A little known 16 year old Saint of the 2nd century is currently being hailed as a source of hope and protection in this time of Pandemic. Her name is (no joke here) St. Corona and it appears that she has been waiting 1,860 years to help the world in this present crisis.

According to hagiographic accounts and the Roman Martyrology she is the Saint to invoke in times of plague and pandemics. She was martyred in 170 A.D. in Syria and put to death by being tied to PALM trees, which had been bent to the ground. When the ropes were cut and the trees sprung back and forth, her body was torn apart.

The linking of St. Corona with the coronavirus – Latin for CROWN (The virus is so called because under a microscope, it looks like a globe with little globules, resembling a corona or crown) – is not the only coincidence. A Basilica preserving her relics since the 9th century happens to be located in the middle of the pandemic in the city of Anzu, in the north of Italy.

St. Corona, intercede for us.