Basilides

Holy Martyr Basilides was a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and was therefore probably beheaded around the year 304 under the emperor Diocletian, together with several companions, whose names are given in various ways: Cyrinus, Nabor, Nazarius and Celsus.

Their burial church lay on the Via Aurelia at Rome. No secure data can be given about his life, because the surviving sources differ among themselves. The commemoration of him and his companions, on 12 June, is attested in liturgical books and martyrologies from the eighth century until the liturgical reform that followed the Second Vatican Council. He is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured in the West.