The Latin Martyrdom of *Epipodius and Alexander (martyrs of Lyon, S00318) describes the arrest, trial and martyrdom of the two saints at Lyon, supposedly in the late 2nd century; their secret burial; the preservation of Epipodius' sandal as a relic, and its healing powers. Written in Lyon (south-east Gaul) at an unknown date, probably between c. 600 and c. 800.
E06302
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
Martyrdom of Epipodius and Alexander (BHL 2574-5, CPL 2097).
Summary:
Martyrdom of Epipodius
(1.) If the deeds of those who died for earthly liberty or for their country are celebrated, how much more is this so of the martyrs? The passions of the martyrs inspire subsequent generations to emulate them. Therefore we relate the triumphs of the most blessed Epipodius and Alexander. (2.) In the seventeenth year of the reign of Antoninus Verus [i.e. Marcus Aurelius, year = 177], persecution raged throughout Gaul, especially in Lyon. Officials, soldiers, and citizens of both sexes attacked the Christians with savage cruelty. The names of those who were killed or died in prison are recorded in the heavenly book of life. After the slaughter and killings, it seemed to the pagans, according to the letters which the churches of Lyon and Vienne sent to the churches of Asia and Phrygia, that the very name of Christ was almost extinguished. At this time, it was reported to the governor through domestic treachery that Epipodius and Alexander were secretly practising the catholic faith; the governor, wishing to extinguish the religion he hated, ordered them to be sought out.
(3.) Alexander was Greek by birth; Epipodius was a native citizen of Lyon. They had been joined in friendship since they were boys at school. They became Christians and inspired each other to advance in religion. In sobriety, austerity, chastity, faith, and the work of charity, they prepared themselves as worthy sacrifices to God. They were both in the flower of youth, and neither was yet tied by marriage. When the persecution was raging, they went into hiding. Leaving the city walls, they hid in the cottage of a religious and faithful widow. They stayed in hiding there for some time but were eventually tracked down. They tried to flee through the narrow entrance of the dwelling, but their pursuer caught hold of them. Jumping in alarm, Epipodius lost one of his sandals, which the old woman afterwards hid away as if it was a treasure she had found.
(4.) They were taken to prison. Three days later they were interrogated by the governor before a crowd of pagans. They declared themselves to be Christians, enraging the governor and the crowd, whose members shouted out against them and called for them to be tortured and killed like the previous martyrs. (5.) To prevent them encouraging each other, Alexander, the older of the two, was taken away. The governor tried to weaken Epipodius' will and win him over, saying that he was young and it would be wrong for him to persist in his course and perish. Pagans worshipped the gods venerated everywhere, including by the emperors. They honoured the gods with the good things in life; Epipodius worshipped a crucified man who condemned everything pleasurable in life. He should reject this austerity and enjoy the happiness of this world. (6.) Epipodius replied that the love of Christ and the catholic faith had armed him against the governor's fabrications. What the governor called life was eternal death; the governor said Jesus was crucified but did not know he had been resurrected, and that he was equally both God and man, who showed his servants the way to immortality and led them to the heavenly kingdom. Did the governor not know that a human consisted of both a body and a soul? He worshipped demons through shameful pleasures of the body; Christians fought against the body and against vices for the sake of the soul. People like the governor were like cattle, feeding their stomachs before dying, but when Christians were killed by his persecutions they entered eternal life.
(7.). The governor was so enraged by this response that he ordered Epipodius to be beaten on the mouth, but Epipodius continued to confess Christ, spitting out blood and teeth. The governor then ordered him to be hung up on a rack (eculeus) and his sides to be torn with hooks. The crowd made a loud clamour for him to be given to them to be stoned to death or torn limb from limb. The governor, fearing that they were getting out of hand and that this would disturb law and order, abruptly ordered Epipodius to be taken down and beheaded. The rage of the crowd thus, by God's arrangement, more swiftly brought about the consummation of Epipodius' martyrdom.
Martyrdom of Alexander
(8.) The blessed martyrs Epipodius and Alexander were joined together from infancy. Their bond was strengthened through their education and youth until through God's gift they attained martyrdom together. But they were killed separately, which we judge to be a favour bestowed on us so that we should enjoy a double feast day. Three days ago we celebrated Epipodius; today we rejoice that the feast of Alexander has arrived. Now let us return to the story of their martyrdom.
(9.) With Epipodius dead, the persecutor raged for the blood of Alexander. After an interval of one day, he had Alexander brought from prison, to satiate his own fury and that of the people. He still tried to win him over, telling him that it was in his power to escape the examples of his predecessors, who were now all dead: he should think of himself and venerate the gods by burning some incense.
