TEONESTO, TABRA and TABRATHA, saints, martyrs. — The information concerning them is uncertain and obscure.
The Roman Martyrology, following a late recension of the Passio, commemorated them on 30 October and states that they died at Altino in the fifth century, victims of the Arians. According to the older Passio, however, they were killed on 22 November by pagans, during the reign of the emperor Theodosius I. Neither account has any historical basis, since no ancient and reliable document knows of a Teonesto who was bishop of Altino. The reference is probably to Teonesto, martyr of Vercelli, over whose tomb St. Eusebius built a church in which he himself was later buried, although nothing is known about II. Teonesto was venerated in various cities of northern Italy and especially at Altino, where the possible presence of relics led people to believe that his entire body was there and that he had therefore been bishop. No information is known about Teonesto’s two companions apart from that reported by the Passio; it is not impossible, however, that they were two Gothic martyrs who perished in Thrace in the fifth century and were arbitrarily associated with Teonesto by the hagiographer. According to the Passio, first composed in the ninth century, Teonesto was bishop of Philippi; together with the chorepiscopus Albano, the deacons Tabra and Tabratha, and the cleric Orso, he went to Rome on pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles. From there he went to Milan, where he was received by St. Ambrose, who also introduced him to the emperor Theodosius I. He then passed through the Galilei, and at Augusta Orso was killed by the pagans, while Albano perished at Mainz. Teonesto and the two survivors were put aboard a boat that landed at Altino, where, while they were preaching, they were captured and beheaded.