GIULIA, saint, martyr. - She is commemorated in the Hieronymian Martyrology on 22 May as a martyr of Corsica, but it is uncertain whether she was a local or an African martyr who perished during the persecution of Decius, and whose relics were transferred to Corsica.
There exists a highly legendary Passio, written around the 7th century and evidently inspired by an account of Theodoret of Cyrrhus (PG 83, 1240), according to which G., a native of Carthage, was captured and sold as a slave during a barbarian invasion. Taken by her master to Gaul, during the voyage, at a stop on the island of Capo Corso (Corsica), she was seized by the local pagans, and because she refused to renounce the Christian faith, she was scourged and crucified. Her body was later transferred to the island of Gorgona by some monks and placed in their church. In 763 King Desiderio transported it to the new monastery of Brescia, whose church was consecrated by Pope Paolo I.