Crescentius of Rome () is venerated as a child martyr by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. According to tradition, he was born of a noble

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

family and was baptized along with his parents by Epigmenius. During the persecutions of Christians by

Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...

, the family fled to

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

, where his father Euthymius died. Led back to Rome, Crescentius, who was eleven years old, was beheaded on the

via Salaria The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy. It eventually ran from Rome (from Porta Salaria of the Aurelian Walls) to ''Castrum Truentinum'' ( Porto d'Ascoli) on the Adriatic coast, a distance of 242 km. The road also passed throu ...

, outside of the

city walls A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with to ...

.Balboni, Dante. "San Crescenzio di Roma", Santi e Beati
/ref>

Veneration

He 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 In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. His body was translated from Rome to

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

around 1058 by

Pope Stephen IX Pope Stephen IX (, christened Frederick; – 29 March 1058) was the Bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 3 August 1057 to his death on 29 March 1058. He was a member of the Ardenne-Verdun family, who ruled the Duchy of Lorra ...

at the request of Bishop Antifredus.Menzies, Lucy. ''The Saints in Italy'', Medici Society Limited, 1924, p. 125
/ref> Other relics were translated to

Tortosa Tortosa (, ) is the capital of the '' comarca'' of Baix Ebre, in Catalonia, Spain. Tortosa is located at above sea level, by the Ebro river, protected on its northern side by the mountains of the Cardó Massif, of which Buinaca, one of the hi ...

in 1606. The only biographical source concerning Crescentius was derived from the copy of a manuscript from 1600 and conserved in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana. 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. During the Middle Ages, Crescentius was the subject of a popular cult in Siena. He is depicted in the '' Maestà'' of

Duccio Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ; – ), commonly known as just Duccio, was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religi ...

References

External links

St. Crescentius

San Crescenzio di Roma
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crescentius Of Rome 292 births 303 deaths 4th-century Christian martyrs 4th-century Romans Christian child saints Christian martyrs executed by decapitation Italian children Executed Italian people