January 1
Almachius (+ 391)
Martyr
Roman Martyrology
At Rome, Saint Almachius, who, while attending the gladiatorial games, was put to death by the gladiators on the orders of Alypius, prefect of the city, and was numbered among the victorious martyrs.
Practical advice
Intervene with courage and peace when an entertainment or custom violates someone’s dignity.
Biography
(Telemachus, Almagnio, Almaquino).
Strong warrior.
Telemachus was an Eastern monk who happened to be in Rome. When he saw the bloody spectacle of the gladiators in the circus, he rushed into the arena to stop it, crying out: “Abandon the superstitions of idols and impure sacrifices.” He was killed by the gladiators on the orders of the prefect Alypius, according to the “Martyrologium Hieronymianum,” or stoned by the crowd, which was unwilling to lose its entertainment. Emperor Honorius then prohibited these festivities (Theodoret, “Ecclesiastical History,” 5, 26). He carried the demands of peace to the point of martyrdom.
Father H. Delehaye, the Bollandist, considers this a historical martyrdom and holds that, despite certain difficulties concerning the details, the martyr’s true name was Almachius and that his martyrdom took place around the year 400.