Maro of Picenum

Saint Maro, hieromartyr, was a priest in the region of Picenum in Italy and died a martyr by the sword, according to tradition on 15 April around the year 100. He belonged to the family of the Flavians, at the court of the emperor Domitian, and the Church commemorates him on 15 April.

Word of him comes from the Acts of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, a later work of legendary character. According to it, in the time of Domitian there lived Domitilla, a kinswoman of the emperor, of the same Flavian family, who was a Christian. She had been betrothed to the consul Aurelian. Maro and his friends Eutyches and Victorinus tried to turn her from that marriage.

By order of the emperor Domitilla was exiled to the island of Ponza, and the three companions went with her, being commanded to persuade her to marry Aurelian. Meanwhile Nerva became emperor in Rome, more tolerant toward the faith, and the exiles were brought back to the capital. Aurelian, a man of great influence, then succeeded in having her friends sent to forced labour.

Maro thus laboured at the 130th mile of the Via Salaria. He was ordained priest, brought many to the Lord, and for this was finally put to death by the sword. His story therefore rests on a late narrative and not on a martyrdom attested from his own time.