(10.) Alexander replied that by mentioning the other martyrs the governor merely confirmed his determination. The souls of those the governor had killed were not dead, they possessed heaven. The Christian name could not be extinguished, because it was established by God and guarded people's lives and was propagated by their deaths. God received in heaven the souls of those the governor killed, but he and his gods would be consigned to hell. He knew that his dearest brother [Epipodius] was now in the greatest joy, and this made him more carefree in following the same course. He was a Christian, always had been and always would be, for the glory of God. The governor could only harm his earthly body, but his soul would be guarded and received by its maker.
(11.) At this, the governor, raging, ordered Alexander to be stretched out and beaten by three men. His only reaction when being beaten was to ask for God's protection. After a long time, with different people beating him in turn, the governor asked him if he maintained his confession. He replied that the gods of the pagans were demons, and that God guarded his decision. (12.) The governor declared that Christians were so insane that they considered the length of their punishments to be something glorious and thought they were conquering their persecutors. Things should therefore be brought to a swift end: Alexander should be crucified, as he deserved. After this sentence, the executioners took Alexander and tied him to the sign of salvation, with his arms stretched out. But the torments of the blessed martyr did not last long, because his body had been so torn apart by the beating that his ribs were broken and his internal organs exposed. Calling on Christ with his last words, he gave up his spirit.
(13.) The two who had been united in life but separated in death were joined together in the tomb. Some Christians secretly took their bodies out of the city and buried them in a hidden place. On the hill over the city, there was a place dense with trees, where there was a hidden valley, closed in like a cave by dense bushes. They were buried in this secret place with religious foresight, since the madness of the pagans raged even against dead bodies and denied them a tomb. The service of religious people (religiosorum cultus) preserved the venerable place, until it was revealed by their descendants, and by the many miracles which disclosed the power of the saints (virtutes plurimae quae sanctorum potentiam prodiderunt).
(14.) Later, when the people of Lyon were falling everywhere to a raging plague, a young man of noble birth, suffering from a violent fever, was told in a vision that he should seek a cure from the woman who had the martyr's sandal. She said that she knew nothing of medicine, but did not deny that she had cured many people by means of the benevolent power brought by the relics of the martyr (martyris per exuvias hospitali ope allata). The woman, Lucia, immediately handed to him a blessing and the cup of salvation (calicem salutis). When he received the cup and remedy for his thirst (poculum et remedium sitis), his fever was immediately extinguished, showing that his life and health had returned not through human power but the miraculous help of God. This power of faith and of the saints (virtus fidei atque sanctorum) was scattered through the whole city, and an innumerable multitude received healing for their bodies and also an increase in faith. Afterwards, these miracles have been seen in those places: exorcism of demons, curing of the infirm, restoration of health. These things, and things greater than these, occur almost daily, so that faith, even if it is not present already, is compelled by the existence of these miracles. Faith should therefore be practised in word and deed, because the friendly power of God, just as it loves the faithful, deserts the doubters. On that account, let us not doubt the things we hear and see, with our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Text: AASS, 1675.
Summary: David Lambert.
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsContact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOfficials
Crowds
Women
Source
The Martyrdom of Epipodius and Alexander was composed to be recited on their feast days, which were two days apart (three days by the Roman and early medieval system of inclusive counting, as in § 8). The division of the text reflects this: after an account of the capture of the two martyrs and the interrogation and execution of Epipodius (§§ 1-7), there is a new introductory passage (§ 8), followed by the interrogation and execution of Alexander and the martyrs' burial and posthumous miracles (§§ 9-14). Evidently it was intended that the first half of the text should be recited on Epipodius' feast day and the second on Alexander's, and for this reason BHL gives each half a separate number. However, the Martyrdom is clearly a single work: it is written in a uniform style and has a single narrative structure. In the Acta Sanctorum and the edition of Ruinart it is presented as a single text with continuous section numbering.The date of composition is unclear. The Martyrdom cannot date from earlier than the 5th century, since it refers (§ 1) to the letters of the churches of Lyon and Vienne describing the persecution of 177, indicating that its author was familiar with Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, which only became available in Latin at the beginning of the 5th century, through Rufinus' translation. The only firm terminus ante quem is the use of the Martyrdom in an anonymous martyrology compiled at Lyon in the early 9th century (for the relevant passage, see Quentin 1908, 158-9). The fact that there is no sign of familiarity with the Martyrdom in texts about Epipodius and Alexander dating from the 5th and 6th centuries is an obvious argument against an early date. Some modern works suggest such a date – earlier than Gregory of Tours (Clavis Patrum Latinorum, no. 2097, p. 690), 'slightly more recent' than the 5th-century Eusebius Gallicanus sermon (Heinzelmann 2010, 37) – but without giving any explicit rationale, which makes it difficult to assess their basis. The only obvious reason for deeming the Martyrdom to be earlier than Gregory of Tours is if one assumes that it was Gregory's source: on this see the Evidence discussion below. A more sceptical judgement is given by Decourt and Lucas 1993, 136, who note that while the cult of Epipodius and Alexander is attested from an early period 'the narrative of their martyrdom, whose source and previous versions (if any existed) are unknown to us, appears belatedly' ('le récit de leur martyre, dont la source et les versions anciennes (s'il en exista) nous sont inconnues, apparaît tardivement').
