Smaragdus of Rome

Holy Martyr Smaragdus of Rome was a Christian prisoner, a fellow prisoner of the deacon Cyriacus and of Largus, and died in torments in the time of the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian.

Smaragdus, with Cyriacus and Largus, received aid from the rich Thrason and shared it among the prisoners. Ordained by Pope Marcellus, Cyriacus became a deacon. The three were forced into hard labour, and then, when Diocletian's daughter Artemia, tormented by a demon, was healed and baptized by Cyriacus, the emperor freed Cyriacus, Smaragdus and Largus. Later Cyriacus was sent to Persia to heal the daughter of the Persian king, and on his return to Rome he was seized at the order of Galerius, who had him led naked and in chains behind his chariot. Pope Marcellus publicly denounced the emperor for cruelty to innocent Christians and was beaten with rods and made a keeper of cattle. Cyriacus, Smaragdus, Largus and another prisoner, Crescentian, died in torments. Then Princess Artemia and twenty-⁠one other prisoners were executed. Pope Marcellus, secretly freed by the clergy, dug up the bodies of Cyriacus, Smaragdus and Largus and buried them on the estate of two Christian women, Priscilla and Lucina, near Rome, turning Lucina's house into a church. Maxentius ordered it destroyed and turned into a cattle yard and condemned the pope to look after cattle all his life; the saint died in the year 310, worn out by hunger, cold and stench.

Smaragdus is commemorated on 20 June, in the new style, with Pope Marcellus and the others.