Saint Telemachus

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Saint Telemachus, (died 404 AD), was a monk who, according to Catholic tradition, intervened in a gladiator fight in the Roman colosseum and was stoned to death by the crowd. The Christian Emperor Honorius however was impressed by the monk's martyrdom and it spurred him to issue an edict banning gladiator fights. The last known gladiator fight in Rome was on January 1st 404 AD so this is usually given as the date of Telemachus' martyrdom.

The story is found in the writings of Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus (393-457 A.D.) but there is no other evidence of the existence of Telemachus and most mainstream historians do not agree with the Catholic tradition that the colosseum or gladiator games ended by an act of Telemachus. If the events did happen as described and directly caused an edict to be issued it would almost certainly have been noted in other sources of the time.

External links

http://prayerfoundation.org/favoritemonks/favorite_monks_telemachus_coliseum.htm

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