SS. GORDIAN AND EPIMACHUS, MARTYRS - 10 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 10th of May

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

SS. GORDIAN AND EPIMACHUS, MARTYRS  

Saints Gordian and Epimachus are named in all calendars of the western church since the sixth age.

ST EPIMACHUS

St Epimachus suffered at Alexandria under Decius, in the year 250, with one Alexander. They had been long detained in a hideous dungeon, were beaten with clubs, their sides were torn with iron-hooks; lastly, they were both burnt in lime. This is related by St Dionysius of Alexandria, quoted by Eusebius (b. vi. c. 41.)   

ST GORDIAN

St Gordian was beheaded at Rome for the faith, under Julian the Apostate, in the year 362. His name occurs in the ancient Martyrologies. His body was laid in a cave, in which was deposited that of St Epimachus, which was brought from Alexandria to Rome a little before St Gordian’s martyrdom. 

THEIR RELICS

The relics of both these martyrs are now possessed by the great Benedictine abbey of Kempten, in the diocese of Augsburg.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

➡️ Saints' Gordian and Epimachus entry in the Roman Martyrology