St. Crispina was a wife and mother of several children who lived in North Africa, around the year 300. As Northern Africa was part of the Roman Empire, when Diocletian declared a persecution of Christians, Crispina was arrested. Crispina was tried in court and ordered to deny Christ. A record of the dialogue between her and the proconsul Anulinus has been passed down through the centuries but is most certainly not a direct transcript. It appears in the Butler’s Lives of the Saints as such:

Anulinus: Give up this superstition, and bow your head before our sacred gods.

Crispina: I worship my God every day, and I know no other.

Anulinus: You are obstinate and disrespectful and you will bring upon yourself the severity of the law.

Crispina: If necessary I will suffer for the faith I hold.

Anulinus: Are you so vain a creature that you will not put away your folly and worship the sacred deities?

Crispina: I worship my God every day, and I know no other.

Refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods was a crime, it was believed, because it imperiled the nation as a whole should the gods become dissatisfied. Frequently, during the persecutions of Christians that erupted in the Roman Empire, the charge leveled against Christians was that they were atheists, since they offered no visible, external sacrifice. The above dialogue shows that Anulinus certainly thinks of Crispina as an athiest.

Anulinus ordered for Crispina’s hair to be chopped off her head and subjected her to public humiliation. Still, Crispina refused to worship the false gods and she was condemned to die by beheading, at which she exclaimed, “Praise to God, who has looked down and delivered me out of your hands!”

She was killed on December 5, 304, a generation before the great saint, Augustine, lived and taught the faith. St. Augustine was also from North Africa, and he spoke about Crispina often as a saint worthy of emulation. Augustine praised her as a saint worthy as much veneration as the great virgin martyrs Agnes and Thecla. Augustine is pictured in today’s biography as he appears in a stained glass window in Dillon Hall.

St. Crispina, wife, mother, and martyr whose great faith inspired St. Augustine—pray for us!