Andeolus

Andeolus or Andéol is an alleged Christian missionary martyred in Gaul.

Narrative Andeolus was reportedly born in Smyrna in the 2nd century. A deacon, he was sent by Polycarp, along with Benignus, to evangelize southern Gaul. According to The Passio of Saint Benignus, they were shipwrecked on Corsica but managed to make their way to Marseilles. From there they travelled up the Rhone River and the Saône, reaching Autun, they converted Symphorianus, son of the noble Faustus. Symphorianus was later martyred for his faith as Saint Symphorian. Andeolus then went to the Vivarais.

Septimius Severus, passing through that region, had him put to death. He was executed on May 1, 208, at Bergoiata, a Gallic settlement on a rocky peak over the Rhône River which would be later known as Bourg-Saint-Andéol. The body, thrown into the Rhone, was later found and placed in a sarcophagus by a rich Roman woman, Anycia or Amycia Eucheria Tullia (Blessed Tullie), daughter of senator Eucherius Valerianus (Eucherius of Lyon).

A sarcophagus, purported to be that of Andeolus, was rediscovered in 1865 during excavations in the St. Polycarp chapel of the eleventh-century church in Bourg-Saint-Andéol (Ardèche).

Analysis Johann Peter Kirsch says that while it is a historical fact that Benignus suffered martyrdom in a persecution of the third century and was publicly honored as a martyr, early in the sixth century no particulars concerning the person and life of Benignus were known at Dijon. Kirsch says, "They are all falsifications by the same hand and possess no historical value."