Petronilla of Rome

She is first of all two inscriptions from the catacomb of Domitilla on the via Ardeatina: “Petronella mart.”, painted on a wall, and “Aureliae Petronillae filiae dulcissimae”, cut on a sarcophagus. The rest is a construction. Because her name resembled Peter's, she was made his daughter — the apocryphal Acts gave her a paralysis the apostle would cure and let return, to keep her chaste. In the eighth century her relics were moved beside St Peter's basilica into a chapel the kings of France made their own: she became patron of the “eldest daughter of the Church”, and French ambassadors held their services there. Historians today grant her only the inscription. What remains is what she shows: a whole cult built on a likeness of words.