Crescentius of Rome

Saint Crescentius of Rome is a child martyr venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, born, according to tradition, about 297 and dead about 303. The Russian sources give his commemoration on 14 September and 12 October. Our sources mention no Orthodox veneration.

According to tradition he was born of a noble Roman family. He was baptized with his parents by Epigmenius. During the persecution of Diocletian the family fled to Perugia, where his father, Euthymius, died. Led back to Rome, Crescentius, then eleven years old, was beheaded on the Via Salaria, outside the city walls. The years given (about 297 and 303) do not fit the age of eleven.

He was buried in the catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. In the Middle Ages the place of his burial became a place of pilgrimage and veneration. His body was moved from Rome to Siena about 1058, according to one source by Pope Stephen IX, at the request of Bishop Antifredus, and some of the relics were taken to Tortosa in 1606. In the Middle Ages he had a popular cult at Siena. He is depicted in Duccio's Maestà. He is the patron of the towns of Binetto and Pacentro.

The only source on his life is a copy of a manuscript of 1600 kept at the Biblioteca Vallicelliana. His Acts are not reliable, since they were written long after the alleged death of the saint, probably about 1058, when the relics were moved to Siena. Dante Balboni believes they were composed in Tuscany at the time of the translation of the relics.