Carpophorus of Como

Saint Carpophorus of Como is commemorated together with Exanthus, Cassius, Severinus, Secundus and Licinius, six soldiers martyred at Como in the north of Italy under the Emperor Maximian Herculius, around 295 (the Italian source says around 303).

Information about them is scarce. According to tradition they belonged to the Theban Legion and survived its decimation. Condemned to death for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods, they are said to have tried to flee toward the Alps but were overtaken and executed near Como, at the foot of Castel Baradello. With them, it is said, were the future saints Alexander and Fidelis; Fidelis, who had taken on the evangelization of the area around Como, was arrested and martyred near Samolaco, and Alexander at Bergamo.

At the end of the fourth century Saint Felix, the first bishop of Como (from 386), built the basilica of San Carpoforo; according to a tradition not historically established, the church was founded on an ancient temple of Mercury, reused to house the remains of Carpophorus and the other martyrs of the Theban Legion. They are commemorated on 7 August as saints of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.