A laywoman martyred at Rimini, Italy, around the year 303, during the Diocletianic persecution that struck communities across the Roman Empire.

Saint Innocenza di Rimini was a lay Christian martyred at Rimini, Italy, around the year 303, during the Diocletianic persecution, the empire’s last and most severe campaign against the Church. Beyond her name, her lay state, and the approximate date and place of her death, no further biographical detail has survived.

Quick Facts

• Died: c. 303, Rimini, Italy
• Venerated as: Martyr

Who Was Saint Innocenza di Rimini?

Rimini’s ancient Christian community, situated on Italy’s Adriatic coast, was one of many Italian towns whose local believers were swept up in the enforcement of Diocletian’s edicts requiring sacrifice to the Roman gods on pain of death, a persecution that touched communities of every size across the peninsula.

Historical Setting

The persecution launched under Diocletian beginning in 303 was the most systematic the Roman Church endured, ordering the destruction of Christian scriptures and places of worship alongside the arrest and execution of believers who refused to comply, a campaign that produced martyrs in towns as small as Rimini alongside the great cities of the empire.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Innocenza di Rimini

The Church remembers Innocenza as part of the wide company of Diocletianic-era martyrs whose faith is certain even where their individual stories are not, a name kept in Rimini’s own local memory across many centuries since her death.

Canonization and Feast Day

Rimini’s own diocese, rather than any documented papal act, has sustained Innocenza’s cult across the centuries; her veneration rests entirely on that ancient local devotion.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

A martyr honored chiefly by her own town, across many centuries, still belongs to the whole Church’s memory. Innocenza’s witness invites Catholics elsewhere to value the local, lesser-known martyrs of dioceses not their own just as much as the famous ones.

A Prayer to Saint Innocenza di Rimini

Saint Innocenza di Rimini, martyr remembered by your own city across the centuries, pray for us and for all who keep faith in places the wider world rarely notices. Amen.

Sources

• Roman Martyrology, regional supplement for Italy
• Butler’s Lives of the Saints, revised edition
• Diocesan sources on the early Church of Rimini