Protaso is always remembered together with the representation of Gervaso: two twin brothers from Milan, martyrs for the christian belief and therefore worshipped as saints of the catholic church. Along the fifth century an anonimous author composed the Passio, from which is possible to extract some news about their existence, but always remaining in the line between fiction and reality . This Passio told that as soon as they knew about the death of their parents, Gervasio e Protasio decided to sell all their family’s belongings to gift the gained money to the poors of Milan. They passed the following ten years of their life praying , meditating and preaching the christian ways and for that reason they were arrested and executed. Their bodies were found during june of the 386 A.D. in the ancient cemetery of Milan that as of now is located between Garibaldi of the state Police and the catholic University, thanks to a digging site commissioned by S. Ambrogio bishop of Milan. The evening of the 18th of june the sacred remains were transported in the near church “Fausta” for a night vigil of prayers while the following day, friday 19th of june 386, they were solemnly moved in the church of  S. Ambrogio, which had just been finished building, to consecrate it with the deposition of the remains.

The tales of the statue in Dome’s building site:

The statue of saint Protaso was realized in the 1950 by Mario Bassetti, active author in those years for the realization of other spires that had to be replaced on the Dome after the bombings in the 1943. In fact it’s not a coincidence that San Protaso stylistically resembles a lot the nearest spire, San Nabore. He too has his body and head pointed towards his right, while he looks at passers below him . His body leans on a tree trunk which has the signature of the author carved into it, all of this has been discovered thanks to some photos in the archives of  the Veneranda Fabbrica.