The Holy Martyr Tatiana of Rome and companions (ca. 226-235)
Tatiana was a Roman whose parents were from the nobility. She was a Christian and a deaconess in the church. After the death of Emperor Heliogabalus, there reigned the Emperor Alexander, whose mother, Mammaea, was a Christian. Emperor Alexander himself was wavering and indecisive in his faith, for he kept statues of Christ, Apollo, Abraham, and Orpheus in his palace. His chief assistants took it upon themselves to persecute the Christians without awaiting orders from the emperor. When they brought out the virgin Tatiana for torture, she prayed to God for her torturers. And lo, their eyes were opened and they saw four angels around the martyr. Seeing this, eight of them believed in Christ, for which they also were tortured and slain. The tormentors continued to torture St. Tatiana. They whipped her, cut off parts of her body, and scraped her with irons. All disfigured and bloody, Tatiana was thrown into the dungeon that evening so that the next day they could begin anew with different tortures. But God sent His angels to the dungeon to encourage her and to heal her wounds so that each morning Tatiana appeared before the torturers completely healed. They threw her before a lion, but the lion fawned about her and did her no harm. They cut off her hair, thinking, according to their pagan reasoning, that some sorcery or magical power was concealed in her hair. Finally, Tatiana and her father were led out together, and both were beheaded. Thus, Tatiana ended her earthly life in about the year 225, and this heroic virgin, who had the fragile body of a woman but a robust and valiant spirit, was crowned with the immortal wreath of glory.
