26 June - Paul and John are brothers of great prestige in ancient Rome. They are respectively presented as the butler and the primiciary of St. Constance, daughter of Emperor Constantine.

According to tradition, the Emperor Julian, determined to re-establish pagan worship, tries to persuade them to renounce their Christian faith for fear that their fame will serve Christianity. Faced with their refusal, he forced them to venerate a statue of Jupiter, but they persisted in their faith. They are thus beheaded and secretly buried in the basement of their house on Mount Caelius. Their martyrdom would then have led to the conversion of Terentianus, the judge who sentenced them to death.

The bodies of the saints were later discovered by Byzante and his son, Senator Pammachus, appointed by the Emperor Jovian. In 398, Pammachus erected the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo on the site of their house on Mount Caelius, where they were buried. From then on, John and Paul are honoured as saints and their names are included in the Roman Missal. The two saints are particularly venerated in German-speaking countries, where they are invoked against storms and adverse weather conditions.