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St. Bibiana by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

"She was a virgin: pray for all under the profession of virginity. She was a martyr, and her father, mother, and sister, were all martyrs. Pray for your parents and relations, that God would perfect them in faith and charity.

St. Bibiana, and her sister Demetria, after the death of their holy parents, were stripped of all they had in the world, and suffered much from poverty for five months; but spent that time in their own house in fasting and prayer. The governor of Rome had flattered himself that hunger and want would force them to renounce their faith; but seeing himself mistaken, he gave orders that St. Bibiana should be put into the hands of a wicked woman, who was extremely artful, and undertook to bring her to another way of thinking; but Bibiana, making prayer her shield, remained invincible. The judge, enraged at the courage and perseverance of a tender virgin, at length passed sentence of death upon her, and ordered her to be tied to a pillar, and whipped with scourges loaded with leaden plummets, till she expired. The saint underwent this punishment cheerfully, and died under the hands of the executioner.

Pray for a like fidelity and patience under all trials, that neither convenience nor any worldly advantage may ever prevail upon you to transgress your duty; but that you may be proof against all flatteries, and choose all evils before that of sin. The only affair of a Christian in this world is to seek God, to attain to the possession of his grace and love, and in all this perfectly to do his will. In this consists all his joy and happiness. By this disposition of heart, he is raised above all created things, and united to the eternal and unchangeable object of his felicity." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother