Lupercilla

Who they were

No ancient records survive to reconstruct the life of Lupercilla; her name is known only from her burial in the Catacombs of San Callisto on the Via Appia, and, as with many catacomb martyrs, the historical evidence amounts to little more than the name on the tomb and the veneration later given to the relics. A 19th-century tradition held that she belonged to the family of the consul Pammachius and was martyred in 233 under the Emperor Alexander Severus along with forty-two other Christians; though widely believed, this story is not confirmed by earlier sources and is now regarded as a late legend. Modern examination of her relics suggests they are those of a girl of about seven or eight.

Her relics remained in the Catacombs of San Callisto until 1819, when they were given to the community of Crodo, in what is now the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola; their solemn translation gave rise to a local devotion that continues today, and she is venerated there as co-patron, with a feast marked every year on the second Sunday of July by a solemn procession and other celebrations. Her case belongs to the phenomenon of the "Corpi Santi," catacomb relics given between the 17th and 19th centuries to European dioceses and parishes lacking local saints of their own.

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

Child martyr whose relics, from the Catacombs of San Callisto in Rome, were given to Crodo in 1819, where she is venerated as co-patron; feast the second Sunday of July.