Damian

Saint Damian was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier who died a martyr in Africa or at Alexandria, commemorated on 12 February. Almost nothing is known of his life.

According to the martyrology attributed to Blessed Jerome and the codices of Bern and Wissembourg, he suffered in Africa, while according to the codex of Echternach it was at Alexandria in Egypt. His name is linked with the names of two children, Modestus and Ammonia. The details of this link have been lost, probably together with a life of him.

Until 2004 he was entered in the Roman Martyrology on 12 February, but at the revision of that year he was removed. It seems that two early martyrs were at some point conflated: one a soldier, killed at Alexandria or in Roman Africa, the other one whose relics were found in the catacomb of Callixtus and later moved to Salamanca. The commemoration of 12 February therefore remains uncertain.