A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Anastasia
ANASTASIA,
A Christian martyr of Rome, in the Dioclesian persecution. Her father, Prebextal, was a pagan, and her mother, Flausta, a Christian who instructed, her in the principles of her own religion. After the death of her mother, she was married to Publius Patricius, a Roman knight, who obtained a rich patrimony with her; but he no sooner discovered her to be a Christian, than he treated her harshly, confined her, and kept her almost in want of necessaries while lie spent her wealth in all kinds of extravagance. He died in the coarse of a few years, and Anastasia devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures and to works of charity, spending her whole fortune in the relief of the poor, and the Christians, by whom the prisons were then filled.
But she, and her three female servants, sisters, were soon arrested as Christians, and commanded to sacrifice to idols. Refusing to do this, the three sisters were put to death on the spot, and Anastasia conducted to prison. She was then exiled to the island of Palmaria; but soon afterwards brought back to Rome, and burned alive. Her remains were buried in a garden by Apollonia, a Christian woman, and a church was afterwards built on the spot. Anastasia suffered about A.D. 303.