Cassianus

Cassianus is the name of several persons in early Christian records:

1. The second Gentile bishop of Jerusalem (Eusebins, H. E. v. 12),

2. JULIUS. SEE CASSAN, JULIUS.

3. A Christian schoolmaster, and apparently a shorthand teacher at Imola (Forum Cornelii), in Romagna,. who, on refusing to sacrifice, was given up to the boys of his school to kill with their styles and tablets. His martyrdom is assigned to Aug. 11 or 13, on which latter day it has been celebrated since the 8th century. He is said to be buried under the altar of the cathedral at Imola, which is dedicated to him (Tillemont, 5, 53), The martyrdom is thought to have occurred in the time of Decius (249-251).

4. A martyr at Tangiers, commemorated Dec, 5. (Mart. Usuardi). He is said to have been clerk of the praetorium at Tangiers, when the magistrate Aurelius Agricola condemned to death St. Marcellus the centurion, at which Cassianus became so indignant that he threw both pen and paper to the ground. He was put into prison and beheaded in 298; according to the Jerusalem Martyrology, Dec. 3.

⇒Definition of cassia

5. One of those martyred with Saturninus and Datifus, under Diocletian, in 305.

6. One of the eighteen martyrs of Saragossa; being one of the four whom Prudentius calls Saturninus. H e is commemorated, according to Usuard's Mart., April 16.

7. A deacon of Rome, sent by pope Melchiades (Miltiades) to receive back the confiscated catacombs at the close of the persecution (A.D. 313), and identified by the, Donatists with a Cassianus who had been a traditor; an identification which Augustine (Post. Coll. ad Don. 9:662) indignantly repudiates.

8. One of the Donatist bishops who petitioned Julian (A.D. 362) to be recalled from exile and restored to the possession of their basilicas. They spoke of justice as the only plea that had any weight with the apostate.

9. Bishop of Autun, was born of noble parents in Alexandria, and brought up by bishop Zonis; he made his house a Christian hospital in the time of Julian, liberated his slaves, and built a church to St. Lawrence, at Orta in Egypt, at which place he was made bishop 'against his will, in the time of Jovian, A.D. 363. He afterwards went to Autun, where he helped in the conversion of the pagans, and would have proceeded to Britain, but Simplicius detained him. Simplicius dying three years later, he was unanimously appointed his successor. He held the see for twenty years. He is commemorated, according to Usuard's Mart., Aug. 5.

10. A presbyter who took part in the Council of Aquilea, A.D. 381.

11. Of Rome, A.D. 431, commemorated Feb. 29 (Cal. Byzant.); perhaps identical with one of the above.