Saint Amelia

Very little is known about Saint Amelia, and it’s better to say so right away rather than beat around the bush. She is said to belong to a group of Christians killed in Girona, Spain, in the fourth century, during the persecution of Diocletian. Her martyrdom is recorded in an ancient breviary of Girona, and among all those names there is one woman’s name: Amelia. That’s not as little as it seems. For a great many ancient saints, this is exactly what we know: that they existed, that they didn’t give in, and that someone took the trouble to write down their name so it wouldn’t be lost. The dates, the details, the exchanges with the judges — those often came later, added by people who wanted to tell better a story they knew poorly. Here there isn’t even that: there’s a name on a list, and a list of people who died rather than deny their faith. In 1336 the bishop of Girona, Arnau de Camprodón, is said to have found the relics of all those martyrs. Since then the Church has remembered her on January 5, and that is practically all that has come down to us about her. But the reason this page exists today is a different one, and a livelier one: **today is the name day of every Amelia**. It’s an old name that has come back into fashion in recent years, and it wears well — it sounds sweet without being ordinary. If you know an Amelia, today is her day. What remains of her is a name. When you think about it, that’s what remains of almost all of us.