Saint Saturninus of Cagliari ( it, San Saturnino, Saturno) is venerated as the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

. According to

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

tradition, Saturninus was a local

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

–that is, he was killed at Cagliari by order of governor Barbarus.Patron Saints Index: Saint Saturninus of Cagliari
The legend states that he was

beheaded Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

for refusing to offer sacrifices to

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

during the persecutions of Christians by

Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

. However, some scholars have determined that this tradition was invented centuries after the supposed martyrdom, and that the legend was devised ''a posteriori'' to attach a story to the name to whom the local ancient

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

was dedicated.San Saturnino di Cagliari
/ref> But the name of the saint in

Sardinian language Sardinian or Sard ( , or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Many Romance linguists consider it the language that is closest to Latin among all its genealogica ...

, "Santu Sadurru" (Saint Saturnus) suggests that there really was the martyrdom of Saturnus, a young Christian by the pagans and the saint was exactly buried where the ancient church was erected.R.B. MOTZO, Studi sui Bizantini in Sardegna e sull'agiografia sarda, Cagliari, edited by the Deputazione di Storia patria per la Sardegna, 1987 Saint Saturninus was so confused with

Saturninus of Toulouse Saint Saturnin of Toulouse ( la, Saturninus, oc, Sarnin, french: Saturnin, Sernin, ca, Serni, Sadurní, gl, Sadurninho and pt, Saturnino, Sadurninho, eu, Satordi, Saturdi, Zernin, and es, Saturnino, Serenín, Cernín) was one of the ''" ...

(Sernin). "Saturninus" was the name of several other martyrs, including some belonging to the group of the

Martyrs of Abitina The Martyrs of Abitinae (or Abitinian Martyrs) were a group of 49 Christians found guilty, in 304, during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, of having illegally celebrated Sunday worship at Abitinae, a town in the Roman province of Africa. The ...

, and close trading ties and communications between

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and Cagliari may have resulted in the cult of a North African saint becoming attached to this Sardinian location.

References

External links

Saturninus of Cagliari

San Saturnino di Cagliari
Cagliari 4th-century Christian martyrs 4th-century Romans Year of birth unknown {{Italy-saint-stub