ARIANNA, Saint and Martyr. — Called Maria in the Latin (BHL, 5422) and Syriac (BHO, 6582) versions of the Greek Passion (BHG, 165), she was a slave of Tertullus, a wealthy lord of an undetermined provincial city, which the author of the Greek Passion identifies as Primnessus in Salutary Phrygia. Tertullus, a pagan and benefactor of the city, is accused of harboring Christians, but the judge acquits him of the charge. ARIANNA refuses to sacrifice; condemned to torture, it is not applied to her at the request of the onlookers, and instead she is granted a thirty-day reprieve. ARIANNA declares to the judge that she will decide what is most advantageous for her. The above account comes from two documents of high historical value (the trial of Tertullus and the interrogation of ARIANNA) which the author of the Greek Passion, writing in the second half of the 4th century, has embedded in a fanciful narrative that concludes with ARIANNA’s miraculous concealment within the bosom of a cliff. The date of her martyrdom remains uncertain, falling somewhere between the 2nd and 4th centuries.
Feast: In the East she is commemorated on September 18, 25, 26, and 27; in the West on November 19 under the name Marin in the Hieronymian and Roman Martyrologies; in the latter, Baronius also inserted her on September 17 under the name ARIANNA.
A. Pietro Frutaz