Pelagius

Although the name of Pelagius most commonly refers in Christian circles to the heretic, a native of the British Isles, who first propounded the doctrine of Pelagianism, the name was also borne by two Popes -

• Pelagius I (556-61)
• Pelagius II (579-90)

and at least two male and three female (Pelagia) saints -

• Saint Pelagius (or Pelayo) of Cordova, a youthful martyr, (c 912-925); a hostage to the Andalusian Moors, tortured to death by Emir Abd al-Rahman III.
• Saint Pelagius of Constance (283), a child martyr supposedly put to death in Pannonia during the persecution of Emperor Numerian (reigned 282-284). He is patron saint of Constance (Switzerland) owing to the transfer of his relics thither in the tenth century.
• Pelagia the Penitent, almost certainly apocryphal.
• Pelagia of Antioch (d. c. 304), virgin martyr
• Pelagia of Tarsus (tempore Emperor Diocletian, 244-311); virgin martyr, roasted to death

There has also been a King Pelagius, in Asturias, then a kingdom in the Iberian peninsula, now a region of Spain (in the north). He was the founder of the Kingdom, ruling from 718 until his death in 737.

"The idea that the various fictitious Pelagias and Marinas (being translations of the same name, 'of the sea', in Greek and Latin respectively) are a christianized version of Aphrodite (Greek) or Venus (Latin) has been examined and firmly rejected by Hippolyte Delahaye [Delahaye, H. (1962) The Legends of the Saints, London, Chapman] (Attwater, 1965).