Martyr Herculanus of Porto

Herculanus of Porto was an early Christian martyr put to death at Porto (Portus Romae), the harbor city near Rome, in the second century. The in-repo record, drawn from the Roman Martyrology, identifies him as a soldier and places his martyrdom under the emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose reign ran from 161 to 180, around the year 180. He is commemorated on September 5.

Almost nothing is preserved of his life. He is remembered together with a group of fellow martyrs of Porto, named in the tradition as Aconto, Nonno and Taurino. Beyond their names, the place of their suffering, and the period of persecution, no account of their lives or martyrdom has survived.

His name appears in the ancient martyrologies, and some scholarship associates the Porto commemoration with the entries for Taurinus, Herculanus and their companions in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum. The dating of these martyrs is uncertain in the scholarly literature, with proposals ranging from the second century to a later period; the tradition followed here retains the second-century dating under Marcus Aurelius.