Hermagoras of Aquileia

Saint Hermagoras of Aquileia (also spelled Hermenagoras, Hermogenes or Ermacoras) is considered, according to tradition, the first bishop of Aquileia in northern Italy. Christian tradition states that he was chosen by the Evangelist Mark to lead the nascent Christian community there and consecrated bishop by the Apostle Peter. With his deacon Fortunatus he evangelised the area, but they were arrested by Sebastius, a representative of Nero, tortured and beheaded, around 66 according to the calendar.

In this form, however, his history is in doubt. The name Hermagoras is listed as that of the first bishop of Aquileia, but he was probably a bishop or lector living in the second half of the third century or at the beginning of the fourth. Because the name and origin of the very first bishop were unknown, Aquileian traditions of the eighth century made Hermagoras a bishop of the apostolic age, consecrated by Peter. That Fortunatus was his deacon is probably also an invention, but a Christian named Fortunatus may have been a separate martyr at Aquileia. Hermagoras and Fortunatus may have been martyrs killed at Singidunum (today's Belgrade) around 304, in the persecution of Diocletian, where Hermagoras was a lector and Fortunatus a deacon; their relics may have been brought to Aquileia a century later.

Their feast, on 12 July, is in the Roman Martyrology. His name survives in the Carinthian town of Hermagor in Austria, and his cult was popular in Udine, Gorizia and Gurk. The basilica of Aquileia contains twelfth-⁠century frescoes, one of which depicts Hermagoras and Peter. He has been particularly venerated among the Slovenes, who were Christianised by missionaries from Aquileia; from 1461 to 1961 Hermagoras and Fortunatus were the main patrons of the diocese of Ljubljana, and since 1961 they are its secondary patrons. In Slovenia there are seven parish churches and twenty-⁠five branch churches dedicated to them. The Orthodox calendar commemorates them on 12 July, as saints of the West before the Great Schism (saints of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.