Description

Oil Dedicated to St Martina (Patron for Nursing Mothers)

St Martina (Patron for Nursing Mothers) from A Blessed Call To Love, Ireland.

Saint Martina so openly testified to her Christian faith that she could not escape the persecutions under Alexander Severus. Arrested and commanded to return to idolatry, she refused, whereupon she was subjected to various tortures.

These tortures according to her vita include scourged and scaled, she was condemned to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheater but was miraculously untouched by them. She then thrown onto a burning fire, from which she also escaped unhurt, and finally beheaded.

In the time after her death, there were a series of biographies and descriptions of her martyrdom written, each more extravagant than the last, and none with historical value.

Her hagiography asserts that some of her executioners also converted to Christianity and themselves beheaded.

Assorted miracles ascribed to her, and her story blended with those of other early martyrs, especially Saint Prisca and Saint Tatiana of Rome. One of the writers claimed that when she beheaded, her body bled milk, a tale that led to her patronage of nursing mothers.

Martina early venerated at Rome. She supposed to have tortured and beheaded there under Emperor Severus. Many extravagant miracles attributed to her. But scholars have doubt about their existence, believing she may have confused with the legends of St. Tatiana. Her feast day is January 12th.

St Martina’s Relics

The relics of St Martina discovered on October 25, 1634 by a painter known as Pietro da Cortona. In a tomb of Santi Luca e Martina, situated near the Mamertine Prison and dedicated to the saint.