[2] Her legend states that she came from a noble German family (her father was a king[1]), and that she took a vow of celibacy at the age of twelve.

When her parents forced her into marriage when she turned twenty,[1] she fled from Germany into France.

[3] The man to whom she had been promised, a Saxon lord, pursued her into France after receiving approval to do so from Saturnina's parents He found her hiding with some shepherds at Arras; she had been working as a maidservant.

[3] Another tradition states that Saturnina placed her head on a stone at Sains-lès-Marquion, proclaiming herself to be the last human sacrifice the town would ever suffer.

Writers compiling the lives of Saints Romana and Benedicta copied Saturnina's legend, according to Adrien Baillet.