SATURNINO, DATIVO, FELICE, and companions, saints, martyrs. - They are commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 11 February.
Their entry derives from Usuardo, who was the first to introduce them into his Martyrology. S. Agostino, however, attests that their feast in Africa was celebrated on the 12th (PL 43, 643), but even this was the dies natalis of only some of them, since others died on different days in prison, either from hunger or from the wounds sustained during the torture of the interrogations. In the Hieronymian Martyrology, indeed, they are commemorated on different days. The original records of the trial existed, but are now lost; there survives a fifth-century recension reworked by a Donatist with openly polemical intentions.
After the first Edict of Diocleziano, forty-nine Christians of Abitine, including women and children, led by the presbyter S., had gathered in a private house to celebrate the liturgy. Surprised by the guards, they were arrested and, after a summary interrogation on the spot, were sent to Cartagine before the tribunal of the proconsul Anullino. There they were interrogated individually and subjected to torture, but all unanimously confessed the faith, heroically enduring every torment. Confined in prison, they were left there to perish from hunger and hardship.