Justin the Confessor

Saint Justin the Confessor was a priest of Rome in the third century who devoted himself to burying the bodies of the martyrs, until he himself received martyrdom. He suffered around 259, or by other accounts in 269.

According to tradition, he was ordained priest by Pope Sixtus II and led the Christian community of Rome. He baptized the widow Tryphonia and her daughter Cyrilla and, together with Crescentianus, buried the bodies of many martyrs, among them Pope Sixtus, Laurence, Hippolytus and Romanus, in the catacomb of Cyriaca on the Via Tiburtina, where the church of San Lorenzo now stands. He conducted the burials with the participation of the Church of Rome. The Emperor Valerian learned that he fearlessly urged the Christians to hold to their faith and had him arrested at a funeral. Justin would not renounce his faith, and the emperor ordered him beheaded. His community buried him in the catacomb of Cyriaca.

His relics were taken from Rome by Bishop Hitto of Freising, with the consent of Pope Gregory IV, and are kept in Freising Cathedral. In 834 Archbishop Otgar of Mainz brought part of them to Höchst. Justin is commemorated on 17 September, as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.