Martyr
Martyr Geminianus, Son of Martyr Lucia of Rome
нач. IV века
Martyr Geminianus — a pagan converted to Christ upon witnessing the torments of the wealthy Roman widow Lucia, who had been slandered before the authorities by her own pagan son; baptized and spiritually adopted by Lucia, he fled with her to Tauromenium (Sicily), where, after renewed persecution, he was seized and beheaded.
Martyr Lucia was a noble and wealthy Roman widow who had lived in that state for 36 years (tradition holds she lived to age 75), living during the persecutions under Diocletian and Maximian. Her own pagan son Eutropius denounced her to the authorities as a Christian. During Lucia's torment, a certain pagan named Geminianus, who witnessed her suffering, was so moved by her faith that he believed in Christ; Lucia baptized him and spiritually adopted him. Together they fled the ongoing persecution to Tauromenium (modern Taormina, Sicily). But persecution caught up with them there too: Lucia died in the mountains, and Geminianus was seized and beheaded. His memory is kept on September 17/30.
NOTE: the original entry mistakenly identified this figure with St. Geminianus, Bishop of Modena (commemorated Jan 31, Western tradition only, with no connection to any "Lucia" in his vita) — the correct identification, confirmed by the paired image's composition (Lucia on her deathbed + Geminianus kneeling before a soldier with a sword), is Martyr Geminianus, the spiritual son of Martyr Lucia of Rome, whose joint veneration is confirmed by the Greek and Serbian Synaxaria on September 17/30.