HERCULANUS, Saint. - The oldest testimony concerning him is that contained in the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great. There also exists a highly legendary Passio, elaborated after the appearance of the legend of Abundius and companions of Syria, one of whom was actually named E.; his personality was therefore split in two. According to St. Gregory, E., before being consecrated bishop of Perugia, had been a monk. When in 549 Totila occupied Perugia, E. was flayed and beheaded and his body thrown outside the walls, provisionally 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; while the child's body was found already decomposed, that of E. was instead still intact and with the head joined to the trunk, as if it had never been cut off. According to the oldest historical martyrologies he would have died on 7 Nov. - See pl. XXXVII.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: S. Gregorio Magno, Dialoghi, III, 13; Acta SS. Martii, I, Paris 1865, pp. 47-54; A. Dufourcq, Etude sur les Gste martyrum romanum, III, ibid. 1907, pp. 69-71; Lanzoni, pp. 417-34, 531 sq.; Martyr. Romanum, p. 502.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec5_ercolano_santo, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Ercolano, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {480--481}, 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/ercolano-santo} }

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

Herculanus, Saint

About this entry