SAINT FEAST DAY 2 DECEMBER: ST BIBIANA

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER 

Saints celebrated on the 2nd of December

WELCOME!

SAINT BIBIANA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

We are informed by Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan historian of that age, and an officer in the court of Julian the Apostate, that this emperor made Apronianus governor of Rome in the year 363, who, while he was on the way to that city, had the misfortune to lose an eye.

This accident he superstitiously imputed to the power of magic, through the malice of some who excelled in that art; and, in this foolish persuasion, to gratify his spleen and superstition, he resolved to punish and exterminate the magicians; in which accusation, Christians were involved above all others, on account of many wonderful miracles which were wrought in the primitive ages. 

ST BIBIANA RECEIVED THE CROWN OF MARTYRDOM

Under this magistrate, Saint Bibiana received the crown of martyrdom. 

This holy virgin was a native of Rome, and daughter to Flavian, a Roman knight, and his wife Dafrosa, who were both zealous Christians. 

Flavian was apprehended, deprived of a considerable post which he had held in the city, burned in the face with a hot iron, and banished to Acquapendente, then called Aquae Taurinae, where he died of his wounds a few days after. 

Dafrosa, by an order of Apronianus, who had thus treated her husband for his constancy in his faith, was, on the same account, confined to her house for some time; and, at length, carried out of the gates of the city, and beheaded. 

THEY WERE STRIPPED OF EVERYTHING

Bibiana and her sister Demetria, after the death of their holy parents, were stripped of all they had in the world, and suffered much from poverty for five months, but spent that time in their own house in fasting and prayer, Apronianus had flattered himself that hunger and want would bring them to a compliance; but seeing himself mistaken, summoned them to appear before him. 

Demetria, having made a generous confession of her faith, fell down and expired at the foot of the tribunal, in the presence of the judge. 

ST BIBIANA PRAYED INCESSANTLY

Apronianus gave orders that Bibiana should be put into the hands of a wicked woman named Rufina, who was extremely artful, and undertook to bring her to another way of thinking. 

That agent of hell employed all the allurements she could invent: which were afterwards succeeded by blows; but Bibiana, making prayer her shield, remained invincible. 

Apronianus, enraged at the courage and perseverance of a tender virgin, at length passed sentence of death upon her, and ordered her to be tied to a pillar, and whipped with scourges loaded with leaden plummets till she expired. 

The saint underwent this punishment cheerfully, and died in the hands of the executioners. 

A CHAPEL WAS ERECTED 

Her body was left in the open air, that it might be a prey to beasts; but, having lain exposed two days, was buried in the night, near the palace of Licinius, by a holy priest called John. 

Peace being soon after restored to the church, a chapel was erected over her tomb; and a hundred years after, in 465, Pope Simplicius built there a fair church, as Anastasius mentions in his life. This church was called Olympina, from a pious lady of that name, who defrayed the expenses. 

It was repaired by Honorius III but being fallen to decay was afterwards united to St Mary Major, till it was sumptuously rebuilt by Urban VIII. in 1628, who placed in it the relics of SS. Bibiana, Demetria, and Dafrosa, which were discovered in that place which has been sometimes called St Bibian’s cemetery.   

DETACHMENT

The only affair which a Christian has in this world, and in which consists all his happiness and joy, is to seek God, to attain to the perfect possession of his grace and love, and in all things most perfectly to do his will. 

By this disposition of heart he is raised above all created things, and united to the eternal and unchangeable object of his felicity. He receives the good things of this world with gratitude to the Giver, but always with indifference; leaves them with joy, if God requires that sacrifice at his hands; and, in his abundance, fears not so much the flight of what he possesses as the infection of his own heart, or lest his affections be entangled by them. 

Excerpts from Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy virgin and martyr Bibiana  confessed the faith, may experience her goodness as she intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.