They were sisters, and the daughters of one Asterius, a man of a
senatorian family in Rome. Their father promised them in marriage,
the first to Armentarius, and the second to Verinus, who were then
both Christians, but afterward apostatized from the faith when the
storm raised by Valerian and Gallien in 257, fell upon the Church.
The two virgins resisted their solicitations to imitate their
impiety, and fled out of Rome; but were overtaken, brought back, and
after other torments condemned by Junius Donatus, prefect of Rome,
to lose their heads. They were conducted twelve miles out of Rome,
executed in a forest on the Aurelian Way, and buried in the same
place. It was then called the Black Forest, Sylva Nigra, but from
these martyrs this name was changed into that of Sylva Candia or the
White Forest. A chapel was built over their tomb, which pope Damasus
demolished, erecting a large church in its room. A town rose in the
same place, which was called Sylva Candia, and made an episcopal see.
But the city being destroyed by barbarians in the twelfth century,
the bishopric was united by Calixtus II. to that of Porto, and the
relics of the saints were translated at the same time, in the year
1120, to the Lateran basilic, where they are kept near the baptistery
of Constantine. See their Acts abridged by Tillemont, t. 4, p. 5.
Also the remarks of Pinius the Bollandist, t. 3, Julij, p. 28, and
Laderchius Diss. de Basilicis SS. Marcellini et Petri, c. 2, p. 6.