medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
_For All the Saints_ by Katherine Rabenstein has this to say:
Erasmus of Formiae BM (RM)
(also known as Elmo, Erarmo, Ermo)
Died 303. Saint Erasmus is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (combined feast August 8), who were especially venerated in France and Germany for their efficacious intercessory power. All had/have also individual feast days. Most are non-existent, or shadowy figures of early Christianity popularized by embroidered tales.
Nothing is really known of Saint Elmo since his acta were written long after his death and were based on legends that confuse him with a Syrian bishop of Antioch. He is thought to have been a bishop at Formiae in the Italian Campagna, a hermit on Mount Lebanon, and martyred under Diocletian.
According to his legend, it is said that when the persecutions of Diocletian began, Elmo fled to Mount Lebanon and lived alone on what ravens brought him to eat. Captured by his enemies, he was brought before Diocletian and beaten with clubs weighted with lead and whips. When it was perceived that he was still alive, the saint was rolled in tar and set alight; but still he survived. Thrown into prison with the intention of letting him die of starvation, Erasmus managed to escape.
He was recaptured in the Roman province of Illyricum, after boldly preaching and converting numerous pagans to Christianity. This time his tortures included being forced to sit in a heated iron chair. Finally, according to this version of the legend, he was killed when his stomach was cut open and his intestine wound around a windlass. This late legend of his intestines being drawn out and wound around a windlass may have developed from his emblem of a windlass (signifying his patronage of sailors who use the windlass to wind up the anchor of their ships) being confused with an instrument of torture.
Elmo may have become the patron of sailors because he is said to have continued to preach even after a thunderbolt struck the ground beside him. This prompted sailors, who were in danger from sudden storms and lightning to claim his prayers. The electrical discharges at the mastheads of ships were read as a sign of his protection and came to be called "Saint Elmo's Fire."
Saint Gregory the Great recorded that his relics were preserved in the Formiae cathedral in the sixth century. When Formiae was razed by the Saracens in 842, the body of Elmo was translated to Gaeta (Benedictines, Bentley, Sheppard, White).
Saint Erasmus is depicted in art with his entrails wound on a windlass (Sheppard) or as a vested bishop holding a winch or windlass (White). On the web you can see Matthias Grünewald's The Disputation of Saint Erasmus and Saint Maurice and Nicholas Poussin's The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus.
Elmo is the patron saint of sailors and Gaeta (White). He is invoked against colic in children, cramp (Sheppard), and, as a result of his legendary form of martyrdom, the pain of women in labor (White), as well as cattle pest (Roeder).
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