Christian Pacifist Monk and Martyr Telemachus

About the Christian monk and martyr Telemachus, history and biography of the pacifist who was against Roman gladiators.

THE PEACE LOVERS

TELEMACHUS (?--404)

His Person: Christian monk and martyr. Opposed Roman gladiatorial combats. Traveled from Asia Minor to throw himself between the gladiators with a cross in his hands, calling on them in the name of Christ to stop fighting. Beaten to death by furious spectators. His death caused such a sense of revulsion that the Emperor Honorius issued a rescript forbidding all gladiatorial combats. (Mahatma Gandhi, 16 centuries later, remarked that if a single person achieves the highest kind of love, "it will be sufficient to neutralize the hate of millions.")