S. ERASMUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR

HE suffered torments and a cruel death, in the persecution of Dioclesian, at Formiæ, in the year 303. St. Gregory the Great testifies that his body remained in mat city in the sixth age.1 Formiæ being destroyed by the Saracens in the ninth century, the sacred treasure was translated with the episcopal see to Cajeta, in 842. This saint is corruptly called St. Elmo,* for Ermo, the abbreviation for Erasmus; and he was usually invocated by sailors in the Mediterranean. St. Erasmus is commemorated in the new Paris Breviary, and a portion of his relics is possessed by a nunnery near Gournay, in that diocese, much frequented by pilgrims. See the Bollandists.