AGAPITO di PALESTRINA, saint, martyr. - According to his late and fabulous legend, he died a martyr at the age of 15, probably during the persecution of Diocletian. On the site of his tomb, now called Le Quadrelle, a basilica was erected as early as the 4th century, restored by Leo III (795-816) and rediscovered in 1864. Towards the end of the 9th century the relics of A. were transferred to the city and placed in the basilica consecrated by Pasquale II in 1118. Pope Felice III (483-92) dedicated to him a church in Rome on the via Tiburtina, near S. Lorenzo. The feast of the martyr A. is recorded in the oldest sacramentaries of the Roman Church and in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum on 18 Aug.
BIBL.: Martyr. Hieronymianum, pp. 448-49 (sources and bibliography); Acta SS. Augusti, III, Parigi 1867, pp. 532-537 and 537-39; H. Delehaye, in Analecta Bollandiana, 16 (1897), pp. 490-94; A. Dufourcq, Etude sur les Gents Martyrum, III, Parigi 1907, pp. 21-28; B. Mombritius, Sanctuarium, ed. Solesmense, I, Parigi 1910, pp. 35-37; O. Marucchi, Guida archeologica della città di Palestrina, Roma 1932. Cesario van Hulst