PLACIDUS, EUTYCHIUS and companions, saints, martyrs. — They probably perished in the Diocletian persecution (303-13).
The Hieronymian Martyrology commemorates them on 5 Oct. as Sicilian martyrs: “in Sicily.” In the same Martyrology, however, P. is also recalled on 29 Sept., 11 Oct. and 14 Oct.; according to H. Delehaye this is always the same martyr. Eutychius is likewise commemorated on 29 Sept. as a martyr of Heraclea. The anonymous group, according to the common reading, would consist of 30 martyrs, but according to another reading only of 8. The genuine acts have been lost.
The identification of P. with the disciple of St Benedict, and of Eutychius as his brother, is a false opinion that arose at Monte Cassino in the 11th–12th century, promoted by Peter the Deacon (v.), who claimed that these disciples, sent by St Benedict to Messina to found there a monastery (of St John the Baptist), were killed by Saracen pirates from Spain. The discovery of human bones in the choir of the church of St John the Baptist in Messina on 4 Aug. 1158 led to the conclusion that these were the bodies of the martyred monks. They were chosen as patrons of the city, and Sixtus V obtained (13 Nov. 1588) their feast with a double rite for Messina and its province, and a simple rite for the rest of the Church, with insertion in the Roman Martyrology (5 Oct.).