Achilleus

Holy Martyr Achilleus was a Roman soldier and died a martyr together with Nereus, at the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth, in the persecution of Diocletian, around the year 303.

Pope Damasus I (366 to 384) called them, in a commemorative inscription, faithful soldiers in service and devoted to the emperor. In the Acts of Nereus and Achilleus, from the fifth or sixth century, they are no longer soldiers but attendants of Flavia Domitilla, niece of the emperor Domitian, who suffered martyrdom for her faith; that is why the two are often depicted together with her. Toward the end of the fourth century a basilica was raised over the catacombs of Domitilla in their honour, half underground, with the altar right above the tombs of the two, and on a column of it Achilleus is shown trying to flee from beheading. The tombs were moved in the sixth century to the church in the city, and in 1228 the relics were carried to Sant'Adriano in the Roman Forum. The basilica was rediscovered in 1874.

Their commemoration is kept on 12 May. They are saints of the undivided Church.