Saint Santa Sotéria

Soteria was a virgin and martyr, considered a saint by the Catholic Church. According to the Roman Martyrology, she was executed in Rome in the year 304 during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. Saint Ambrose of Milan, to whom she was possibly related, wrote of her in the fourth century in his work "On Virginity": "But why offer you, O holy sister, the example of strangers, when, within our own family, you have received, as an inheritance, chastity adorned with martyrdom? (...) Was not Saint Soteria a collaborator in your purpose, she who had already been one in your origin? In the time of persecution, at the height of the sufferings and ignominious outrages inflicted upon her, she still offered her own face to the executioners—which was usually spared while other limbs were scourged. So spirited and patient was she in presenting her delicate face to the outrage that the executioner grew weary without her yielding. She did not turn her face, nor did she turn her body away. She did not utter a groan, nor did she shed a tear. Finally, victorious over every kind of suffering, she fell to the blows of the sword, which, incidentally, she had greatly desired." According to Ambrose of Milan, she was of noble origin, but for the love of Christ, she despised the consulships, prefectures, and offices of her ancestors. According to tradition, she refused to offer sacrifices to the gods and, when subjected to constraints and tortures, did not yield. She was killed by a sword blow. She was buried in a cemetery on the Appian Way that bore her name and was rediscovered in the seventh century.