 St. Flavian of Aquapendente. http://catholicsaints.info/saint-flavian-of-acquapendente/ |  St. Dafrosa. http://catholicsaints.info/saint-dafrosa-of-acquapendente/ | Flavian was a Roman citizen born in the early 300s in the time of the Later Roman Empire. He held the position of prefect, or commander, in the Roman military. Flavian was the husband of Dafrosa and the father of two daughters, Bibiana and Demetria, and the family were devout Christians. |
Julian. See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The emperor at the time of our story was Julian, popularly known as Julian the Apostate. Julian was born of Christian parents, and educated by Christian tutors, one of whom he remembered fondly even in his later years as a pagan. As a boy, Julian witnessed the massacre of most of his close relatives by Constantius II, an Arian Christian cousin, a tragedy that no doubt made a significant negative impression on his young mind. It is believed that the intercession of Julian’s grandmother, Empress Eusebia, might have been the key to the survival of Julian and his brother, Gallus. Though allowed to survive and given a Christian education, Julian and his brother were kept under a kind of house arrest, closely guarded throughout their youth and excluded from public life. No doubt already quite far along in his rejection of the Christian faith of his childhood, when he was twenty, Julian was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which required the sacrifice of a piglet to the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. From then on, he embraced paganism and when he eventually became emperor, Julian sought to reverse the support of the Christian faith among the upper classes and a restoration of paganism.
According to the pagan Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, in the year 363, Emperor Julian appointed a man named Apronianus to the post of governor of Rome. While on his way to the city to take his post, Apronianus had the misfortune to lose an eye. He immediately attributed the accident to magic--and the magicians, he believed, were the Christians of Rome. Since there were many miracles associated with the Christians, this was not an unreasonable assumption.
 Acquapendente. http://catholicsaints.info/saint-dafrosa-of-acquapendente/ | The furious new governor immediately instituted a persecution of the Roman Christians. The well-known Christian prefect, Flavian, was rounded up in this persecution. He was branded a slave with a hot iron to the forehead and exiled northwest to Acquapendente in Tuscany to work in either the public baths or a pagan temple, a journey of about 90 miles. His journey was, no doubt, one of excruciating pain, and his wound may have become infected. Whether he walked, or whether he was transported by car (the name for a Roman chariot), coach, or cart, is unknown, but Flavian would die of his wounds only a few days later in Acquapendente, while in prayer. |
| Flavian’s wife, Dafrosa, was put under house arrest for some time. When she refused to abandon her faith, she was carried out of the city and beheaded. Flavian’s two daughters were thus orphaned, and remained under house arrest. Deprived of their parents, they were next stripped of their remaining earthly possessions, by order of the governor. Their sufferings were increased when food was denied to them for five months. Perhaps some brave friends or neighbors, or even angels, were able to provide meager bits of nourishment to the girls from time to time. Encouraging one another with prayer as they fasted, the governor eventually lost his patience with them, and summoned the girls to him. Demetria, the younger of the two girls, faced the governor first where she was commanded to deny her faith. Nervously, the young girl declared her love for Christ--but her long fast, combined with her extreme fright, were too much for the young girl, and Demetria perished from fear on the spot. |  St. Demetria. http://catholicsaints.info/saint-demetria-of-rome/ |
 St. Bibiana. http://jesus-passion.com/saint_bibiana.htm | Demetria’s elder sister, Bibiana, then faced the governor. He decided on a different course for the older girl. He gave charge of her to a woman named Rufina. Rufina tried every allurement to convince the girl to renounce her faith, and her “good cop” methods failing, resorted to “bad cop”--employing blows to drive her points home; however, Bibiana spent these many days in long hours of prayer to keep up her strength. Eventually, Rufina reported her inability to break her prisoner. Grown bored of the project, Governor Apronianus sentenced Bibiana to be scourged to death tied to a pillar. The sentence was carried out, and Bibiana died secure in the faith, like her sister, mother, and father, Flavian, before her. Her body was left exposed to the elements and vulnerable to scavengers for two days, but was removed and buried in the dark of night near the palace of Licinius by a brave priest named John. All four martyrs are now considered saints. |
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