TRIFFONE AND RESPICIO, saints, martyrs. — They are commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 10 November; the Greeks venerated only TRIFFONE on 10 February.
In reality, only TRIFFONE has ancient and reliable information about him. Although he died in Nicaea in Bithynia, the center of his cult was in Phrygia near Apamea. In Constantinople, Justinian had built a church for him; he was also venerated in Rome, and in the 10th century one of the Crescentii family dedicated a church to him, which was later demolished in the 18th century. During the Middle Ages, this church was also a stational church, as is still noted in the Roman Missal on the first Saturday of Lent. The Passio is legendary and full of anachronisms.
RESPICIO, on the other hand, is unknown to ancient hagiography; he first appears, associated with TRIFFONE, in Roman documents from the 11th–12th centuries; from that time onward, a Latin version of the Passio of TRIFFONE was circulated, in which RESPICIO is also associated with his martyrdom.
