Saints of the Day – 1 October – The Holy Martyrs of Lisbon (Died c303) St Verissimus, St Maxima, St Julia. (Portuguese: Santos Mártires de Lisboa) were three siblings, the brother Verissimus and his two sisters , Maxima and Julia, who were Martyred n the Roman Province of Lusitania (modern-day Lisbon, Portugal) during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian.
The Roman Martyrology reads: “At Lisbon, in Portugal, the holy Martyrs Verissimus and his tow sisters, Maxima and Julia, who suffered in the persecution of Diocletian.”
The first known historical references to the three Saints is found in the 8th Century Martyrology of Usuard. Thefaithful of Lisbon’s ancient devotion to the Martyrs is also attested in De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, an account of the Siege of Lisbon at the start of the Second Crusade in 1145.
Most accounts of the lives of the Holy Martyrs of Lisbon, maintain that the three siblings were in Rome when an Angel appeared unto them and told them to go to Olisipo, where they “would achieve the Crown of Martyrdom which they so eagerly sought.” They journeyed by boat to the City and soon enough were arrested for being Christians and taken into the presence of Tarquinius, the Roman Governor under Diocletian. Having voiced their will to uphold the Christian Faith even it be necessary to suffer Martyrdom therefore, Tarquinius subjected them to a series of torments after which they were stoned and their throats slit.
The Martyrdom of Verissimus, Maxima and Julia, is the subject of a series of paintings by Garcia Fernandes, painted in c1530, see above.
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