Saints Servandus and Germanus ( es, San Servando y San Germán) (d. 305 AD) were

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

martyrs who are venerated as Christian saints. They were killed near

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

. Tradition states that they were from Mérida, and sons of Saint Marcellus the Centurion. They joined the

Roman Army The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...

and were imprisoned after being identified as Christians. They made new converts in prison. During the persecution of Diocletian, the ''vicarius'' of Mérida, Viator, tortured them and imprisoned them once again. Viator then planned to take them to Mauritania Tingitana and had them walk barefoot and in chains from Mérida to Cádiz. Viator failed to find a boat that could take them and they were decapitated on a hill of the ''fundus Ursianus'' in the ''conventus Gaditanus''. The body of Germanus was buried at Mérida and Servandus at Cádiz, and then later

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

.:Cádizpasión:...Resena Histórica De Los Santos Patronos De Cádiz, San Servando Y San Germán
The hill of ''fundus Ursianus'' has been identified with ''Cerro de los Mártires'' (San Fernando) and with ''Cerro de Torrejosa'' near Facinas (Tarifa).

Veneration

They are mentioned in the

martyrologies A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by na ...

of Bede,

Usuard Usuard (died 23 January, 875) was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and a Carolingian scholar. His name appears in a list of monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés written around 841/847 (a declaration of spiritual association wi ...

, Ado, as well as the

Mozarabic Mozarabic, also called Andalusi Romance, refers to the medieval Romance varieties spoken in the Iberian Peninsula in territories controlled by the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba and its successors. They were the common tongue for the majority of ...

Breviary, and in the Breviaries of Toledo,

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...

, among others. They are venerated as

patron saints 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 person. I ...

of Cádiz (officially since 1619). On the Sunday closest to October 23 they celebrate in the town of

San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...

the festival of Saints Servandus and Germanus, carrying statues of the saints in a procession. The sculptress

Luisa Roldán Luisa Ignacia Roldán (8 September 1652 – 10 January 1706), known also as La Roldana, was a Spanish sculptor of the Baroque Era. She is the earliest woman sculptor documented in Spain. Roldán is recognized in the Hispanic Society Museu ...

(1650–1704), called ''La Roldana'', made sculptures of these two saints at Cádiz.Cádiz Cofrade - Imaginería
/ref>

Notes

External links

CatholicSaints

Santiebeati
{{authority control People from Mérida, Spain Saints from Hispania Saints duos 305 deaths 4th-century Christian martyrs 4th-century Romans Year of birth unknown