Felicissimus and Agapitus, Saints, Martyrs (FELICISSIMO E AGAPITO, SANTI, MARTIRI)

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

FELICISSIMO AND AGAPITO, saints, martyrs. - They are commemorated in the Depositio martyrum on August 6 as having been buried in the catacomb of Praetextatus. However, nothing is known of either their lives or their martyr-

Article illustration — (from W. Wilpert, *Mosaiken*, II), FELICISSIMO AND AGAPITO, saints, martyrs - Medallion with St. Felicissimo, Fresco (731-41) - Rome, Church of S. Crisogono.

dom, beyond the few hints contained in the poem that Pope Damasus composed in their honor, of which the original text is preserved.

F. and A. were Roman deacons and were killed together with Pope Sixtus II in 258, during the persecution of Valerian, in which, according to the testimonies of St. Cyprian, Eusebius, and the Liber Pontificalis, all seven deacons of the Roman Church were massacred within the space of a few days. The itineraries of the 7th century consistently record the tombs of F. and A. in the catacomb of Praetextatus, but their identification made in recent times in the so-called spelunca maior is far from certain. Likewise uncontrollable are the accounts concerning the two martyrs contained in the Passio of Pope Sixtus, which is no older than the 6th century.

BIBL.: Acta SS. Augusti, II, Paris 1867, pp. 124-42; Lib. Pont., I, p. 155; F. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Note agiografiche, VI (Studi e testi, 33), Rome 1920, pp. 171-74; E. Josi, L'epigramma damasiano in onore dei martiri F. e A., in Rivista d'archeologia cristiana, 4 (1927), pp. 234-48; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 420 sq.; A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana, Città del Vaticano 1942, pp. 152-56. Agostino Amore