Feastday: February 12
Patron: of Palagonia, Sicily
Birth: 284
Death: 304
"It must be frankly admitted that the virgin martyr St. Febronia is in all probability a purely fictious personage, but she is venerated by all the churches of the East, including that of Ethiopia, and in the West by such towns as Trani in Apulia and Patti in Sicily." "She is supposed to have suffered at Nisibis in Mesopotamia, somewhere about the year 304, in the persecution under Diocletian. No genuine records of her life and passion are available but the legend attributed to her survives in the form of an attractive romance purporting to have been written by Thomais, a nun of her convent who is said to have witnessed the events she describes."
Febronia of Nisibis, also known as Febronia of Sebapte, was a nun at Nisibis. She suffered persecution under Diocletian, who offered her freedom if she renounced her faith and married his nephew, Lysimachus, who had been leaning towards conversion to Christianity. Febronia refused and was tortured, suffered mutilation and death. Lysimachus, witnessing her suffering, converted.
Febronia is one of the 140 Colonnade saints whose images adorn St. Peter's Square. She is known as a Holy Virgin Martyr.
In the Coptic Orthodox Church, her feast day is 1 Epip which corresponds to 8 July (Gregorian Calendar) or 25 June (Julian Calendar).
