S. CASTULUS, M.
(ABOUT A.D. 286.)
[Roman and almost all Latin Martyrologies. In the Archdiocese of Prague the feast of this saint is kept as a double; so also in the dioceses of Ratisbon, Frisingen, and Passau. By the Greeks on Dec. 18th. Authorities:—The Acts, and another account of his passion in the Acts of S. Sebastian.]
Saint Castulus, chamberlain of the palace to Diocletian, was wont to receive Christians into his house, and screen them from the pursuit of the magistrates. He was denounced to Fabian, the prefect of the city, who, after having tortured him in many ways, had him cast into a pit and buried in sand. He was betrayed by a renegade Christian named Torquatus, the same whom Cardinal Wiseman has introduced into his historical sketch of "Fabiola."
SS. MONTANUS AND MAXIMA, MM.
(DATE UNCERTAIN.)
[Roman Martyrology, and those of Bede and S. Jerome. Authority:—The notices in the Martyrologies.]
S. Montanus was a priest at Sirmium, in Pannonia, and Maxima was his wife. They were drowned for the faith either in a river or in a lake; probably during the persecution of Maximian.