A layman martyred at Pojani in present-day Albania around 284, remembered together with five named companions in the region’s early Christian memory.

Saint Innocent was a lay Christian martyred at Pojani, in present-day Albania, around the year 284, together with his companions Saints Isaurus, Felix, Hermias, Peregrinus, and Basil. Their martyrdom belongs to the closing years of the third century, on the eve of the empire-wide Diocletianic persecution.

Quick Facts

• Died: c. 284, Pojani, Albania
• Venerated as: Martyr
• Companions: Saints Isaurus, Felix, Hermias, Peregrinus, and Basil

Who Was Saint Innocent?

Little beyond the fact and approximate date of his death, alongside the names of his five companions, survives concerning Innocent, a pattern common among the early martyrs of the Roman province of Illyricum, of which the region around Pojani formed a part.

Historical Setting

Illyricum’s Christian communities, scattered along the eastern Adriatic coast in what is now Albania, endured sporadic local persecution through the later third century as Roman authorities intermittently enforced measures against the growing Christian population, well before Diocletian’s more systematic campaign began in 303.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Innocent

The Church remembers Innocent as one of a company of six martyrs of Pojani, their names preserved together in the ancient regional record even where the individual circumstances of their arrest and death are largely lost to history.

Canonization and Feast Day

Illyria’s ancient church, not a later papal decree, sustains the veneration of Innocent and his five companions; their cult was carried forward through immemorial local memory in the region now known as Albania.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Being one name among a small company of martyrs, none individually much elaborated in the record, does not diminish any one of their witnesses. Innocent’s memory, alongside his five companions, honors the whole group equally.

A Prayer to Saint Innocent

Saint Innocent of Pojani, martyr with Isaurus, Felix, Hermias, Peregrinus, and Basil, pray for us together with your companions in that same faithful company. Amen.

Sources

• Roman Martyrology, regional supplement for Illyricum
• Butler’s Lives of the Saints, revised edition
• Diocesan sources on the early Church of Albania