Here is the honest truth about Saint expedite: the historical record is then. There isn’t a lot written down about him, and some of what was written down is disputed. But what we do have is worth knowing.

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The oldest written mention of him comes from a document called the Hieronymian Martyrology. A martyrology is basically a list of Christian martyrs or people who died for their faith. This particular list was put together in 400 CE, making it one of the oldest of its kind. In it, there is a short entry that name six Roman soldiers who were executed together on April 19 in a city called Melitrne, which is located and what is now Malatya, Turkey. One of those six names is expedited.

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The entry reads: in the military city of Armenia -- Hermogenes, Gagus, Experditus, Aristonicus, Rufus, and Galata crowned on the same day.” “Crowned” here means crowned with martyrdom, or they died for their faith, together, on the same day.

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If expedite was stationed in Melitene at the beginning of the fourth century, he was most likely a member of the Legio XII Fulminata, the thundering Legion. This was an elite army unit originally formed by Julius Caesar, test with guarding the Euphrates River crossing. His name, Expeditus, actually means “soldier without a pack” in Latin. A light infantry man, fast and unencumbered. In other words, his name meant ready to move.

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Tradition holds that he was a Roman centurion or officer who converted to Christianity and was beheaded for it around 303CE, during the reign of emperor Diocletian.

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Now here is where it gets complicated.

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A famous scholar of saints named Hippolyte Delehaye spent years studying old martyrologies and found many, many copyist errors, places were monks, copying the documents by hand had accidentally written the wrong name. He believed the name “Expeditus” might actually be a miss reading of a more common name, “Elpidius.” In other words, Expedite’s name might have been a mistake that got repeated for central.

The Catholic Church took this seriously. In 1905, Pope Pius X removed Expedite’s name from the official list of martyrs and tried to ban his image from churches. That attempt failed completely. People kept his pictures. They kept his altars. They kept praying to him.

In 1969, the Church officially removed his feast day from the universal calendar as part of a larger review of saints with uncrtain histories. Buut local churches and dioceses were still allowed to honor hi,, and many do, especially in places where devotion to him runs deep.

Here is the bottom line: we cannot say with certainty whether a man named Expeditus existed, or whether that name is accurate. What we cab say is that veneration of him has existed at least since the Middle Ages, has survived every attempt to suppress it, and has only grown stronger over time. For many people of faiths and practice, that is evidence enough.