dots-menu
×

Home  »  Volume VI: June  »  St. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume VI: June. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.

June 2

St. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr

 
HE suffered torments and a cruel death in the persecution of Dioclesian at Formiæ, in the year 303. St. Gregory the Great testifies that his body remained in that city in the sixth age. 1 Formiæ being destroyed by the Saracens in the ninth century, the sacred treasure was translated with the episcopal see to Cajeta, in 842. This saint is corruptly called St. Elmo 2 for Ermo, the abbreviation for Erasmus; and he was usually invocated by sailors in the Mediterranean. St. Erasmus is commemorated in the new Paris Breviary, and a portion of his relics is possessed by a nunnery near Gournay, in that diocess, much frequented by pilgrims. See the Bollandists.  1
 
Note 1. St. Greg. b. 1, ep. 8. [back]
Note 2. St. Peter Gonzales, whom see on the 14th of April, is also a patron of mariners, and called St. Elm. [back]