Saints Julius the Presbyter and Julian the Deacon of Novara

Julius and Julian were brothers, a priest and a deacon, who labored as missionaries to overthrow the idols and build churches throughout the region of Novara in northern Italy. They are venerated as pre-schism Western saints, commemorated together on June 21. Julius was ordained a presbyter and Julian a deacon, and the two worked in tandem across the regions where pagan worship still persisted, combining preaching with reported miracles to draw the population to Christianity.

By tradition the brothers traveled through parts of the Roman Empire where pagan temples remained in use and sacrifice was still offered to idols. They are said to have sought and received permission, with the blessing of the church authorities, to build Christian churches upon the sites of former pagan temples, and so to have raised many churches across several lands. Their cult later became centered on Lake Orta in the Novarese highlands, where an island in the lake came to bear Julius's name (Isola San Giulio).

The synaxarion relates that Julius built a church in honor of the Twelve Apostles on an island, while Julian completed a church near a place called Gaudiana and built a crypt beside it. Julian died and was buried in that crypt, while Julius returned to the island and was buried in the church he had raised, where the sick were said to receive healing at his grave.