(ABOUT A.D. 302.)
[Roman Martyrology and Greek Menæa.]
S. Nicander flourished in the reign of Diocletian, in Egypt. He visited the Christian confessors in their dungeons, and ministered to their necessities; and when they suffered, he gathered their ashes and bones, and reverently buried them. This devotion could not long remain unobserved by the heathen, and he was denounced to the governor, who sentenced him to death.
S. MATRONA, V. M.
(DATE UNKNOWN.)
[Three saints of this name are commemorated on this day. At Barcelona one called Virgin and Martyr, another of Thessalonica, in the Roman Martyrology, called Martyr, but it is not said that she was a Virgin; another at Capua, in Campania, where she is said to be a Virgin and a native of Portugal. They were three distinct persons living at different dates, as their histories testify, but on account of the names of the Barcelonese and Capuan Saints being identical with that of S. Matrona in the Roman Martyrology, their festivals are kept on the same day. Matrona of Thessalonica is commemorated by the Greeks on March 27th.]
S. Matrona of Barcelona was early left an orphan and was adopted by her aunt, who went with her to Italy, and settled in the Campagna. The girl was given a crucifix, which she ever carried about with her. Having been denounced as a Christian, she was thrown into prison and starved to death.
S. Matrona of Thessalonica was the slave of a Jewess, who having discovered that her servant was a Christian, beat her to death with a stick.
S. ZACHARIAS, POPE.
(A.D. 752.)