SS. GETULIUS AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

GETULIUS, the husband of St. Symphorosa, was an officer in the Roman army under Trajan and Adrian; but upon his conversion to the faith, gave up his commission and retired into the country of the Sabines. His brother Amantius was no less zealous in the profession of the faith, but retained his dignity of tribune of a legion. The emperor Adrian sent Cerealis to apprehend Getulius in the country; but that officer was gained to Christ by the two brothers. The emperor, enraged at this news, commanded Licinius to condemn them to death, unless they could be induced to forsake the Christian religion. By the sentence of this inhuman judge, the three above-mentioned martyrs, and a fourth named Primitivus, after suffering twenty-seven days imprisonment at Tivoli, and divers torments, were beheaded together. St. Symphorosa buried their bodies in an Arenarium upon her estate. They suffered in the beginning of the second century, and are mentioned in the ancient Martyrologies on this day. See their acts abridged by Tillemont, t. 3, p. 23.