ERCOLANO, saint. - The earliest testimony concerning him is that contained in the Dialoghi of s. Gregorio Magno. There also exists a highly legendary and elaborate Passio, composed after the emergence of the legend of Abbondio “companions from Syria,” one of whom was in fact named E.; his personality was therefore split in two. According to s. Gregorio, E., before being consecrated bishop of Perugia, had been a monk. When in 549 T'otila occupied Perugia, E. was flayed and beheaded, and his body was cast outside the walls, where it was temporarily buried together with a child. When the Perugian refugees returned to the city 40 days after the massacre, they sought the body of their bishop; whereas the child’s body was found already decomposed, that of E. was still intact, with the head joined to the trunk, as though it had never been cut off. According to the earliest historical martyrologies, he died on 7 Nov. - See pl. XXXVII.
BIBLI: S. Gregorio Magno, Dialoghi, III, 13; Acta SS. Martii, I, Parigi 1865, pp. 47-54; A. Dufourcq, Etude sur les Gste martyrum romanum, III, ivi 1907, pp. 69-71; Lanzoni, pp. 417-34, 531 sq.; Martyr. Romanum, p. 502. Agostino Amore