Saint Emerentiana was a Roman martyr, who lived in the 3rd century. According to Christian hagiography, Emerentiana's mother was the wet nurse and nanny of Saint Agnes, a rich Roman heiress who was martyred after refusing her engagement due to her Christian religion. Emerentiana herself was a catechumen, still learning about Christianity before being officially baptized. A few days after Agnes' death, Emerentiana was caught praying by her tomb; upset upon the death of her best friend and foster sister, she claimed that she was a Christian as well and belittled the pagans who had killed Agnes, and was stoned to death by the crowd. Her feast day is 23 January, and she is represented as a young girl who either has stones in her lap and lillies in her hand, or is being stoned to death by a mob. Popular cultureEmerentiana had a tiny cameo in Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman's Fabiola, where she is seen mourning for Agnes right after the latter's martyrdom. External links
| | |||||||||||||