GIULIANO and BASILISSA, saints, martyrs. - They are commemorated together with others on 6 January in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, on 8 and 21 June in the Synaxarion of Constantinople, and on 9 January in the Roman Martyrology, as martyrs of Antioch; they in fact belong to the city of Antinoe in Egypt.
The kinship between the two martyrs and their relations with their companions are entirely arbitrary, devised by the author of the Passio. This work, whose original redaction was in Greek and is rather legendary, was certainly composed not long before the seventh century. At the beginning of Diocletian’s persecution, G. lived in perfect chastity with his wife B., who is said to have died a natural death; G., on the other hand, was captured and brought before the tribunal of the governor Marcian, where he was interrogated and scourged. He converted the governor’s own son, Celsus, with whom he was imprisoned. There they converted twenty soldiers, who were baptized by the presbyter Anthony. After further tortures, they were all beheaded.