Saint Tegulus ( it, San Tegulo, Tegolo) is venerated as a member of the legendary
Theban Legion
The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum) figures in Christian hagiography as a Roman legion from Egypt—"six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men"—who converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together in 286, acc ...
, whose members were led by
Saint Maurice
Saint Maurice (also Moritz, Morris, or Mauritius; ) was an Egyptians, Egyptian military leader who headed the legendary Theban Legion of Roman Empire, Rome in the 3rd century, and is one of the favorite and most widely venerated saints of that Ma ...
in the 3rd century.
The center of Tegulus' cult is at
Ivrea
Ivrea (; pms, Ivrèja ; ; lat, Eporedia) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley (part of the medieval Via Francigena), it stradd ...
.
Veneration for Saint Tegulus actually arose at the end of the 10th century, when during the episcopate of Blessed
Warmondus (Varmondo), the saint's
relics
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
were discovered in a
sepulcher
A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immuremen ...
situated a short distance away from Ivrea.
The relics were solemnly
translated
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
to the
cathedral of Ivrea
The Italian Catholic Diocese of Ivrea ( la, Dioecesis Eporediensis) is in Piedmont. For a time the diocese included the territory which had once been the diocese of Aosta, suppressed in 1803 but restored in 1817. Up until 1517 Ivrea was a suffrag ...
within the city walls, and placed in the chapel of San Giacomo.
The relics were later translated, with those of
Saint Bessus
Saint Bessus, sometimes ''Besse'', ( it, San Besso) is venerated as a member of the legendary Theban Legion, whose members were led by Saint Maurice and were martyred for their Christianity, Christian faith in the 3rd century. Except for St. Maur ...
, to the chapel of Santissimo Sacramento.
According to local tradition, Tegulus survived the
decimation
Decimation, Decimate, or variants may refer to:
* Decimation (punishment), punitive discipline
* Decimation (signal processing), reduction of digital signal's sampling rate
* Decimation (comics), 2006 Marvel crossover spinoff ''House of M''
* ''D ...
of his Legion but was eventually
beheaded
Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...
on the road to
Montaldo Dora, at the spot later occupied by the chapel of Santa Croce, which was built in the 14th century.
However, nothing certain was known of him, though he may have been a local Christian martyred for his faith during the last imperial persecutions;
his cult was linked with that of the Theban Legion to lend antiquity to a local saint about whom nothing was really known.
Damiano Pomi theorizes that the relics may have been the remains of a soldier that were mistaken for those of a Christian martyr.
The name Tegulus, as Pomi also theorizes, may in fact not have been his name at all, but a reference to the building material commonly used for Roman graves: the ''tegula'' or tile.
References
External links
*{{in lang, it}
San Tegulo (Tegolo)
3rd-century Christian martyrs
Year of birth unknown