Protus of Porto Torres

Saint Protus, hieromartyr, was a priest at Porto Torres in Sardinia, put to death in 303 together with the deacon Januarius and the soldier Gavinus. He is commemorated on 27 October.

According to tradition, the priest Protus and the deacon Januarius were seized in the time of the persecution under the emperor Diocletian and put in a cave in the rock, where today stands the basilica raised in their honor. The two prisoners were guarded by the soldier Gavinus, who was struck by the faith the two clerics showed under torture and by the fact that they even sang praises to the Lord. The soldier Gavinus decided to accept the Christian faith, set the prisoners free and fled with them. Gavinus was, however, seized and beheaded on the rock Balai Lontano, a little beyond Usilesu. His companions were also killed. The heads of the three martyrs, thrown into the sea, were found by the faithful, as were their bodies, which were buried not far from Balai.

The Russian source names the three as killed at the cape of Balai, also called Silesu. The relics of Saint Protus and of his two companions are still kept in the crypt of the basilica dedicated to them at Porto Torres. A bishop speaks of this in one of the oldest poems of Sardinia written in the Sardinian language, in the fifteenth century: "Sa Vitta et sa Morte, et Passione de sanctu Gavinu, Prothu et Januariu".