Feast day: December 2

St. Bibiana

Virgin, Martyr · d. c. 363

Patron of Against epilepsy and headaches

A young Roman woman of a family wiped out in persecution, who, by tradition, was scourged to death for refusing to give up her faith and her virginity.

Bibiana — also called Vivian — is an early Roman martyr whose grave and basilica in Rome are historically attested from the fifth century, though the dramatic story later told of her life is recognized as legendary. What is certain is that she was venerated as a holy martyr, and that a church bearing her name, said to hold her body, has stood in Rome since at least the time of Pope Simplicius in the late fifth century.

The legend that grew up around her sets her in the persecution under the emperor Julian the Apostate in the fourth century. According to it, she was the daughter of a Christian family of rank, all of whom were caught up in the persecution: her father was tortured and banished, and her mother and sister put to death.

Bibiana herself, the story continues, was handed over to a wicked woman charged with corrupting her, and when neither flattery nor threats could shake her faith or her purity, she was scourged to death tied to a pillar, her body left for the dogs — which, the legend says, would not touch it.

Whatever the truth beneath the tale, her cult was real and enduring. Because of the manner of her supposed sufferings, she came to be invoked against epilepsy, headaches, and other afflictions, and a herb that grew near her church was believed to cure them in her name.

An ancient church on the site of her home still bears her name in Rome, and she was long invoked by those suffering from seizures and headaches.

Image: RealRome (CC BY 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/02542b.htm