Saint Eliphius or Eloff (''Élophe, Éliphe, Alophe'') is venerated as a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

and

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

. Tradition holds that he was the child of a king of

Scotia Scotia is a Latin placename derived from ''Scoti'', a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century.Duffy, Seán. ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2005. p. 698. The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" aro ...

, and preached in

Toul Toul () is a Communes of France, commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle Departments of France, department in north-eastern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Geography Toul is between Commercy and Nancy, Fra ...

, where he converted 400 people to Christianity. He was accompanied by his siblings: St. Eucharius, and three sisters, Menna, Libaria, and Susanna. Tradition also makes him a

bishop of Toul The Diocese of Toul was a Roman Catholic diocese seated at Toul in present-day France. It existed from 365 until 1802. From 1048 until 1552 (''de jure'' until 1648), it was also a state of the Holy Roman Empire. History The diocese was erect ...

. In regard to their alleged royal and Irish birth, James Henthorn Todd states that "we cannot place much reliance on the statement that they were the children of a king of Scotia. Their names are not Irish." In the 12th century, Abbot Rupert of Duitz (''Rupertus Tuitiensis''), author of the ''Acts'' of the saint, was of the opinion that Eliphius and his siblings were natives of Toul. In his ''History of Lorraine'',

Antoine Augustin Calmet Antoine Augustin Calmet, (; 26 February 167225 October 1757), a French Benedictine abbot, was born at Ménil-la-Horgne, then in the Duchy of Bar, part of the Holy Roman Empire (now the French department of Meuse, located in the region of Lor ...

does not mention Scotia (which can refer to Ireland or Scotland) and states that according to some scholars, Eliphius could be a native of

Soulosse-sous-Saint-Élophe Soulosse-sous-Saint-Élophe () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and te ...

or Gran;In the 18th century,

Augustin Calmet Antoine Augustin Calmet, (; 26 February 167225 October 1757), a French Benedictine abbot, was born at Ménil-la-Horgne, then in the Duchy of Bar, part of the Holy Roman Empire (now the French department of Meuse, located in the region of ...

made a scholarly, but unsuccessful, attempt to determine the location of "Gran". He found that the name only appears in the older records. He suggested that "Gran" might be a French contraction of the Latin ''Urbs grandis'' ("the big town"), and to have referred within the neighbourhood of

to that town itself. (). Another possibility is the nearby town of

Grand Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...

. as well as the princely son of a man named Baccius.

Veneration

All of the siblings, except Menna, were beheaded at or near Toul, at the order of

Julian the Apostate Julian (; ; 331 – 26 June 363) was the Caesar of the West from 355 to 360 and Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of Neoplatonic Hellenism ...

. They were buried at Mount Eliph. The ''

Lorsch Codex The Lorsch Codex (Chronicon Laureshamense, Lorscher Codex, Codex Laureshamensis) is an important historical document created between about 1175 to 1195 AD in the Lorsch Abbey, Monastery of Saint Nazarius in Lorsch, Germany. The codex is handwrit ...

'' mentions the donation of the relics of St. Eliphius to the Great St. Martin Church, Cologne and was the second named patron of the church.Paul Clemen, Die Kirchlichen Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Köln II, page 354. These relics were later

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 Toul.

Sources

{{authority control 362 deaths Irish Roman Catholic saints