ARTEMIUS. - Ancient commander of Egypt under the emperor Constantius, ordered beheaded by Julian the Apostate in June 362. A violent Arian, in agreement with the intruded bishop of Alexandria George of Cappadocia, he persecuted the Catholics, especially the religious, and St. Athanasius. With the same zeal he had raged against the idolaters, destroying numerous temples, among them the Serapeum. With the advent of Julian the pagans took revenge by accusing him of atrocious crimes before the emperor, who, after having his property confiscated, condemned him to beheading. In the 9th century the monk John of Rhodes made A. a saint and a martyr, and the acts written by him (in Acta SS. Octobris, VIII, Paris 1866, pp. 856-85) served as a source for Metaphrastes (PG 115, 1160-1212). Hence the origin of the cult paid to him by the Greeks on 20 October and his insertion, in the 16th century, under the same date in the Roman Martyrology (cf. ed. P. Galesini, Venice 1578).

Bibliography

BIBL.: P. Batiffol, Fragmente der Kirchengeschichte des Philostorgius, in Römische Quartalschrift, 3 (1889), pp. 252-57; J.

Bidez, Philostorgius Kirchengeschichte, in CB, 21, pp. XLIV-LXVIII, 151-75 (the Passio); Martyr. Romanum, p. 465; P. Allard, Julien l'Apostat, III, 2nd ed., Paris 1903, pp. 31-32.

Mario Scaduto

@incollection{ec2_artemio, author = {Scaduto, Mario}, title = {Artemio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {55--56}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/artemio} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Artemius

About this entry