Saint Saint Marcian of Syracuse

Marcian, or Marcianus (Antioch of Syria, 1st century - Syracuse), was a bishop and martyr, venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. According to tradition Marcian was the first bishop of Syracuse; a disciple of the apostle Peter. He is considered the first bishop of the West, as he arrived in Sicily while the apostle was still in Antioch. Sources on Marcianus are considered late, as they are found only from the Byzantine era (7th century) onward. A Kontakion and an Encomium form the first two hagiographies on the saint, but the laudatory nature of these literary works makes it difficult to distinguish truthful biographical elements from fantastic ones. An alleged anachronism identified in the text of the author of the Encomium - which would date the martyrdom to a much later time than the apostolic era - and the absence of ancient written or figurative evidence has led many scholars to date Bishop Marcian to no earlier than the 3rd century. The oldest image of Marcian is found in the catacombs of St. Lucy: it is a fresco dating from the 8th century. Another depiction of him was found inside the so-called crypt of St. Marcian: a Byzantine basilica built over an ancient early Christian complex that tradition has identified as the saint's dwelling and later as his tomb. However, his relics are not found in Syracuse; they are kept in the cities of Gaeta and Messina. The earliest record of Marcianus, a bishop and martyr with ties to Syracuse, dates back to the second half of the seventh century and is a Kontakion - composed of a poetic homily and a liturgical hymn, like the Akathist in use in the sixth century - attributed to the hymnographer Gregory, although the Jesuit Gaetani had mistakenly attributed it to the Sicilian Joseph the Hymnographer.