Fortunatus of Casei

Saint Fortunatus of Casei is remembered from the early centuries of the Church, though the details of his birth and homeland are not known with certainty. Ancient tradition links him to the Theban Legion, a company of Christian soldiers said to have suffered martyrdom at Agaunum in the Swiss Alps for refusing to betray their faith. However his relics were long venerated in Rome, kept in the catacombs associated with Pope Callixtus I, a sign of the reverence early Christians held for his witness. In 1746 his relics were solemnly re-exhumed and honored in the collegiate church of Santa Maria in Via Lata. In 1765, as a gift from the Holy See, they were translated to Casei Gerola in the province of Pavia, where devotion to him took deep root; the damaged skull among the relics suggests he died by a fatal blow, sealing his testimony with blood. Fortunatus is honored as patron of Casei Gerola and of Pantelleria, where the faithful credit his intercession during earthquakes and sea tremors. His feast day is October 16.