St Herculanus (7th November)

Fresco (late 15th century) by Benedetto Bonfigli showing
Totila's siege of Perugia, the execution of St Herculanus and
the subsequent recovery of his relics
Cappella dei Priori

According to the "Dialogues" ofSt Gregory, St Herculanus was bishop of Perugia in 549, when it fell to Totila after a siege of four years.  According to a later tradition, as starvation took hold of the city, St Herculanus fattened a lamb (or perhaps an ox) with the last remaining grain in the city and threw it over the wall to convince the Goths that their siege would fail.  However, a young deacon betrayed this subterfuge, and Totila therefore pressed the siege to a successful conclusion.  He has St Herculanus beheaded and flung from the city walls. 

He was buried where he fell, along with a young boy (sometimes said to have been the traitor) who had died nearby.  After 40 days, the rest of the citizens were allowed to return, and they bravely recovered the corpse.  While the young boy's body had been eaten by worms, that of St Herculanus miraculously showed no sign of beheading or subsequent corruption.  His relics were translated to a church that the Dialogues identifiy as San Pietro.

This legend was later absorbed into the Legend of the Twelve Syrians, according to which St Brictius ordained St Herculanus (his nephew) as Bishop of Perugia in ca. 363.

The relics of St Herculanus were subsequently translated on a number of occasions:

• to San Stefano del Castellare in 933;

• to the old Duomo in 966; and

• to the high altar of its successor, the present Duomo, in 1487. 

In 1609, Bishop Napoleone Comitoli placed them in a sarcophagus (4th century) that had been discovered in that year in a small church outside Perugia, and translated them to Sant’ Ercolano.  This sarcophagus now forms the high altar of the church.