(ABOUT A.D. 309.)
[Commemorated by the Greeks on December 21st. The ancient Latin
Martyrologies on Feb. 16th. The Acts are very ancient. They were
certainly written before 600, when her relics were at Puteoli.
Usuardus, whose Martyrology dates 800, speaks of her relics as at
Cumæ, to which place they had been translated about the year 600.
The Acts are not, however, to be trusted. They have apparently been
interpolated by those who were not satisfied with their original
brevity.]
S. Juliana was a Christian maiden, the daughter of heathen parents,
very beautiful, and of good birth. Her father resolved on marrying her
to the prefect Eleusius, but she refused, alleging, as her excuse,
that she was resolved not to marry a heathen. Her father, much
exasperated, beat her severely, and when he could not shake her
constancy he gave her over to the prefect, hoping that the terror of
appearing in court would quell her courage. But he was deceived. She
enthusiastically confessed Christ, and her betrothed, brutally ordered
her to be stripped and beaten before him, for his love was turned into
rage and hatred. The more cruelly she was treated, the more resolved
she seemed to become, and the more exasperated grew Eleusius. At last
he ordered molten metal to be poured over her, and then that she
should be thrown into prison, with her feet made fast in the stocks.
On the following day he ordered her to be let down into a vessel of
molten lead, and then he bade the executioner strike off her head.
The head of S. Juliana is preserved at Hal, in the Tyrol, but the
chief portion of her relics is in the church of Notre Dame de Sablon,
in Brussels.