Feastday: December 5
Death: 304
Martyr praised by St. Augustine. Crispina was a wealthy Roman wife and mother of several children in Thagara, Africa. Arrested for being a Christian, she was taken before Proconsul Anulinus at Thebaste, in Numidia, and was ordered to deny Christ. Crispina refused and was tortured and publicly ridiculed. On December 5, she was beheaded.
For the wife of Roman Emperor Commodus, see Bruttia Crispina.Saint Crispina (died December 5, 304) was a martyr of Africa who suffered during the Diocletian persecution. She was born at Thagara (Thacora, Tagora) (Thagora was a town in the Roman province of Numidia, located in Taoura, Algeria. The Tabula Peutingeriana calls it Thacora) in North Africa. She died by beheading at Theveste, in Numidia.
Crispina belonged to a distinguished family and was a wealthy matron with children. At the time of the persecution she was brought before the proconsul Annius Anullinus; on being ordered to sacrifice to the gods she declared she honored only one God. When threatened with death, Crispina replied: “I care not for the present life, and am only anxious for the life of my soul. I fear eternal torments only.”
Her head was shaved at the command of the judge, and she was exposed to public mockery, but she remained steadfast in her faith and was not moved even by the tears of her children. When condemned to death, she thanked God and offered her head with joy for execution.
The Acts of her martyrdom, written not long after the event, form a valuable historical document of the period of the persecution. The day of St. Crispina's death was observed in the time of Augustine of Hippo; in his sermons Augustine repeatedly mentions her name, as well known in Africa and worthy to be held in the same veneration as the names of Saint Agnes and St. Thecla. In his Sermon on Psalm 120, Augustine says: "The persecutors turned their rage against Crispina, whose birthday we celebrate today. They unleashed their savagery against a rich woman delicately nurtured; but she was strong, because the Lord was for her a better defense than the hand of her right hand, and He was guarding her. Is there anyone in Africa who does not know about these events, brothers and sisters? Scarcely, for she was extremely famous, of noble stock and very wealthy."
Thierry Ruinart in his collection of the Acts of the martyrs gives the account of her examination. Alphonsus Liguori provided a version of these acts in his Victories of the Martyrs.
