A martyr of Milan, Italy, buried alongside Saint Nazario, whose shared relics were discovered by Saint Ambrose in the fourth century.

Saint Celso died a martyr at Milan around the year 76, according to the ancient tradition of that city, and was buried together with Saint Nazario, whose relics he shares in devotion to this day. Their joint tomb, forgotten for centuries, was rediscovered by Saint Ambrose of Milan in the late fourth century, an event that renewed veneration of both martyrs and led to the building of a basilica in their honor. The early date attached to Celso’s death is treated by scholars as uncertain tradition rather than firm record.

Quick Facts

• Died: traditionally 1st century, Milan, Italy
• Venerated as: Lay martyr
• Buried with: Saint Nazario

Who Was Saint Celso?

Celso is remembered in the tradition of the Church of Milan as a martyr whose remains were laid to rest alongside those of Saint Nazario in a garden outside the city. Little is recorded of his life or the precise circumstances of his death, which local tradition places remarkably early, but his memory was preserved through the joint tomb he shared with his companion, which survived long enough to be rediscovered centuries later.

Historical Setting

In 395, Saint Ambrose, then bishop of Milan, uncovered the forgotten graves of Nazario and Celso in a garden outside the city walls, finding the relics remarkably well preserved and Nazario’s blood, as later accounts describe it, still fresh. Ambrose had the relics translated into the city with great solemnity, an event that placed both martyrs firmly within the living devotion of the Milanese Church from that point onward.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Celso

The Church remembers Celso primarily through this rediscovery and translation of relics under Saint Ambrose, an episode that gave the ancient martyr renewed and lasting honor in Milan. The basilica built to house the relics of Nazario and Celso has remained a center of their cult for over sixteen centuries.

Canonization and Feast Day

No formal canonization process is recorded for Saint Celso. His veneration rests on ancient and immemorial cult in Milan, powerfully reaffirmed by the fourth-century discovery of his relics under Saint Ambrose, and received into the Roman Martyrology.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Celso’s story, largely lost and then dramatically recovered through the devotion of a later bishop, is a reminder that the Church’s memory of its martyrs can be renewed across centuries, and that fidelity long buried can still bear fruit in the devotion of a much later generation.

A Prayer to Saint Celso

Saint Celso, martyr honored by Saint Ambrose, pray for us, that our own hidden acts of faithfulness may, like yours, bear fruit in ways we cannot foresee. Amen.

Sources

• Saint Ambrose of Milan, writings on the discovery of the relics
• Roman Martyrology
• Butler’s Lives of the Saints