Blandine de Lyon
†177 2nd century Feast day: June 2
Strength given to the weakest, when prayer holds upright what everything should bring down.
Who was Blandine de Lyon?
A young slave in Lyon, she was arrested with the city's small Christian community under Marcus Aurelius. So frail that her companions feared she would give way, she held firm through the tortures of the amphitheater, encouraging the others until she was the last one given over to the beasts. The letter the survivors sent to the churches of Asia preserved the memory of her constancy.
In their own words
I am a Christian, and among us nothing evil is done.
Like a noble mother who has just encouraged her children and sent them on victorious to the King, she hastened to join them.