St. Herculanus

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

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November 7 · Bishop, Martyr

St. Herculanus

St. Herculanus

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

November 7
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

November 7 (also listed: March 1)
Secondary source · Wikipedia

Represents

Bishop
Martyr

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 34 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

From this it is clear either that the bishop never lost his head, or, what is much more probable, that the body found and now venerated at Perugia, is not that of the bishop.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Learn from the kind of life it was. Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Keep their day. Remember them on November 7 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 34 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Ado, Notker, &c. The Trans lation of his Relics on March 1. Authority S. Gregory, Dialog, S. Herculanus was bishop of Perugia when that town was besieged by Totila, king of the Goths, in 549; he probably animated his people to defend the city with vigour, for he incurred the vengeance of the king. When the place was taken, the commander of the army sent to Totila, to know what was to be done with the bishop. The king returned answer that a strip of his skin was to be cut off him from his head to his foot, and that then he was to be executed. The Gothic commander, however, decapitated the Saint first on the ramparts, and then cut the thong of skin as required. The body was buried along with that of a little child which was found near it, on the spot where he had fallen. Forty years after, the corpse was dug up, when it was found that the head was attached to it, as though it had never been struck off.

From this it is clear either that the bishop never lost his head, or, what is much more probable, that the body found and now venerated at Perugia, is not that of the bishop.

Feast days

Feast: November 7

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Herculanus's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on November 7
P

St. Prosdochimus

November 7 · Bishop
A

St. Achillas

November 7 · Bishop
St. Willibrord of Utrecht

St. Willibrord of Utrecht

November 7 · Archbishop
← All 1727 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Sources

Credits

Image: Pietro Perugino cat48h.jpg · Pietro Perugino · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

Image: Pietro Perugino, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.