Saints Faustinus & Jovita, Martyrs
Ss. Faustini et Iovitae Martyrum
Saints Faustinus and Jovita are venerated as martyrs of Brescia in northern Italy, traditionally honoured as brothers who gave their lives for Christ in the early persecutions. They are the principal patrons of the city of Brescia.
On the fifteenth of February the Church keeps the memory of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, martyrs whom the city of Brescia in Lombardy has venerated as its patrons from very ancient times. The Roman Martyrology names them on this day and records that they suffered death for the faith of Christ.
According to the tradition long cherished at Brescia, the two were brothers of noble birth who confessed Christ openly and were put to death during one of the imperial persecutions, commonly placed in the reign of Hadrian in the early second century. Because the surviving accounts of their lives were written down long after the events they describe, the historical details cannot be established with certainty. What endures, and what the Church celebrates, is the steadfast witness of two Christians who counted the love of God dearer than life itself.
Faithful Witnesses of Brescia
The veneration of Faustinus and Jovita at Brescia is genuinely ancient: churches were dedicated in their honour, their names were carried in the city’s prayers, and their relics were treasured as a pledge of heavenly protection. In ages of war and danger the people of Brescia turned to them as guardians of their city, and their feast remained a day of civic as well as religious rejoicing.
Where reliable record is thin, the Church does not invent; she remembers. The martyrs join that great company described in the Apocalypse, “who have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Their feast invites us to honour all the unnamed and half-remembered faithful of the early centuries, whose constancy under trial helped to plant the Church in the cities of the Roman world.
The Collect
Patronage
Saints Faustinus and Jovita are the principal patrons of the city and diocese of Brescia in Italy, where their veneration has flourished since antiquity.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saints Faustinus and Jovita?
Their feast falls on 15 February. In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal it is a feast of the Fourth Class, kept in red as the colour of martyrs.
Who were Saints Faustinus and Jovita?
They are venerated as martyrs of Brescia in northern Italy, traditionally remembered as brothers who were put to death for confessing Christ in the early persecutions. Because their lives were recorded long afterward, little can be known with certainty beyond their witness and the deep veneration the Church has long given them.
Why is so little known about them?
Like many martyrs of the first centuries, their memory was preserved chiefly through local devotion and later written tradition rather than contemporary documents. The Church honours what is certain — that they died faithful to Christ — while declining to embellish what cannot be verified.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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