Julius and Aaron

Saints Julius and Aaron were two Christians of Roman Britain, honoured as martyrs and held by tradition to have been presbyters of Caerleon, "the city of the legions". With Saint Alban of Verulamium they are the only martyrs of Roman Britain whose names have survived. Nothing certain is known of their lives, and the time of their witness is debated. Their traditional commemoration falls on 1 July; today the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches commemorate them together with Saint Alban, on 20 June.

What the sources say

The earliest witness is Gildas, a monk who wrote in western Britain in the sixth century, in his work "On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain". He says that in the time of Diocletian's persecution God kindled among the Britons bright lights of holy martyrs, among them Alban of Verulamium, Aaron and Julius, citizens of the city of the legions, and many others, men and women, who stood firm in the Christian contest in different places. The city of the legions is understood to be Caerleon, in present-⁠day Wales. These words were repeated in the eighth century by the Venerable Bede, who adds that after enduring many horrible tortures of the body, death put an end to their struggles. Bede adds no other news of the two. How accurate Gildas's information is, written three hundred years after the events, cannot be known. Some scholars, among them Jeremy Knight, take it seriously nonetheless, regarding Gildas as a muddled but honest witness.

Of their names it is said that Aaron is Hebrew and might point to a man of Jewish descent, though it was very rare at that time, among Jews and Christians alike. Julius was very common among the soldiers at Caerleon.

When and where they suffered

Historians do not agree on the time. Gildas and Bede tie their martyrdom to Diocletian's persecution, between 302 and 305 (the Russian source speaks in the same sense). Others note, however, that the fort at Caerleon, where the Second Augustan Legion was stationed, was abandoned between about 287 and 296, so it is more probable that they suffered in one of the waves of persecution of the third century, for example under Decius (249 to 251) or under Valerian (257 to 259). Jeremy Knight placed the event between Septimius Severus's ban on conversion to Christianity and the death of Aurelian in 275.

The place is not certain either. Gildas calls them citizens of the city of the legions, which means they were from Caerleon, but the martyrdom might have taken place elsewhere. Some archaeological hints, an amphitheatre at Chester with a structure that may have served for public executions and the possible remains of an early medieval church, have led some to think of Chester. In 2016 Andrew Breeze argued that it might be Leicester.

The place of veneration at Caerleon

Gildas's words show that a local veneration of the two martyrs existed at Caerleon as early as the sixth century. In the twelfth century Giraldus Cambrensis wrote that they had been buried in the town and that in his time each had a church there, while before there had been a third in their honour. The tradition of veneration of them in Caerleon and the surroundings has survived to this day, and around the town of Newport there are many churches with their dedication.

A place of veneration, a martyrium, appears in the Book of Llandaff. It contains a charter by which part of the land on the bank of the river Usk, called Merthir Iun et Aaron (the word "merthir" comes from the Latin "martyrium", a burial place of martyrs), was given to a bishop of Llandaff. The sources differ on its date: one places it in the eighth century, in the time of King Meurig of Glywysing, another says the charter is from the end of the ninth century, given to Bishop Nudd. It also recalls that the lands had once belonged to Saint Dubricius, bishop of Caerleon, of the sixth century. A slab with a carved cross, of the ninth century, found at Bulmore Farm before 1862, may be an archaeological trace of this martyrium.

The next written mention is from about 1113, when the local Norman landowner, Robert of Chandos, gave to the monastery of Le Bec in Normandy lands in the area, among them the church of Julius and Aaron, so that a priory might be founded there, Goldcliff Priory. In 1142 the church appears under the dedication of Saints Julius, Aaron and Alban, as the veneration of Saint Alban grew and, probably, the monks obtained bones regarded as his. In the following centuries only Alban was remembered, and the chapel was abandoned at the English Reformation and perhaps turned into a barn. In 1798 the site was marked by a yew tree, and in 1785 several stone coffins had been found there. Today it is a sloping field beside houses called Mount St Alban.

Later stories and remembrance today

Geoffrey of Monmouth mentioned Julius and Aaron in his tale of King Arthur's crown-⁠wearing at Caerleon, where there were said to be two great churches, a nunnery of Julius and a house of canons of Aaron with a university. The two churches are imagined, though later scholars believed them real and tried to find their place. In the sixteenth century printed editions of Gildas (1525) and Bede (1565) made the two martyrs known to Catholics and Protestants alike. The Roman Martyrology has them on 22 June, but since that date belongs to Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, in the Catholic calendar of Wales they are commemorated on 20 June, together with Saint Alban.

Among the churches that bear their names are the Anglican church of Saints Julius and Aaron at Llanharan (1856 to 1857), the Roman Catholic church of Saints Aaron, Julius and David at Caerleon (late nineteenth century), the Anglican church at St Julians, Newport (1926), and the Roman Catholic church of Saint Julius the Martyr in Newport (twentieth century). They are among the oldest saints of Britain, honoured in the Christianity that existed before the division of the Church.