Today, July 2, is the memorial of Saint Martinian and Saint Processus.
Patron saints of jail guards.
Martinian and Processus were pagans and imperial soldiers assigned as the wardens of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the Mamertine Prison. Watching over the Christian prisoners and hearing also their preaching, Processus and Martinian gradually came to the knowledge of the true faith in the Savior.
The apostles converted their jailers after a spring flowed miraculously in the prison. Peter then baptized them in the miraculous waters. The prison head Paulinus learned about this, and he demanded Saints Processus and Martinian to renounce Christ. But they fearlessly confessed their Christian faith and they spat at the golden statue of Jupiter.
By order of the emperor Nero, the guards were then arrested, tortured, and beheaded. After their martyrdom with Paul, a sympathizer called Lucina buried them in her own cemetery.
Their relics are now preserved in St. Peter’s Basilica.