FELICULA OF ROME CLUBBED TO DEATH
Felicula was a probably fourth-century Roman martyr whose relics Pope Gregory I gave to Bishop John of Ravenna in about 592. She is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 13 June: "On the seventh milestone from the city of Rome on the Via Ardeatina, Saint Felicula, martyr".[1][2]
The heavily romanticized Acts of Saints Nereus and Achilleus make Felicula one of the first virgin martyrs and assign her death to about 90 AD. In this legend she was the foster sister of Saint Petronilla and was arrested after Petronilla refused to marry a Roman official. After Petronilla's death, Felicula was left in prison for many days without food or water. Then the spurned official ordered his men to tie her to a stake, to whip her and finally to break her bones with clubs. When she expired under the torture, her body was dumped into the Cloaca Maxima. St. Nicomedes recovered her body and buried it, but had to pay for this gentle deed with his life.