Saint Domnius

Saint Domnius was born in Antioch, in the region of Syria (modern-day Turkey), into a prominent and wealthy family, and received a fine education there. Though later tradition remembers him as one of the Seventy Disciples who came to Rome with Saint Peter and was sent to evangelize Dalmatia, he is more likely a shepherd of the early Church in the fourth century. Around 284 he became bishop of Salona, near today’s Solin, faithfully guiding the Christian community as imperial hostility intensified. During the persecutions under Emperor Diocletian, Domnius bore courageous witness to Christ. He was arrested and, with other believers, condemned for the faith. On April 10, 304, he was beheaded in the amphitheatre at Salona and buried in the Manastirine cemetery outside the city walls, honored as a martyr. When Salona later fell, the people carried his memory and relics to nearby Split, where he is venerated as the city’s patron, and where Diocletian’s own mausoleum became the Cathedral of Saint Domnius. His feast day is May 7.