SS Firmina (24th November) and

Olympiades (1st December)

According to the legend of St Firmina (which post-dates the Hieronymian Martyrology of the late 5th century), she was a Roman virgin, daughter of the Urban Prefect Calpurnius.  When she was threatened in Rome by the persecutions of 303 AD, she fled to her family's villa near Amelia.

During her flight, St Firmina saved Civitavecchia from inundation by the sea, and event that is still celebrated annually there.

St Olympiades, the consular prefect of Amelia, continued her persecution, but she managed to convert him to Christianity.   He was subsequently martyred and St Firmina buried him outside Amelia.

St Firmina was martyred a year later, having been tortured while tied to the column that can still be seen in the Duomo.  She was buried in the same place as St Olympiades on 24th November.  The relics of the SS Firmina and Olympiades were preserved at Castellum Luchianum (which was probably near modern Lugnano in Teverino, some 10km West of Amelia).  In ca. 862 Bishop Pasquale translated these relics (and those of St Himerius) to a church that stood on the site of the present Duomo.  They are preserved under the high altar of the church.

Read more:

http://www.diocesi.terni.it/focus_dett.asp?ID=54

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