Manuscripts and editions
Thirteen manuscripts containing one or both parts of the Martyrdom are included in the (not necessarily exhaustive) lists provided by BHLms (bhlms.fltr.ucl.ac.be). None dates from earlier than the 12th century. The first printed edition was by the Counter-Reformation hagiographer Laurentius Surius in 1571; a new edition was produced by the Bollandists in 1675 (used here), and a further edition by Ruinart in his Acta martyrum sincera of 1689; the latter was reprinted by Migne in Patrologia Graeca, as an appendix to the works of Irenaeus. No new edition of the text has appeared since the 17th century.
Discussion
While it is clear that the Martyrdom of Epipodius and Alexander was produced for liturgical use by the church of Lyon, its date is uncertain and most of the material in it does not appear elsewhere. To try and situate it, it is therefore useful to compare it with the securely datable early sources for the cult: a sermon in the Eusebius Gallicanus collection dating from the 5th century, and Gregory of Tours and the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, both from the late 6th century. These present a very fragmentary picture, but a number of facts about the cult emerge from them:a) The martyrs were celebrated as a pair, but their feast days were two days apart. This is stated in the Eusebius Gallicanus sermon (Eus. Gall. 55.3; E00874), and confirmed by the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which gives the dates, 22 and 24 April (E04785, E04788).
b) In the time of Gregory of Tours, tombs believed to be theirs were preserved in the crypt of the church of St John in Lyon, alongside the tomb of the early bishop of Lyon and church father, *Irenaeus (S02832). Gregory states that dust from their tombs had healing power (Glory of the Martyrs 49; E00570). The entry for Alexander in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum states that his feast was also for the dedication of the crypt where he was buried (E04788).
c) Gregory mentions that a woman was said to have taken one of Epipodius' sandals, which fell off while he was being led to martyrdom. As a result, dust from her tomb was able to heal chills and other illnesses (Glory of the Confessors 63; E02676).
d) The sermon on Epipodius and Alexander states that both were natives of Lyon (Eus. Gall. 55.1, 4). Apart from this, and Gregory's reference to the loss of Epipodius' sandal, none of these texts contains any information about Epipodius and Alexander themselves: no biographical details, nothing about when they lived and were martyred, no information about the circumstances of their martyrdom.
The account of Epipodius and Alexander given in their Martyrdom is that they were contemporaries of the famous *Martyrs of Lyon of AD 177 (S00316), who escaped the original persecution but were caught and martyred shortly afterwards. They were buried on a hillside above Lyon, where their tombs were secretly maintained and protected until they were eventually revealed by the descendants of those who had buried them (and by their miracles). For the most part, the narrative of the Martyrdom is thoroughly generic: Epipodius and Alexander are captured and brought before a persecuting governor who threatens them and tries to tempt them to apostasy; they respond defiantly, professing their faith and condemning the pagan gods; the 'raging' governor then orders them to be tortured and finally martyred. Parallel stories can be found in the Martyrdoms of Ferreolus of Vienne (E06311), Symphorianus of Autun (E06496), Patroclus of Troyes (E06480), and Priscus of Auxerre (E06510), to note only a few examples from Gaul.
