ON ST. DIGNA, VIRGIN,
AT TODI IN ITALY.
CommentaryDigna, Virgin and Martyr, at Todi in Italy (S.)
J. B. S.
This St. Digna, virgin of Todi, was known to no ancient Calendars or Martyrologies, Marked in the Roman, being marked first on this day by Baronius in the Roman Martyrology: At Todi, of St. Digna the virgin, for whom he cites the old manuscript monuments of the church of Todi, from which he testifies that he received it; treating of her also in the Annals, volume 2, at the year 303, where among very many other saints, most of them Martyrs, she too is numbered, but known by scarcely more than her name. Ferrarius supplied a little more from the Office of the church of Todi approved at Rome in the year MDCVI, which I have judged should be here written out, since I could find nothing else handed down besides her posthumous glory, consisting chiefly in the translation of her relics with many others, which you have repeated more than once in the Commentary on St. Romana at the day XXIII of February. Here, therefore, it will suffice to have brought forward the text of Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. He has it thus:
[2] she is praised by Ferrarius. Digna, a virgin of Todi, under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, practicing the Christian religion with admirable piety, strove to preserve entire even in mind the virginity dedicated to Christ. She was humble, frequent in prayer. But when the persecution against the Christians grew strong, in order to avoid it, since she could no longer bear it, having often prayed God to snatch her from such great evils, hiding here and there she withdrew into the solitude: where, passing her life in prayers, vigils, fastings, and heavenly conversation, she became renowned for very many miracles, by which her sanctity was proved. At length, falling into sickness, she shortly flew to her Spouse on the III of the Ides of August. Whose body rests at Todi in the basilica of St. Fortunatus with fitting honor. There is subjoined a six-line poem alluding to the name of St. Digna, in which I see nothing greatly worthy of the reader's attention.