Maxima was a slave and nurse in a Roman household during the reign of Diocletian who is venerated as a martyr after dying under torture for confessing Christian faith around 304. According to the hagiographic tradition preserved in the Roman Martyrology and the life of Saint Ansanus, she secretly baptized her young charge Ansanus and raised him in the Christian faith. When the Diocletianic persecution intensified, both were seized, scourged, and tortured; Maxima died from the beating while Ansanus survived to continue preaching before his own eventual martyrdom.
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Connection with Saint Ansanus
Ansanus belonged to the noble Anician family of Rome. His nurse Maxima, herself a Christian, secretly baptized him as a child and instructed him in the faith — a significant act of courage given the dangers of the period. The tradition records that she brought him up as a Christian in concealment until the Diocletianic persecution exposed them both.
When they were arrested, the Roman martyrology records that Maxima 'confessed Christ with Saint Ansanus' and 'yielded up her soul while being beaten with rods.' Ansanus survived this initial scourging, was later thrown into boiling oil, and was ultimately taken to Siena, where he was beheaded. Maxima is thus remembered as both a martyr in her own right and as the spiritual mother who formed the 'Baptizer of Siena.'
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The nobleman whose nurse Maxima secretly baptized and raised as a Christian; martyred 304
Ansanus of Siena
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