Aphrodisius

Aphrodisius († probably 3rd century in Beziers ) was, according to legend the first Bishop of Beziers.

Gregory of Tours reported that Aphrodisius was an Egyptian who had suffered in the Languedoc with his companions Caralippus, Agapius and Eusebius martyred.

According to legend, Aphrodisius have received the Holy Family during their flight to Egypt in Heliopolis. He was later, when he heard of the miracles that Christ had accomplished, traveled from Egypt to Palestine and have received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He had then traveled together with Paul of Narbonne in the south of Gaul, where Paul had become bishop in Narbonne, while Aphrodisius had moved on to a camel to Béziers, where he had settled as a hermit in a cave. He would later become bishop of the city, but was later beheaded by locals. Aphrodisius was then lifted his own head and be drawn with this under the arm through the streets of the city. Some citizens had placed him worm in the way, be entered on the Aphrodisius without one of them to destroy. He was mocked by stonemasons on the roadside, which were then transformed into stones, or so the local legend to explain the seven stones along the Rue des Tetes. Aphrodisius was eventually moved with his head up to his cave and died there and was buried. Here initially brought an Petruskapelle, later a basilica, which was named after Aphrodisius.

In the 9th century Ado of Vienne, in his report on Paul of Narbonne also Aphrodisius without a martyrdom to mention. This emerged only much later, in the 16th century, in legends, which then also the first report of a camel. Commemoration of the Holy is 28 April. On this day, a wooden camel is in Beziers traditionally performed through the city to this day.

It is likely that Aphrodisius not already, as legend has it, has suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Nero, but that it in fact a person from the 3rd century, ie without reference to the Holy Family or Pentecost, is also there Paul of Narbonne belongs to the time of the persecution of Christians under Decius, while previously equated it with Sergius Paulus, the proconsul mentioned in the Acts of Cyprus.