Saint Saturnina () is a venerated

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 ...

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 ...

, whose legend states that she was killed in the year 907 because she wanted to remain faithful to her vow of virginity.

Legend

Her legend states that she came from a noble

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

family (her father was a king), and that she took a vow of

celibacy Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term ''celibacy'' is applied ...

at the age of twelve. When her parents forced her into marriage when she turned twenty, she fled from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

into

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

.Agnes Baillie Cunninghame, ''A Dictionary of Saintly Women'' (Bell, 1905), 216-7. The man to whom she had been promised, a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

lord, pursued her into France after receiving approval to do so from Saturnina's parents He found her hiding with some shepherds at

Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...

; she had been working as a maidservant. He attempted to

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

her, and when she resisted him, he decapitated her. The lord miraculously drowned in a fountain, and Saturnina then carried her own head in her hands, and as witnessed by the townspeople, carried her head to the church of St. Remi, which was in the next village: Sains-Les-Marquion. She was then buried there. Another tradition states that Saturnina placed her head on a stone at Sains-lès-Marquion, proclaiming herself to be the last human sacrifice the town would ever suffer.

Veneration

At Sains-lès-Marquion, the local townspeople planted a tree next to the stone that represented the shepherd's crook that she had carried, and a local tradition concerning Saturnina and her tree still exists. Some of her relics were transferred to

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

from Sains-lès-Marquion. They were transferred to Neuenheerse in Bad Driburg, Saxony. The nuns there gathered many relics, including those of Saint Saturnina. The Stiftskirche St. Saturnina ("Convent church of St. Saturnina") in Neuenheerse (Eggedom), Bad Driburg, was built from 1100 to 1130, but was heavily damaged in a fire due to lightning in 1965. Writers compiling the lives of Saints Romana and

Benedicta Benedicta may refer to: People * Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate (1652–1730), a German princess * Benedicta Ajudua (born 1980), Nigerian sprinter * Caterina Benedicta Grazianini (1685–1715), composer * Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, r ...

copied Saturnina's legend, according to Adrien Baillet.

References

External links

Amitié franco-allemande: Saturnine veille au grain

Sainte Saturnine, une tradition qui perdure
{{Authority control German Roman Catholic saints French Roman Catholic saints Cephalophores Executed German people Virgin martyrs 10th-century Christian martyrs Female saints of medieval Germany Female saints of medieval France 907 deaths 9th-century births Daughters of kings Year of birth uncertain