Saint Irene of Lecce, also called Erina, is a pre-congregation saint, said to have lived sometime during the

3rd century The 3rd century was the period from 201 ( CCI) to 300 (CCC) Anno Domini (AD) or Common Era (CE) in the Julian calendar.. In this century, the Roman Empire saw a crisis, starting with the assassination of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander ...

. She is celebrated mostly in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

and the

Coptic Orthodox Church The Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, translit=Ti.eklyseya en.remenkimi en.orthodoxos, lit=the Egyptian Orthodox Church; ar, الكنيسة القبطي� ...

Legend

Little is known of Irene's early life, and her personage is surrounded by legend. Confusion is driven further by the existence of several similarly named saints around the same time, including

Irene of Rome Saint Irene of Rome (died 288 AD) was a Christian woman in the Roman Empire during the reign of Diocletian. She was the wife of Saint Castulus. According to Christian legend, she attended to Saint Sebastian after he was wounded by Mauretanian arc ...

and

Irene of Thessalonica Agape, Chionia and Irene ( el, Αγάπη, Χιονία και Ειρήνη) were sisters and Christian saints from Aquileia, martyred at Thessalonica in 304 AD. Agape and Chionia were charged with refusing to eat sacrificial offerings, whilst Ir ...

. Sources say she was born Penelope, in

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to a man named Licinius. Some claim her father was the Roman Emperor

Licinius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan, AD 313, that granted official toleration to C ...

, but his biographers mention only a son. Her

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

father, fearful of her beauty, locked her away in a tower at the age of six. She found God in her imprisonment, and He taught her the

Christian doctrine Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, ...

. Baptized by

Saint Timothy Timothy or Timothy of Ephesus (Greek language, Greek: ; ''Timótheos'', meaning "honouring God" or "honoured by God") was an early Christian Evangelism, evangelist and the first Christianity, Christian bishop of Ephesus, who tradition relates die ...

, she renounced her birth name, took the name Irene, and destroyed the idols that her father gave her to worship. Irene's father, angered by her actions, ordered for her to be tied to a horse and dragged to death. She survived the dragging and the horse turned on her father and bit him. His injury festered, leading to his death, but Irene prayed over his body and brought him back to life. The end of her legend appears to differ, depending on who is telling the story. In one rendition, Irene

converts Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...

her father to Christianity and the two become evangelists. They convert thousands of pagans, until a Governor named "Ampelio" captures and imprisons the pair. Ampelio attempts to torture Irene until she renounces her faith, and when she refuses, he has her beheaded. Another version has her sentenced to death by

Shapur I Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, Šābuhr ) was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardas ...

in the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

, around the time of the

Constantinian dynasty The Constantinian dynasty is an informal name for the ruling family of the Roman Empire from Constantius Chlorus (died 306) to the death of Julian in 363. It is named after its most famous member, Constantine the Great, who became the sole rule ...

Worship

Though Irene's life story remains a mystery, it's known that at least two churches bore her name in 5th-century

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

. The '' Chiesa di Sant'Irene'', or Church of Saint Irene, in Lecce was built between 1591 and 1639 and dedicated to the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of the city by the

Theatines The Theatines officially named the Congregation of Clerics Regular ( la, Ordo Clericorum Regularium), abreviated CR, is a Catholic order of clerics regular of Pontifical Right for men founded by Archbishop Gian Pietro Carafa in Sept. 14, 1524. I ...

. The statue of Irene on the facade was sculpted around the late 17th or early 18th century. Irene was the patron saint of Lecca until 1656, being replaced by Saint Oronzo after his feast day was combined with that of Fortunatus and Justus.

References

Dicastery for the Causes of Saints Catholic saints Lecce {{Saint-stub