According to Pope Gregory the Great in his Dialogues,[1] Herculanus suffered martyrdom when Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, captured Perugia in 549.

This was meant to give the Ostrogoth forces the impression that the Perugians had food to spare, and were able to feed a weak lamb with their precious grain.

However, the Ostrogoth soldier who had to perform this task took pity on the bishop and decapitated Herculanus before the flaying had been completed.

Gregory writes that forty days after the head of Herculanus had been cut off, it was found to have been miraculously reunited to his body.

[3] The inhabitants of the castle of Cisterna in Umbria, above the River Puglia, were under Perugian rule, and were obliged to send three pounds of wax to Perugia for the feast of St Herculanus.