St. Julia (Juliana)
suffered martyrdom during the Diocletian persecution. St. Juliana lived
in Nicomedia and was betrothed to the Senator Eleusius. Her father Africanus
was a pagan and hostile to the Christians. In the persecution of Maximianus,
Juliana was beheaded after suffering frightful torturers. Soon after a
noble lady, named Sephonia, came through Nicomedia and took the saint's
body with her to Italy, and had it buried in Campania. Evidently it was
this alleged translation that caused the martyred Juliana, honoured in
Nicomedia, to be identified with St. Juliana of Cumae, although they are
quite distinct persons. The veneration of St. Juliana of Cumae became very
widespread, especially in the Netherlands. At the beginning of the thirteenth
century her remains were transferred to Naples. The description of this
translation by a contemporary writer is still extant. The feast of the
saint is celebrated in the Latin Church on 16 February, in the Greek on
21 December. Her Acts describe the conflicts which she is said to have
with the devil; she is represented in pictures with a winged devil whom
she leads by a chain.
See: Hieronymus Bosch Crucifixion
of St. Julia.
Recommended reading:
Lives
of the Saints: From Mary and Francis of Assisi to John XXIII and Mother
Teresa by Richard McBrien (Author). Harper San Francisco, 2001.
The
Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford Paperback Reference) by
David Hugh Farmer. Oxford University Press, 2003.