St Domitilla, Granddaughter of the Pagan, Emperor Vespasian

Today is the Feast of St Evaristus, Pope and Martyr, who was the fifth Pope of the Church, and the first that had not known Our Blessed Lord during His time on earth. It was during his Pontificate that St  Domitilla was martyred. Her Feast Day is on 12 May. Her full name was Flavia Domitilla and she was the granddaughter of Titus Flavius Vespasianus, Emperor of Rome. Whilst it is unusual that the granddaughter of a pagan emperor would be a martyr in those days, it is especially meaningful for a specific reason.

St Domitilla, with Ss Nereus and Achilleus, her eunuch
servants, who were also martyrs.

As the granddaughter of Vespasian, she was a descendant of the man who had destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. As Dom Guéranger says in his The Liturgical Year, 'Under this pontificate the virgin Domitilla, by her martyrdom, cemented the foundations of the new Jerusalem with the blood of the Flavii who had destroyed the old.'

The collect of the Feast,

May the blessed and solemn remembrance of thy Martyrs Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla, and Pancras, making our hearts to burn within us, may cause us to be more meet for thy service.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.
R. Amen.

The Legend from her Feast Day,

The brothers Nereus and Achilleus were eunuchs of Flavia Domitilla and were baptized by St. Peter at the same time as she herself and her mother Plautilla. Because they persuaded Domitilla to consecrate her virginity to God, they were accused of being Christians by Aurelian, who had been betrothed to her, and were sent to the island of Ponza. Soon afterwards, they were scourged in an effort to make them sacrifice to idols, and were taken to Terracina, where, after they had overcome the torture of the rack and flaming torches, they were beheaded. Their bodies were taken to Rome by their disciple Auspicius and buried on the Ardeatine Way. As for Flavia Domitilla, who had received the sacred veil of a virgin from Pope St. Clement, she also was deported to the island of Ponza, and after a long imprisonment was taken to Terracina. There, by the judge's orders, her dwelling was set on fire, and she won a glorious death, along with the virgins Theodora and Euphrosyna, her foster-sisters, on May 7, under Emperor Trajan. Their bodies were buried by the Deacon Caesarius. Pancras, born of a noble Phrygian family, was baptized in Rome at the age of fourteen. Under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, he was arrested; and when he firmly refused to sacrifice to the gods, he was beheaded and so won the glorious crown of martyrdom. His body was buried secretly on the Via Aurelia by the matron Octavilla.
V. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R. Thanks be to God.