About the Basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome:
“Santi Quattro Coronati” means the Four Holy Crowned Ones [i.e. martyrs], and refers to the fact that the saints’ names are not known, and therefore referred to with their number, and that they were martyrs, since the crown, together to the branches of palm, is an ancient symbol of martyrdom. The Basilica Santi Quattro Coronati likely dates back to the 4th or 5th century, with major renovations by Pope Leo IV in the 9th century and a rebuild in the 12th century after a fire in 1084. The complex expanded in the 13th century with additions like the Cosmatesque cloister and was entrusted to Augustinian nuns in 1564.
According to the Passion of St. Sebastian, the four saints were soldiers who refused to sacrifice to Aesculapius, and therefore were killed by order of Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305). The bodies of the martyrs were buried in the cemetery of Santi Marcellino e Pietro, on the fourth mile of via Labicana, by Pope Miltiades and St Sebastian (whose skull is preserved in the church). Miltiades decided that the martyrs should be venerated with the names of Claudius, Nicostratus, Simpronianus and Castorius; these names — together to a fifth, Simplicius — were those of five Pannonian martyr stonemasons.
These martyrs were later identified with the four martyrs from Albano; Secundus (or Severus); Severianus; Carpoforus (Carpophorus); and Victorinus (Vittorinus). The bodies of the martyrs are kept in four ancient sarcophagi in the crypt. According to a stone dated 1123, the head of one of the four martyrs is buried in Santa Maria in Cosmedin.
The basilica features notable 13th-century art, including an apse mosaic and frescos in the Saint Silvester Chapel, and is part of an Augustinian convent.
Traveling to the Basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati:
The basilica is located at Via dei Santi Quattro 20, in the Celio district of Rome, between the Colosseum and San Giovanni in Laterano. It seems likely that its origins trace to the 4th or 5th century,