Sts. Processus and Martinian

The dates of these martyrs are unknown. The “Martyrologium Hieronymianum” (ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 85) gives under 2 July their names. The Berne manuscript of the Martyrology also gives their burial-place, viz. at the second milestone of the Via Aurelia. The old catalogues of the burial places of the Roman martyrs likewise mention the graves of both these saints on this road (De Rossi, “Roma sotterranea”, I, 182-3). They were publicly venerated in Rome from the fourth or perhaps the third century, although nothing further is known. A legend makes them the keepers of the prison of Sts. Peter and Paul (Lipsius, “Apokryphe Apostelgeschich. u. Apostellegenden”, II, Brunswick, 1887, 92, 105 sqq., 110 sq.). It cannot be shown how the legend came to give them this identification. Pope Paschal I (817-24) translated the bones of the two martyrs to a chapel in the old basilica of St. Peter; they still rest under the altar dedicated to them in the right transept of the present St. Peter’s. Their feast is celebrated on 2 July.