Smaragdus of Rome

About Smaragdus of Rome

Smaragdus is associated in the Roman Martyrology with Cyriacus, Largus, and other Roman martyrs. Its August 8 entry distinguishes the group’s day of suffering, March 16, from the later translation of their bodies, commemorated on August 8. Vatican News likewise lists Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus together on August 8. The profile uses the qualifier “of Rome” to make clear which Smaragdus it means; the martyr should not be conflated with similarly named figures in other commemorations or with the medieval abbot Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel.The available sources provide a commemoration more securely than an individual life. The Catholic Church in Norway notes that the accounts of Cyriacus and his companions are historically worthless and warns that later martyrologies can confuse this group with another whose names are similar. The Roman Martyrology preserves a received account of persecution, burial, and relic translation, but those details derive from later hagiographic memory rather than contemporary testimony. No reliable evidence consulted here establishes Smaragdus’s birthplace, office, exact date of death, or independent actions. This profile consequently preserves his name as a member of the Roman group and avoids repeating the elaborate narrative as fact.