and that she would always behave as such.
The judge moving from threats to facts, she was beaten with rods, stripped of her flesh with iron hooks, then, soaked in boiling fat, she was thrown to the beasts of the amphitheater. But the beasts spared her. Then a huge fire was made, and the Virgin was tied to it: when the smoke and flames were exhausted, the executioners and the immense crowd who witnessed the cruel spectacle saw the holy young woman perfectly unharmed in the middle of the brazier, in the attitude of prayer: her God had escaped her.
Many of the crowd and some of his own executioners, at the sight of that miracle, converted and declared themselves Christians.
But the judge, more irritated than ever, ordered her to be beheaded. The pious girl bowed her head under the executioner’s sword. At the spectacle of martyrdom, other pagans converted to the true faith, and had the grace of distinctly hearing a supernal voice calling the Virgin to the celestial sweetness of heaven.
But the wonders were not over: an earthquake fearfully shook the whole city, and the statues of the gods fell to the ground.
The Virgin suffered martyrdom under the emperor Alexander Severus, while he was Supreme Pontiff Urban I. She was buried in the church of the Mamertine prison together with the martyrs Concordius, Epiphanius and companions.
PRACTICE. Let us learn from this holy young girl to be strong in faith and not to be ashamed of the name of Christian.
PRAYER. O God, who among the other miracles of your power, even to the weaker sex you have granted the victory of martyrdom, through your goodness, grant to us who celebrate the feast of the blessed virgin and martyr Martina, to ascend to you through his examples.
ROMAN MARTYROLOGY. Saint Martina, Virgin and Martyr, whose birthday is commemorated on the first of this month.