CONCERNING ST. RUFINA THE VIRGIN
CommentaryRufina, Virgin (Saint)
By G. H.
[1] The ancient manuscript Martyrology preserved at Cologne in the monastery of the Carmelite Fathers records among few and select Saints the memory of St. Rufina in these words: St. Rufina the Virgin is recorded either alone On this day, St. Rufina the Virgin. The same is read in the Martyrology printed at Lubeck in 1490, which is titled the Doctrinale of Clerics and begins from the vigil of the Nativity, or the 9th of the Kalends of January. Another printed the same year at Cologne, but beginning from the Kalends of January themselves, celebrates St. Rufina the Virgin in the very same words. Hermann Greven likewise inscribed her in his supplement to Usuard. But who she was, or in what place or time she flourished, we have not yet been able to discover, just as was said about St. Onesima the Virgin, whom we recorded on February 27 from the same four Martyrologies. Franciscus Maurolycus, Abbot of Messina, in his Martyrology published nearly a hundred years ago, joins both Virgins on February 28. or joined to St. Onesima the Virgin On the same day, he says, Saints Macarius, Rufinus, Justus, and Theophilus. Likewise Oswald the Martyr. And Onesima and Rufina the Virgins. The same is read in the Italian Calendar of Constantius Felici. Other Martyrologies already indicated also mention Rufinus the Martyr. We treated of him and his companions above: among whom, in the old manuscript of our Philip Labbe, there is the name Rufina: whence arose the doubt whether this Virgin is meant, or rather Rufinus should be substituted, or certainly Rufunia, whose name appears among those Martyrs in the manuscript Martyrology of St. Jerome.