Bonosa

Who they were

Bonosa, with Zosimus and Eutropius, belongs to a group of Christian martyrs venerated since antiquity at Porto, the great harbour town at the mouth of the Tiber near ancient Rome. Almost nothing certain is known of their individual lives; the Roman Martyrology simply names them together as martyrs of Porto on 15 July, and tradition places their deaths in the persecutions of the early third century.

Of the three, Bonosa's veneration spread most widely in later centuries. Her body was said to have been found among the Roman catacombs, and in the Middle Ages some of her relics were moved to the Cistercian abbey of Clairvaux in France; she was invoked especially as a protector against contagious disease.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Martyr venerated since antiquity at Porto near Rome, commemorated with Zosimus and Eutropius on 15 July; her relics were especially venerated in the Middle Ages.