Quattro Coronati

(Lat. = “four crowned ones”). Martyrs commemorated in the Western Church on 8 November. Roman tradition lists them as four brothers (Severus, Severian, Carpophorus, Victorinus) who held offices of trust in Rome and were beaten to death publicly and buried on the Lavican Way at the beginning of the Diocletian persecution about 304. They are confused with five Pannonian stonemasons (Nicostratus, Claudius, Symphorian, Castorius, Simplicius), who, refusing to sacrifice to the gods, were enclosed in leaden boxes and drowned. Modern hagiographies have been unable to distinguish the two groups. An ancient basilica on the Celian Hill, Rome, is dedicated to them. They are the patrons of stonemasons.