MARTINA, Saint and Martyr. — Unknown to all ancient sources until the 8th century, she is first mentioned in the Liber Pontificalis in the life of Pope Adrian I (772–95). There it is stated that this Pontiff made gifts to the church dedicated to M., which stood near the Roman Forum in the place of the ancient Secretarium S. natus. In the Bern codex of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, M. is commemorated on 1 January, but this is a later addition; in the Roman Martyrology, on 30 January.
The Passio, of no value, is a reworking of that of St Taziana (BHL, 798). According to this legend, M. was a noble young woman living in the time of Alexander Severus, daughter of a consular and a deaconess; she was brought before the emperor, who wished to force her to sacrifice to Apollo, but the martyr, praying, obtained from God an earthquake that killed some pagans and destroyed the idol, from which a demon emerged. Brought back to the temple of Artemis, a lightning bolt struck down the statue of the goddess; M., after futile torture, was then beheaded and buried in the 6th region.