Thousands Turn Out to Celebrate the City of Split’s Biggest Day of the Year

The waterfront in the Dalmatian city of Split was packed on Thursday as thousands gathered to celebrate the feast day of its Patron Saint…

Saint Domnius (Sveti Duje) feast day is the city’s biggest day, and it kicked off with a traditional procession from the Saint Domnius Cathedral this morning, followed by a host of activities and concerts which will go into the evening on the Riva.

Saint Domnius was a 3rd-century Bishop of Salona and was martyred with seven other Christians in the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian. The tradition holds that Domnio came to Rome with Saint Peter and was then sent by Peter to evangelize Dalmatia, where he was martyred along with 8 soldiers he had converted. Saint Domnius became the Split’s patron saint, and the city’s cathedral (the Cathedral of Saint Domnius) was built-in the mausoleum of Diocletian itself, the emperor who martyred him.