Martiri Tebei

Maybe they could just be a legend. However, over the centuries, the Theban Martyrs have generated a whole host of modern traditions and myths. At the origin of the cult is the testimony of Saint Eucherius, bishop of Lyon in the first half of the 5th century, who assigned to the Theban Martyrs an echo which, in alternating phases, has come down to us, finding notable affirmation in popular devotion In this book the author offers an in-depth analysis of the cult of the Theban Martyrs: the sources available to the historian are studied in order to understand how they may have fueled the formation of the cult. The chapter on the evangelization of the piedmont region and the one on the figure of the holy martyr are fundamental. Other chapters analyze the biography of some "famous" Thebans and the many aspects of the cult which finds its fertile humus in rites, cults, relics and in a flowery anecdote in which hagiography, legend and echoes of pagan practices coexist in close symbiosis.