SAINTS TIBURTIUS, M. AND CHROMATIUS, C.

Abridged from the Acts of St. Sebastian, &c.

A. D. 286.

AGRESTIUS CHROMATIUS was vicar to the prefect of Rome, and had condemned several martyrs in the reign of Carinus; and, in the first years of Dioclesian, St. Tranquillinus being brought before him, assured him, that having been afflicted with the gout, he had recovered a perfect state of health by being baptized. Chromatius was troubled with the same distemper, and being convinced by this miracle of the truth of the gospel, sent for Polycarp, the priest who had baptized Tranquillinus, and receiving the sacrament of baptism, was freed from that corporal infirmity, by which miracle God was pleased to give him a sensible emblem of the spiritual health which that holy laver conferred on his soul; from that time he harbored many Christians in his house, to shelter them from the persecution, and resigned his dignity, in which he was succeeded by one Fabian. Chromatius’s son Tiburtius, was ordained subdeacon, and was soon after betrayed to the persecutors, condemned by Fabian to many torments, and at length beheaded on the Lavican road, three miles from Rome, where a church was afterward built. He is mentioned in several ancient Martyrologies with his father Chromatius, who, retiring into the country, lived there concealed in the fervent practice of all Christian virtues.