Sacred Calendar

Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology - July 17

At Rome, St. Alexius, confessor, son of the senator Euphemian. Leaving his spouse untouched the night of his marriage, he withdrew from his house, and after a long pilgrimage returned to Rome, where he was for seventeen years harbored in his father's house as an unknown beggar, thus deluding the world by a new device. But after his death, becoming known through a voice heard in the churches of the city, and by his own writing, he was, under the Sovereign Pontiff, Innocent I., translated to the church of St. Boniface, where he wrought many miracles. — At Carthage, the birthday of the holy Scillitan martyrs Speratus, Narzales, Cythinus, Veturius, Felix, Acyllinus, Lsetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestina, Donata, and Secunda. By order of the prefect Saturninus, after their first confession of the faith, they were sent to prison, nailed to pieces of wood, and finally beheaded. The relics of Speratus, with the bones of blessed Cyprian and the head of the martyr St. Pantaleon, were carried from Africa into France, and religiously placed in the basilica of St. John the Baptist at Lyons. — At Amastris, in Paphlagonia, St. Hyacinth, martyr, who died in prison after much suffering, under the prefect Castritius. — At Tivoli, St. Generosus, martyr. — At Constantinople, St. Theodota, martyr, under the Iconoclast Leo. — At Rome, the demise of pope St. Leo IV. — At Pavia, St. Ennodius, bishop and confessor. — At Auxerre, St. Theodosius, bishop. — At Milan, the virgin St. Marcellina, sister of the blessed bishop Ambrose, who received the religious veil from pope Liberius in the basilica of St. Peter at Rome. Her sanctity is attested by St. Ambrose in his writings. — At Venice, the translation of St. Marina, virgin.