RUFINA, SS.

There were several saints in the early Church by this name.

Rufina and Secunda are recorded as having been martyred in the Valerian persecution (c. 257) and buried on the Via Cornelia at the ninth milestone. A church was erected there, apparently by Pope damasus; it became a basilica and was renovated by Pope adrian i in the eighth century. This was the ancient See of Lorium, subsequently united with that of Porto, which became a suburbicarian see of Rome as Porto Santa Rufina, with a cardinal as its bishop. The Acta are legendary, and state that Rufina and Secunda were sisters, daughters of a Roman Senator Asterius, who were delated by their prospective fianceés and beheaded. In 1154 their relics were translated to the baptistery of the Lateran Basilica.

Feast: July 10.

Rufina and Justa are honored in Seville, Spain, as having been martyred in 287 upon refusing to sell their self-produced earthenware as vessels for pagan worship.

Feast: July 19.

Rufina of Caesarea, reputed mother of St. Mamas (d. c. 275), was said to have been martyred with her husband, St. Theodotus, and St. Ammia under Valerian. Nothing concrete is known of her life.

Feast: Aug. 31.

Rufina of Sirmium, Pannonia, led a group of eleven martyrs, who died probably in the fourth century.

Feast: April 6.

Bibliography: Rufina and Secunda. Acta sanctorum July 3:27–29. Bibliographica hagiographica latina 2:7359. l. berra, Dizionario Ecclesiastico 3:616. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints 3:64. Rufina and Justa, and Rufina of Caesarea. f. g. arquÉs, Sermón de las gloriosas santas vírgines y mártires, Iusta y Rufina, ed. a. l. galiano pÉrez (Valencia 1617, repr. Orihuela, Spain 1983). l. berra, Dizionario Ecclesiastico 3:616. h. quentin, Les Martyrologes historiques (Paris 1908) 176–177. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints 3:144–145.

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