Story
It is the story of a Roman martyr who bore witness to his Christ, the Giver of the Resurrection, while on his way to death!
In the Lateran Museum there is a fragment of an epitaph (an inscription upon a tomb) found at Rignano, which is 26 miles from Rome, and it is believed to belong to the martyr Abundius, whose feast the West celebrates together with his companions on the 16th of September.
This epitaph reads: "At Rome, on the Flaminian Way, the Emperor Diocletian ordered the killing of the holy martyrs Abundius the priest and Abundantius the deacon, together with the martyred man Marcian and his son John, whom Abundius had raised from the dead. They were slain by the sword ten miles from the city."
It is said that the priest and his deacon were ordered to offer incense to Hercules, but they refused; therefore they were cast into the Mamertine prison for a month, and were then summoned to be tortured and condemned. On their way to martyrdom they met the senator Marcian, who was weeping over his dead son John. Saint Abundius asked that the body be brought to him, and when he had prayed to God while he was bound, the dead man arose in the name of Jesus Christ, the Giver of Life.
Marcian and his son believed in the Lord Christ and accompanied the holy priest and his deacon, so that all were martyred together on the same day. They were buried in the catacombs of the mother Theodora, near Rignano on the Flaminian Way