Saint of the Day † (May 31) ✠ St. Petronilla ✠

 † Saint of the Day †

(May 31)

✠ St. Petronilla ✠

Virgin Martyr:

Born: Not known

Died: 1st century; possibly 3rd century

Venerated in: Roman Catholic Church

Feast: May 31

Patronage:

The dauphins of France; Mountain Travellers; Treaties between Popes and Frankish Emperors; Invoked against fever

Saint Petronilla is an early Christian saint. She was venerated as a virgin martyr by the Catholic Church. She died in Rome at the end of the 1st century, or possibly in the 3rd century.

St. Petronille was a blessed virgin martyr with little known about her life and death. She is reputed to be the daughter of St. Peter but that also is interpreted as a spiritual daughter, not biological. Stories tell of her being cured of the palsy by St. Peter.

She was a noblewoman of the Domitilla family who was a Christian convert in either the 1st or late 3rd Century Rome. Petronille refused marriage to Count Flaccus desiring instead to devote herself to Christ. One version has him threatening to kill her. She prayed and fasted for three days, then died in bed. Another version has her persecuted and killed for refusal to betray her faith. 4th-century Christian martyrologies include her as a martyr. Her image generally is displayed as a young woman with a palm or keys of St. Peter in one hand and a book in the other.

Patron saint of mountain travellers and hospitality, Petronille is honoured with a feast day on May 31. Her remains were interred in the Domitilla catacombs, then entombed in a church there. They were transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, now called the Chapel of St. Petronilla.