unless otherwise stated.
Saints Gordian and Epimachus.
Martyrs.
Feast Day 10 May.
Simple.
Red Vestments.
English: Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle
depicting Saint Gordian and Saint Epimachus.
Deutsch: Illustration aus der Schedel'schen Weltchronik.
Date: 1493.
Source: Scan from original book.
Author: Michel Wolgemut, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff
(Text: Hartmann Schedel).
(Wikimedia Commons)
Saint Gordian, a Roman Judge, was Converted by a Holy Priest, whom Julian The Apostate would have liked him to condemn.
Saint Gordian was Martyred towards 360 A.D., and was buried in the Crypt where already lay the remains of the Martyr Saint Epimachus (☩ 250 A.D.), brought from Alexandria.
Mass: Sancti tui.
English: The Martyrdom of Saint Gordian (Gordianus).
Français: Martyre de saint Gordien.
Cote: Français 185, Fol. 231v. Vies de saints,
France, Paris, XIVe siècle,
Richard de Montbaston et collaborateurs.
Source: http://saints.bestlatin.net/
(Wikimedia Commons)
The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.
Saints Gordianus and Epimachus were Roman Martyrs, who are Commemorated on 10 May.
Gordianus was a Roman Judge, who converted to Christianity. He was tortured and finally beheaded. His body was laid in a Crypt on the Via Latina, Rome, beside the body of Saint Epimachus, and the two Saints gave their name to the Cemetery of Gordianus and Epimachus. They are jointly Venerated by The Catholic Church with a Feast Day of 10 May in the Tridentine Calendar.
There are Churches Dedicated to the Saints in:
Aitrach, Germany;
Legau, Germany;
Merazhofen, Germany;
Pleß, Germany;
Stöttwang, Germany;
Unterroth, Germany;
Blevio, Italy.
Relics of both Saints were owned by Kempten Abbey in Bavaria.
ReplyDeleteThe ancient Roman martyrs hold a special place for this writer, and the story of S. Gordian or Gordianus, thanks to Zephyrinus’ Catholic blog, is very interesting.
As mentioned above in Zephyrinus’ text, S. Gordian was martyred under Julian the Apostate ca. 360, and became associated with the Egyptian martyr S. Epimachus by interment in the same crypt at the “Cemetery of S. Cyriacus,” where they were both venerated by the early Christians. This writer being a “Rome-ophile,” and not family with this cemetery found some research that explains why the Cemetery of Cyriacus is unknown today. According to the writings of a Renaissance-era pilgrim, an Augustan friar named John Capgrave, a pilgrim ca. 1450 in Rome:
“The cemetery of Hermes and Domitilla and the cemetery of Cyriacus were on the road leading to St Paul’s and called Via Ostiense. Now, however, these cemeteries are mostly abandoned and unknown, not only to pilgrims, but also to those who have lived there all their lives.”
However, the funeral Monuments of SS. Gordian and Epimachus remained known until in the 1670s a Jesuit father arranged the removal of S. Gordian’s relics to the Jesuit College of S. Omer in Bruges, Belgium.
In 1794, the Jesuits founded a seminary and college at Stonyhurst, in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England and S. Gordian’s relics made the transit to the Sodality Chapel at that institution (there are at least four chapels in the complex at Stonyhurst).
Stonyhurst served as a Jesuit seminary College for well over 100 years. In fact, the famous poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins (d. 1889) was trained there, as well as John Tolkein (d. 2003), an Old English/Middle English scholar and the son of the renowned author and Oxford Don, JRR Tolkein (d. 1973).
Part I, Note by Dante P.
Part II: At some point in time either before or after World War II, the Jesuit order, facing declining vocations, closed the seminary, but the school still serves students as a Catholic college preparatory. And, according to the school’s history, in 2006 when the school and Chapel underwent renovation, the relics of S. Gordian were temporally removed, but then subsequently replaced under the altar at that Chapel. so, interestingly, enough, anyone who wishes to visit the relics of the Roman martyr, S Gordian, only needs to arrange to visit the Sodality Chapel at Stonyhurst School, Lancashire!
ReplyDelete(Dom Zephyrinus can give us a report.) -Note by Dante P
A marvellous and comprehensive analysis of these Saintly Martyrs, from our Roman Correspondent and History Writer, Dante P, for which we are most grateful.
DeleteIt is a revelation to Zephyrinus that Saint Gordian's Relics are, in fact, now located in England.
It is hoped that, in the future, a visit to Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, might be undertaken to inspect these Relics.
All dependent, of course, on assuring Perkins and Jeeves that “Out Of Hours' Supplements” will be available to both “pillars of Zephyrinus Mansion”.