Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/480

466 4(5(5 ST. LUCEJA there suffer martyrdom for His sake. Lnceja told the king her dream and bade him keep her there no longer, but let away, how can I stay here ? My enemies will come and kill me and take away my kingdom. Yonr God has fonght against them for your sakej^ hut now yon are going to Bome, I will leaye my langdom and country and come with you." She said, " Come, if you will ; it may be that my Master will receiye you also into His flock." So Aucega left his posses- sions and his kingdom, his wife and children, and accompanied Luceja as her servant. When they arrived in Bome a persecu- tion was raging against the Christians. As Luceja made no secret of her religion and history, she was soon arrested and brought before the prefect of the city, who asked her if she was a Christian. She said she was, and had returned from her twenty years' captivity on purpose to receive the crown of martyrdom. The prefect told her that by order of the emperor, Christians must sacrifice to the gods or be put to death. She answered, *' I have told you that I am ready to die ; my God deigned to call me out of the land of the barbarians for this cause." He at once condemned her to be beheaded. Aucega then said to the prefect, ''Command me also to be beheaded with her, for I am her servant and disciple." The prefect asked him who he was. He said, **• I am Aucega, the king, who took Luceja captive when I was fighting against the Romans ; and her God has prospered me, for her sake, during the twenty years that she has lived in safety and honour in my house. But as her God appeared to her and bade her come to Bome to be put to death, I chose to come and die with her ratlier than to live in my kingdom with- out her." The prefect said, " But if you are not a Christian, how can you die for the sake of her God?" Aucega answered, " I think that the shedding of my blood will make me a Christian, and that Luceja*s God will not cast me off." The venerable king was then condemned to death. When the prefect next went into the Pretorium, twenty other persons offered themselves as candidates for the honour of martyrdom. AAJSS, (See Julia op Tboyes.) Compare Aucega. St Luceja (2), June 26, V. M. at Alexandria. AA^SS- St. Lucella (l) or Lucilla, March 25, M. with more than 400 others, at Nicaeia in Bithynia. AA.S8. St. Lucella (2), May 7, M. in Africa. AAJSS. St Lucella (3), Bucblla. St. Lucella (4), May 10, M. at Tar- sus, in Cilicia. AAJSS, St. Lucentia, June 4, V. of Provins, d6p. Seine-et-Mame. Supposed to have lived and died there. Possibly same as LuoBGiA. AA.SS. St. Lucetella, or according to some old calendars, Luca and Telia, March 13. Mentioned among several MM, the place, time, and manner of whose martyrdom are not known with certainty. AA.SS. B. Luchina, Lucina (5> St. Luciana, May 18, M. at Con- stantinople. AA.SS. St. Lucida, Jan. 3, M. in Africik AA.SS. St Lucilla (1), Oct. 31, V. M. c. 250. Daughter of Nemesius, a deacon. She was blind from her birth, and was taken by her father to be cured and baptized by St. Stephen, pope. Many others were converted and baptized on account of the miracle. The Emperor Valerian ordered Nemesius to be imprisoned and Lucilla to be given in charge to a wicked woman, named Maxima. After a few days Nemesius and Lucilla were taken, without trial or further ceremony, to the temple of Mars in the Via Appia, and there Lucilla's throat was cut, before her father's eyes. He rejoiced to see her go before him to the martyr's glory. He was beheaded between the Via Latina and Via Appia, Aug. 25. B.M. Martyrum Acta, Mart, of Salitbury. St Lucilla (2). (See Flora ( 1 ).) SS. Lucilla (3, 4, 5), MM. on diflfer- ent days; one is also called Lucella. AA.SS, St Lucina (1), June 80, + 70. She was a disciple of the Apostles, who, under Nero, relieved the necessities of the saints at Bome, visited the Christians
 * lier go home. Anoega said, " If yon go