Edistus

Holy Martyr Edistus (also called Aristus, Orestes or Heristus) is honoured as a martyr by the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches. According to legend, he was killed on the Via Laurentina, and his passion places him in the time of Nero, on 12 October, in the year 60. He is remembered on 12 October. According to another source, a member of the family of the Aristi was killed for the faith around 68. With him suffered Thermantia, Christina, his servant Victoria and the priest Priscus.

The legend of his martyrdom

According to the story, Edistus was a soldier in the Roman army, from a noble family, that of the Aristi. It seems that, for his fine service, he was appointed armour-⁠bearer of Nero. Tradition says that, though a soldier, he was a deep admirer of Christianity and received the Mystery of Baptism from the Apostle Peter. One day, when he accompanied the emperor to the town of Laurentum, he met Christians there, among them the priest Priscus, his wife Thermantia, his daughter Christina (or Christa) and the servant Victoria, with whom he took part in secret in the Liturgy, in a sandpit called Laurento. Betrayed by one of his servants, Edistus was arrested, then buried alive, with all the other believers, in the same sandpit. Only Victoria escaped martyrdom, but she was then seized in the forest and killed. He is shown young, beardless, with the palm of martyrdom and a white flag with a red cross.

Veneration

In the time of Pope Gregory the Great, at Saint Paul outside the Walls there was a monastery dedicated to Saint Edistus. In the seventh century his relics were venerated there, with those of Christina and Victoria. His tomb was placed at the sixteenth milestone of the Via Ardeatina. A church in his honour stood there, restored in the time of Pope Hadrian I (772 to 795). There too was a papal estate, called Sancti Edisti.

He is patron of an old church on Mount Soratte, near which a town grew, named after him, Sant'Oreste. The first mention of Sant'Oreste is in Benedict of Soracte, in his Chronicle of the year 747, where Curtis Sancti Heristi is named. One source says that the name comes from the family of the Aristi or Edisti. Corruptions of the language changed the name from Sanctus Edistus to Sanctus Heristus, Santo Resto, San Tresto and Sant'Oreste. On the site of the sandpit a church and a village grew, the curtis Sancti Heristi. The village later moved to the slopes of Mount Soratte, to be better defended against raiders. It thus became Castrum Sancti Heristi, later Sant'Oreste. The Romanesque church of Sant'Edisto survives to this day.