Cassian, or Saint Cassian of Imola was a Christian saint of the 4th century. He was the Bishop of Brescia.

This saint is different from St. John Cassian, the Abbot of St. Victor Abbey in Marseilles, who died in 433.

Little is known about his life, although the traditional accounts converge on some of the details of his martyrdom. He was a schoolmaster at Imola. Rather than sacrifice to the Roman gods, as so ordered by the current emperor, Julian the Apostate, he was condemned to death and turned over to his own students (some authorities write that this event took place during the reign of Diocletian). Since they were eager for revenge for the many punishments he had inflicted on them, they bound him to a stake and tortured him to death by stabbing them with their pointed iron styli, the devices then used to mark wooden or wax writing tablets. His traditional date of martyrdom is August 13, 363; August 13 is his feast day on the Roman calendar.

Cassian is the patron saint of Mexico City, and of parish clerks.

External links

• Publications/PDF/WritingsJBDLS/MedCassianLife.pdf (Life of St. Cassian)
• Short Biography at the Catholic Forum