PAPIA, DIODORO and CLAUDIANO, saints, martyrs. — In the Roman Martyrology they are commemorated on 26 February together with St. Nestore, whom they are said to have preceded in martyrdom at Perge, in Pamphylia.
The account of their martyrdom depends on the Passio of St. Nestore; it later provided the basis for a brief Passio of the martyrs themselves, written in Greek and edited by P. Franchi de' Cavalieri. According to this account, the martyrdom of P., D. and C. would have taken place under Decius.
BIBL.: P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Note agiografiche, fasc. 3, Roma 1909, pp. 118–19; H. Delehaye, Les martyrs d'Égypte, in Analecta Bollandiana, 60 (1922), pp. 51–53; id., Les origines du culte des martyrs, Bruxelles 1933, p. 168; Martyr. Romanum, p. 77. Benedetto Pesci