ON SS. JUSTA, JUSTINA, AND HEREDINA
MARTYRS IN SARDINIA.
CENTURY II.
CommentaryJusta, Martyr in Sardinia (S.)
Justina, Martyr in Sardinia (S.)
Heredina, Martyr in Sardinia (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
[1] Among the three Archiepiscopal cities of Sardinia is, on the western shore, Arborea, commonly Oristano, under which metropolis were formerly the Bishops of Torralba, of Uselli, and of Santa Justa, but now these cities are said to have coalesced with the Archiepiscopal See. The Church of S. Justa. But that which is here called Santa Justa owes, as most will have it, its name
to S. Justa, concerning whom and her companions in today's Roman Martyrology these things are read on this XIV of May: In Sardinia, of the holy Martyrs Justa, The name of all in the Fasti. Justina, and Heredina. James Pinto, by nation a Sardinian, of the Society of Jesus, a learned man, in book 3 on Christ Crucified, title 4, place 12, inserts a Little Digression on the Martyrs of Sardinia, and in number 21, when he had treated of the Martyrs in the first century of Christ, and then of those suffering under Trajan and Hadrian, subjoins these things from the Acts of the Church of Arborea and the Martyrologies: Almost contemporary was the most illustrious Virgin, they are called Virgins, by her mother Cleodania variously tortured, and Justina and Henedina her handmaids, most illustrious Virgin Martyrs. Salvator Vitalis in the Annals of Sardinia, part 2, page 46, among the Martyrs who suffered in Sardinia under Hadrian the Emperor reckons Justa, Justina, and Henedina, Virgins and Martyrs. Francis de Vico in the general History of the island and kingdom of Sardinia, written in the Spanish idiom, part 3 chapter 2, among the Saints who in the second century of Christ flourished in Sardinia, asserts that SS. Henedina, and that they suffered at Torres, Justa, and Justina suffered martyrdom at Torres. That city was formerly ample and Archiepiscopal, to which, being extinguished, succeeded the city of Sassari. But Dimas Serpi, a Sardinian of Cagliari, of the Order of S. Francis of the Minors of the Observance, in the Chronicle of the Saints of Sardinia, book 1 chapter 16, calls SS. Justa, Justina, and Henedina Virgins and Martyrs, by others at Cagliari, but says they suffered at Cagliari, indeed that they were sprung from that metropolis, and that to them, on account of the many miracles by which they shone, Churches were dedicated, and chiefly the Cathedral Church of S. Justa. Finally Dionysius Bonfant, himself also of Cagliari, in book 13 of the Triumph of the Saints of Sardinia, chapter 4, also judges them Virgins and Martyrs, indeed also noble sisters, piously educated at Cagliari by Catholic parents, and in the persecution of Diocletian, after other torments inflicted on them, beheaded, and their bodies in the crypt of S. Restituta to have been deposited, and there found with this inscription: Here are SS. Justa, Justina, and Herendina V. and M., here perhaps lying. Ja. Moreover, near the said crypt of S. Restituta, he asserts there is a parish church, sacred to S. Anna mother of the Virgin Mother of God: and in the altar of that church these three Saints are seen depicted in ancient habit. These things the said Dionysius Bonfant: whose credibility we have more than once intimated is held suspect by learned men. That even before him Dimas Serpi asserts they suffered at Cagliari, by no testimony of others Ferrarius indicates this to be done in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy: in which he sets forth that elogium. Justa, Justina, and Henedina, women, in Sardinia for the faith of Christ apprehended, Elogium from Ferrarius. were crowned with martyrdom on the day before the Ides of May, about those times in which Crescentianus at Torres and Antiochus at Sulci suffered under Hadrian. For whom, on account of miracles, a church was constructed, afterward erected into which pertains to the nearest Arborean metropolis. Their Acts are wanting: yet the Annals of Sardinia hand down that they are famous for miracles, and Patronesses of the city of S. Justa, which they freed from the plague. In an Annotation, Fara is rejected, because he writes that they departed in peace. But Crescentianus is venerated on the XXXI of May, and Antiochus on the XIII of December. Moreover some Relics of S. Justa the Martyr are preserved at Bologna in the Church of S. John on the Mount, Relics of some S. Justa at Bologna, brought thither from Rome in the year MDCLII under the Pontificate of Innocent X, which Masinus noted on this day in his Bologna Surveyed: gratuitously supposing them brought from Sardinia. More pertinent here is, that the aforecited Ferrarius, in the general Catalogue, reporting the same on the V of May, in this phrase; In Sardinia, of the holy Virgins and Martyrs, Justa, Justina, and Heredina; notes Cult on May 5. that he has this from the records of the Church of S. Justa, in which their bodies are preserved.