Saint Antonina Of Nicea – 4 May – Saint Of The Day In Sacred Art
St Antonina of Nicea. A martyr tortured on a red-hot metal grill then sewed into a sack and drowned in a lake.
Antonina lived in the 1st century and was a Christian from Nicaea (modern-day Turkey). The information about the life of this saint and martyr is very scarce.
It is known that Antonina was tortured because she would not renounce her faith in Jesus Christ. However, the tradition says that she was imprisoned and forced to make sacrifices to idols. After she refused to do so she was put on a red-hot metal grill. When her torturers saw that she was miraculously unscathed, they sewed her up in a sack and through her in the lake of Nicaea where she ultimately drowned.
The symbol of St Antonina of Nicea in visual arts is the palm branch – a symbol of martyrdom. On many Eastern Orthodox icons the saint is depicted holding a crucifix and wearing a green chiton or a tunic.
