St. Erasmus of Formiae
Saint Erasmus of Formia, died about 303 AD C. also known as St. Elmo is the patron saint of sailors. James of Voragine in his Golden Legend, recognized as a bishop of Formiae and Campania, a hermit of the Lebanese mountains and a martyr killed during the persecutions of the Byzantine emperor Diocletian. According to legend, when the persecutions of Diocletian began, Erasmus was forced to appear being a judge, beaten and spat on him after he caused lacerations that were to be bursting veins. Erasmus suffered these torments with a great presence of mind. They put him in a pit full of snakes and worms, sprayed with boiling oil and covered their hands with sulfur, but he withstood all these ordeals with a stoicism formidable "thanking and praising God." A terrible storm swept over his tormentors Erasmo saving them from certain death, the Saints were protecting him. Diocletian made him put on another waiting narrower pit of snakes and worms killed him. A Diocletian was succeeded b...