Tegulus () is venerated as a member of the legendary
Theban Legion
The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum) figures in Christianity, Christian hagiography as a Roman legion from Roman Egypt, Egypt —"six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men" — consisting of Christian soldiers
who were marty ...
, whose members were led by
Maurice in the 3rd century.
The center of Tegulus' cult is at
Ivrea
Ivrea (; ; ; ) 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 straddles the Dora Baltea and is ...
.
Veneration of Tegulus actually arose at the end of the 10th century, when during the episcopate of
Warmondus
Warmund, in Latin ''Warmundus'' (died 1002×1011), was the bishop of Ivrea from about 966 until his death. Warmund is the namesake of the so-called , an illustrated manuscript produced for him around the year 1000.
Nothing is known with certainty ...
(Varmondo), the Tegulus's
relics
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...
were discovered in a
sepulcher
A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () 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 ''immurement'', althou ...
situated a short distance away from Ivrea.
The relics were
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 Diocese of Ivrea () is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church 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 suffragan of ...
within the city walls, and placed in the chapel of San Giacomo.
The relics were later translated, with those of
Bessus
Bessus or Bessos (; ), also known by his throne name Artaxerxes V ( ; ; died summer 329 BC), was a Persian satrap of the eastern Achaemenid satrapy of Bactria, as well as the self-proclaimed King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 330 to 3 ...
, to the chapel of Santissimo Sacramento.
According to local tradition, Tegulus survived the
decimation of his legion but was eventually
beheaded
Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...
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