Felicissimus and Agapitus

The Holy Hieromartyrs Felicissimus and Agapitus were two of the six deacons of Pope Sixtus II, martyred with him on or about 6 August of the year 258, in the persecution of Valerian. The seventh deacon, Lawrence, was martyred on 10 August of the same year.

They are venerated particularly at the Catacombs of Praetextatus on the Via Appia, where they were buried. In 833 Pope Gregory IV had a great mosaic made at San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio in Rome with figures of several saints, among them Agapitus and Felicissimus; the pope had perhaps recently sent their relics to a monastery in Bavaria, so the mosaic preserved their spiritual presence. The Tridentine calendar commemorated Sixtus, Felicissimus and Agapitus on 6 August, the feast of the Transfiguration, until 1969, when the memorial of Pope Sixtus "and his companions" was moved to 7 August. In the Orthodox Western calendar they are commemorated on 10 August as saints of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.