Caesarius was a deacon of Africa, martyred at Terracina in Italy. The "Passio" of Saint Caesarius is set in Terracina, harbor town near Rome and Naples, under the pagan emperor Trajan. Caesarius, belonging to the ancient and illustrious gens Julia, after a shipwreck, arrived in Terracina to preach the Gospel to poor people. In this Roman city, each year on the first day of January, a ceremony of self-immolation took place to assure the health and salvation of the Empire. A young man was pampered with material delights and fulfilled in all his wishes for eight months; then he was obliged to mount on a richly harnessed horse, climb up to the summit of city's cliff and throw himself into the void, with the recalcitrant horse, to crash against the rocks and perish in the waves in honour of the god Apollo, as an expiatory offering for the prosperity of the state and the emperors. The deacon Caesarius denounced this pagan custom and protested: "Alas for a state and emperors who persuade by tortures and are fattened on the outpouring of blood". The priest of Apollo, named Firminus, had him arrested and taken before to Leontius, Roman consul of Campania. During the interrogation, he refused to sacrifice to the pagan god of the sun and light, and his prayers "caused" the temple of Apollo to collapse, killing the pagan Firminus. Caesarius was then locked up in jail and, after twenty-two months, he was taken to the Forum to be judged: he asked permission to pray: a radiant light blazed down on him, and the pagan consul Leontius was thereupon converted and sought baptism; he died shortly after. The 1st of November of the year 107 A.D., Luxurius, governor of the city, tied Caesarius and Julian up together in a sack, and flung them into the sea, from a cliff called "Pisco Montano". Nevertheless the deacon Caesarius was martyred, although not before prophesying the death of Luxurius, bitten by a poisonous viper. Caesarius and Julian, on that same day, were thrown back onto the shore, and were buried by Eusebius, a servant of God, near the town of Terracina.
Cult: Caesarius as an Imperial Saint
Caesarius' feast day is 1 November. In the 4th century, the Emperor Valentinian I's daughter was healed at his shrine in Terracina. The emperor then moved his relics to Rome, first to a church on the Palatine Hill, and then to a new San Cesareo in Palatio near the Appian Way. The imperial chapel was named after Caesarius by Valentinian III. It has been noted that Caesarius's passio revolves around the good health or prosperity of the Roman Empire, borrowing the overtones of his name to suggest that the well-being of the state rested more solidly on Christian foundations than on its pagan past. Terracina Cathedral is dedicated to him and Saint Peter.
Caesarius is the protector of Caesarean sections. Saint Caesarius is invoked against river floods and drownings, and for defence against lightning, earthquakes and meteorological calamities.
Art: precious manuscripts
The first illustrations of the history of St. Caesarius are found in precious illuminated manuscripts. Most of these manuscripts date back to the Middle Ages. In the British Library of London in a "Passionale", a Latin manuscript, made in 1110 for the Monastery of Saint Augustine in Canterbury, there is the text of the Passion of Saint Caesarius of Terracina with historiated initial which represents "Martyrdom of St Caesarius". In the Morgan Library of New York in the “Book of Hours”, made in 1465 in Langres, France, there is the miniature of “Saint Caesarius”. In the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, in the Department of Manuscripts, the "Speculum Historiale" by Vincenzo di Beauvais is kept, made in 1463. In this manuscript the "Passio S. Caesarii" is described with different miniatures of the life of the saints Caesarius and Julian.
On the occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the new icon of Saint Caesarius martyr - painting by the artist Giovanni Guida - has been exhibited in museums, cathedrals and basilicas that jealously preserve fragments of the body of the young deacon, next to their respective reliquaries. A fascinating journey through the world to reassemble the relics of the saint, donated by the popes, emperors, kings, saints, cardinals and bishops. The icon of St. Caesarius has been exhibited in many important museums and in important basilicas.
