Saint Flavia Domitilla

Flavia Domitilla was born in Rome around the year 60, and she was born at the top of the world: her mother was Vespasian’s daughter, her uncles were Titus and Domitian. In other words: three emperors in the family. She lost her mother at nine. She grew up in consular circles and married her cousin, Titus Flavius Clemens, who was consul in 95. That same year, according to the ancient sources, Domitian had Clemens killed and Domitilla exiled, accusing them of “atheism” and of having gone over to “Jewish customs” — which is how Roman writers of the time described, without telling them apart, conversion to Judaism and conversion to Christianity. Suetonius, who was a contemporary, names her as someone his readers knew well. The event itself — a consul from the imperial family executed for religious reasons — is also recorded by Cassius Dio. For centuries scholars have debated whether the Domitilla of the Roman historians and the one Christian writers remember from the fourth century on are the same person or two different women of the same house. What remains, and what no one disputes, is her name attached to a piece of Rome: the Catacombs of Domitilla, on the Via Ardeatina, are among the largest in the city and lie on land that belonged to that family. If your name is Domitilla, today is your name day.