St. Juliana, the one who scared the devil. The stories, or rather the legends, of the holy martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity seem, at first sight, all similar. Instead, they have wise nuances and diversity of meaning, or at least poetry. St. Agatha and St. Agnes, for example, were like pure angels that the love of the Mystic Bridegroom preserved through the pitfalls of passion.
Blessed Juliana, on the other hand, had agreed to marry Eulogius, the pagan prefect of her city, Nicomedia in Bithynia. After the wedding, however, she firmly refused the embrace of the idolatrous groom. In order to better understand her gesture, it is necessary to consider that at that time the girls were married very young, and often their consent was not even required. The marriage was arranged by relatives, to whom it was difficult to refuse an influential party, as in this case was the prefect of Nicomedia. Juliana, an obedient Saint, accepted the groom imposed on her.
She was then a loving Saint, with a superhuman love, when she offered her body as a reward for the conversion of her pagan husband. But the groom, superficially in love, feared too much the power of the Emperor. He refused to convert and, frightened by the idea of a Christian wife, he used his authority as prefect and ordered her to be tortured so that she would apostatize, that is, deny her faith.
Juliana was thus finally a heroic saint in the torments she endured for the faith. And heroic in her desperate attempt to open up the soul of her earthly spouse to the light.
The story of the devil is a story in itself, inserted with devoted imagination into her legend.
In fact, it is said that the tempter appeared to her in prison, in the form of an angel, urging her to sacrifice to the gods and to put an end to her long torments. With the help of prayer, Juliana recognized the devil, and """"then - says the legend - he tied his hands behind, and threw him to the ground and beat him very hard with the chain with which he was bound, and 'the devil so the prayer: Madonna Juliana, have mercy on me. She went to the torture, drawing the devil in chains behind her, who begged: """"My Lady Juliana, don't make fun of me, because from now on I won't be able to have any value against others"""".
A naive story, a delicate legend, that represents us, with fable-like words, how great was the virtue of Saint Juliana, a girl of Nicomedia, beheaded around 305, at the time of Diocletian's persecution.
Name: Saint Juliana of Nicomedia
Title: Virgin and martyr
Birth: III Century, Nicomedia
Death: Third century, Nicomedia
Recurrence: February 16
Typology: Commemoration
Patron of: Caponago, Borgolavezzaro
Protector: of the sick, parturients
Blessed Juliana, on the other hand, had agreed to marry Eulogius, the pagan prefect of her city, Nicomedia in Bithynia. After the wedding, however, she firmly refused the embrace of the idolatrous groom. In order to better understand her gesture, it is necessary to consider that at that time the girls were married very young, and often their consent was not even required. The marriage was arranged by relatives, to whom it was difficult to refuse an influential party, as in this case was the prefect of Nicomedia. Juliana, an obedient Saint, accepted the groom imposed on her.
She was then a loving Saint, with a superhuman love, when she offered her body as a reward for the conversion of her pagan husband. But the groom, superficially in love, feared too much the power of the Emperor. He refused to convert and, frightened by the idea of a Christian wife, he used his authority as prefect and ordered her to be tortured so that she would apostatize, that is, deny her faith.
Juliana was thus finally a heroic saint in the torments she endured for the faith. And heroic in her desperate attempt to open up the soul of her earthly spouse to the light.
The story of the devil is a story in itself, inserted with devoted imagination into her legend.
In fact, it is said that the tempter appeared to her in prison, in the form of an angel, urging her to sacrifice to the gods and to put an end to her long torments. With the help of prayer, Juliana recognized the devil, and """"then - says the legend - he tied his hands behind, and threw him to the ground and beat him very hard with the chain with which he was bound, and 'the devil so the prayer: Madonna Juliana, have mercy on me. She went to the torture, drawing the devil in chains behind her, who begged: """"My Lady Juliana, don't make fun of me, because from now on I won't be able to have any value against others"""".
A naive story, a delicate legend, that represents us, with fable-like words, how great was the virtue of Saint Juliana, a girl of Nicomedia, beheaded around 305, at the time of Diocletian's persecution.
Name: Saint Juliana of Nicomedia
Title: Virgin and martyr
Birth: III Century, Nicomedia
Death: Third century, Nicomedia
Recurrence: February 16
Typology: Commemoration
Patron of: Caponago, Borgolavezzaro
Protector: of the sick, parturients
