Cesidius, Placidus and Eutychius

Saints Cesidius, Placidus and Eutychius, Martyrs, were killed at Trasacco (L'Aquila), in Abruzzo, in the persecution of Maximinus Thrax, in the first half of the third century. Cesidius was a deacon. Their commemoration is on 31 August.

According to tradition, Cesidius was imprisoned at Amasya in Turkey together with his father Rufinus. Set free, both fled to the West and reached the land of the Marsi, where Rufinus founded a church and entrusted it to his son: it is the basilica of Saints Cesidius and Rufinus, the principal place of veneration of the saint. After the martyrdom of Rufinus, which took place near Assisi, Cesidius took his body and carried it to Trasacco, and the Roman magistrate ordered him put to death; he was martyred with Placidus and Eutychius while celebrating the Liturgy. Other sources maintain that Cesidius was killed at Trasacco before his father, so that he could not have taken Rufinus's body or been condemned for it. At Trasacco he is venerated as a saint and deacon.