Anastasia of Sirmium

Anastasia Of Sirmium

Saint Anastasia (Greek: Ἀναστασία: "resurrection", often Ἁγία Ἀναστασία ἡ Φαρμακολύτρια, "St. Anastasia the Healer" ) is a Christian saint and martyr who died at Sirmium. In the Orthodox Church she is commemorated as the Great Martyr Anastasia, the Deliverer from Potions (Greek: Hagia Anastasia Pharmacolytria).

Concerning Anastasia little is reliably known, save that she died in the persecutions of Diocletian; most stories about her date from several centuries after her death and make her variously a Roman or Sirmian native and a Roman citizen of patrician rank. One legend makes her the daughter of a certain Praetextus and the pupil of Saint Chrysogonus. Catholic tradition states that her mother was St. Fausta of Sirmium.

Anastasia has long been venerated as a healer and exorcist. Her relics lie in the Cathedral of St. Anastasia in Zadar, Croatia.

She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.