Medicus of Otricoli

Who they were

According to a late Passio, composed perhaps after the year 1000 and reworked in the 16th century by Antonio Gallonio, Medicus was a friend of the emperor Marcus Aurelius who converted to Christianity. Arrested by the magistrates of Otricoli, Sebastiano and Terenziano, he refused to abandon his faith and return to pagan worship and was executed just outside the town on 26 June, perhaps in the year 172.

He was buried, along with 57 other supposed martyrs, by a Christian named Lozimo. Historians doubt the accuracy of this account, suspecting it borrows from the Passio of two other Otricoli saints, Victor and Corona; the story arose after an inscription reading "here rests the martyr Medicus" was found on a sarcophagus in 1611 near the ancient church of San Vittore.

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

Martyr venerated at Otricoli, said in a late legendary Passio to have been a friend of the emperor Marcus Aurelius before his execution for the faith; feast 26 June.