Tanya

Tanya is the Russian diminutive of Tatiana, which itself is a name of early Christian-Russian origin inspired by a 3rd century saint who was martyred in Rome for her Christian beliefs under the pagan Emperor Alexander Severus. Saint Tatiana’s father had been a Roman civil servant who secretly raised her with his Christian beliefs and eventually she became a deaconess in the Church. The Romans captured her and when she refused to pay homage to the Roman pagan god Apollo, she was blinded and tortured. Miraculously, an earthquake shook the Apollo temple and his statue fell. Unmoved, the Romans then threw her into a lion’s cage during a circus – but again, miraculously, the lions refused to come near her. Finally, she was beheaded. The Eastern Orthodox Church (Byzantium Empire) embraced this story more so than the western Roman Catholic Church, which is how Tatiana became particularly popular in Russia, Eastern European and Slavic nations. St. Tatiana is the patron saint of students. The name Tatiana is actually the feminine form of an old Roman family name Tatius, from the Latin “tatianus” of unknown origin. In Roman tradition, Titus Tatius was King of the Sabines in the 8th century B.C. who later co-ruled with Romulus over all the Sabines and Latins. Therefore, it is commonly believed that Tatiana is ultimately derived from an obsolete Sabine word with forgotten meaning.