NINFA, saint, martyr. – Unknown to the ancient Martyrologies until the ninth century; the first notice is found in the Lib. Pont., which, in the life of Leo IV (847–55), mentions a church at Porto dedicated to her.
Perhaps no saint N. ever existed, and the titular of the church is nothing other than a corruption of the topographical name “ad nymphas Catabassi,” where there actually stood a church dedicated to Marta, the wife of the martyr Mario, killed on the Via Cornelia, and transformed in the Middle Ages into s. N. According to a late version of the Passio s. Mamiliani (BHL, 6254), N. was the daughter of the prefect of Palermo, Aureliano, imprisoned and then killed for the faith. In the Roman Martyrology, N. is commemorated on 10 November.