Saint Aurea of Ostia – 20 May – Saint Of The Day
Saint Aurea of Ostia. A noble woman and a martyr. A virgin and a miracle worker. Iconography symbol – a millstone around the neck of a woman. Patron saint of the city of Ostia near Rome, Italy.
Aurea lived in the 3rd century and was of a noble blood. She openly professed Christianity for which she was arrested and after being interrogated by Emperor Claudius, she was exiled from the Rome for her devotion to Christianity to her estate located near Ostia (a city near Rome).
Here she continued to openly profess her faith and maintained contact with local Christians, and also visited and consoled those suffering for their faith in a local prison.
During one of these visits God through Aurea showed a miracle – the chains in which one of the prisoners was shackled miraculously fell from him. The tradition also says that through the prayers of Aurea the son of a shoemaker was raised from the dead.
By order of the Roman prefect, the companions of Aurea, the local Christians, were executed, and she was tortured for refusing to make sacrifices to the pagan gods.
Unable to break the will of the woman the prefect ordered to put a heavy stone around her neck and to throw her into the sea in the port of Ostia. Later, the martyr’s body washed ashore, local Christians took it and buried it on the territory of her villa. A church was erected over Aurea’s grave, it still exists today, although not in its original form.
In the Orthodox tradition she is venerated with a name Chrysia.
Iconography – Saint Aurea of Ostia is depicted being thrown into the sea with a millstone around her neck.
