Saint Lucilla of Rome

Lucilla was the daughter of the Roman tribune Nemesius and lived at the time of Valerian’s persecution, around 257. According to her hagiography, she had been blind from birth. Her father asked Pope Stephen to baptize him and her, and it was Saint Valentine of Rome — a priest, often confused with his namesake the bishop of Terni, the Valentine of sweethearts — who baptized her. Tradition says that with baptism she got her sight back. It was that event, together with their conversion, that got them into trouble. The emperor Gallienus demanded that Nemesius turn back, and he wouldn’t give in. Both were sentenced to death: Lucilla along the Appian Way, near the temple of Mars; her father between the Appian Way and the Latin Way. Pope Stephen, who would be killed shortly afterward, had them buried in a secret place; his successor Sixtus II moved their bodies to a more fitting tomb. In half of Europe, October 31 is the eve of All Saints’ Day — what the English-speaking world calls All Hallows’ Eve, which gave us Halloween. That holiday, too, starts here: from the vigil of tomorrow’s solemnity. If your name is Lucilla, today is your name day.