Please be aware that what follows are the speculations of an amateur. If you have a serious interest, you would do well to consult the sources referenced below.
Early Martyrologies
The Martyrology of Florus (825-40) contains an entry under under 10th December for SS Abundius and Carpophorus according to which they were respectively a priest and a deacon, cruelly tortured by the judge “Martiano” in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. They were then martyred “apud Hispolitanum” (near Spello).
Other early martyrologies (of Adon and of Usuard) placed the martyrdom of SS Carpophorus and Abundius at Spoleto.
Legend of the Twelve Syrians
Introductory Section
As set out in the page Legend of the Twelve Syrians I, the first part of that legend explains (inter alia) how SS Carpophorus and Abundius came to be in the Duchy of Spoleto:
-
✴They travelled from Syria to Rome in a party led by an older relation, St Anastasius, in the reign of the Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-3).
-
✴When the party arrived in Rome, a bishop named Urban (“ss. Urbano episcopo”, “ss. papa Urbano” or other variants thereof) ordained ordained St Carpophorus as a priest and St Abundius as a deacon..
-
✴When St Anastasius was executed, his son St Brictius led the rest of the family to safety along Via Cornelia.
-
✴Two of the Syrians left the group at a place called “Pax Sanctorum”. St Brictius and the rest of the family, which included SS Carpophorus and Abundius, continued to Spoleto.
There is no reason to think that this section of the Legend of the Twelve Syrians drew on the same source as the Martyrology of Florus, which:
-
✴does not mention the rather important fact that SS Carpophorus and Abundius were from Syria; and
-
✴is almost certainly set some decades before the reign of Julian the Apostate.
Rest of Part I
The rest of Part I is mostly concerned with the martyrdom of SS Carpophorus and Abundius. Following the publication of the anti-Christian edict (according to this legend, and perfectly plausibly, on 23rd July 303), the proconsul Martianus arrested SS Carpophorus and Abundius. They were tortured and subsequently executed.
It seems highly likely that this section of the Legend of the Twelve Syrians drew on the same sources as the Martyrology of Florus. However, it contains additional information and also some discrepancies, particularly in relation to geography (see below).
According to the legend, SS Carpophorus and Abundius and some of their followers at the house of a Christian lady called Sincleta:
-
✴Most of those arrested were beheaded outside the walls of Spoleto on 25th September, and Sinacleta buried them "in cimiterio Pontiani, non longe ab urbe Spoletana". This almost certainly refers to the early Christian cemetery near the church of San Ponziano, just outside the walls of Roman Spoletium.
-
✴SS Carpophorus and Abundius were taken to Foligno and were beheaded on 10th December at “Thanaritanus”, at the foot of "Monte Rotundus" (the round mountain), a Roman mile from the city. An angel appeared to a Christian matron named Eustachia and told her to recover their bodies there and to bury them in a new sarcophagus. She duly found the bodies and buried them in “spelunca sua” (literally “her cave”, presumably a cavern used for burial).
Place of Martyrdom
It is interesting to speculate why the author of the Legend of the Twelve Syrians discounted the information in the source for the early martyrologies that SS Carpophorus and Abundius were martyred: near Spello (Martyrology of Florus); or at Spoleto (Martyrologies of Adon and Usuard). Why, specifically, did he think that they were transferred from Spoleto to Foligno before their execution?
It seems likely that he wanted to account for the fact that the relics of the saints were venerated at Foligno, at least by 850, when Bishop Domenico of Foligno agreed to give the relics of St Abundius to Abbot Tiberius of Berceto [as set out in more detail in the page on these saints.] It is interesting to note that he also claimed to have the relics of “those who had suffered with them”.
The author of the legend accounted for the presence of the relics at Foligno by suggesting that SS Carpophorus and Abundius had been executed and then buried there. However, it is alternatively possible that they were indeed executed at Spoleto (or, less probably, at Spello), and that their relics were subsequently translated to Foligno. Although there is no evidence of such a translation, it is not inherently unlikely, since Foligno formed part of the Duchy of Spoleto after the Lombard invasion of 568. In the religious turmoil that followed, its diocese absorbed those of Forum Flaminii, Spello and Carsulae before being itself absorbed by that of Spoleto. It had re-emerged by 680, when its bishop accompanied the bishop of Spoleto to a synod in Rome.
