A Question for all you Saint Experts

[Tim2328]

Hello, I am in need of a name. I am giving a talk at a retreat for high school students and I want to tell the story about a Saint I once heard about in a homily.

He was a Christian (a hermit I think) living in Rome during the times of the Colosseum games. He went to a game and was so horrified at what he saw that he ran out and threw himself in front of a man that was going to be killed. He was martyred and the crowd was so moved by it that they never held a deadly Colosseum game again.

Does anyone know his name? I would be most grateful.

Thanks,
-Tim

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

Hello, I am in need of a name. I am giving a talk at a retreat for high school students and I want to tell the story about a Saint I once heard about in a homily.

He was a Christian (a hermit I think) living in Rome during the times of the Colosseum games. He went to a game and was so horrified at what he saw that he ran out and threw himself in front of a man that was going to be killed. He was martyred and the crowd was so moved by it that they never held a deadly Colosseum game again.

Does anyone know his name? I would be most grateful.

Thanks,
-Tim

Wikipedia:

Saint Telemachus (also Almachus[1]) was a monk who, according to Catholic tradition, intervened in a gladiator fight in a Roman amphitheatre and was stoned to death by the crowd. The Christian Emperor Honorius however was impressed by the monk’s martyrdom and it spurred him to issue an edict banning gladiator fights. The last known gladiator fight in Rome was on January 1, 404 AD, so this is usually given as the date of Telemachus’ martyrdom.

The story is found in the writings of Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus, Syria, but there is no other evidence of the existence of Telemachus and most mainstream historians do not agree with the Catholic tradition that gladiatorial games ended by an act of Telemachus. If the events did happen as described and directly caused an edict to be issued it would almost certainly have been noted in other sources of the time.

Although the site of Telemachus’ martyrdom is often given as being the Colosseum in Rome, Theodoret does not actually specify where it happened, saying merely that it happened in “the stadium”.

 

[1ke]

Hello, I am in need of a name. I am giving a talk at a retreat for high school students and I want to tell the story about a Saint I once heard about in a homily.

He was a Christian (a hermit I think) living in Rome during the times of the Colosseum games. He went to a game and was so horrified at what he saw that he ran out and threw himself in front of a man that was going to be killed. He was martyred and the crowd was so moved by it that they never held a deadly Colosseum game again.

Does anyone know his name? I would be most grateful.

Thanks,
-Tim

This is most likely a pious legend. The games of the Colesseum went on for centuries.

There is inconclusive evidence as to whether Christians were ever martyred in the Colesseum at all.

newadvent.org/cathen/04101b.htm