The Cult of Saint Emidio

He died a martyr’s death (in 303 or 309), beheaded at the site of the Tempietto di Sant’Emidio Rosso, and a legend has him as a “cephalophore” saint: once beheaded, he picked up his amputated head and went prodigiously to bury himself at the hypogeum now enclosed in the Tempietto di Sant’Emidio alle Grotte.

From the 11th-12th centuries he became “defensor civitatis” of the free municipality and its territorial committee. Despite the late gathering (between the 11th and 15th centuries) through successive redactions of his biographical accounts (his hagiography has been apocryphally attributed to his disciple Valentine), which have likely added facts and elements of symbolic-political significance, the Emidian cult is certainly very ancient (documented by churches dedicated to him since the 8th century. ), while the translation of his relics from the catacombs of Sant’Emidio alle Grotte to the cathedral crypt occurred around the year 1000 by Bishop Bernard II. The biographical story of St. Emidius should therefore be placed in a context of the early spread of Christianity, as documented by archaeological and archival findings, as well as a firm local tradition. Particularly interesting is the Emidian hagiographic layering, operated from elements that differ in age, content and meaning. Particularly interesting is the Emidian hagiographic layering, operated from elements that differ in age, content and meaning. In a society, such as the medieval one, which was markedly attentive to the legal regulation of social relations and institutions, conceived according to a hierarchical pyramidal organization, the term “patronus” (cf. “pater familias” and “pater gentis”) evoked the need, on the part of the city community, to have the patronage of an authoritative saint of the “heavenly city” to whom they could entrust themselves as “clientes” but also as ‘friends’ and “familiares.” An obvious thread linked St. Emidius, the heavenly and invisible bishop (but close and present through his relics and places of worship) and the visible bishop, his successor on the chair in Ascoli, attentive to dialogue with civil authorities and the people.