NAZARIUS and CELSUS, saints, martyrs. — They are commemorated in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum on July 28. The time of their martyrdom is unknown, but it seems probable that it can be assigned to the beginning of the persecution of Diocletian. Their bodies were found by St. Ambrose after 395 in a garden: that of N. was transported to the basilica of the Apostles in Milan, which later took his name, while that of C. was left in its place, where a basilica was subsequently erected.
Towards the middle of the 5th century, probably through the work of an African attached to the basilica of N., a fabulous Passio was composed (BHL, 6039-50) according to which N. would have been baptized by St. Linus while St. Peter was still alive; after having traveled extensively, preaching the Gospel in Italy and the Gauls, he would have been killed in Milan together with the boy C., under Nero.