Cessianus (''ca.'' 295 - 303) is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...

and

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 ...

. At the age of eight, he was martyred during the

persecutions Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these ter ...

of the Roman emperor

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 ...

in 303.

History

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He ...

presented

Bishop Mathias Loras Mathias Loras (August 30, 1792 – February 19, 1858) was an immigrant French priest to the United States and the first bishop of the Dubuque Diocese in what would become the state of Iowa. Early life and ministry Pierre-Jean-Mathias Loras was ...

with the remains of Cessianus in 1838. Loras brought the remains with him to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The remains were placed within a side altar in the new St. Raphael's Cathedral, in

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...

. After renovations carried out in the mid-1980s were completed, it was decided to place the remains of Cessianus under the new, freestanding main altar.Craughwell, Thomas J., "Cessianus", ''Saints Preserved'', Crown Publishing Group, 2011
On November 23, 1986, the wooden box containing the remains of Cessianus was installed during

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

in the altar where they currently reside.

References

{{Authority control 295 births 303 deaths 3rd-century Romans 4th-century Christian martyrs 4th-century Romans Christian child saints Italian Roman Catholic saints Christians martyred during the reign of Diocletian