ON THE HOLY THEBAN MARTYRS SEBASTIANUS AND ALVERIUS.
Under Diocletian.
CommentarySebastianus, Martyr of the Theban Legion in Piedmont (St.) Alverius, Martyr of the Theban Legion in Piedmont (St.)
[1] Guilielmus Baldesanus treats of these holy Martyrs in his history of the Thebans, chapter 33, near the end. From him and from the records of the Church of Fossano in the Piedmontese region of Liguria, Philippus Ferrarius writes the following in his catalogue of the Saints of Italy under January 2:
[2] Alverius and Sebastianus, Theban soldiers, fleeing from the territory of the Seduni the persecution and cruelty of Emperor Maximian against those who practiced the Christian religion, Where SS. Alverius and Sebastianus suffered. had taken refuge in the territory of Turin near the places where the city of Fossano now stands. Apprehended there by the Emperor's agents, they were put to martyrdom. Their bodies, long hidden in a rural church, formerly parochial, near Fossano, Their bodies discovered in 1427, January 2. were found in the year of salvation 1427, on the fourth day before the Nones of January, in stone caskets with an inscription showing that they were from the Theban Legion and had suffered under the aforementioned Emperor. Discovered by the indication of heavenly voices, they were translated to the greater basilica of the said city, where they are held in no small veneration. The same Ferrarius mentions them in his general catalogue of Saints.