Martinian of Milan

Saint Martinian, archbishop of Milan from 423 to 435, is honoured in the Orthodox and the Catholic Church. He died on 29 December 435, and his feast was moved to 2 January because of the octave of Christmas.

A tradition links him with the Roman family of the Hosii. According to the writings of Ennodius, bishop of Pavia in the early sixth century, Martinian was elected bishop of Milan although he did not desire the office, out of humility and fear. Ennodius dedicates a poem to him, praising his prudence and simplicity and calling him a servant of God, and shows that he was elected unanimously, despite his own resistance and another candidate.

During his short episcopate he built two churches in Milan. One of them, perhaps begun as early as 417, was dedicated to Saint Zechariah and Saint Stephen and is known today, after several rebuildings, as the basilica of Santo Stefano Maggiore.

Martinian appears in the sources of the time in the years of the controversy between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius. In a letter of 431 to Rufus, bishop of Thessalonica, John of Antioch, leader of the moderate side, says he had received a letter from the “very godly and holy Martinian, bishop of Milan,” which related that Martinian had sent to “the very pious emperor” a work of Blessed Ambrose on the incarnation of the Lord, the treatise known as De incarnationis Dominicae sacramento. The emperor was Theodosius II. The sources do not, however, allow us to reconstruct Martinian's theological position in that dispute.

The later catalogue of the archbishops of Milan places him between Marolus and Glycerius, and he was buried in the basilica of Saint Stephen in Milan. In 1988 his body was moved to the cathedral of Milan and laid under the altar of Saint Agatha.