MARTINA, saint, martyr. - Unknown to all ancient sources until the eighth century, she is mentioned for the first time in the Lib. Pont. in the life of Pope Adriano I (772–95). There it is said that this Pontiff made gifts to the church dedicated to M., which stood near the Roman Forum on the site of the ancient Secretarium Senatus. In the Bern. codex of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, M. is commemorated on 1 January, but this is a later addition; in the Martyrologium Romanum, on 30 January.
The Passio, of no value, is a reworking of that of St. Taziana (BHL, 1989). According to this legend, M. was a young noblewoman living in the time of Alessandro Severo, daughter of a consular and a deaconess; she was brought before the Emperor, who wished to compel her to sacrifice to Apollo, but the martyr, by praying, obtained from God an earthquake that killed some pagans and destroyed the idol, from which a devil emerged. Brought back to the temple of Artemis, a lightning bolt struck down the statue of the goddess; M., tortured in vain, was then beheaded and buried in the sixth region.