Calocerus

Saint Calocerus (Calogero) was a martyr of the second century, venerated chiefly at Brescia and at Albenga. He is commemorated on 18 April and on 19 May. He died, according to one source, in 121. His acts were written much later. He is venerated locally in the West. Our sources give no Orthodox act of canonization; we call him a saint of the undivided Church in the West, of uncertain history.

He is believed to have been an officer in the Roman army in the time of the emperor Hadrian and to have served at Brescia, in Lombardy. His life and legend are linked with those of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, who according to tradition were also soldiers of Brescia. The constancy of Faustinus and Jovita led to the conversion of Calocerus, who in turn converted Secundus of Asti. According to tradition, the trial of the saints took place in the Milan baths known as the Terme d'Ercole. None of them renounced the faith, and they were sentenced to take part in races, each bound to his own chariot. To everyone's astonishment, all three remained alive. Calocerus then went to preach in the little town of Albenga, where he was martyred.

His local cult is limited to the dioceses of Brescia, Milan, Asti, Ivrea and Tortona. The cathedral of Albenga, built in the fourth and fifth centuries, was dedicated to him. His alleged tomb is preserved in the Civic Museum at Albenga, and an urn with some of his relics is in the cathedral. On the site of a collapsed pagan temple a spring appeared, which bears his name. Beside it a church was raised to the Mother of God, then to Saint Vincent, around which a convent was founded. The nearby oratory of Saint Calocerus was destroyed beyond repair by bombings in the war and demolished. At Albenga the remains of the monastic complex of Saint Calocerus survive, now abandoned and called an archaeological zone. There is also another tradition, according to which the saint's relics were moved in the ninth century to Civate.