Rufina and Secunda

Rufina and Secunda (died 257) were

feast day

is celebrated on 10 July.

Legend

According to the legendary Acts, they suffered in 287 during the persecution of Emperor Valerian.^[1]

Their legend states that they were daughters of a Roman senator named Asterius. Their fiancés, Armentarius and Verinus, were Christians, but renounced their faith when Valerian began his persecutions.^[2] Escaping to Etruria, Rufina and Secunda were captured and brought before a prefect, who tortured and then beheaded them.

Their bodies were buried on the Via Aurelia and the church of Sante Rufina e Secunda was built in their honor in Rome.^[3]

Historicity

In the notes attached to the publication of

Lateran Basilica, nothing is really known except their names and the fact that they were buried at the ninth milestone of the Via Cornelia.^[4]

They are mentioned in the

Porto as Porto-Santa Rufina.^[1]

Feast day

The

feast day of Sts Rufina and Secunda was included in the Tridentine calendar as a "semi-double". The General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII reduced it to a "simple", and in the General Roman Calendar of 1960 it became a third-class feast. According to the rules in the present Roman Missal, they may now be celebrated everywhere with their own Mass on their feast day, unless in some locality an obligatory celebration is assigned to that day.^[5]

In art

Sts Rufina and Secunda are sometimes depicted as two maidens floating in the

Tiber River

with weights attached to their necks.

In the 1620s, the Italian painters

Il Morazzone, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, and Giovanni Battista Crespi collaborated on the "Martyrdom of Saints Rufina and Secunda," which was praised as "the painting by three hands" (Italian: "il quadro delle tre mani").^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b Kirsch, Johann Peter. "Sts. Rufina." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 18 November 2021 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Butler, Alban. "SS. Rufina and Secunda, Virgins, Martyrs", The Lives of the Saints. 1866 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ "Sts. Rufina and Secunda", Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints
^ "Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 129
^ General Instruction of the Roman Missal Archived 2009-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, 355 c
^ Metropolitan Museum of Art: Venice and Northern Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Sts. Rufina". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

External links

Saint of the Day, July 10: Rufina and Secunda Archived 2011-04-08 at the Wayback Machine at SaintPatrickDC.org
De hellige Rufina og Secunda av Roma (257) (in Norwegian)

[Kirsch-1] Kirsch, Johann Peter. "Sts. Rufina." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 18 November 2021 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[2] Butler, Alban. "SS. Rufina and Secunda, Virgins, Martyrs", The Lives of the Saints. 1866 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[3] "Sts. Rufina and Secunda", Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints

[4] "Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 129

[5] General Instruction of the Roman Missal Archived 2009-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, 355 c

[6] Metropolitan Museum of Art: Venice and Northern Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.

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