Saint Petronilla, Virgin and Martyr - May 31

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:05]May 31st, Saint Petronilla, Virgin.

[00:00:09]Among the disciples of the apostles in the primitive age of the saints, this holy virgin shown as a bright star in the church. She lived when Christians were much more solicitous to live well than to write much. They knew how to die for Christ, but they did not compile long books in which vanity has often a greater share than charity. Hence, no particular account of her actions has been handed down to us. But, how eminent her sanctity was we may judge from the luster by which it was distinguished among the apostles, prophets, and martyrs. Some accounts say that Petronilla was the daughter of Saint Peter. However, it's quite certain that she was not. The idea that Saint Peter had a daughter seems to have been derived from certain publications of Gnostic origin. And her identification with the Saint Petronilla venerated in Rome was imported into the legends concerning her, which were current in the 6th century or earlier. On the other hand, in the cemetery of Domitilla, a fresco has been discovered dating from the middle of the 4th century, which quite unmistakably represents Petronilla as a martyr. Before she died, she flourished at Rome, and she was buried after death on the way to Ardea, where in ancient times a cemetery and a church bore her name. With the saints, the great end for which they lived was always present to their minds, and they thought every moment lost in which they did not make some advances toward eternal bliss. How will their example condemn at the last day the fooleries and the greatest part of the conversation and employments of the world, which aim at nothing but present amusements and forget the only important affair, the business of eternity?