Saint Anastasia of Sirmium

Life story

Tradition remembers Anastasia as a woman martyred at Sirmium, in the province of Pannonia and today Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia, during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian, around the year 304. Historians say almost nothing certain is known of her life, and the Acts that tell her story were written rather late and contain many legendary features.

According to tradition she was a noblewoman who helped Christians in prison and was finally put to death for her faith. The ancient calendar of Rome kept her on 25 December, and Bede also records that date in his martyrology.

Her body is said to have been moved later to Constantinople. In Rome the church of Sant'Anastasia at the foot of the Palatine hill bears her name and was one of the papal stational churches. Old custom has the pope celebrating the Mass at dawn on Christmas Day at this church, and her name gradually became tied to that feast.

The name Anastasia is among the women saints in the Roman Canon, the First Eucharistic Prayer. The liturgical reforms after the Second Vatican Council reduced her place in the Christmas liturgy. In the East a saint of the same name is remembered on a different day, and how far the two traditions are connected is unclear. Because so little is secure, scholars usually separate the question of the cult from the question of the life. The cult is old and well documented, since the Roman church dedicated to her existed by the fourth century, but the stories told about her imprisonment and death come from texts written long after the persecution.

Works and witness

• According to tradition, martyred at Sirmium around 304 under Diocletian
• Bede records her feast on 25 December in his martyrology
• The church of Sant'Anastasia at the foot of the Palatine in Rome bears her name
• Her name appears in the Roman Canon
• Old custom linked the Christmas dawn Mass to her church

Saints from the same country

Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Mark, Saint Luke

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Bede, Martyrology
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.