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Crescentius of Rome
Crescentius of Rome (Italian: San Crescenzio di Roma) is venerated as a child martyr by the Roman Catholic Church. According to tradition, he was born of a noble Roman family and was baptized along with his parents by Epigmenius. During the persecutions of Christians by Diocletian, the family fled to Perugia, where his father Euthymius died.[1] Led back to Rome, Crescentius, who was eleven years old, was beheaded on the via Salaria, outside of the city walls.[2] VenerationHe was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. His place of burial became a focus of pilgrimage and veneration in the Middle Ages. His body was translated from Rome to Siena around 1058 by Pope Stephen IX at the request of Bishop Antifredus.[3] Other relics were translated to Tortosa in 1606. The only biographical source concerning Crescentius was derived from the copy of a manuscript from 1600 and conserved in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana.[2] The Acta is not reliable as it was written long after the alleged death of this saint, probably around 1058, when the body of Crescentius was translated to Siena.[2] During the Middle Ages, Crescentius was the subject of a popular cult in Siena. He is depicted in the Maestà of Duccio. References
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