Nereus

Holy Martyr Nereus was a Roman soldier, killed around 304 at Terracina in the persecution of Diocletian, together with Saint Achilleus. Pope Damasus I (366-384) called them, in a commemorative inscription, faithful soldiers in service and devoted to the emperor. Their acts from the fifth or sixth century no longer show them as soldiers of the emperor but as chamber eunuchs of Flavia Domitilla, niece of the emperor Domitian, who suffered martyrdom in the first century for converting to the Christian faith; for this reason they are often depicted together with her.

Their commemoration in the Roman calendar is 12 May (new style). At the end of the fourth century or soon after, a basilica was built over the catacombs of Domitilla in their honor, half underground, with the altar directly above their tombs. The tombs were in a chamber that Pope Damasus had adorned, around 380, with a plaque. The basilica was left to decay in the ninth century and rediscovered in 1874.