Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius

Holy Martyrs Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius are four Roman martyrs, commemorated in the Martyrology of Bede and in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology on 12 June as martyrs put to death under Diocletian.

It is said that their names were taken from the Hieronymian Martyrology, in the Bern manuscript, where it is written: at Rome, on the Via Aurelia, at the fifth milestone, Basilidis, Tribuli, Nagesi, Magdaletis, Zabini, Aureli, Cirini, Nabori, Nazari, Donatellae, Secundae. The second name in the list, Tribulus, comes from a place name, Tripoli, and those that follow also have an African origin. The group of the three supposedly Roman saints, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius, to which Basilides was added later, has in the Gelasian Sacramentary its own form of invocation in the Canon of the Mass. The date and circumstances of their deaths are unknown.

In the Tridentine calendar the four had a joint commemoration on 12 June, removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 because of the wholly fabulous character of their passion. The commemoration of 12 June was in reality a conflation of three distinct commemorations on the same day: the burial of Saint Basilides, a Roman martyr, on the Via Aurelia; the transfer on the Via Appia of the relics of Saint Quirinus of Sescia; and the dedication of the basilica of the Milanese martyrs Nabor and Nazarius on the Via Aurelia. They are saints of the undivided Church, honoured in the West.