Secundus of Asti

The Holy Martyr Secundus of Asti was a patrician of Asti in Italy and an officer in the Roman army, beheaded under the emperor Hadrian, around 119. He is usually commemorated on 29 March; until the fifteenth century at Asti his day was 30 March, and today it is the first Tuesday of May.

He was a historical person; a church is known to have been dedicated to him in that region as early as the ninth century. Later legends made him a member of the Theban Legion. Another, fuller one says that he was a young man of noble lineage who visited the prisons of Asti. He was a friend of Sapricius, the prefect of the city. They went together to Tortona, where Secundus met the first bishop of the city, Marcian, later killed under Hadrian. The meeting with Marcian led him to become a Christian, and that with Faustinus and Jovita strengthened his conversion. His friend Sapricius tried to make him renounce the new faith; Secundus refused, and was tortured and beheaded.

The manuscript called the Codice della Catena depicts Octavius, Adventor, Solutor, Maximus of Turin, John the Baptist and Secundus of Asti. Bernardo Strozzi painted around 1640 the picture Saint Secundus and the Angel. His feast is on 29 or 30 March.