Tarsicius

Saint Tarsicius, martyr, was a young Christian of Rome, killed in the third century for protecting the Holy Eucharist. He is commemorated on 15 August.

What is known of him

The one certain thing about this Roman martyr is found in a poem written in his honour by Pope Damasus (366-384), who likens him to the deacon Stephen: as Stephen was stoned by a crowd, so Tarsicius, carrying the Holy Mysteries, was surrounded by a band and beaten to death. The poem says that when a frenzied mob pressed him, to display the holy things to the profane, he chose to die and give up his life rather than give the heavenly body to rabid dogs.

The tradition

Because Damasus sets him beside Stephen, it is thought he may have been a deacon; a sixth-⁠century account makes him an acolyte. According to the story that was later made out, Tarsicius was a boy in one of the harsh persecutions of the third century, perhaps under the emperor Valerian. One day he was given the charge of bringing the Holy Eucharist to condemned Christians in prison. He preferred to die at the hands of the mob rather than give up the Holy Mysteries he was carrying.

Veneration

He was first buried in the catacombs of Saint Callixtus, and the poem of Damasus was later placed on his tomb. Later his relics were moved to the church of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome, but excavations to find them were fruitless. They are now kept at Naples, in the church of San Domenico Maggiore, where they were brought in 1646. He is the patron of altar servers and of children receiving first communion.