Saint Faith was a young lady who was born in Agen, in the Aquitaine region of France. Her refusal to participate in a pagan sacrifice led to her arrest and torture by the Roman authorities circa 290 or 303. She was beheaded by order of the Roman Governor Dacien after being roasted alive on a red-hot brazier.
A single custom was associated with this day. Three women, either virgins or widows, would bake a cake together. The cake, composed of flour, water, salt and sugar, would be mixed by the three together, and as it was baking, each would turn the cake three times. And after it was baked, the cake would be cut into twenty-seven slices, nine for each woman. Again taking turns, each woman would pass her nine slices of cake, each three times, through a wedding ring borrowed from another woman who would have been married at least seven years. Thereafter, the women would eat their nine slices of cake. When all were finished, they would undress for bed, repeating the following verses as they did so:
O good St. Faith, be kind to-night,
And bring to me my heart's delight;
Let me my future husband view,
And be my visions chaste and true.
The three women then got into the bed together. The ring was suspended by a string over the bed, and they went to sleep, hoping to dream of their future husbands.
