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467 ST. LUCINA 467 in prison, and buried the martyrs. B,M. Canisius. Tillemont St. Lucina (2) baried St. Cornelius, pope, in 252. Tillemont says there were at least three Lucinas who ministered to the persecuted Christians; but the Bollandists {AA,SS., June 30) think this Lucina may, by some mistake, be Lucina (1). St. Lucina (3), May 11, + 350. Anicia Lucina was great granddaughter of the Emperor Gallienus (254-268); daughter of Sergius Terentius, twice prefect of Bome ; and wife of Faltonius Pinianus, 'proconsul of Asia in the reigns of Diocletian and Maximianus. One of the principal officers under Pini- anus persecuted the Christians with great cruelty, and one day the devil took possession of him, dragged him out of his chariot and tore and tormented him horribly for several hours, when he died invoking the saints whom he had put to death. Pinianus was horrified at his sudden and terrible death, and became very ill ; all his physicians despaired of his life. Lucina attributed his illness to his being polluted with the blood of the innocent Christians, and sent secretly for certain Christian prisoners, among whom was St. Antbimus, a priest. She promised that if they would cure her husband she would reward them liberally and send them safely away to any place they chose to name. They replied that if she wished her husband to recover, she must exhort him to become a Chris- tian, and that they would be sufficiently rewarded by his conversion. To the per- suasions of his wife, Pinianus answered that he would be a fool indeed who did not believe in a God who could restore lost health and recall to life those for whom the grave was already prepared. Lucina then brought the Christians into the room where Pinianus lay half dead. He expressed his impatience to be cured, and they said that he must give up all trust in medical science, as only Christ could cure him. He answered, '^Cure me then, that I may believe your God to be all-powerful." Antbimus exhorted him to believe that which he was going to tell him. Pinianus replied, '* Unless I believed with all my heart, I would not have had yon brought into my room." <* Hear then," said Antbimus, " what it is that you believe: The Lord, whom we worship, is one God who made heaven and earth." When he had told him in few words the gospel narrative, and the Saviour's last commission to His disciples, he added, '*In His name we lay our hands upon you, believing that He will fulfil His promise." Pinianus also prayed to Christ; the Christians blessed him, and immediately he sat up ; and soon, wondering at his new-found strength, he arose from his bed and praised and thanked the Lord. Then they sent for five other Christians, who were still in the prison, and they prayed with Pinianus and Lucina, and instructed them and all their household in the Christian religion for seven days. At the end of that time they baptized them. Pinianus released all the Christians from the mines and prisons, and had them brought to his own house, where he washed their feet and kissed their hands and provided carriages and every- thing they wanted, and sent them safely to their own homes. Some of them he sent to live on his property at Auximi (now Osimo) in Piceno, and there, some few years after the conversion of Pinianus, some of those who had been his first in- structors, were martyred. Pinianus spent the rest of his life in good works and particularly in kindness to the persecuted Christians. Lucina, after his death, strove beyond her strength to do good, and as she used to fast three days together, St. Sebastian appeared to her and encouraged her in her works of charity but recommended her to content herself with fasting one day at a time, and to use a little wine, according to the advice of the Blessed Paul. He told her that the priests who were hiding on account of the persecution could not come to her to refresh her with their counsel and to say mass; but that a crow would come to her, bringing a nut which she was to take in the name of Christ. After this, every Sunday or solemn anniversary, about the fifth hour, a crow used to come, bringing a very large sweet nut in its beak. On other days it came at a diiSerent hour.