Feastday: November 18
Death: 304
Martyrs of Syria. Romanus was born in Palestine and served as a deacon in Caesarea and Antioch. He was supposedly arrested and put to death after giving encouragement to Christian prisoners in resisting the demands of the Romans to sacrifice to the gods. Romanus died with a companion, named Barula, a seven year old boy. Nothing is known of Barula with any certainty. It is considered likely by scholars that he was actually a Syrian martyr possibly called Bralaha or Barlaam, who became associated with Romanus. Romanus was burned, strangled, and then beheaded.
Saint Romanus of Caesarea (also known as Romanus of Antioch) is venerated as a martyr. In 303 or 304, at the beginning of the Diocletian persecution, a deacon called Romanus of Caesarea in Palestine suffered martyrdom at Antioch. He was taken prisoner, was condemned to death by fire, and was bound to the stake; however, as Emperor Galerius was then in Antioch, Romanus was brought before him. At the emperor's command Romanus' tongue was cut out. Tortured in various ways in prison he was finally strangled.
Eusebius speaks of his martyrdom in De martyribus Palaestinae. Prudentius relates other details and gives Romanus a companion in martyrdom, a Christian by name Barulas. On this account several historians, among them Baronius, consider that there were two martyrs named Romanus at Antioch, though more likely there was but the one whom Eusebius mentions. Prudentius has introduced legendary features into his account, and his connection of the martyrdom of Barulas with that of Romanus is probably arbitrary.
The feast day of St. Romanus is observed on 18 November. Barulas, like St. Quiricus, is venerated as a child-martyr. The church of San Román in Seville is dedicated to Romanus. Prudentius wrote a 1140 line hymn to Romanus, the Romane Christi fortis, the tenth hymn in his Peristephanon.
A relic of Romanus at St. Raymond Maronite Cathedral (St. Louis, Missouri), a church named for him
Sources
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Sts. Romanus
- Martyr Romanus the Deacon of Caesarea and child-martyr Barulas of Antioch (303)
