Is Corona the Patron Saint of Plagues?

[Boats]

Is Corona the Patron Saint of Plagues?
By: Dan Evon - Snopes Fact Checks - 03-24-20
Re: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/saint-corona-plagues/

Is Corona the Patron Saint of Plagues?
St. Corona was martyred sometime in the 170s, but it's doubtful she was the saint of pandemics.
Photo link: https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/...452&quality=65

There Is A SAINT CORONA, And She Is the Patron Saint Against EPIDEMICS

In Anzù, Northern Italy, the hotbed of the coronavirus in Europe, is a basilica where the relics of Saint Victor and Saint Corona are being preserved since the 9th century…

… Saint Corona is especially venerated in Austria and Bavaria as the patron-saint of treasure hunters and against epidemics. Her feast day is May 14.

The Gloria TV article provided no sources to support the claim, but the rumor was picked up by several popular Catholic websites and even the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan. When we searched for more information about St. Corona, however, we found the claim of a “patron saint of plagues” is a modern invention that only started to circulate in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2008, St. Patrick Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., mentioned St. Corona in its “Saint of the Day” column. This article did not identify St. Corona as the “patron saint of plagues.” Rather, it noted St. Corona was a martyr who was killed along with her husband, St. Victor, circa A.D. 176.

St. Patrick Catholic Church also noted that accounts of Corona’s death may not be reliable: “Died c. 176. Saint Victor and his wife Corona were martyred, probably in Syria. The details of their martyrdom as compiled in their Acta are untrustworthy (Benedictines). In art, Victor and Corona are portrayed as they are ripped asunder between trees (Roeder).”

The website Catholic.org provides a similar account of St. Corona’s death, writing that she and her husband were put to death during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but that accounts of their deaths are considered unreliable. This website also noted that Corona was often invoked “in connection with superstitions involving money, such as gambling or treasure hunting,” not pandemics or plagues.

A 1929 edition of the Battle Creek Enquirer, a newspaper from Battle Creek, Michigan, identified St. Corona as the “wife of an Syrian Christian” who was put to death because of her faith. This clipping made no mention of her being the patron saint of plagues:

Antonio Borrelli, former director of Catholic Action in the Diocese of Naples, wrote a fuller account of St. Corona in 2006. According to Borrelli, she was actually the wife of one of Victor’s comrades. When Victor was being tortured for his faith, Corona declared that she, too, was a Catholic, and was martyred beside him:

According to the “Illustrious Certamen”, a text written by a deacon of the Church of Antioch in the 4th century, Vittore was a Christian soldier from Cilicia. During the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, he was reported to the prefect Sebastiano and subjected to torture.

While he was suffering, while remaining serene in faith, the wife of one of his comrade in arms, whose name was Corona (Latin equivalent of the name Stefania), who was not yet sixteen years old, declared that she too was Christian and encouraged her . She was arrested and subjected to a brief interrogation, after which she was tied by the feet to the tops, folded on the ground, of two palm trees, and quartered alive. Vittore, however, was beheaded.

Borrelli notes that accounts of Corona’s death aren’t entirely reliable because details (such as the date and location) vary depending on the source. But nowhere in Borrelli’s article is Corona identified as the patron saint of plagues or pandemics.

In one depiction of Corona’s death, she is seen tied between two trees while Victor is beheaded in front of her:
Picture link: https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/...I-1.jpg?w=1072

We found several articles about St. Corona prior to March 2020, but none of these articles identified her as the patron saint of plagues. It appears that is a modern title that was unofficially bestowed upon St. Corona after the coronavirus spread around the globe.

Candida Moss, Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham, also disputed this rumor on Twitter. Moss wrote that while St. Corona really existed, she is not the patron saint of infectious disease.

We reached out to the Hagiography Society, a group dedicated to writing of the lives of saints, for more information about St. Corona and will update this article if we learn more.

In short: A saint named Corona, who was martyred sometime in the 170s, truly existed, but accounts about her death aren’t entirely reliable. While Corona has been invoked in connection to “superstitions involving money, such as gambling or treasure hunting,” her connection to infectious disease did not start until March 2020 when a virus that shared her name started spreading around the globe.

In other words, St. Corona is not the officially designated patron saint of plagues.

Fact Checks: https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/...resize=715,783

Well she finally got vindication.

Boats