Earliest evidence of a cult of St. Christopher There is no evidence for the
historicity of the saint. It also mentions the names of the state ministers of the
Byzantine Empire and those church ministers who were involved in the church's construction and the consecration but provides no information on the person to whom the martyrium was dedicated other than the honorific and name blessed Christopher. The inscription attests to the veneration of a Saint Christopher in Asia Minor in the mid-5th century. The
Acts recount the miraculous missionary activities of
Saint Bartholomew who is accompanied by Saint Andrew and two other disciples (referred to together as the apostles). According to the
Acts, the apostles are sent by Jesus to convert the
Parthians. In Parthia they meet Gallinos, the governor. To prove the power of their god, the apostles perform miracles showing that their god has absolute power of the city's idols. In response, the devils dwelling in the city idols demand that the apostles be burned with fire. The apostles are held and tortured in many imaginative ways. They die, their bodies are cut up, burnt and the ashes thrown in the sea and the ashes swalled by a whale. Nevertheless they are resurrected. Gallinos then offers the apostles money to leave the city. When they refuse, the city's people drive them out. The apostles then travel in the direction of the city of the cannibals. A dog-headed individual of four cubit tall leaves the city of the cannibals to look for a human to eat but does not find food all day. An angel appears to him who baptizes him. As a result he loses his animal nature and acquires the ability to speak as a human. He is tasked by the angel to assist Saints Bartholomew and Andrew in converting the city of the cannibals. When he meets the saints and their two disciples they are initially afraid of him but he calms down their fears by telling them God has sent him to assist them in their mission. He tells them his name is 'Bewitched' (or the 'Damned', in the Arabic and Ethiopian versions he tells them his name is 'Bewitched' or 'Abominable'). The apostles say that from now on he will be called Christian (Christianus or Christomaios). They all set course to Parthia. Warned by satan, Gallinos closes the city gates when he hears of their approach. After Andrew has called on God to break down the gates, they enter the city. While under attack by the citizens and wild animals, Christomaios pleads with Andrew to obtain divine intervention so that he can reclaim his animal nature. Once he has become animal-like again he tears apart and eats the animals while many of the citizens die in the chaos. Andrew calms Christomaios and calls on God to send a fire to encircle the city. The governor and the leaders of the city plead for deliverance and make a declaration of faith in Jesus. The fire is extinguished and the apostels subsequently succeed in converting the city's people. At Christomaios' request, the dead people are resurrected. and Latin (one of which is known as BHL 1764, 8th century). , c. 986 The Western development of the legend begins with the German writer and later bishop
Walter of Speyer who wrote two versions of the legend in Latin, one in verse and the other in prose which were first completed in 986 under the title
Vita Sancti Christophori versibus et prosa oratione composita ('Life of the holy Christopher in verse and prose'). The legendary account that was to become the most influential in Europe is recounted in the 13th-century Latin
Legenda aurea (Golden Legend). Many vernacular versions of the Christopher legends were written during the Middle Ages. The various legends regarding the saint and the translations and elaborations differ and contradict each other in many ways.
