August Martyrs

THE MARTYRS OF AUGUST
Living With The Daily Martyrology of the Church

“Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? … My chalice indeed you shall drink!” (Matthew 20:22-23).

AUGUST 1ST
The Martyrs of the Day
THE SEVEN HOLY BROTHERS
Martyred in the Twelfth Century, around 1160

The Seven brothers, called Machabees, are holy Jewish martyrs, whom the Catholic Church commemorates in Her liturgy for August 1st, who suffered death in the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, the impious king of Syria. The Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, and were allowed to form themselves into a republic, to govern themselves by their own laws, and live according to their own religion. Their privileges were much extended by Artaxerxes Longimanus; but their liberty was limited and dependent, and they lived in a certain degree of subjection to the Persian kings, and shared the fate of that empire under Alexander the Great, and after his death under the Seleucidæ, kinga of Syria.

Antiochus III (the sixth of these kings) was complimented with the surname of The Great, on account of his conquests in Asia Minor, and his reduction of Media and Persia; though these two latter provinces soon after submitted themselves again to the Parthians. But this prince met afterwards with great disgraces, especially in his war with the Romans, who curtailed his empire, taking from him all his dominions which lay west of Mount Taurus, a good part of which they bestowed on Eumenes. He was likewise obliged to give up to them all his armed galleys, and all his elephants, to pay to them for twelve years the annual tribute of one thousand talents (or two hundred and fifty-eight thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds sterling), and one hundred and forty thousand modii of the best wheat (or thirty-five thousand English bushels), and to send to Rome twenty hostages, of which his son Antiochus was to be one.

In Elymais, a province of Persia, between Media and the Persian gulf, which, from the death of Alexander, was governed by its own kings, there stood two famous rich temples, the one of Diana, the other of Jupiter Belus. Antiochus, after his fall, being in extreme want of money, marched to Elymais, and in the night plundered this temple of Belus; but the inhabitants pursued and slew him, and recovered the treasure. The Jews had often done important services to this king, and to several of his predecessors, particularly in the reign of his father, Seleucus II. When a numerous army of Gauls or Galatians had invaded Babylonia, and the Syrians and Macedonians had not courage to meet them in the field, six thousand Jews boldly attacked, and, by the divine assistance, defeated and repulsed them, having slain a hundred and twenty thousand of them.

Seleucus III, eldest son of Antiochus, succeeded him in the throne, and continued for some time to favor the Jews as his father had done. The Jews were then in such high esteem, that sovereign princes courted their friendship, and made magnificent presents to the temple; and Seleucus furnished out of his own treasury all the expenses of it. Judæa enjoyed a profound peace; and their laws were observed with a religious strictness under their worthy high-priest Onias III, until a misunderstanding which happened between him and Simon, a powerful man of the tribe of Benjamin, and governor of the temple, brought a series of evils on the whole nation.

This contest grew to such a height, that Simon, finding he could not carry his iniquitous design into execution, or get the better of the zealous high-priest, who had then held that dignity about sixteen years, went away to Apollonius, governor of Cœlesyria and Palestine under Seleucus, and acquainted him, that there were immense treasures deposited in the temple of Jerusalem, which might be seized upon for the king’s use. The governor sent to inform Seleucus of the matter, who, being in distress for money to pay the Roman tribute, was taken with the bait, and despatched Heliodorus to fetch the treasure away to Antioch.

When this officer was arrived at Jerusalem, and had disclosed his commission to the high-priest, the pontiff made the strongest remonstrances against the sacrilegious attempt, urging that the sacred treasure consisted of things consecrated to God, or the deposits of orphans and widows. Heliodorus, still intent upon executing the king’s orders, entered the place with a body of armed men; and, as he was about to seize upon the treasure, there appeared a man on horseback in shining armour, who flew upon him with the utmost fury, and whose horse struck him with his fore feet. There were seen at the same time two other young men, strong, beautiful, and glorious; who, standing by him, one on each side, scourged him severely. Heliodorus fell down to the ground half dead; and all who presumed to accompany him were struck with fear and trembling. Being carried out in a litter almost dead, he continued in this condition till some of his friends entreated Onias to call upon God to grant him his life; who, having offered a sacrifice for the man’s recovery, he was restored to health.