Nothing of the Martyrdom's main narrative appears in the other sources: nothing said by Gregory of Tours or the Eusebius Gallicanus preacher indicates that they were familiar with it. Arguments from silence are never entirely satisfactory, but it seems remarkable that they would have completely omitted its many edifying details about Epipodius and Alexander if they had been aware of them. The only part of the narrative that appears elsewhere is the story of Epipodius' sandal, mentioned by Gregory in the Glory of the Confessors. The Martyrdom describes how he lost the sandal while being arrested (§ 3); a later passage (§ 14) gives a name (Lucia) to the woman who took it, and describes how the sandal healed a man suffering from a fever. As noted in the Source discussion above, the dating by some modern scholars of the Martyrdom to the period before Gregory seems to presume that it was Gregory's source, but Gregory makes no reference to a written source and his statements do not give the impression that he depended on one. In fact, comparison of the texts suggests that if there is a relationship between them it is likely to be the other way round. The story about the sandal is the only unusual element in the Martyrdom's very stereotyped narrative. In theory the author could have known about it independently, but the details he gives match those in the Glory of the Confessors passage with suspicious neatness, more or less precisely filling out the gaps in Gregory's very brief account: circumstantial detail is added to his statement that Epipodius lost his sandal while being led away to martyrdom (§ 3), and the miraculous healing of a young man with a fever (§ 14) provides an example for Gregory's claim that the sandal miraculously healed frigoritici (people with chills/fevers).
The most tangible early evidence for the cult of Epipodius and Alexander is the description of their tombs in Gregory's Glory of the Martyrs (E00570), which is likely to have been based on first-hand knowledge. The church of St John, where they were buried (which by the 9th century had become the church of St Irenaeus), still exists on the same site, though nothing of the ancient building remains above ground level. The shrine of Epipodius, Alexander, and Irenaeus was destroyed by the Huguenots in 1562, and modern archaeology has been able only to confirm the existence of a monumental crypt (for a detailed account of the history of the church and of recent excavations there, see Reynaud et al. 2012, summarised in Reynaud 2014, 150-54). The church was on an extramural site on the southern slopes of the hill of Fourvière, which rose over the main area of late-antique settlement at Lyon. The description in the Martyrdom (§ 13) of the valley where Epipodius and Alexander were secretly buried is broadly compatible with its topography, but this is probably because the author based it on the surroundings of the shrine in his own day, imagining them as they might have been before the church was built. It is striking that the Martyrdom makes no reference to Irenaeus, given that according to Gregory his tomb formed an ensemble with those of Epipodius and Alexander, and a connection with such a celebrated figure might seem to enhance the martyrs' renown; we have no way of assessing the reasons for this.
The balance of the evidence therefore suggests that the cult of Epipodius and Alexander grew up around their tombs, which were believed to those of martyrs, even if – as the silence of the early references implies – there was no circumstantial narrative of their martyrdom. The written Martyrdom was composed, probably at some point between the very late 6th century and the beginning of the 9th century, in order to provide such a narrative.
Bibliography
Editions:Henschenius, G., Acta Sanctorum, Apr. III (Antwerp, 1675), 8-10.
Surius, L., De probatis sanctorum historiis, vol. II (Cologne, 1571), 715-717, 841-842. Editio princeps.
Ruinart, T., Acta primorum martyrum sincera et selecta (Paris, 1689), 62-67.
Migne, J.P., Patrologia Graeca 5 (Paris, 1857), 1455-62 (reprint of Ruinart).
Further reading:
Decourt, J.-C., and Lucas, G., Lyon dans les textes grecs et latins (Lyon/Paris, 1993).
Dekkers, E., and Gaar, E., Clavis Patrum Latinorum, 3rd ed. (Turnhout, 1995).
Février, P.-A., et al., "Lyon", in N. Gauthier and J.-Ch. Picard (eds.), Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule, vol. 4: Province ecclésiastique de Lyon (Lugdunensis Prima) (Paris, 1986), 15-35.
Heinzelmann, M., "L'hagiographie mérovingienne. Panorama des documents potentiels," in: M. Goullet, M. Heinzelmann, and C. Veyrard-Cosme (eds.), L'hagiographie mérovingienne à travers ses réécritures (Beihefte der Francia 71; Ostfildern, 2010), 27-82.
Quentin, H., Les Martyrologes du Moyen Age (Paris, 1908).
Reynaud, J.-F., et al., "Saint-Irénée (Lyon): une église funéraire des Ve-VIIe-Xe siècles," Revue archéologique de l'Est 61 (2012), 223-258.
Reynaud, J.-F., "Lyon," in: F. Prévot, M. Gaillard, and N. Gauthier (eds.), Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, vol. 16: Quarante ans d'enquête (1972-2012): 1. Images nouvelles des villes de la Gaule (Paris, 2014), 146-157.
David Lambert
23/02/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00318 | Epipodius and Alexander, martyrs of Lyon | Epipodius, Alexander | Certain |
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