Saint Bibiana (+ca. 363), who is commemorated today, a virgin martyred during the reign of Julian the Apostate (355-363), is the patroness of single laywomen, amongst her other heavenly duties (she is also invoked, for reasons I cannot discern, for hangovers, whether as a cure or as a prevention, but probably both). Single ladies could use a lot of intercession in today’s fractious world, which may be likened to post-World War One era. Just as after 1918, the young women of Europe could not find a fitting husband, as ten million of Europe’s young men had been blown to bits in a senseless war. So too, here in 2024, so many young men have been spiritually decimated by the evils of our culture: pornography, radical feminism, pointlessness, lassitude, unemployment, a hyper-reaction to ‘toxic masculinity’ – which term has been extended to include even normal masculine proclivities – and on it goes. So men, man up, and if you feel called to marriage, for forth et carpe diem et carpe feminam. The culture of life can only be built up one person, one couple, one family at a time. And, as Saint Paul says, that time is now.
We must rebuild, one brick, one life, one soul – indeed, with each and every moral decision – at a time. Take up that task, dear reader, like the courageous, principled young Bibiana, beaten and pummeled by leaden chains until death, one who disdained the anti-Christian politics of her time – and the world may change for the better than one might have thought.
Saint Bibiana, ora pro nobis! +