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 that 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 2 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 diocess, much frequented by pilgrims. See the Bollandists.
Butler’s Lives of the Saints
