Saint Constantius of Perugia

Constantius was the first bishop of Perugia, and he died around 170 during the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius. He is a very ancient figure, one of those in whom history and legend got kneaded together early on. The traditional account is full of scenes. Brought before the consul Lucius, he was flogged and then plunged into boiling water, from which tradition has him emerge unharmed. Taken back to prison, he converted his own guards, who helped him escape. He took refuge in the house of a Christian named Anastasius, but was arrested again and beheaded near Foligno. The various versions of his *Passio* disagree on many things but agree on this: the martyrdom took place in the time of Marcus Aurelius. His body was brought back to Perugia and buried outside Porta San Pietro, in a place called Areola, where the city’s first cathedral rose. The Church of San Costanzo you see today was consecrated in 1205 and restored at the end of the nineteenth century. There is, however, a custom that deserves more attention than the tortures. In Perugia, on Saint Constantius’s day, **unmarried girls go to his church to ask whether they’ll be married within the year**. It’s the kind of tradition that survives everything, popes and emperors included, because it answers a question people really ask. Two healing miracles were also attributed to the saint: a blind woman who regained her sight, and a Perugian nobleman, Crescentius, paralyzed for years and put back on his feet. If your name is Costanzo or Constance, today is your name day. It’s a name that sounds promising from the very start. What remains of him is a church, two healings and a question girls have been asking him for centuries.