St. Anastasia: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Feast day: December 25 (commemorated in the Roman Martyrology; not a memorial on the General Roman Calendar)
Patron of: No widely recognized patronage.
About St. Anastasia
St. Anastasia was a Christian martyr who died at Sirmium, in present-day Serbia, around the year 304 during the persecution of Diocletian. Her name, from the Greek word for resurrection, was honored early in the East, and when her relics were brought to Constantinople in the fifth century, her fame spread widely. In Rome, an ancient church near the Palatine Hill, originally a titular church founded by a woman named Anastasia, became dedicated to her.
Her memory became closely linked with Christmas. For centuries the pope celebrated the second Mass of Christmas, the Mass at dawn, in the church of St. Anastasia, and a commemoration of her was added to that Mass. Her name is also included in the Roman Canon of the Mass and in the traditional Litany of the Saints, among the holy women. Later legends describe her as a Roman noblewoman who cared for imprisoned Christians before being martyred herself, but these details are uncertain. What is certain is the Church's long and loving memory of her witness, shining like dawn on the feast of Christ's birth.
Prayers to St. Anastasia on Daily Catholic Prayers
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