Wednesday of the First Week of Advent

Saint Bibiana, also known as Bibiane or Viviana, was born in Rome, into a Christian family during a time of imperial hostility toward the faith. Tradition remembers her as the daughter of Flavianus, a former prefect or Roman knight, and his wife Dafrosa. When persecution intensified under Emperor Julian the Apostate, her father was tortured and exiled to die of his wounds, and her mother was put to death. Bibiana and her sister Demetria were stripped of their goods and left in poverty, yet they remained steadfast, devoting themselves to fasting and prayer. Summoned before the governor Apronianus, Demetria confessed Christ and died suddenly. Bibiana was then pressured to abandon her purity and faith, but she resisted every attempt to corrupt her. For her unwavering witness, she was bound to a pillar and scourged until she died, offering her suffering to God with courageous joy. Her body was later reverently buried, and a church arose over the place where her remains rested, honored today in the Basilica of Santa Bibiana in Rome. Saint Bibiana is venerated as a virgin martyr; her feast day is December 2.