Marciana of Mauretania

Marciana of Toledo, also known as Marciana of Mauretania and Marciana of Caesarea, (died 9 January 304) is venerated as a martyr and saint.

Veneration Her feast day is celebrated by both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church on July 12. In some early calendars, her feast day is celebrated on January 9.

The Mozarabic office has a special hymn in her honor.

Life According to Alban Butler, Marciana was a native of Rusuccur (Dellys) in Mauretania, in modern day Algeria.

Historian Brent Shaw states that her legend emphasized her virginity and commitment to asceticism, and contained "a new kind of hostility that was added to the old story of Christian-pagan hatreds". (284-305 A.D. ).

Martyrdom Marciana's martyrdom occurred during the Diocletianic Persecution. The Latin account of her martyrdom was written possibly in the 5th century. Shaw states that she led an "aggressive anti-idolatry campaign". She was imprisoned in the local gladiatorial school, which Shaw states was "a brutal test" of her sexual purity. Marciana was then punished by being thrown in the local arena, where she was mangled by a bull. After her death, a leopard was sent in and it snapped her neck.

Shaw states that Marciana's story demonstrates the conflict between the Christian and Jewish communities in Caesarea during the period and was part of the "long and well-developed” anti-Jewish literature of the time. Shaw cautions, however, that narratives like this, that directly include Jews in the persecution of Christians in Africa during the 4th and 5th centuries, were "exceedingly rare".