Viviana (Bibiana), Saint, Martyr (BIBIANA (VIBIANA), SANTA, MARTIRE)

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

BIBIANA (VIBIANA), saint, martyr. — The Passio relates that the Roman virgin B., together with her mother Dafrosa and her sister Demetria, was scourged to death under Julian the Apostate. This Passio is, however, a legend of the sixth century, probably intended to explain the presence of the three bodies discovered beneath her basilica. Only the information in the Liber Pontificalis seems certain, according to which Pope Simplicius (468–73) had this basilica built over the tomb of the holy martyr; restored several times thereafter, it was rebuilt by Bernini in 1626. It houses the beautiful statue of the Martyr, sculpted by the same artist. Her feast is celebrated on 2 December.

BIBL.: Liber Pontificalis, edited by L. Duchesne, I, Paris 1886, pp. 249–50; B. Mombritius, Sanctuarium, I, 2nd ed., there 1910, p. 489; P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Note agiografiche, fasc. IV (Studi e testi, 24), Rome 1912, p. 18, n. 1, and fasc. V (Studi e testi, 27), there 1915, p. 56; E. Donckel, in Römische Quartalschrift, 43 (1935), pp. 23–33; id., in Rivista d'Archeologia Cristiana, 14 (1937), pp. 125–35; H. Delehaye, Etude sur le légendier romain, Brussels 1936, pp. 134–43; R. Krautheimer, Corpus Basilicarum christianarum Romae, fasc. II, Città del Vaticano 1939, p. 94. Cesario van Hulst

ICONOGRAPHY. — This Roman holy virgin is rarely represented, to such an extent that her iconography may be said to consist of Bernini’s famous statue, located on the high altar of the church bearing her name, erected in the 5th century but entirely rebuilt by Bernini himself in 1625; near the entrance is preserved the section of column against which the Martyr is said to have been flogged to death.

The Saint is depicted leaning against a column, a reminder of her martyrdom, and holding the palm in her left hand. On the walls of the church itself, Pietro da Cortona (on the left) and Agostino Ciampelli (on the right) depicted the principal scenes of the legend.

BIBL.: K. Künste, Ikonographie der Heiligen, Friburgo in Br. 1926, p. 135. Kurt Raabe