"If you take from me a little portion of this earth, I shall gain heaven for it" St Julitta

May my body be cut in pieces, rather than that by the least impious word I should offend God that made me.

30th July ~ ST JULITTA, Widow and Martyr (c. A.D. 303)

The Emperor Diocletian by the edicts which he issued against the Christians in 303 declared them infamous, debarred from protection of the laws and from the privileges of citizens. St Julitta was a widow of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and possessed of farms, cattle, goods and slaves. A powerful man of the town got possession of a considerable part of her estate: and when he could not make good his title before the magistrate, charged her with being a Christian.

The judge caused incense to be brought into the court, and commanded her to offer sacrifice to Zeus; but she courageously made answer,

“May my estates be ruined or given to strangers; may I lose my life, and may my body be cut in pieces, rather than that by the least impious word I should offend God that made me. If you take from me a little portion of this earth, I shall gain Heaven for it.”

The judge without more ado confirmed to the usurper the estates to which he unjustly laid claim, and condemned Julitta to the flames. She was led to the fire, walked boldly into it, and was killed, it would seem, by the smoke stifling her, for her body was drawn out dead before the flames reached it. Julitta was buried by her fellow Christians, and St Basil, in a homily written about the year 375, says of her body,

“It enriches with blessings both the place and those who come to it”, and he assures us that “the earth which received the body of this blessed woman sent forth a spring of most pleasant water, whereas all the neighbouring waters are brackish. This water preserves health and relieves the sick.”

From Butler’s Lives of the Saints