Martyrs Frontasius, Severinus, Severian and Silanus

According to tradition, Saints Frontasius, Severinus, Severian and Silanus were disciples of St Fronto (Front), the first bishop of Périgueux in southern Gaul, who sent them out to preach. Their Life places their martyrdom in the reign of Emperor Claudius (41–54).

Arrested by the pagan governor Squiridonus, they refused to sacrifice to the idols, saying that their one desire was to live and die for Christ. The governor had them taken outside the city, had iron nails driven into their heads in the likeness of Christ's crown of thorns, and then had them beheaded, leaving their bodies unburied.

The tradition relates that the bodies rose, took up their heads, crossed the river Isle and came to the church of the Mother of God where Bishop Fronto was praying; there they laid their heads at his feet and lay down in the form of a cross. Fronto buried three of them in that church and Severian, at the request of a devout woman, on her estate nearby. The historical basis of the account is slight, as the later Lives of St Front date from the 10th–13th centuries, but the four martyrs were especially venerated in the diocese of Périgueux. The Russian Church commemorates them on 4 June (17 June).