Romulus of Fiesole

Saint Romulus of Fiesole was bishop of Fiesole in the first century, who died around the year 90, and is venerated as the patron saint of the city of Fiesole, Italy. He is commemorated on 6 July. Our sources show him venerated in the Roman Catholic Church and show no Orthodox glorification.

Romulus was probably a local deacon, priest or bishop of the first century. According to tradition, he was a disciple of Saint Peter and was converted to Christianity by the apostle. The tradition says that Romulus became the first bishop of Fiesole and was martyred in the reign of Domitian together with four companions: Carissimus, Dulcissimus, Marchis(i)anus and Crescentius. He is not named as bishop or martyr in documents of 966, but a document of 1028 names him so. From then on Romulus was considered a martyred bishop of Fiesole, and his companions were named Carissimus, Dulcissimus, Marchis(i)anus (Marchiziano) and Crescentius. Their feast day is listed as 6 July in the 1468 Florentine edition of the Martyrology of Usuard, and in the sixteenth century his name began to appear in the Roman Martyrology, where he is named a disciple of Saint Peter. As Antonio Borrelli remarks, sometime between the end of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh, Romulus was upgraded from a confessor of the faith to a martyr, possibly by a local abbot named Teuzo.

An eleventh-⁠century legend, considered worthless, makes him the illegitimate son of a woman named Lucerna, who had a child with her father's slave, named Cyrus. Like the Romulus of ancient Roman legend, this Romulus was also abandoned and suckled by a she-⁠wolf. He was captured, baptized and raised by Saint Peter and Peter's companion Justin. Romulus then evangelized much of central Italy and was put to death by the governor Repertian. The most ancient image of him is a triptych of 1440 by Bicci di Lorenzo in Fiesole Cathedral, where he is shown with Saints Alexander, Peter and Donatus. In the same cathedral is a series of frescoes by Nicodemo Ferrucci on the vault of the apse, with scenes from the life of Saint Romulus.