The life of Boniface and Aglaida
Arriving in Tarsus and witnessing Christians being tortured for their faith, Boniface was so moved that he declared himself a Christian too, and was tortured and finally beheaded. His own body became the relics his companions carried back to Rome. Aglaida, warned in a vision of what had become of her former servant, received his remains with reverence, built a church for them, gave away her wealth, and spent the rest of her life in a monastery in repentance before her own peaceful death.
The story of Boniface and Aglaida survives only in a legendary account and has long been treated by scholars as unreliable history, though it endures as a beloved parable of repentance in both East and West; the Eastern Church still commemorates the pair together each December.
