Laetus of Nepta

Laetus of Nepta was bishop of Nepta in Byzacena (now Nefta, in south-⁠west Tunisia) and received the crown of martyrdom in the Vandal kingdom of Africa. He stands fourteenth in the list of the bishops of Byzacena summoned to Carthage by King Huneric in 484, for a conference between Catholic and Arian bishops set for 1 February. According to Victor of Vita and Victor of Tunnuna, the king had him arrested to break any resistance by the Catholic bishops. After a hard captivity he was burned alive, apparently on 24 September 484.

Victor of Tunnuna tells that half a century later Laetus appeared in a dream to the emperor Justinian, commanding him in the name of the Lord almighty to deliver the Christians of Africa from the tyranny of the barbarians; Isidore of Seville tells a similar story. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 6 September, among the bishops exiled by Huneric. A martyr and confessor, a saint of the undivided Church, venerated locally.