Saint Saint Petronilla

Petronilla (Aurelia Petronilla) is an early Christian saint. She is venerated as a virgin by the Catholic Church. She died in Rome at the end of the 1st century, or possibly in the 3rd century. Petronilla was traditionally identified as the daughter of Peter, though this may have stemmed simply from the similarity of names. It is believed she may have been a convert of Peter (and thus a "spiritual daughter"), or a follower or servant. It is said that Peter cured her of palsy. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia speculates that she may have been related to Domitilla. Though Petronilla was originally venerated as the daughter of Peter, more recent study has shown that she belonged to the Roman family of the Aurelli. The mistake arose from misunderstanding an inscription. Stories associated with her include those that relate that she was so beautiful that Peter had locked her up in a tower to keep her from eligible men; that a pagan king named Flaccus, wishing to marry her, led Petronilla to go on a hunger strike, from which she died. In the 4th-century Roman catalogue of martyrs' feasts, which is used in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, her name seems not to have been inserted. It occurs in the latter martyrology, but only as a later addition. Her name is given under 31 May and the Martyrologies of Bede and his imitators adopt the same date. The absence of her name from the 4th-century Roman calendar of feasts suggests that Petronilla died at the end of the first or during the 2nd century, since no special feasts for martyrs were celebrated during this period. After the erection of the basilica over her remains and those of Nereus and Achilleus in the 4th century, her cult extended widely and her name was therefore admitted later into the martyrology.