Martyrs whose feast is observed
in the Latin Church on 10 November. Tryphon is said to have been
born at Kampsade in Phrygia and as a boy took care of geese.
During the Decian persecution he was taken to Nicfa about the year
250 and put to death in a horrible manner after he had converted
the heathen prefect Licius. Fabulous stories are interwoven with
his legend. He is greatly venerated in the Greek Church which
observes his feast on 1 February. In this Church he is also the
patron saint of gardeners. Many churches were dedicated to him,
and the Eastern Emperor, Leo VI, the Philosopher (d. 912),
delivered a eulogy upon Tryphon. About the year 1005 the monk
Theodoric of Fleury wrote an account of him based upon earlier
written legends; in Theodoric's story Respicius appears as
Tryphon's companion. The relics of both were preserved together
with those of a holy virgin named Nympha, at the Hospital of the
Holy Ghost in Sassia. Nympha was a virgin from Palermo who was put
to death for the Faith at the beginning of the fourth century.
According to other versions of the legend, when the Goths invaded
Sicily she fled from Palermo to the Italian mainland and died in
the sixth century at Savona. The feast of her translation is
observed at Palermo on 19 August. Some believe that there were two
saints of this name. The church of the Hospital of the Holy Ghost
at Rome was a cardinal's title which, together with the relics of
these saints, was transferred in 1566 by Pope Pius V to the Church
of St. Augustine. A Greek text of the life of St. Tryphon was
discovered by Father Franchi de Cavallieri, Hagio-graphica (Rome,
1908), in the series Studi e Texti , XIX. The Latin Acts are to be
found in Ruinart, Acta Martyrum . Analecta Bollandiana,
XXVII, 7-10, 15; XXVIII, 217.
Gabriel Meier.
