Martyr Anthusa of Rome

Anthusa was the wife of a Roman official who, according to the synaxarion, received Christian baptism from Saint Ambrose of Milan. She is remembered chiefly for refusing to be re-baptized by an Arian and for accepting death by fire rather than betray her Orthodox confession. She is commemorated on December 8, the day after the feast of Saint Ambrose, who is honored on December 7.

By tradition, Anthusa's confession was tested when Sunilda, the wife of the city prefect, urged her to receive baptism at the hands of an Arian rather than from an Orthodox bishop. The Arian controversy, which denied the full divinity of the Son, divided many in the late Roman world, and the pressure placed upon Anthusa reflects the standing of Arian factions among the imperial and civic authorities of her day.

When Anthusa declined, she was committed to the fire and received the crown of martyrdom. The brief account preserved in the Lives of the Saints offers few further biographical details, but it presents her as a woman of rank who held to the Nicene faith taught by Ambrose against the inducements of those favoring Arianism.