(4) A holy priest named Romanus laboured in the district of Blaye, in the present French department of the Gironde, at the end of the fourth century. Gregory of Tours [bishop and historian of the Franks (d. 594)] gives an account of him ("De gloria confessorum", c. xlv), and relates that St. Martin of Tours made ready the grave of the dead Romanus. An old life of St. Romanus was published in the "Analecta Bollandiana", V (1866), 178 sqq. The feast of the saint is observed on 24 November.

(5) St. Romanus, Abbot of Condat, now St. Claude in the French Jura, b. about 400; d. in 463 or 464. When thirty-five years old he went into the lonely region of Condat to live as a hermit, where after a while his younger brother Lupicinus followed him. A large number of scholars, among whom was St. Eugendus, placed themselves under the direction of the two holy brothers who founded several monasteries: Condat (now Saint-Claude), Lauconne (later Saint-Lupicin, as Lupicinus was buried there), La Balme (later Saint-Romain-de-Roche), where St. Romanus was buried, and Romainmôtier (Romanum monasterium) in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. Romanus was ordained priest by St. Hilary of Arles in 444, and with Lupicinus he directed these monasteries until his death. His feast is observed on 28 February. Two lives of him are in existence: one by Gregory of Tours in the "Liber vitae patrum" (Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script. Merov., I, 663), and an anonymous "Vita Sanctorum Romani, Lupicini, Eugendi" [ibid., III, 131 sqq.; cf. Benoît, "Histoire de St-Claude", I (Paris, 1890); Besson, "Recherches sur les origines des évêchés de Genève, Lausanne, et Sion" (Fribourg, 1906), 210 sqq.].

(6) St. Romanus, monk in a monastery near Subiaco, Italy, at the beginning of the sixth century. He aided St. Benedict when the latter withdrew into a solitary place and regularly brought Benedict bread to support life (St. Gregory the Great, "Dialogi", II, i). Romanus later (fom 523) represented St. Benedict at Subiaco, and is said to have afterwards gone to Gaul [roughly modern France and Belgium] and to have founded a small monastery at Dryes-Fontrouge, where he died about 550 and was venerated as a saint. His feast is observed on 22 May. A St. Romanus, who is venerated as Bishop of Auxerre on 8 October, is probably identical with this Abbot Romanus whose relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] were subsequently translated to Auxerre [cf. "Acta SS.", May, V, 153 sqq.; October, III, 396 sqq.; Adlhoch in "Studien und Mitteilungen aus dem Benedictiner [monks following the Rule of St. Benedict]- und Cisterzienerorden" (1907), 267 sqq., 501 sqq.; (1908), 103 sqq., 327 sqq., 587 sqq.; Leclerc, "Vie de St Romain, éducateur de St Bénoit" (Paris, 1893)].

(7) St. Romanus, Bishop of Rouen, date of birth unknown; d. about 640. His feast is observed on 23 October. The legend of this saint has little historical value (Acta SS., October, X, 91 sqq.), and there is but little authentic information concerning him [cf. "Analecta Bollandiana" (1904), 337 sq.].

(8) St. Romanus, "the Singer", the most important representative of rhythmic poetry in the Greek Church. According to the Greek "Menaia" he was born in Syria, was ordained deacon at Berytus, then went to Constantinople, where he became one of the clergy at the Blachernen church. The era in which he lived is not certainly ascertained; most probably, however, his residence in Constantinople was from about 515 to 556. His feast is observed on 1 October. Several of his poems were edited by Pitra, "Analecta sacra", I (Paris, 1876), 1-241 [cf. Maas, "Die Chronologie der Hymnen des Romanus" in "Byzantin. Zeitschrift" (1906), 1-44; Bardenhewer, "Patrologie" (3rd ed.), 486].

[Note: St. Romanus the Singer, described above (8), is identical with St. Romanos the Melodist (q.v.), Romanus and Romanos being the Latin and Greek forms respectively of the same name.]

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology, Usuardus, Ado, Notker, &c. Greek Menaea and Menologies. Authorities: — Eusebius, “ The Martyrs of Palestine,” c. ii.; “On the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord,” lib. ii. A hymn of Prudentius, 10; and S. John Chrysostom, Orat. 43, 48.] O MANUS, a deacon and exorcist, a native of Palestine, and serving in the church of Caesarea, was at Antioch, in Syria, when the churches were destroyed by order of Diocletian. When he saw men, women, and children crowding to the idol altars to do sacrifice he rebuked them. He was at once seized, and ordered by the judge to be tortured. When the tormentors were exhausted, Romanus called aloud, “ Why do you cease, O tyrant ? I have confessed with my mouth that Christ is the true King !”

The judge ordered him to be scorched, and his brows to be wounded in a manner not described. He went joyously 1 A disciple of S. Fursey.

to his martyrdom, bearing a cross on his shoulder and crowned with his blood. A pyre was heaped up, but the rain came down from the clouds which overspread the sky in such a drenching shower that the wet sticks and rushes would not kindle. The judge therefore ordered his tongue to be cut out. The Christians present received it when amputated, and treasured it as a precious relic. Curiously enough, Romanus was not thereby deprived of speech. The same thing was observed by Victor of Utica in certain sufferers in the Vandal persecution. After having had their tongues cut off they retained the faculty of speech. The same has been observed in cases of late years, where the tongue has had to be removed on account of cancer.1 Romanus was able to answer the jailer, who asked him his name, and to profess his faith in Christ. He was, however, subjected to the rack, stretched to the fifth hole, and died under the torture.

According to a hymn of Prudentius, a child of seven, named in the martyrologies Barulas, suffered with him, but of this Eusebius [Eusebius of Caesarea (d. c. 339), the first historian of the Church], who was likely to know all the circumstances, says nothing in either of his accounts of the martyrdom of Romanus, and it is therefore probably a fiction.