Marius, Martha, Audifax and Abachum, Saints, Martyrs

MARIUS, MARTHA, AUDIFAX AND ABACHUM, Saints, Martyrs. - Commemorated in the Hieronymian Martyrology, but without any relationship of kinship, on 16 and 20 January, whereas in the Roman [Martyrology] on the 19th of the same month. Very probably the true dies natalis is the 20th, on which they are also commemorated in the Gelasian Sacramentary. Their tomb, visited by pilgrims of the 7th century, was at the 13th mile of the Via Cornelia, where today the remains of a basilica are visible, still standing in the 9th century. The time of their martyrdom is uncertain; the Passio says they died in the time of Claudius the Gothic, but it seems rather that they perished in the persecution of Diocletian.

According to the Passio, which is very legendary, Mario and Marta, noble Persians, would have come to Rome together with their sons Audiface and Abaco to venerate the bodies of the martyrs, and would have arranged the burial, together with the priest John, of 260 of them on the Via Salaria. Captured, they would have been beheaded on the Via Aurelia after harsh torments and buried by the matron Felicita in a field of hers.

Miscellanea Ebrle, II (Studi e testi, 38), Rome 1924, pp. 96-99; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 51; Martyr. Romanum, p. 27; R. Valentini-G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della città di Roma, II, ibid. 1942, p. 107.

Agostino Amore