GORDIANO e EPIMACO, saints, martyrs. — The information concerning them is scant and uncertain. In the oldest and most reliable sources they do not appear together, still less are they designated as brothers, as the author of the itinerary De locis claims to know. In the codices of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, although they are commemorated on the same day, 10 May, they are clearly distinguished; in some, indeed, G. is mentioned in his cemetery on the Via Latina, whereas E. is located in that of Praetextatus on the Via Appia.
The Itineraries, however, of the seventh century mention them in the same church on the Via Latina, whereas in the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries only the feast of G. is found. He, in fact, is somewhat better known. An inscription, attributed to the seventh century, states that the presbyter Vincent adorned G.’s tomb by renovating it, and the same Passio, which is false and legendary, speaks only of him. According to this account, G. was the vicar of Julian the Apostate, charged during the persecution with judging the presbyter Januarius. During the night, however,
he had a secret conversation with the priest, converted together with his wife Marina and 53 members of his household, and was baptized. The Emperor then sent a certain Clementianus, who imprisoned Januarius and G., and sent Marina to a country estate for forced labor. Only G. was subsequently condemned to beheading, and his body, after being exposed to the dogs for five days, was buried on the Via Latina about a mile outside the walls, in the crypt where E. had already been buried. The falsity of this account is evident, quite apart from everything else, because it openly contradicts the information in the inscription mentioned above, which is certainly more reliable, where it is stated that G. was a child of tender age. The confusion subsequently increased because E. was identified with the homonymous expert under Decius in Alexandria (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI, 41), whose relics were supposedly transferred to Rome, whereas it is known that they were transferred to Constantinople and that he was venerated on 12 December. The church and cemetery on the Via Latina, where the two Saints were buried, have not been identified with convincing certainty.