Mariano d'Acerenza
Feast: 30 April (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Mariano was a young deacon of the church of Acerenza in the time of the holy bishop Marcellus, and a friend of Saint Laviero, whose courage in preaching the Gospel he shared. He suffered martyrdom, beheaded at Grumentum (today Grumento Nova, in the province of Potenza), in the year 303, during the terrible persecution of the emperor Diocletian.
He is honoured as a minor patron of Acerenza alongside Saint Laviero, with his relics kept in a chapel of the cathedral; they were examined by Archbishop Francesco Zunica in 1782, after an earlier recognition in 1613 confirmed them as belonging to this glorious martyr, already venerated by the Church for about a thousand years at that time. His feast is kept on 30 April.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
Young deacon of Acerenza martyred at Grumentum in 303 under Diocletian; feast 30 April.
- Santi, beati e testimoni (santiebeati.it) - San Mariano, by Pino Pace
- Wikidata Q3847812 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.