Role Martyr | Name Saint Reparata Feast 8 October | |
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Attributes Standing alone or near the Madonna, bearing the crown and palm as martyr; dove; banner with red cross on white ground; sometimes with Saint Ansanus Died Caesarea Maritima, Caesarea, Israel Similar People Eusebius, Giuliano de' Medici, Alexander of Jerusalem, Herod Agrippa, Basil of Ancyra | ||
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church | ||
Saint Reparata Martyr - Pesco Sannita, Italy (english)
Saint Reparata (Italian: Santa Reparata, French: Sainte Réparate) was a third-century Christian virgin and martyr, possibly mythical, of Caesarea in Palestine. Sources vary as to her age – from 11 to 20 years old – though the Sainte-Réparate cathedral in Nice gives it as 15. She was arrested for her faith and tortured during the persecution of Decius.
Her persecutors tried to burn her alive, but she was saved by a shower of rain. She was then made to drink boiling pitch. When she again refused to apostatize, she was beheaded. Her legend states that as she fell dead, her spirit emerged from her body in the form a dove. Later elaborations of her legend state that her body was laid in a boat and blown by the breath of angels to the bay now known as the Baie des Anges in Nice. A similar tale is associated with the legends of Saint Restituta; Saint Devota, patroness of Monaco and Corsica; and Saint Torpes.
Markings Evidence of her cult does not exist before the ninth century, when her name appears in the martyrology of Bede. She is not mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea, who recorded the martyrdoms that took place in the Holy Land during the 3rd century.
Her cult became widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the multiple Passiones found in various parts of the continent -especially Italy, where her cult was particularly popular in Florence, Atri, Naples, and Chieti. Numerous painters created depictions of her, including Fra Bartolomeo, Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Pisano, Domenico Passignano, and Bernardo Daddi.
She remained chief patroness of Florence until the High Middle Ages; Anna Jameson writes that “about 1298 she appears to have been deposed from her dignity as sole patroness; the city was placed under the immediate tutelage of the Virgin and St. John the Baptist.”
She is the patron saint of Nice and a co-patron saint of Florence (with Saint Zenobius). The former cathedral of Santa Reparata in Florence was dedicated to her. Sainte-Réparate Cathedral, in Nice, is also dedicated to her.
Florence holds a celebration in honor of Reparata each year on October 8 in commemoration of its deliverance from the Ostrogoths in 406, which they attribute to the intercession of St. Reparata.