Saint of the Day – 22 October – Saint Abericus (Died 2nd Century) Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia. Also known as – Abercius of Geropoli, Abercius of Hieropolis, Abercio…
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Hierapolis, in Phrygia, St Abericus, Bishop, who flourished under the Emperor Marcus Antonius.”
The life of Saint Abericus was written in the 4th Century, two centuries after his death. Naturally, elements were added to the actual events, about which perhaps, little was known. This rendered certain harsh responses from secular historians, considering Abericus a figure little more than fictional.
But Abericus would be vindicated when in 1882, in Kelendre, near ancient Hierapolis, the Capital of Salutari Phrygia, the Archaeologist William Ramsay, discovered a Greek inscription embedded in a pillar. They were precisely the beginning and end of the Epitaph of Bishop Abericus which had been preserved from his lifetime.
The following year, 1883, Ramsay himself discovered two more fragments of the central part of the Epitaph which was thus fully confirmed. The prestigious Relic was donated to Pope Leo XIII in 1892, on the occasion of his Jubilee and is, therefore, now preserved in the Lapidary Gallery of the Lateran Museum in Rome. The text of this Epitaph is one of the most precious documents for the history of Christianity, as it attests to its diffusion and, certain dogmatic and liturgical characteristics, at a time which is certainly not later than 216.
Here is this important Relic:
“Citizen of a chosen city, I have made this monument to myself while alive, to have here a worthy burial for my body.
I am called Abericus, disciple of the Chaste Shepherd Who feeds flocks of sheep on mountains and plains; He has large eyes which look down on everything.
He taught me the Scriptures, worthy of faith; He sent me to Rome to contemplate the palace and see a Queen with golden robes and shoes; I saw there, a people who wear a shining seal.
I also visited the plain of Syria and all its cities and, beyond the Euphrates, Nisibis and, everywhere I found brothers … having Paul with me and faith guided me everywhere and He gave for food the very large, pure fish from the stream, which the chaste Virgin Mother is accustomed to catch and offer to her faithful friends everyday for eating, having an excellent wine which she is accustomed to give with the bread. I, Abercius, have had these things written here, in my presence, being seventy-two years old.
Whoever understands what I say and thinks as I do, let him pray for Abericus.
Let no-one place another in my Tomb, otherwise he will pay two thousand gold coins to the Roman treasury and one thousand to my beloved country.”
AnaStpaul 