Saint Epimachus

Saint Epimachus
Saints Gordianus and Epimachus. Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	10 May

Saint Epimachus was a Roman martyr, and is commemorated on 10 May.

After his martyrdom his body was laid in a crypt on the Via Latina and later the body of Saint Gordianus who was martyred during the time of Julian the Apostate was laid beside Epimachus. The two saints gave their name to the cemetery, and are jointly venerated by the Catholic Church.

Many writers have denied the existence of an Epimachus martyred at Rome, and account for the relics honoured there by asserting that the body of a Saint Epimachus from Alexandria who was transported to Rome shortly before the martyrdom of St. Gordianus. The Bollandist Remi de Buck maintained that the evidence for the Roman Epimachus is too strong to be doubted, and denied that any relics of Epimachus of Alexandria came to Rome.

There are also several martyrs named Epimachus, and, owing to the meagreness of the information possessed concerning them some writers have confounded them greatly while hagiologists are unable to agree as to their number or identity. The Bollandists mention four other saints of this name: