Saint Philomena is not in the Bible, but she is real. She was born in 291AD, in Corfu, an island, Greece. She was the daughter of the Prince who was the Governor. That made her a princess by birth. Before she was born, her parents were Pagans, they worshipped and made a sacrifice to an idols. Until their friend who was a doctor and a Christian explained about Jesus. This made them convert to Christianity. Then later, the couple was blessed with a girl and named her Philomena. Philomena means Daughter of Light.
During her childhood, she gain wisdom and wanted to be the Bride of Christ. Everything was great.
But when she was 13 years old, an Emperor Diocletian waged war on her father. In case you don't know this guy. Emperor Diocletian was the Emperor of the Roman Empire and he lived in Rome, the capital city of Italy. He was worse than Emperor Nero (during the 1st Century AD), as he persecuted Christians.
Philomena and her parents decided to go to Rome and asked Diocletian to stop this war. Diocletian agreed, but on one condition. He want to marry their daughter as she was beautiful. Her parents were happy, but Philomena was not.
When they got back, her parents pleaded her to marry him, but Philomena said no.
They returned to Rome. Philomena told him that she won't marry him. That made him so mad that he ordered her to be send in the dungeon.
She spend her life for 30 days. She saw Virgin Mary and told her than in 3 days, she will faced punishment, but the angel will come and heal her.
3 days later, she was taken out and met her first punishment. She was whipped in front of everyone. Blood was here on her back. Philomena grew weak and felt pain, but didn't cried. Diocletian ordered to stop this and ordered the guards to dragged her body back to the dungeon hoping that she would die.
At the dungeon, the angels came down from Heaven and healed her. When he saw this he believed that the Roman god Jupiter's will was to make Philomena is bride. But Philomena said that Jupiter is a demon, not god.
She faced a second punishment, this time, she was threw into an ocean. Her neck was already tied by a rope that was attached to an anchor. Again, the angel came down into the ocean and brought her up. Philomena was alive and she was not wet.
Philomena was tied on the pole. She was shot by 3 arrows and dragged into the dungeon. The angels came and healed her. She was better and alright. Diocletian ordered the guard to shoot her again and when they released those arrows, it took it U turn and hit them instead. He thought that she was a witch and was using magic, so to defeat the witchy magic, they used firey arrows and they let it go, but it hit them instead.
Diocletian was so angry, that he couldn't take it any longer, so he ordered her to chop her head. Philomena was happy as she knew she was going to die and be with Jesus is Heaven. She died in 304AD at age of 13. She died at the same hour as Jesus had died on the cross. She remained hidden in the tombs until 15th centuries years later.
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