ERASMUS, saint. - Martyrdom of St. Erasmus. Detail of the fresco of bay 4, beneath the church of S. Maria in Via Lata (8th century) - Rome.
ERASMUS, Saint. - He is commemorated in the Hieronymian Martyrology on June 2. St. Gregory the Great, in a letter of October 500, attests that his body rested at Formia (Reg. Epist., 1, 8). His cult was very widespread in antiquity, and he was numbered among the Holy Helpers (v.).
The accounts of his life and martyrdom are reported by a rather legendary Passio composed between the 6th and 9th centuries, according to which E., a native of Antioch, at the beginning of the persecution of Diocletian, took refuge on the mountains of Lebanon. Having returned to the city, he was seized, scourged, flayed, and shut up in prison. Miraculously freed, passing through Sirmium, where he had to suffer at the hands of Maximian, he reached Formia, where he died shortly afterward. The title of first bishop of the city, attributed to him by later documents, is uncertain.
Bibliography5 worksActa SS. Iunii, I, Paris 1867, pp. 206-14; Lanzoni, p. 163 ff.; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 296 ff.; H. Delahaye, Les origines du culte des ma
BIBL.: Acta SS. Iunii, I, Paris 1867, pp. 206-14; Lanzoni, p. 163 ff.; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 296 ff.; H. Delahaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, Brussels 1933, p. 307 ff.; D. Mallardo, Il caltradorio marmoreo di Napoli, Rome 1947, p. 94.
Agostino Amore
ICONOGRAPHY
The oldest representation of his martyrdom is in an 8th-century fresco of the underground church of S. Maria in via Lata in Rome, where E. is before the consul and nearby are two henchmen. Beside it, in another fragmentary fresco, the Saint is carried to heaven by two angels.
In the 13th century, scenes of his martyrdom are on the candelabrum for the paschal candle of the cathedral of Gaeta. Later he is depicted in episcopal vestments and, as protector of sailors, with a winch around which a cable is wound; thus in some German sculptures and paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries, such as a wooden statue in the church of St. Severinus at Passau, and in a painting by Michael Fischer at Grier. Sometimes, following the popular interpretation given to the representation, instead of the cable the Saint's intestines are wound around the winch, as in the painting by M. Grünewald in the Pinacoteca of Munich. Also worthy of particular mention is the large painting by Nicolas Poussin in the Vatican Pinacoteca depicting the martyrdom of E., reproduced in mosaic on the altar dedicated to the Saint in the Petrine Basilica.
BibliographyK. Künste, Iconographie der Heiligen, II, Freiburg im Br. 1926, pp. 210-13.
BIBL.: K. Künste, Iconographie der Heiligen, II, Freiburg im Br. 1926, pp. 210-13.
Amore, Agostino, and Emilio Lavagnino. “Erasmo, santo.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, coll. 470–471. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/erasmo-santo.
MLA
Amore, Agostino, and Emilio Lavagnino. “Erasmo, santo.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, coll. 470–471. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/erasmo-santo.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec5_erasmo_santo,
author = {Amore, Agostino and Lavagnino, Emilio},
title = {Erasmo, santo},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {V},
pages = {470--471},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/erasmo-santo}
}
One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.
Click or scroll to zoom · drag to pan · Esc to close
