Saint Placidus - Confusion With Another Placidus

Confusion With Another Placidus

There seems now to be no doubt that the Passio S. Placidi, purporting to be written by one Gordianus, a servant of the saint, on the strength of which he is usually described as abbot and martyr, is really the work of Peter the Deacon, a monk of Monte Cassino in the twelfth century (see Hippolyte Delehaye, op. cit. infra).

The writer seems to have begun by confusing Saint Placidus with the earlier Placitus or Placidus, who, with Euticius and thirty companions, was martyred in Sicily under Diocletian, their feast occurring in the earlier martyrologies on 5 October. Having thus made Saint Placidus a martyr, he proceeds to account for this by attributing his martyrdom to Saracen invaders from Spain - an utter anachronism in the sixth century but quite a possible blunder if the Acta were composed after the Moslem invasions of Sicily. The whole question is discussed by the Bollandists.

The study that accompanied the revision in 1969 of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints states: "Saint Placidus, the disciple of Saint Benedict, is now universally distinguished from Saint Placidus, the unknown martyr in Sicily".