SOPHIA, PISTIS, ELPIS and AGAPE, saints and martyrs. - Unknown to the earliest Roman liturgical documents, they were included by Ado in his Martyrology, whence they passed into the Roman on 30 Sept., S., and the others on 1 Aug.
They are nevertheless mentioned by the seventh-century Itineraries and by the Monza papyrus, both on the Via Aurelia and on the Via Latina; hence some authors have maintained the existence of different groups. In the eighth century the presbyter Giovanni of Milan circulated an unfounded legend, which placed their martyrdom in the time of the emperor Hadrian.
BIBL.: G. B. De Rossi, La Roma sotterr. crist., II, Roma 1867, pp. 171-80; H. Delchaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2ª ed., Bruxelles 1933, p. 286; Martyr. Romanum, pp. 318, 428; R. Valentini - G. Zucchetti, Codice topogr. della città di Roma, II Roma 1942, p. 36; G. de Tervarent, Contribution à l'iconog. de ste S. et de ses trois filles, in Anal. Boll., 68 (1950), pp. 419-23, Martiniano Roncaglia