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One of the group who together were patrons saint of sculptors and workers in stone. St. Castorius, Nicotratus, Simphorian, and Simplicitus were Pannonian, stonemasons who were martyred under Diocletian for their refusal to acknowledge Aesculapius. They are perhaps known as the four crowned saints because they are conflated with four Roman soldiers who were martyred at the same time and for the same reason. The conflation of the two groups was already a matter for comment in the later part of the thirteenth century in Jacobus de Voragine The Golden Legend (Princetown U.P. edition, 1993, translated by William Granger Ryan Vol. 2 pp.290-291). At Works, 10.416ff Ruskin wrongly identifies Simplicius with the Pope of the same name, and reads Symphorianus as the Pope Symmachus and bases his interpretation of the capital on that.
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]