2nd December is the saint’s day for Viviana (sometimes
spelled Bibiana), a Christian martyr in 4th century Rome.
Viviana and Demetria were members of a Christian family,
their parents being Flavian and Dafrosa. When the governor of Rome, Apronianus,
accidentally lost an eye he reckoned that the Christians must have been to
blame and he used the incident as an excuse to persecute Flavian and his
family.
Flavian was killed by having his face burned with a red-hot
piece of metal, later dying from his injuries, and Dafrosa was beheaded. All
the family’s property was confiscated and the two daughters, who were
presumably in their teens at the time, lived in extreme poverty as a result.
Apronianius had assumed that these privations, plus the
shock of losing their parents, would have turned the girls away from their
faith, but in this he was completely wrong. After five months he had them put
on trial.
Demetria boldly professed her Christianity in court, but
fell down dead immediately afterwards. Apronianus ordered that Viviana should
be placed in the care of a pagan woman named Rufina, who was instructed to
force Viviana to change her ways, by any means that Rufina saw fit.
Despite all the tortures that Rufina could devise, nothing
would persuade Viviana to recant. Instead, Apronianus condemned her to death by
flogging. She was tied to a pillar and scourged with whips that were weighted
by lead. Her body was left in the open, with the intention that it would be
eaten by wild animals but, when none had done so, it was buried two days later.
Viviana, for reasons that seem somewhat obscure, is the
patron saint of hangovers, among other things!
© John Welford
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