Career
According to Lactantius and Eusebius, Gorgonius held a high position in the household of the emperor. When the persecution began he was consequently among the first to be charged, and with his companions, Peter, Dorotheus and several others, brutally tortured to death. The first to be exposed was Diocletian"s butler, Peter, surnamed Cubicularius ("valet, chamberlain"), who was strung up, his flesh torn from his bones.
In the meantime, Peter was boiled or burned alive, or “roasted on a gridiron.”
From there in the 8th century the remains were translated by Saint Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz to the monastery of Gorze in Lorraine.
Some of the relics were translated to Minden. Many French churches obtained portions of the saint"s body from Gorze, but in the chaos of the French Revolution, most of these relics were lost.
Saint, who has sometimes been confused with Gorgonius of Nicomedia, is an early Roman martyr commemorated on 9 September. All that is known of him is his name and that he was buried on a 9 September in the cemetery known as "Inter duas lauros" (between the two laurel trees) on the Via Labicana.
Epigram 24 of Pope Damasus I
Martyris hic tumulus magno sub vertice montis
Gorgonium retinet, servat qui altaria Christi. hic, quicumque venit, sanctorum limina quaerat,
inveniet vicina in sede habitare beatos,
ad caelum pariter pietas quos vexit euntes.
Translation: This martyr"s tomb beneath a great hilltop holds Gorgonius, guardian of the altars of Christ. Whoever comes to seek here the thresholds of the saints will find that in the nearby dwelling abide the blessed whom likewise, as they went, piety bore to heaven. The different Gorgonii seem to have been frequently confused.
The Catholic Encyclopaedia mentions others of the same name of whom virtually nothing is known and who have almost identical feast dates.
These seem to be echoes of those named above. Gorgonius was also the name of a man ridiculed by Horace in his satires for having an "ill smell".(Satire 12, 27)
San Gorgonio Mountain near San Bernardino, California was named by Spanish missionaries in honor of Saint Gorgonius in the 1800s.
