CRISPINA, saint, martyr. — Born at Tagora, she suffered martyrdom by beheading on 5 December 304 at Tebessa (Africa), where the ruins of the ancient basilica dedicated to her, in which her tomb is said to have been located, are believed to have been found. The Acts of her martyrdom survive; they were composed in the second half of the 4th century or at the beginning of the 5th and, despite interpolations of suspicious details and the absence of certain precise and indispensable information known from other documents, are an authoritative reproduction of the official record drawn from the proconsular archives.
According to these Acts, C., accused of having despised the imperial edicts, was brought before the tribunal of Anulinus; after a lengthy interrogation, during which she yielded neither to threats nor to blandishments, firmly refusing to sacrifice to the idols, she was condemned to capital punishment. St. Augustine, delivering two sermons in honor of C. on the anniversary of her death (PL 37, 1605–18, 1774–85), provides us with several further details concerning her social status, family, and trial, which are absent from the Acts. It has therefore been thought that the Saint knew a more complete account of C.’s martyrdom, particularly widespread in African Catholic circles, whereas the version we possess would be of Donatist origin. The cult of C. soon spread throughout the Church; her image appears in the mosaics of S. Apollinare Nuovo and at Ravenna.