The ancient Roman Martyrology, which lists the early Christians who died for the faith, contains the names of St. Bibiana and her family. Aside from this early testament, we do not know much for sure about these martyrs.

The stories that have been handed down tell of a Roman family—the couple Flavian and Dafrosa, and their two daughters, Demetria and Bibiana, all of whom were Christians who lived their faith with zeal, and were arrested in one of the persecutions of the Roman empire.

Flavian was marked on the face with a hot iron and banished from Rome to a labor camp, where he died from exertion, and his wife, Dafrosa, was beheaded. Demetria and Bibiana lost everything that they owned and were forced to live in dire poverty for five months. They stayed in their house and used the time for fasting and prayer.

Finally, the sisters were brought into court. Demetria confessed her faith before the judge, then collapsed and died on the spot. Bibiana was sentenced to “reformation” under a mentor of sorts, who tried to convince her to denounce her faith. Bibiana stayed faithful, and was then tortured and killed. Her body was left in the open for wild beasts to tear apart, but it was not touched.

The relics of Bibiana and her father, Flavian (whose feast day is Dec. 22), rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. A basilica named after St. Bibiana was dedicated to her in the fifth century and still stands in Rome today.

St. Bibiana, who suffered and was killed with her family for her faithfulness—pray for us!

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Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Bibiana is available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Last accessed November 21, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.