Greek Martyrdom of Christophoros One of the oldest preserved written versions in Greek of the Christopher legend is the Martyrdom of Christophoros (referred to as BHG 309-310c). It starts with the issuing, in the fourth year of emperor Decius, of a decree requiring everyone to participate in heathen sacrificial rituals. A certain Reprebos is captured by the Romans in battle and then forced to join the Roman , i.e. a military unit made up by Marmaritae people. Reprebos is a physically repulsive Cynocephalus (i.e. a man with a dog's head) from a tribe of cannibals who is incapable of speaking "our language". After praying to God he is granted the gift of language. He goes to a city to confront those who persecute the Christians and is struck by one of the persecutors. Reprebus does not retaliate. The person who struck him sends a report on the fearfully looking Reprebos to the emperor. The emperor sends 200 soldiers to capture or kill Reprebos. While sitting down to pray in front of a church, a miracle occurs as the staff of Reprebos blossoms with new growth. This strengthens his resolve. Found by the soldiers, Reprebos refuses their offer to falsely report they did not find him and thus delay his arrest. On the way to the city, the soldiers complain about their poor rations. Reprebos miraculously produces five loaves of bread with the help of the angel Raphael. The soldiers at once want to become Christians and are baptised together with Reprebos by the bishop Babylas in Antioch in Syria. Reprebos takes his new name Christophoros. They travel on to Perga where Christophoros gets an audience with emperor Decius who is intimidated by his appearance. He refuses to yield to the emperor's pleas that he sacrifice to the heathen gods. He is then severely tortured. The emperor attempts to lure him into making sacrifices to the heathen idols by sending him two sex workers called Aquilina and Kallinike who have been attractively made up. Christophoros prays to God for strength and manages to convert the women. When the women are summoned to the emperor they choose cruel martyrdom over renunciation of their newly adopted faith. Aquilina is murdered by being hung by her hair with two stones tied to her feet. Kallinike first pretends that she agrees to sacrifice to the Greek gods but then turns around and insults the effigies of these gods and casts them down. She is executed by being impaled horizontally on a spit with stones hung from her hands and feet. The following day, the emperor again attempts to win over Christophoros, who remains steadfast in his faith. The 200 soldiers who had earlier converted declare to the emperor that they have become Christians and followers of Christophoros. After unsuccessfully trying to cajole them back to their pagan beliefs, Decius orders that they be executed immediately and their bodies be burned. Christophoros is then again tortured and burned alive on a pyre, yet he remains unharmed. One thousand people immediately convert to Christianity. They save him from the flames and taunt the emperor who flees. The emperor gets a visit from the devil disguised as a human who incites him against Christophoros. The next day the emperor orders everyone to sacrifice to the heathen gods. When Christopher and his band of converts resist the order, the crowd is subsequently massacred. Christopher is thrown down a well with a heavy stone around his neck but the stone is crushed and the saint lifted out of the well by angels. The emperor orders a bronze cape to be heated up and put on him, but the saint remains unharmed again. The emperor finally orders his beheading. While being led to the place of execution, Christophoros asks the soldier taking him there for a moment to pray. The aspiring martyr asks Jesus to cause the evil emperor to die in demonic torment eating his own flesh. He also prays for his bodily relics to be given the power to drive away demons and prevent agricultural scourges such as hail, acts of god, bad grape harvests and droughts. A voice from the heavens replies, granting the requests. Christophoros then convinces the soldier to behead him. The soldier agrees reluctantly and immediately commits suicide after the execution. The bishop of Attaleia pays a hefty sum to retrieve Christophoros's body, which becomes a source of miracles. Emperor Decius becomes afflicted by a terrible disease which dissolves his body. In summary, the brief ministry of the martyr has resulted not only in his own death but also the demise of 201 soldiers, two sex workers and at least 1,000 converted citizens as well as the serious illness of the emperor. He is initially called . The German bishop and poet
Walter of Speyer portrayed St. Christopher in his
Vita et passio sancti Christopher martyris as a giant of a cynocephalic species in the land of the Chananeans who ate human flesh and barked. Eventually, Christopher meets the infant Jesus, regrets his former behavior and receives baptism. He is further rewarded with a human appearance, whereupon he devotes his life to Christian service as an
athlete of God and one of the
soldier saints. Some Eastern Orthodox commmunities, particularly in south-eastern Europe, saw the development of legends in which St. Christopher was initially a handsome man rather than the ugly dog-headed saint of the traditional stories. An unpublished copy of the life of St. Christopher dated to the 13th century in the library of the
Great Lavra monastery on
Mount Athos recounts that this goodlooking St. Christopher came from a ridge of rocky hills resembling dog heads named Cynoscephale located near the ancient city of Scotussa in
Thessaly, Greece. This new detail in the story proposes an alternative explanation for why the earlier traditions mistakenly described the saint as having the head of a dog. According to a folk tradition in Cyprus, the martyr led a solitary life and was God-fearing and handsome, which attracted local women. Wanting to avoid temptation, St. Christopher prayed to God to disfigure him upon which he was given his dog head. ==Veneration and patronage==