Simplicius, Constantius and Victorinus
legendary Christian martyrs
Simplicius, Constantius and Victorinus (Victorian(us)) (Italian: Simplicio, Costanzo e Vittoriano) are venerated as Christian martyrs of the 2nd century. Simplicius, was, according to tradition, a Christian of the Abruzzi region who was executed along with his two sons, Constantius and Victorian, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Their Passio contains all of the tropes of the genre. It is believed that the martyrdoms are genuine but that the three martyrs were not necessarily related to one another, but were executed together at Marsica.
The earliest source on their lives dates from a Passio of 1406. The Passio states that Simplicius and his entire family, natives of Bourgogne, were baptized by Saint Januarius (not, according to Antonio Borrelli, the famous saint of Naples) during the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161). Gaudentia, the wife of Simplicius, became a nun and withdrew to a monastery. At the same time, Simplicius and his two sons Constantius and Victorinus preached on behalf of their new religion. Pontius, the prefect in Gaul, was ordered to arrest all Christians; Simplicius and his two sons were arrested and led in front of the court, where they preached the Trinity and the Absolution. They were flogged and sent to Rome to be condemned to death.
“Simplicius, Constantius and Victorinus” enters the record as legendary Christian martyrs. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Simplicius, Constantius and Victorinus can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Simplicius, Constantius and Victorinus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.