Abundantius

Holy Martyr Abundantius was a deacon in Rome and suffered around 304, in the persecution of Diocletian, together with the priest Abundius and with Marcian and John, on the Via Flaminia near Rignano Flaminio.

According to tradition, Abundius and Abundantius were seized in Rome, tortured and condemned to death. On the way to the place of execution, on the Via Flaminia, they met the senator Marcian. They raised from the dead his son, named John, and Marcian and his son believed and asked for baptism, but were in their turn condemned. The four were beheaded at the 14th kilometer of the Via Flaminia. A Christian woman, Theodora, gathered their bodies and buried them in a plot of her own at the foot of Mount Soratte.

In 1001, in the time of the Emperor Otto III, the bodies of Theodora, Abundius and Abundantius were moved to the basilica of San Bartolomeo on the Tiber Island, then to the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Rome, and in 1583 to the church of the Gesù. The remains are now kept in the church of Santa Maria Assunta at Cislago (Varese), of which he is patron; there the saint is commemorated on the second Monday after Easter. The relics of Marcian and John are in the cathedral of Civita Castellana. The main commemoration is on 16 September, by the Western calendar (new style). He is honored as a saint of the undivided Church.