Sts. Primus and Felician

Sts. Primus and Felician

Suffered martyrdom about 304 in the Diocletian persecution. The "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 77) gives under 9 June the names of Primus and Felician who were buried at the fourteenth milestone of the Via Nomentana (near Nomentum, now Mentana). They were evidently from Nomentum. This notice comes from the catalogue of Roman martyrs of the fourth century. In 648 Pope Theodore translated the bones of the two saints to the Roman Church of San Stefano, under an altar erected in their honour (Liber Pontificalis, I, 332), where they remain. Their feast is still observed on 9 June.

Acta SS., June, II, 152 sq.; DUFOURCQ, Les Gesta martyrum romains, I (Paris, 1900), 213; DE ROSSI, Inscriptiones christ., urbis Romae, II, 152; IDEM, I musaici delle chiese di Roma (Rome, 1899), plate XVII with text; MARUCCHI, Les basiliques et eglises de Rome (2nd ed., Rome, 1909), 221 sq.

J.P. KIRSCH