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Holy multiples! SVC professor studies occurrence of twins and triplets among canonized saints

Holy multiples! SVC professor studies occurrence of twins and triplets among canonized saints

by Public Relations | July 11, 2024

LATROBE, PA – In the Western Catholic Christian tradition, it is rarely mentioned that a saint is a part of twins or triplets. That spurred Dr. Mary Regina Boland, C’10, assistant professor of data science in the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing at Saint Vincent College, to investigate how often such sets of multiples have occurred. 

Dr. Boland uncovered 15 “holy multiples,” including 14 sets of twins, among the roughly 11,000 saints canonized by the Catholic Church. The last set of multiple saints was St. Catherine of Siena and her sister Giovanna, who died shortly after being baptized. St. Catherine died in 1380 and was canonized in 1461.

Most of the twins are male. That’s not surprising, Dr. Boland said, because there was a lower survival rate of female twins in general during the time represented by these saints (the early church period). Beginning in the 1900s, female twins began to have a higher rate of survival than males. 

The only fraternal (non-identical) twins are St. Scholastica, who died in 543, and St. Benedict, who died in 547. They are buried in the same tomb, which Dr. Boland said is a common feature of the saintly multiples she studied. 

Dr. Boland found one set of triplets: St. Speusippus, St. Eleusippus and St. Meleusippus, brothers who together were martyred in 175 during the reign of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. “They are reported as triplets in the majority of stories describing their lives, although in some stories they are reported as twins with a third brother,” Dr. Boland said. Because exact records of multiple births were not kept at that time, Dr. Boland cannot be entirely sure they were identical triplets.

Currently in the United States, triples happen at a rate of 1 per 10,000 births, according to 2015 data from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. The occurrence of identical triplets is 1 in 1 million. Therefore, finding one set of triplets among 11,000 canonized saints is about what would be expected, given the current prevalence and survival rate of triplets.

The incidence of twins has increased significantly in the past century, going from 1.2 percent of births in the 1980s to 4 percent in the 2010s. “Therefore, we should, hopefully, see more twin saints in the future, especially female twin saints, given their current survival rates,” Dr. Boland said. 

In early June 2024, Dr. Boland presented a posted about her research at the annual conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, IL. Also in attendance were Br. Norman Hipps, P’61, C’66, S’69, O.S.B., president emeritus and professor of mathematics in the Boyer School, and Anthony Sparta, C 26, a Saint Vincent College student who is double majoring in chemistry and mathematics.

For more information, contact Dr. Boland at mary.boland@stvincent.edu.


Dr. Mary Regina Boland presenting her poster at the Society of Catholic Scientists conference

Dr. Mary Regina Boland presenting her poster at the Society of Catholic Scientists conference.

 

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