Saint Corona had almost been completely forgotten; very little is factually known about the young woman who was brutally killed for her strong Christian faith. This recent worldwide pandemic has shed a clear light on her: Saint Corona.
Prominent German Catholic news agency KNA have reported that the Church’s martyr records put the actual year of her death at 177 A.D. However, it is not certain where she lived. An account from Greek puts her in Syria, whilst a Latin one has stated that it was Marseilles, France and Sicily. What is a proven fact is that she began being honoured starting in the sixth century in Northern and Central Italy. All the rest is seen as stuff of legend, which was heavily propagated by Monks who lived within the Alpine region.
German theologian Manfred Becker-Huberti, an expert on folklore and customs said, “This has nothing to do with the real history of Corona, but instead with stories aimed at deepening the faith.”
It should be noted though, that the St Corona legends are very bloody indeed. One account from her youth is that, at only 16 years of age, she was forced into watching her husband, St Victor, being brutally murdered simply because of his faith. That wasn’t the end of brutal murders when it comes to the story of St Corona - she also died in a gruesome way. Her persecutors tied her down between two large palm trees that had been bent to the ground, her body was then ripped apart when the trees were released to snap back into their normal standing position.
St Corona is particularly revered in the German southern state of Bavaria, and also in Austria - as reported by KNA. There is even a chapel dedicated to her in Sauerlach, near Munich. Two churches in the Bavarian Diocese of Passau recall her name, while in the province of Lower Austria and outside of Vienna there are two towns named ‘Sankt Corona’. Due to the recent global pandemic of the Coronavirus, a statue of St Corona in the cathedral of Munster in northwestern Germany has flowers placed at its base. Some other relics of the martyr were taken to the Prague cathedral in the 14th century.
Under the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, in the early 10th century, St Corona relics were taken to Aachen. During excavation work at the cathedral in 1910, archaeologists came across the relics, which were then removed from the crypt and instead placed within a shrine. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, this three-foot-tall, 220-pound relic has been removed from storage in the Aachen cathedral treasure vault, and work has begun to conserve it.
St Corona is not the namesake for the virus currently causing a global pandemic. The Latin word ‘corona’, means ‘crown’, this name is an indication that the young saint had achieved the ‘crown of eternal life’ because of her resoluteness of her faith. The connection to the coronavirus is merely coincidental, it has been named due to their crown-like structure.
Over the years, St Corona has often been prayed to by those seeking help in times of crisis, whether it’s due to heavy storms or livestock diseases.
People have been under the belief that she had a positive influence on money matters, as ‘coronae’ (crowns) being the name given to coins! As a result, treasure-hunters have often invoked her name.
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered something of an economic crisis, with millions of people being fearful about their money situations for the coming weeks and months, it might not be that far-fetched for people to call on the saint for support.
The Catholic Church has a calendar of saints, and St Corona’s holiday is the 14th May. KNA reports some experts are saying that it just might be by then that the light at the end of the coronavirus pandemic tunnel will be in sight.
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