Page 63 - Saints of the Month: February

Saints of the Month: February

Hieronymianum” for 16 February, the place
of birth being given as Cumae in Campania
(In Campania Cumbas, natale Julianae). It is
true that the notice is contained only in the
one chief manuscript of the above-named
martyrology (the Codex Epternacensis), but
that this notice is certainly authentic is clear
from a letter of St. Gregory the Great, which
testifies to the special veneration of St.
Juliana in the neighbourhood of Naples. A
pious matron named Januaria built a church
on one of her estates, for the consecration
of which she desired relics (sanctuaria, that
is to say, objects which had been brought
into contact with the graves) of Sts.
Severinus and Juliana. Gregory wrote to
Fortunatus, Bishop of Naples, telling him to
accede to the wishes of Januaria (“Gregorii
Magni epist.”, lib. IX, ep. xxxv, in Migne
P.L., LXXXVII, 1015). The Acts of St. Juliana
used by Bede in his “Martyrologium” are
purely legendary. According to the account
given in this legend, St. Juliana lived in
Nicomedia and was betrothed to the
Senator Eleusius. Her father Africanus was
a pagan and hostile to the Christians. In the
persecution of Maximianus, Juliana was
beheaded after suffering frightful torturers.
Soon after a noble lady, named Sephonia,
came through Nicomedia and took the
saint’s body with her to Italy, and had it
buried in Campania. Evidently it was this
alleged translation that caused the martyred
Juliana, honoured in Nicomedia, to be

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