This painting was first shown publicly in 1969 at an exhibition of Florentine paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was then attributed to Ficherelli. It took until 1986 to confirm this painting as a Vermeer.

Vermeer converted to Catholicism in 1653 after his marriage. The painting depicts the saint kneeling collecting the blood of a decapitated martyr. As she squeezes the blood from a sponge into a urn, her mood is one of reverence and quiet contemplation. This was a time of great persecution of the Christians.