Martyrs Julian the Presbyter and Caesarius the Deacon of Terracina

Ministry at Terracina

According to the Passio, Caesarius was a deacon from the Roman province of Africa who arrived at Terracina, a harbor town near Rome, after a shipwreck. There he preached the Gospel to the poor residents of the town and openly opposed the local pagan practices.

Julian, a presbyter native to the area, is described as working alongside Caesarius in his ministry. The two are remembered together as a named pair and are commemorated jointly.

The chief object of Caesarius's opposition was an annual ritual held at Terracina in which a young man was sacrificed to Apollo by being thrown from a cliff into the sea. Caesarius denounced this practice, and he was imprisoned for rebuking the worship of the pagan gods.

Martyrdom

The account is set during the reign of Emperor Trajan (98–117). By tradition, Governor Luxurius condemned Caesarius and Julian to death by the Roman punishment known as the poena cullei, in which the condemned were sewn into a sack and cast into the sea from a cliff near Terracina called Pisco Montano. A liturgical verse preserved in the Orthodox tradition alludes to this manner of death, speaking of the martyrs being 'given... in the depths' in sacks.

Tradition places their death on November 1, in the year given as 107. The synaxarion relates that when the authorities attempted to bring Caesarius to the temple of Apollo, divine intervention prevented them from completing their plan.

After their execution their bodies were recovered from the sea and buried by a presbyter named Eusebius.

Traditional Accounts

By tradition, Caesarius's prayer is said to have caused the temple of Apollo to collapse, killing its priest, and a Roman official named Leontius (Leontios the Proconsul) is reported to have converted after witnessing a radiant light during Caesarius's prayer. Tradition further holds that Caesarius prophesied Governor Luxurius would die from the bite of a poisonous viper.

These episodes are carried in the Passio and later hagiographic accounts and are reported here as the tradition records them rather than as independently documented events.

Relics & Shrines

Relics associated with the martyrs are reported to be preserved at Terracina Cathedral, at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome, and at the Basilica of San Frediano in Lucca, with fragments said to be held in numerous other churches across Europe and North America.