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Consecutive entries in the Roman Martyrology under 10th December read:

1. “At Rome, Pope St Melchiades .... “
   

2. “The same day, the holy martyrs Carpophorus, a priest, and Abundius, a deacon, in the persecution of Diocletian.  They were first cruelly beaten with rods, then imprisoned and denied food and drink; being placed on the rack a second time and again thrown into prison, they were finally beheaded”.  
   

The implication is that SS Carpophorus and Abundius were martyred in Rome, although this is not explicitly stated.

SS Carpophorus and Abundius appear under 10th December in the Martyrology of Florus.  This entry also records that they were respectively a priest and a deacon, cruelly tortured and martyred under the Emperor Diocletian.  However, it states that they were martyred “apud Hispolitanum” (near Spello) under the judge “Martiano”.  (This judge also appears in the entries in these martyrologies for St Brictius).  The Martyrologies of Adon and Usuard place the martyrdom of SS Carpophorus and Abundius at Spoleto.

Legend of the Twelve Syrians

SS Carpophorus and Abundius appear in the legend “Sanctii Anastasii et 11 fratrum, qui cum eo de Syriae partibus” (St Anastasius and 11 brothers who came from Syria - BHL 1620), which is otherwise known as the Legend of the Twelve Syrians. 

1. ✴Bonino Mombrizio published a version of the legend (BHL 1622) under the title “Passio SS Abundii et Carpofori Martyrum” (referenced below) in 1480.
   

2. ✴Two copies of another version of this legend (BHL 1622d), one from San Brizio and one from San Felice di Narco, are included in the Leggendari del Duomo di Spoleto.  They are entitled here as the Passio s. Britii and listed under 9th September [why, since St Brictius died on 9th July ??]. 
   

According to this legend, St Anastasius travelled to Italy with his sons St Brictius and Eutychius  and other members of his extended family: SS Carpophorus, Abundius, Laurence, John, Isaac, Teudila, Proculus, Herculanus and Baractalis.  A holy bishop named Urban ordained:

1. ✴SS Brictius and Carpophorus as priests; and
   

2. ✴SS Laurence and Abundius as deacons.
   

While in Rome, the family then embarked on a programme of evangelisation that led to their imprisonment.  When St Anastasius was subsequently beheaded, SS Brictius and Eutychius led the rest of the family to safety along  Via Cornelia. They then split up at a place called “Pax Sanctorum”: SS Eutychius and Proculus went their separate ways while St Brictius and the rest of the family moved to Spoleto.

In the introduction, the events are set in the time of: 

1. ✴the Emperor Julian the Apostate, who was emperor in the west from 355 and sole emperor in the period 360-3; and  
   

2. ✴“ss. episcopo Urbano” or variants thereof, which is usually taken to be an anachronistic reference to Pope Urban I (died 230).
   

However, in the paragraphs specifically dedicated to SS Carpophorus and Abundius, the events are set at the time of the Diocletian persecution of 303AD.  For an analysis of these chronological inconsistencies, see the Legend of the Twelve Syrians IV.  This part of the Legend of the Twelve Syrians is essentially an elaboration of the entry in the Martyrology of Florus mentioned above.  Following the publication of the anti-Christian edict in Spoleto (according to this legend, and perfectly plausibly, on 23rd July), the proconsul Martianus arrested SS Carpophorus and Abundius and some of their followers at the house of a Christian lady called Sincleta.

However, the place of martyrdom of SS Carpophorus and Abundius has changed:  

1. ✴Most of those arrested were executed, and Sincleta buried them "in cimiterio Pontiani, non longe ab urbe Spoletana" on 25th September.  This almost certainly refers to the early Christian cemetery at San Ponziano, which had grown up at the burial site of St Pontian.
   

2. ✴However, SS Carpophorus and Abundius were taken to Foligno and executed on 10th December.  An angel appeared to a Christian matron named Eustachia and told her to recover their bodies at “Thanaritanus”, at the foot of "Monte Rotundus" (the round mountain), a Roman mile from the city and to bury them in a new sarcophagus.  She duly found the bodies and buried them in “spelunca sua” (literally “her cave”, presumably a cavern used for burial).
   

