Gordianus and Epimachus

Saints Gordianus and Epimachus

The Martyrdom of Saint Gordian. French manuscript of the 14th century.
Died 362 AD
Honored in Roman Catholic Church
Feast 10 May

Saints Gordianus and Epimachus were Roman martyrs, who were killed during the reign of Julian the Apostate, 362, commemorated on 10 May.

Contents

Legend

Gordianus was a Roman judge but was so moved by the sanctity and sufferings of Januarius, he converted to Christianity with many of his household. Being accused before his successor, or as some say before the prefect of the city, Apronianus, he was cruelly tortured and finally beheaded. His body was carried off by the Christians, and laid in a crypt on the Latin Way beside the body of St. Epimachus, who had been recently interred there. The two saints gave their name to the cemetery, and have ever since been joined together in the veneration of the Church. Some time later his remains were moved to the Cyriaca cemetery and there they lay until the 17th Century when Brother Ambrose of the Order of St Augustin removed them and gave them to Fr Christopher Anderson, a Jesuit priest in the 1670s. The remains were transferred to the Jesuit College of St. Omer; when the College moved to Stonyhurst, the remains travelled to England where they have remained since, interred below the altar of the Sodality Chapel.[1]

Other Saint Gordianuses

Other Saint Epimachuses

There are also several martyrs named Epimachus, and, owing to the meagreness of the information possessed concerning them less careful writers have confounded them greatly while the greater hagiologists are unable to agree as to their number or identity. The Bollandists mention five saints of this name:

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainHerbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.