Four Crowned Martyrs
FOUR CROWNED MARTYRS
D. c. 304, at the beginning of the diocletian persecution. Roman tradition lists them as four brothers, Severus, Severian, Carpophorus, and Victorinus, who held offices of trust in Rome; they were sentenced to death by public beating, and were buried as martyrs three miles from Rome on the Lavican Way. But they are confused with the five Pannonian stonemasons, Nicostratus, Claudius, Symphorian, Castorius, and Simplicius, who, having refused to sacrifice to the gods under Diocletian, were enclosed in leaden boxes and drowned. Modern hagiographers have not been able to distinguish the two groups.
By Pope gregory i the great's time the church built over the relics of these martyrs was considered "an old church." Pope leo iv repaired the church in 847. After a fire destroyed the church, Pope paschal ii had the church rebuilt and discovered two urns of relics under the altar.
Feast: Nov. 9 (formerly Nov. 8).
Bibliography: a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 4:293–295. Acta Sanctorum Nov. 3:748–784. h. delehaye, Analecta Bollandiana 32 (1913) 63–71; Les Passions des martyrs … (Brussels 1921) 328–344. l. duchesne, Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire 31 (1911) 231–246. p. franchi de' cavalieri, Note agiografiche, 3 (Studi e Testi 24; 1912) 57–66. j. p. kirsch, Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft 38 (1917) 72–97.
[e. g. ryan]