BALBINA, Saint. - She is unknown to the Martyrologium Hieronymianum; she appears not as a martyr, but as a virgin and daughter of the tribune Quirinus in the legendary Passio of Sts. Alexander, Eventius and Theodulus (Acta SS. Maii, III, p. 375); the place of her tomb is not indicated. Because of a misunderstood topographical indication, Florus introduced her into his Martyrologium under 18 June; Ado instead under 31 March, adding that she was buried in the cemetery of Praetextatus with her father Quirinus. With the same date she appears in the current Roman Martyrology.
A suburban cemetery and an urban title church bear her name.
The former was situated on the via Ardeatina; Pope Mark built a basilica there in which he himself was later laid to rest (336), as is attested by the Depositio episcoporum and by the Liber pontificalis, in the biography of Pope Mark; it was restored by Gregory III (731-41), Benedict III (855-58) and Nicholas I (858-67).
Two inscriptions relating to the purchase of tombs recall, the one, in Balbinis basilica sub teglata (E. Diehl, Inscr. Chr. lat. vet., no. 2143), the other a new gallery of the underground cemetery in cymiteriu Balbinae in crypta noba (E. Diehl, ibid., no. 2149). De Rossi believed he could recognize the cemetery of B. not far from that of Callixtus (Roma sotterranea, I, Rome 1864, pp. 221, 265, 269); so too did Wilpert in his topographical study of the Christian monuments of the Appia and the Ardeatina (in Römische Quartalschrift, 15 [1901], pp. 32-49); but the identification remains doubtful, both because it is not confirmed by monumental finds, and because the ancient via Ardeatina exited from the Ardeatine Gate of the Aurelian enclosure, destroyed in the 16th century, at the place where Sangallo erected his bastion (C. Huelsen, in Bull. dell'Ist. archeol. germanico, 9 [1894], p. 320), and its course, much farther to the right than the present one, was discovered in 1933, on the occasion of the foundations of the Ospizio di San Michele, to the right of the cemetery of Domitilla.
The titulus sanctae B. appears for the first time in the Roman Synod of 595; it is not known whether it existed earlier or under another name. The title church is situated on the small Aventine near the baths of Caracalla and the house of Cilo. The building consists of a large rectangular hall composed of three different structures, with niches and a semicircular apse. It is uncertain whether the present church is a profane building of about the middle of the 4th century A.D., subsequently adapted for worship. The present portico (late 16th century) is an enlargement of the previous one; in 1928 a radical restoration of the whole building was carried out.
The large arched windows were reopened, arranged six to a side, three in the facade and four in the apse. In the walls were found votive paintings datable between the 9th and 14th centuries, representing the Madonna enthroned between the Apostles Peter and Paul, the Crucifixion of St. Peter, Saints and donors; traces were found of the schola cantorum, which was rebuilt at the expense of Cardinal Verdier, then titular. A previous conservative restoration had been carried out in the second half of the 15th century by Cardinal Marco Barbo. Notable is the funerary monument of Stefano de Surdia (d. 1300), the work of the Roman marble-worker Giovanni di Cosma, transported there from the ancient Vatican basilica in the 17th century.
It is among the churches officiated by the Vatican Chapter. - See Pl. XLV.
