Image: Rueland Frueauf the Younger, The Legend of the Four Crowned Martyrs, 1515, oil on panel. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. (source)
This site follows the traditional Roman calendar of 1962, as found in the 1962 Roman Missal used at the Traditional Latin Mass. Some feast days fall on different dates than in the General Roman Calendar of 1969, revised after the Second Vatican Council.
Justorum animae in manu Dei sunt, et non tangent illos tormentum mortis.
Wisdom 3:1
The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.
About Today
Today is Sunday in the traditional 1962 calendar. Because there are extra Sundays after Pentecost this year, the Mass is that of the resumed Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. The Four Holy Crowned Martyrs have a commemoration in the Missal on November 8; the Sunday outranks it, so they are commemorated at Mass.
Their Life
The Church in Rome has honored the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs since the earliest ages of the faith. Their ancient basilica, Santi Quattro Coronati, still stands on the Caelian Hill and has borne their name for many centuries.
The traditional Roman Martyrology keeps two closely joined memories on this day. It first names five Christians — Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian, Castorius, and Simplicius — who, in the persecution of the emperor Diocletian, were cast into prison and severely scourged, and, because they would not abandon the faith of Christ, were thrown into the river. It then names four brothers — Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorinus — who under the same emperor were beaten to death with leaded scourges. Their names were not known at first, so the faithful simply called them the Four Crowned Martyrs: four who had won the crown of martyrdom. In time their feast was kept together with the five named above, on the eighth of November.
A later tradition, long cherished in the Church, remembers them as skilled stonemasons who would not carve a statue of the pagan god Aesculapius. Rather than dishonor Christ by making an image of a false god, they accepted a cruel death.
A Lesson for Today
These martyrs teach us that no skill, no order from those in power, and no fear of suffering can excuse us from remaining faithful to Christ. It is better to lose everything in this world than to give to an idol the honor that belongs to God alone.
Collect
Latin
Præsta, quǽsumus, omnípotens Deus: ut, qui gloriósos Mártyres fortes in sua confessióne cognóvimus, pios apud te in nostra intercessióne sentiámus. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
English
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who have known Thy glorious Martyrs to be strong in their confession, may experience their loving intercession with Thee. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Sancti Quattuor Coronati, orate pro nobis.
Ye Four Holy Crowned Martyrs, pray for us.