Saint Asterius | |
---|---|
Martyr | |
Died | ~222 Rome |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
Canonized | Pre-congregation |
Major shrine | Cathedral of Santa Aurea, Ostia, Italy |
Feast | 21 October |
Saint Asterius of Ostia (d. 3rd century AD) was a martyred priest. Information on this saint is based on the apocryphal Acts of Saint Callixtus. [1] According to tradition, he was a priest of Rome who recovered the body of Pope Callixtus I after it had been tossed into a well around 222 AD. [1] Asterius buried Callixtus' body at night but was arrested for this action by the prefect Alexander and then killed by being thrown off a bridge into the Tiber River. [1]
According to tradition, his body washed up at Ostia and was buried there. [1] [2]
Asterius was venerated from at least the 4th or 5th centuries. [1] A saint with the same name, along with that of his daughter, were translated by Pope Sergius II between 844 and 847 and rest in the Church of San Martino ai Monti on the Esquiline, according to Anastasius the Librarian. [1] However, the “Bollandists think that this is the body of another Asterius.” [1]
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October 20 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - October 22
The Basilica of Santa Aurea is a church situated in the Ostia Antica district of Ostia, Italy. Ostia became an episcopal see as early as the 3rd century AD. The present-day church, completed in 1483, it was the seat of the suburbicarian diocese of Ostia until 1966, when Ostia became part of the diocese of Rome.
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