Abstract:
The anonymous collection of fifth-century Gallic sermons
known as the Eusebius Gallicanus contains one especially striking entry. Sermon eleven, which honors the martyrs killed in
Lyon in the persecution of 177 ce, includes an extensive address
to the city of Bethlehem, in the persona of Lyon. This address
systematically denigrated the martyrdom value of the children
commonly known as the “Holy Innocents,” who were killed by
Herod in his efforts to destroy the Christ-child. These children
become a rhetorical foil by which to elevate the martyrs of Lyon,
who were depicted by the preacher as superior, and whose sufferings were described in gruesome detail. Bethlehem here
served as a counterpoint, and the subject of a very strange urban
rivalry. It was a statement of local and parochial pride, which
nonetheless also placed Lyon upon an international stage, in a manner which reflected some of the tensions surrounding the
development and promotion of saints’ cults in this period.
