Eikon

Romanus the Soldier

The Holy Martyr Romanus the Soldier, baptised by the Archdeacon Laurence

Martyr · d. 9 August 258, at Rome

Commemorated 10 August — Kept with Laurence the Archdeacon; beheaded at Rome the day before him

Romanus was a soldier of the guard set over the imprisoned archdeacon Laurence at Rome in August 258. Watching the tortures, he saw — so the Roman passio relates — a young man of shining appearance standing by the martyr and wiping the sweat and blood from his limbs; and he asked at once for baptism. Laurence baptised him in the prison with water brought in a pitcher, and Romanus was beheaded on 9 August, the day before his teacher. He is one of the converts of the Laurentian martyrdom whom the Slavic calendars name among "those with" Laurence on August 10, and one of the earliest instances of a hagiographical type that recurs through the whole Byzantine martyrology: the executioner or guard converted by what he is made to watch.

The guard at the prison

Of Romanus nothing is transmitted beyond his name, his soldier's rank, and his part in the last days of Laurence. He belonged to the detail that held the archdeacon after his arrest by the prefect of the city, during the three days in which Laurence had asked to gather the treasure of the Church and was in fact distributing it to the poor. The Roman passio of the fifth or sixth century, which is the sole source for him, sets his conversion in the prison of Hippolytus among the other prisoners — the blind Lucillus, whose sight Laurence restored, and the household of the jailer Hippolytus himself.

The vision and the baptism

What Romanus is said to have seen is precisely the sight that martyr-acts most often give to those who stand outside the faith: not the crown or the glory, but the angel who serves the martyr's body. He saw a youth beside Laurence wiping his limbs with a cloth as the torments went on, and, being unable to keep silence, he fell at the martyr's feet and begged for baptism. Laurence called for water; a pitcher was brought into the cell, and the archdeacon baptised the soldier there, on the floor, with what came to hand — an act which the tradition preserved with particular care, since it is a baptism given by a deacon in extremity, at the edge of death, and was cited for centuries in the discussion of who may baptise and when.

Romanus confessed himself a Christian openly, was scourged, and was beheaded on 9 August 258, the day before Laurence went to the gridiron. The Christians buried him on the Via Tiburtina, near the place where Laurence himself was to be laid; a small church long stood over the spot.

Feast and commemoration

August 10 (church date; Old Calendar civil August 23), within the Dormition Fast and the afterfeast of the Transfiguration. He is not named in the Greek notice of the day, which lists only Laurence, Xystus and Hippolytus, but the Slavic synaxaria and the Orthodox Church in America list him among the company under "Martyr and Archdeacon Laurence, and those with him, of Rome," recording that he was beheaded on August 9. The Western books keep him on that ninth day, in the vigil of the feast of Laurence.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr Romanus, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

Romanus is painted as a young soldier-martyr — beardless, in the short military tunic and cloak, holding the cross of martyrdom, sometimes with a shield or a sheathed sword laid aside to mark that he renounced his service. He has no independent icon-type in the Byzantine tradition and appears almost exclusively within narrative scenes of the passion of Laurence, kneeling at the archdeacon's feet in the prison while water is poured over his head, or beheaded beside the gridiron. No pre-1900 image of him alone has been located for this repository.

Disputed questions

  • A person or a doublet? Romanus belongs entirely to the Roman passio and is unknown to the Depositio martyrum of 354, which enters only Sixtus, the two deacons of Praetextatus, and Laurence for these days. He may be a genuine memory of the household of the persecution preserved outside the official calendar, or he may be a figure created by the legend to carry the theme of the converted guard. The Roman martyrology has kept him on 9 August, on the strength of the passio alone; the Byzantine reception folds him into the tenth. The entry gives what the source gives and claims no more.
  • Not to be confused with the great Romanus the Melodist (October 1), the deacon-hymnographer of Constantinople; with Romanus of Nicomedia; nor with the several Roman and Antiochene martyrs of this very common name.

Sources

  1. The Roman passio of St Laurence (5th–6th c.) — the vision of the angel, the baptism in the prison, and the beheading on 9 August; the sole source for Romanus.
  2. Depositio martyrum of the Roman Chronographer of 354 (which does not name him — the ground of the doubt recorded above).
  3. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, August 10 — Martyr and Archdeacon Laurence, and those with him, of Rome; the notice that Romanus was baptised by Laurence and beheaded the previous day (consulted live).
  4. Greek Menaion and Synaxarion for August 10 (consulted live; Romanus is not named in the Greek notice).