Rufina and Secunda (died 257) were

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

virgin-

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

s and

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

. Their

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

is celebrated on 10 July.

Legend

According to the legendary ''Acts'', they suffered in 257 during the persecution of Emperor Valerian.Kirsch, Johann Peter. "Sts. Rufina." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 18 November 2021 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. Escaping to

Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...

, Rufina and Secunda were captured and brought before a prefect, who tortured and then

beheaded Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

them. Their bodies were buried on the

Via Aurelia The Via Aurelia () is a Roman road in Italy constructed in approximately 241 BC. The project was undertaken by Gaius Aurelius Cotta, who at that time was censor.Hornblower, Simon, & Antony Spawforth. ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary.'' 3rd ...

and the church of Sante Rufina e Secunda was built in their honor in Rome.

Historicity

In the notes attached to the publication of

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

's 1969 revision of the

General Roman Calendar The General Roman Calendar (GRC) is the liturgy, liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and Sacred mysteries, mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgic ...

, it is stated that of these two saints, whose feast was inserted into the Roman Calendar in the 12th century on the occasion of the transfer of their relics to the

Lateran Basilica The Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran (officially the ''Major Papal, Patriarchal and Roman Archbasilica, Metropolitan and Primatial Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in Lateran, Mother and Head of A ...

, nothing is really known except their names and the fact that they were buried at the ninth milestone of the

Via Cornelia Via Cornelia is an ancient Roman road that supposedly ran east–west along the northern wall of the Circus of Nero on land now covered by the southern wall of St. Peter's Basilica. The location is closely associated with the Via Aurelia and the ...

. They are mentioned in the

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

manuscript of the ''"

Martyrologium Hieronymianum The ''Martyrologium Hieronymianum'' (meaning "martyrology of Jerome") or ''Martyrologium sancti Hieronymi'' (meaning "martyrology of Saint Jerome") is an ancient martyrology or list of Christian martyrs in calendar order, one of the most used and ...

,"'' and are recorded also in seventh century ''"Itineraries"'' as on the Via Cornelia, where

Pope Damasus I Pope Damasus I (; c. 305 – 11 December 384), also known as Damasus of Rome, was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death in 384. It is claimed that he presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list ...

erected a

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

over their grave. The town on this spot named after St Rufina (''Santa Rufina'') became the See of one of the

suburbicarian dioceses The seven suburbicarian dioceses (, ) are Catholic dioceses located in the vicinity of Rome, whose (titular bishop, titular) bishops are the (now six) ordinary members of the highest-ranking order of Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinals, the cardinal ...

that was later united with

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

as ''Porto-Santa Rufina''.

Feast day

The

of Sts Rufina and Secunda was included in the

Tridentine calendar The Tridentine calendar is the calendar of saints to be honoured in the course of the liturgical year in the official liturgy of the Roman Rite as reformed by Pope Pius V and first issued in 1568, implementing a decision of the Council of Trent, ...

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 This article lists the feast days of the General Roman Calendar as approved on 25 July 1960 by Pope John XXIII's '' motu proprio'' '' Rubricarum instructum'' and promulgated by the Sacred Congregation of Rites the following day, 26 July 1960, by t ...

it became a third-class feast. According to the rules in the present

Roman Missal The Roman Missal () is the book which contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the Roman Rite, the most common liturgy and Mass of the Catholic Church. There have been several editions. History Before the Council of Trent (1570) ...

, 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.

In art

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

Tiber River The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...

with weights attached to their necks. In the 1620s, the Italian painters

Il Morazzone Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli (commonly known as il Morazzone; 1573–1626) was an Italian painter and draughtsman who was active in Milan. He is mainly known for his altarpieces, but his outstanding achievements are large decorative frescoes ...

, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, and

Giovanni Battista Crespi Giovanni Battista Crespi (23 December 1573 – 23 October 1632), called Il Cerano, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect. Biography He was born in Romagnano Sesia, the son of a painter, Raffaele Crespi, and moved to Cerano with his f ...

collaborated on the ''"Martyrdom of Saints Rufina and Secunda,"'' which was praised as ''"the painting by three hands"'' ().Metropolitan Museum of Art: ''Venice and Northern Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.''
/ref>

References

External links

Saint of the Day, July 10: ''Rufina and Secunda''
at ''SaintPatrickDC.org''

{{in lang, no Sister duos Groups of Christian martyrs of the Roman era 3rd-century births 257 deaths 3rd-century Christian martyrs Consecrated virgins Virgin martyrs