Gordianus and Epimachus

The Holy Martyrs Gordianus and Epimachus were venerated together, and their relics rest in the same crypt at Rome. They are commemorated in the Catholic Church on 10 May (until 1969). Their names are absent from the calendars of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the Greek Orthodox churches their life is found under 9 May in the Menologion of Basil II.

According to one source, Gordianus and Epimachus lived in Rome, where they came from, and were Christians. They were seized there by pagan priests, who demanded that they renounce Christ and offer pagan sacrifice. Gordianus and Epimachus refused, and by order of the priests the martyrs were hung on trees and scraped with iron claws. After the torments they were put in prison. After some time they were brought out and once more asked to renounce Christ and were tortured again. After the torments they were beheaded. This source counts them as having suffered in the time of Decius.

Another source says that Epimachus of Alexandria died in 250 and Gordianus in 362. They are said to have come to be buried beside each other in the same crypt in Rome, giving their name to the cemetery of Gordianus and Epimachus. Hildegard, queen of Charlemagne, presented Kempten Abbey with some of the relics of the saints. Along with the Virgin Mary, Gordianus and Epimachus are venerated as patrons of the abbey. Churches dedicated to them are in Germany, at Aitrach, Legau, Merazhofen, Pleß, Stöttwang and Unterroth, and one at Blevio in Italy. The sources do not agree on the time: one places their suffering under Decius, the other puts their deaths a hundred years apart.