Saint Tatiana was the daughter of a Roman administrator (and had been elected consult three times), who, because of the persecution of the Early Church, practiced his Christian faith in secrecy. When his daughter Tatiana was born, he raised her in the faith. Tatiana pledged herself to Christ and to be a virgin; her faith eventually made her a deaconess in the Roman Church. At the time, Alexander Severus ruled over Rome and the local regent Ulpian had a heavy hand against the Christians. Whenever he found one, if they did not repent and make sacrifice to Roman gods, he would have them immediately executed.
One day she was turned over to the Roman authorities for being Christian and Ulpian wasted no time in mandating her to sacrifice to Apollo. She was brought to the temple, placed in front of the Apollo idol and told to begin offering sacrifice. She fell to her knees and began praying reverently to Christ - at that exact moment a terrible earthquake shook the temple, shattering the idol of Apollo. Throughout the next day several terrible tortures were inflicted upon her, but each night angels would appear to her and heal her of her wounds. Once she was thrown into the circus with a lion, but the lion merely licked her feet.
On the third day, priests of Zeus came to her and demanded she offer sacrifice to Zeus. When she refused, the guards under the direction of the judge had her beheaded with her father along side her.
The honorable head of the Holy Martyr was brought to Romania in 1204and placed it in a church. It would later be moved in 1393, first to Nicea then to Constantinople. After Constantinople's conquering by the Turks, the relic was moved several times before being enshrined permanently in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Craiova along side Saint Niphon of Constantinople.
