Twelve Holy Brothers Martyrs of Benevento

The Twelve Holy Brothers are a group of early martyrs of southern Italy who are venerated together and commemorated on September 1. According to tradition they were African by birth and suffered in various places in southern Italy in the early fourth century, around the year 303, during the persecution under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian.

The synaxarion and martyrological tradition record their martyrdoms as taking place in three groups across several days: four of the brothers were beheaded at Potenza on August 27, three at Venosa on August 28, and the remaining five at Sentiana on September 1, the day on which all twelve are now jointly commemorated. The twelve are named Donatus, Felix, Arontius, Honoratus, Fortunatus, Sabinian, Septimius, Januarius, a second Felix, Vitalis, Sator, and Repositus.

In the year 760 the relics of these martyrs were gathered together from across southern Italy and enshrined at Benevento, where they came to be venerated collectively under the title of the Twelve Holy Brothers. As pre-schism saints of the West, they are honored among the Orthodox saints of the ancient See of Rome.