St faith biography wikipedia

Although earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology commemorated Saints Faith, Hope and Charity on 1 August and their mother Sophia on 30 September, [ 4 ] the present text of this official but professedly incomplete catalogue of saints of the Roman Catholic Church has no feast dedicated to the three saints or their mother: the only Sophia included is an early Christian virgin martyr of Picenum in Italy, commemorated with her companion Vissia on 12 April; another early Christian martyr, Saint Faith Fides , of Aquitania southern France , is celebrated on 6 October, a Saint Hope Spes , an abbot of Nursia who died in about , is commemorated on 23 May, and saint Charity Caritas is included, although saints with somewhat similar names, Carissa and Carissima, are given, respectively under 16 April and 7 September.

References of the time of Gregory the Great suggest two groups of martyrs, mother and daughters, one buried on the Aurelian Way and the other on the Via Appia. According to the Passio , Sophia was a widow of Milan who gave away her possessions and moved to Rome with her daughters. Her daughters were martyred before her and she buried them at Via Appia.

She died a natural death three days later while praying at the grave of her daughters. The oldest version of the Passio is BHL Caesar Baronius introduced the saints to the Roman Martyrology in the late 16th century. Their tomb in a crypt beneath the church afterwards erected to Saint Pancratius was long a place of resort for pilgrims , as detailed in various documents of the seventh century, such as an Itinerarium or guide to the holy places of Rome compiled for the use of pilgrims still preserved at Salzburg , the list, preserved in the cathedral archives of Monza, of the oils gathered from the tombs of the martyrs and sent to Queen Theodelinda in the time of Gregory the Great , etc.

Saxer notes that early Christians from the 4th century indeed often took in baptism mystical names indicative of Christian virtues, and Sophia, Sapientia, Fides are attested as names of Christian women in Catacomb inscriptions.

When was saint faith born

The veneration of the three saints named for the three theological virtues probably arose in the 6th century based on such inscriptions. The veneration of Sophia of Milan became indistinguishable from that of Sophia of Rome in the medieval period. Relics either of her or of Sophia of Rome were transferred to the women's convent at Eschau in Alsace in from where her cult spread to Germany.