Simitrius

Saint Simitrius (also called Symmetrius or Semetrius) was a Roman priest of the second century, venerated as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Church. Little is known of him, from the Acts of Praxedes and Pudentiana: he was a priest and was surprised while celebrating a Liturgy in secret in the catacombs of Priscilla, before twenty-⁠two of the faithful. They were all arrested and executed in the time of the emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161). By another form of the legend they were killed without trial as they gathered for prayer in the titulus of Saint Praxedes; his death is given as 159.

The oldest mention of his veneration is in the Hieronymian martyrology (fifth century), on 26 May. His tomb lay in the same catacomb of Priscilla, as the old itineraries for pilgrims show. At Rome there was from the sixth century a monastery bearing his name, of which the Liber pontificalis speaks under the popes Leo III and Leo IV. Caesar Baronius entered into the Roman Martyrology the commemoration of Simitrius and his twenty-⁠two companions; after the reform following the Second Vatican Council the commemoration of the companions was omitted.