Their duty was to gather the corpses of Christians who had been martyred in the Coliseum (Flavian Amphitheatre) and other places of martyrdom the preceding day.

She was martyred for burying Christian martyrs, and then refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods According to one tradition, shortly after the martyrdom of her husband, Vitalis of Milan, in Ravenna, she refused to join in a celebration and sacrifice to pagan gods, and was severely beaten, causing her death two days later in Milan.

[3] Canon Charles M. Ménard (1845–1896), pastor of St. Joseph Church (now Co-Cathedral) in Thibodaux, Louisiana, made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1867, marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of Peter the Apostle.

Longing to bring back an important relic for the veneration of his parishioners, he requested an audience with Cardinal Costantino Patrizi Naro.

On the morning of 18 April 1868, the steamboat Nina Simmes arrived from New Orleans, by way of Bayou Lafourche, with the reliquary of Saint Valeria.

The reliquary was then brought to the Mount Carmel Convent Chapel until the new church was built, where it was installed with due reverence.