St. Seraphia was born at Antioch, of Christian parents, who, flying from the persecutions of Adrian, went to Italy and settled there. Her parents dying, Seraphia was sought in marriage by many, but having resolved to consecrate herself to God alone, she sold all of her possessions and distributed the proceeds to the poor; finally she sold herself into voluntary slavery, and entered the services of a Roman lady named Sabina.

The piety of Seraphia, her love of work and her charity soon gained the heart of her mistress, who was not long in becoming a Christian. Having been denounced as a follower of Christ, Seraphia was condemned to death. She was at first placed on a burning pile, but remained uninjured by the flames. Almost despairing of being able to inflict death upon her, the prefect Berillus ordered her to be beheaded, and she thus received the crown she so richly merited. Her mistress gathered her remains, and interred them with every mark of respect. Sabina, meeting with a martyr’s death a year later, was laid in the same tomb with her faith servant. As early as the fifth century there was a church at Rome placed under their invocation.

(Adapted from Fr. Butler’s Lives of the Saints)