ARTEMIO. - Ancient commander of Egypt under the emperor Costanzo, beheaded by Giuliano l'Apostata in June 362. A violent Arian, in agreement with the intruded bishop of Alexandria Giorgio di Cappadocia, he persecuted Catholics, especially religious, and s. Atanasio. With the same zeal he had raged against idolaters, destroying numerous temples, among them the Serapeum. With the accession of Giuliano, the pagans took revenge by accusing him of atrocious crimes before the emperor, who, after having his property confiscated, condemned him to be beheaded. In the 9th century the monk Giovanni di Rodi made A. into a saint and a martyr, and the acts written by him (in Acta SS. Octobris, VIII, Parigi 1866, pp. 856-85) served as a source for Metafraste (PG 115, 1160-1212). Hence arose the cult rendered to him by the Greeks on 20 Oct. and his insertion, in the 16th century, on the same date in the Roman Martyrology (cf. ed. P. Galesini, Venezia 1578).
Bidez, Philostorgius Kirchengeschichte, in CB, 21, pp. XLIV-LXVIII, 151-75 (the Passio); Martyr. Romanum, p. 465; P. Allard, Julien l'Apostat, III, 2e ed., Parigi 1903, pp. 31-32.