Saint Luxorius

Luxurius or Luxorius (Italian - Lussorio; Pisan dialect - Rossore) was an ancient Roman official on Sardinia in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. Apparitor to Delphius, the praeses or governor of the island, he was converted to Christianity by reading the Psalms. He possibly was beheaded on 21 August for refusing to sacrifice to idols in the city of Forum Traiani (present-day Fordongianus), probably in 304 during the fourth of Diocletian's persecutions. Later he was venerated as a martyr and saint by the Roman Catholic Church. The main source for his martyrdom are the 5th century Martyrologium Hieronimianum and the Passio sancti Luxorii martyris (Codex Sancrucensis 13 cc. 238–239). The latter was written in the years immediately after 1181 and is now held in Heiligenkreuz Abbey, a Cistercian house in Austria. In the story of the Passio the judicial action is proposed in the form of a religious dispute, characteristic of the hagiographic literary genre, in which we witness the courageous attempt of the accused to persuade the judge not to persevere in his idolatry. For his part, the Roman magistrate makes every possible attempt not to be forced to apply the imperial decree in its extreme consequences. Understandable attitude, if you take into account that until the time of his arrest Lussorio was his close collaborator. The text of the Passio responds, at least in part, to the canons of the late ancient martyr tales, rather than to the epic passio of the low medieval period, and is devoid of those fantastic elements that distinguish other hagiographic tales. At the time of the Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian, Luxorius was apparitor (assistant) to Delphius, the praeses (provincial governors) of Sardinia, who, in the course of his official duties, came into possession of the Holy Scriptures. Driven by the desire to know the Psalms he began to leaf through them and in reading them he was so impressed that he converted to Christianity.