There is a parallel here with the legend of St Felician, who was martyred "ad Montem Rotundum".  This is traditionally thought to be near the site of the ex-convent of San Feliciano di Mormonzone (see Walk III ). 

Legend of the 300 Syrians 

St Carpophorus appears as the leader in the version of the Legend of the 300 Syrians that is otherwise devoted to SS Felix and Maurus.  In this legend, some 300 Syrians left Cesarea and Laodicea in Syria for Europe in 516 AD.

Relics of SS Carpophorus and Abundius

Luigi Sensi (referenced below) described a sarcophagus that was discovered in the late 19th century in an unspecified part of the early Christian cemetery outside Roman Fulginium (near San Feliciano di Mormonzone).  The sarcophagus,which was taken to the museum of Foligno after its discovery, was destroyed in the Second World War.  However, a photograph of it survives.  Luigi Sensi pointed out that it shared the characteristics of other Umbrian sarcophagi (mid 5th century) that had housed the relics of saints (including St Juvenal, in the Duomo of Narni, and St Felix, in the crypt of San Felice di Giano).  He suggested that it might have contained the presumed relics of SS Carpophorus and Abundius, but that these might well have been subsequently removed and taken to a safer location when the original site of Fulginium was abandoned.   (The relics of St Felician were taken at this time to what became the site of the Duomo of Foligno).

According to a surviving  legend (BHL 0019 - see references below), Bishop Domenico of Foligno gave relics of St Abundius to Abbot Tiberius of Berceto (near Parma) in ca. 850.  Abbot Tiberius was trying at this time to increase the prestige of his abbey in order to avoid its transfer to the Bishop of Parma (unsuccessfully, as it turned out).   He had prepared a new site in its church for the relics of St Moderannus, but this saint had appeared to him in a dream and told him to reserve the new site for the relics of St Abundius.  He learned from Bishop Domenico (whom he met at the Council of Pavia, which the Emperor Lothar convened at Pavia in 850) that Foligno housed the relics of  “SS Abundius and Carpophorus and of those who had suffered with them”.   Bishop Domenico agreed to help Abbot Tiberius, and the body of St Abundius was duly translated to Berceto.  This legend was presumably written soon after the translation, and presumably at Berceto.  It says nothing about the life and martyrdom of St Abundius, and nothing about the original location of his relics and those of his fellow martyrs in Foligno. 

There was a church dedicated as Sant’ Abbondio at Sant’ Eraclio, some 2 km south of Foligno along the old Via Flaminia.  It was first documented in 1078 and documented again in 1661, but it was demolished at an unknown date thereafter.   A street named Via Sant’ Abbondio survives in Sant’ Eraclio.  It is possible that the dedication to St Abundius alone relates to a journey of his relics from Foligno to the coast for shipment to Pavia.

Although, as noted above, there is no early record of the original location of the presumed relics of SS Carpophorus and Abundius in Foligno, the local historian Ludovico Jacobilli (referenced below) believed that the lady Eustachia had buried the saints on the future site of the Abbazia di Sassovivo.  (He made no reference to the subsequent translation of the body of St Abundius to Berceto).  He added that, when the church of a the new Benedictine abbey was built there in 1080, these relics were translated to an altar inside it.  There is interesting corroboration of this on the website of the Piccoli Fratelli di Jesus Caritas, the monks who now own Sassovivo .  In the paragraphs on the Blessed Mainardo, the founder of the abbey, who died on 10th December 1096, the author says that the monks celebrated his feast a week later, to avoid a clash with the feast of SS Carpophorus and Abundius.

Ludovico Jacobilli also records that the relics were translated to the high altar of the church at Sassovivo on 22nd July 1555.   It seems likely, given the precision of the date, that he had seen an inscription to this effect.  However, they no longer seem to be in the church.