Saint Nicomedes

Nicomedes was a martyr of unknown era, whose feast is observed 15 September. He was buried in a catacomb on the Via Nomentana near the gate of that name.

The Roman Martyrologium and the historical Martyrologies of Bede and his imitators place the feast on this date. The Gregorian Sacramentary contains under the same date the orations for his Mass. The name does not appear in the three oldest and most important Manuscripts of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, but was inserted in later recensions. Nicomedes is without doubt a martyr of the Roman Church. Butler says he "...was apprehended in the persecution of Domitian for his assiduity in assisting the martyrs in their conflicts, and for interring their bodies." Other recensions of the martyrdom of Nicomedes ascribe the sentence of death to the Emperor Maximianus (beginning of the fourth century).