Eventius and Theodulus

Saints Eventius and Theodulus were two priests of Rome, put to death for the faith together with Alexander, in the second half of the second century or later. They are commemorated on 3 May. Some sources regard them as probably fictional figures.

The birth of their cult is attested by the martyrology attributed to Jerome, which enters on 3 May the commemoration of the three at the seventh mile of the Via Nomentana. Excavations in 1854 found the ruins of a sanctuary built in the fifth century by Bishop Ursus on a catacomb of the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century; in it were found the tomb of Eventius and Alexander and, in an adjoining chamber, that of Theodulus. The relics were moved under Pope Paschal I to Santa Prassede, then to Santa Sabina, and parts are said to be in Germany and at San Lorenzo in Lucina. An old tradition, also taken over in the Liber pontificalis, identifies Alexander with Pope Alexander I, but it has no support either in the Hieronymian martyrology or in the fifth-⁠century inscription on the altar over his tomb.

The passion, which has no historical value, says that under Trajan Pope Alexander brought a large part of the senate and the prefect Hermes to Christianity. Sent by the emperor, Aurelian arrested him and gave him to the tribune Quirinus. In prison Alexander found the priests Eventius and Theodulus; through their miracles the three brought Quirinus and his daughter Balbina to the faith. Aurelian had Hermes and Quirinus beheaded and, after many torments (Alexander and Eventius were thrown into a furnace, which Theodulus also entered, and all came out unharmed), ordered the three beheaded too. Aurelian's wife buried them on a plot of hers at the seventh mile of the Via Nomentana.