Primus and Felician

Saints Primus and Felician
Saints Primus and Felicianus, from a 14th-century manuscript of the "Golden Legend"
Martyrs
Born	early 3rd century Nomentum (modern-day Mentana)
Died	c. 297 AD on the Via Nomentana, Rome
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Major shrine	Church of Santo Stefano Rotondo, Rome
Feast	June 9
Attributes	As portrayed at their martyrdom: St Felician is nailed to a tree and St Primus is forced to swallow molten lead.

Saints Primus and Felician (Felicianus) (Italian: Primo e Feliciano) were brothers who suffered martyrdom about the year 297 during the Diocletian persecution. The "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (ed. G. B. de Rossi-L. Duchesne, 77) gives under June 9 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.

They appear to be the first martyrs of whom it is recorded that their bodies were subsequently reburied within the walls of Rome. In 648 Pope Theodore I translated the bones of the two saints (together with the remains of his father) to the Church of Santo Stefano Rotondo, under an altar erected in their honor (Liber Pontificalis, I, 332), where they remain. The Chapel of Ss. Primo e Feliciano contains mosaics from the 7th century. The chapel was built by Pope Theodore I. One mosaic shows the martyrs St Primus and St Felician flanking a crux gemmata (jeweled cross).

Other depictions of the saints can be found at Venice, in the St Mark's Basilica (13th century) and at Palermo, Sicily, in the Cappella Palatina (12th century).

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