Telemachus

Saint Telemachus was a monk who, according to the church historian Theodoret of Cyrrhus, tried to stop a gladiatorial fight in the amphitheatre of Rome and was stoned to death by the angry crowd. His death moved the emperor Honorius, who afterward banned gladiatorial combat. The Church remembers him as a venerable martyr.

Life and death

Little is known of Telemachus. Theodoret writes that he was a man who loved the ascetic life and that, leaving the East, he came to Rome just at the time of that dreadful spectacle. He went down into the arena and tried to part the fighters who were striking each other with weapons. The spectators, inflamed by the lust for bloodshed, stoned him to death. Later tradition adds that he cried to the fighters to stop in the name of Christ and that he was struck by the gladiators. The Martyrology of Ado of Vienne, from the year 858, says that he was killed by gladiators on the order of Alypius, prefect of Rome.

The place is usually taken to be the Colosseum, though Theodoret speaks only of a stadium. The last known gladiatorial fight in Rome took place on 1 January 404, which is therefore regarded as the date of his martyrdom, though some writers give the year 391. The gladiator schools had been closed a few years earlier, in 399.

Veneration

When he learned of the monk's death, Honorius ordered that he be numbered among the victorious martyrs and abolished the wicked spectacle. His memory is recorded in the martyrologies of Bede the Venerable, Ado of Vienne and Usuard, the monk of Saint-⁠Germain-⁠des-⁠Prés. His name also appears as Almachus or Almachius. The Church commemorates him on 1 January.