WOMEN SAINTS AND MARTYRS MAY 16-22

May 17
St. Restituta, 255 A.D. Virgin martyr. A maiden in Africa, she was put to death during the Roman persecutions at Carthage. Her date of death has been set at 255, which would mean she was martyred under Emperor Valerian; there is a possibility that she was executed at a later date, under Emperor Diocletian. Her relics are in Naples, Italy.

May 18
St. Elgiva, 944 A.D. Queen and mother of Kings Edwy of the Saxons and Edgar, King of England, and wife of Edmund the First. She gave up public life and became a Benedictine nun at Shaftesbury.

May 19
Sts. Cyriaca and Companions, 307 A.D. Six Christian maidens who died at the stake in Nicomedia.

May 20
St. Basilissa. Basilla, also known as Basilissa, was a member of a noble Roman family. She refused to marry Pompeius, a Roman patrician, after her conversion to Christianity. She was beheaded for her faith when she was denounced to Emperor Galienus by Pompeius and remained steadfast in her refusal to marry him.
St. Plautilla, 67 A.D. A Roman widow, reputedly the mother of St. Flavia Domitilla and the wife of Emperor Vespasian, who was exiled by Emperor Domitian for being a Christian. It is unlikely that Plautilla was Flavia’s mother, as history records her mother to be Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian. In legend, Plautilla was also said to have been baptized by St. Peter and to have witnessed the execution of St. Paul.

May 22
St. Rita, 1457 A.D. Patron of impossible cases. St. Rita was born at Spoleto, Italy in 1381. At an early age, she begged her parents to allow her to enter a convent. Instead they arranged a marriage for her. Rita became a good wife and mother, but her husband was a man of violent temper. In anger he often mistreated his wife. He taught their children his own evil ways. Rita tried to perform her duties faithfully and to pray and receive the sacraments frequently. After nearly twenty years of marriage, her husband was stabbed by an enemy but before he died, he repented because Rita prayed for him. Shortly afterwards, her two sons died, and Rita was alone in the world. Prayer, fasting, penances of many kinds, and good works filled her days. She was admitted to the convent of the Augustinian nuns at Cascia in Umbria, and began a life of perfect obedience and great charity. Sister Rita had a great devotion to the Passion of Christ. "Please let me suffer like you, Divine Saviour," she said one day, and suddenly one of the thorns from the crucifix struck her on the forehead. It left a deep wound which did not heal and which caused her much suffering for the rest of her life. She died on May 22, 1457. She is the patroness of impossible cases.

St. Quiteria. Many churches in southern France and northern Spain have been dedicated under the name of the virgin martyr St. Quiteria, who still enjoys a wide following, especially at Aire in Gascony, where her reputed relics were preserved until they were scattered by the Huguenots. On the other hand, though her name appears in the Roman Martyrology, no mention of her is made in any of the ancient calendars. She is popularly supposed to have been the daughter of a Galician prince, who fled from her home because her father wished to force her to marry and to abjure the Christian religion. She was tracked to Aire by emissaries by her father, by whose orders she was beheaded. Most of the details of the story, in the form in which it was most widely circulated, are fabulous, having been borrowed from the well known legend of King Catillius and Queen Calsia, and nothing is certain about Quiteria except her name and her cultus. Because she is invoked against the bite of mad dogs, she is always depicted with a dog on a lead. It seems that Portugal is especially devout to St. Quiteria, but tells a different story of her martyrdom and claims to possess her relics.

St. Helen, 418 A.D. martyred virgin mentioned in the acts of St. Amator of Auxerre, France, as sharing his suffering.