Today, September 7, is the memorial of Saint Regina.
Regina was born in Autun, France, to a pagan named Clement. Her mother died at her birth and her father rejected her.
She then went to live with a Christian nurse who baptized her. This same nurse recognized the holiness of the young Regina. The young girl helped out by tending the sheep and performing other chores. She led an intense prayer life even at work. She meditated on the lives of the saints, and embraced a life of virtue.
When she was 15, Regina was spotted by the proconsul Olybrius who was so obsessed with the holy teen that he wanted to marry her. He was impressed by her upbringing. He did not like Regina’s Christian faith.
She got betrothed to Olybrius, but refused to renounce her faith to marry him. For this reason, Regina was jailed and tortured. She was chained in the dark prison, whipped, scourged, raked with iron combs, burned with hot pincers and torches, and crucified. All these trials just made Regina’s faith in God grow.
Regina was beheaded in 286 at Alesia in the diocese of Autun, called Alise-Sainte-Reine after her. Eyewitness accounts state that a dove was flying over Regina’s head while she was being tortured.