He thereupon went back to Antioch, and made a Faithful relation to the king of all that had befallen him; adding that, if he had any enemy whom he desired to get rid of, he needed but send him to rifle that sacred place, and he would see him come back in such a condition, as would convince him, that the Jewish temple was under the protection of some divine and irresistible power. Heaven did not long defer punishing this king for his sacrilegious attempt, by that very hand which he had employed in it. Seleucus had agreed with the Romans to send his own son Demetrius, then ten years old, to remain an hostage at Rome in the place of his brother Antiochus, who should be allowed to return to Syria.

During the absence of the two heirs to the crown, Heliodorus cut off Seleucus by poison, and placed himself on the throne. Antiochus, who was then at Athens on his return, obtained by great promises the assistance of Eumenes, king of Pergamus, and of Attalus, that king’s brother, who led him into Syria with a powerful army, and driving out the usurper, left him in quiet possession of the kingdom. Antiochus took the title of Epiphanes, or The Illustrious, though by the whole series of his life he better deserved that of Vile or Despicable, which was given him long before his birth by the prophet Daniel, and which is confirmed by Polybius and Philarchus, his contemporaries, quoted by Athenæus.

Livy and Diodorus Siculus say, that he would frequently ramble about the streets of Antioch with two or three lewd companions, drink and carouse with the dregs of the people, and intrude himself into the parties of the vilest rakes, and be their ringleader in wanton frolics, public lewdness, and a thousand ridiculous follies, without any regard to virtue, law, decency, or his royal character: above all other vices, he was addicted to drunkenness and lust, and most profuse and extravagant in squandering away his revenues.

Upon the death of Ptolemy Epiphanes in Egypt, and his widow Cleopatra, a war was lighted up between the Syrians and the two Ptolemies, the elder brother surnamed Philometor, and the younger Physcon or Big-bellied, who reigned sometimes jointly, and sometimes the one, sometimes the other alone, as their parties prevailed; though the latter survived, and was the most profligate and barbarous tyrant that ever reigned in Egypt.

Joshua or Jesus, the wicked brother of Onias, the good high-priest, blinded by ambition, changed his name into that of Jason, which he thought more conformable and pleasing to the Greeks, and repairing to Antiochus Epiphanes, as soon as he was settled on the throne, for the price of four hundred and forty talents of silver, procured from him the high-priesthood, and an order that Onias should not only be deposed, but sent to Antioch, and confined to dwell there. Jason, apostatizing in many articles from the Jewish religion, gave Antiochus another sum of a hundred and fifty talents of silver for the liberty of erecting at Jerusalem a gymnasium, or place of public exercises, such as were practiced in Greece, with an academy for training up youth in the fashion and manners of the heathen; and for the liberty of making such as he thought fit free of the city of Antioch.

By this bait he drew many into his apostasy, whom commerce with the heathens, and vanity or interest had already disposed to prefer worldly advantages to those which are to come. Jason had not enjoyed his ill-gotten dignity three years when another Jew, brother of the treacherous Simon above-mentioned, changed his name Onias into that of Menelaus, bought the high-priesthood of Antiochus for three hundred talents more, and outdid Jason in his apostasy, endeavoring to engage the Jews to forsake their religion, and wholly to conform to that of the heathens. He procured Onias, the true high-priest, to be put to death at Antioch.

Dreadful signs in the heavens prognosticated the evils that were to befall the city of Jerusalem. They were begun by the seditions raised by Jason and Menelaus. Upon a false report that Antiochus was slain in the Egyptian war, Jason came out of the land of the Ammonites, and at the head of a thousand men possessed himself of the city and temple of Jerusalem. But he was obliged to retire upon the approach of Antiochus, who led his army from Egypt to Jerusalem; and, in the space of three days, killed in that city four score thousand Jews, sold forty thousand to neighboring nations for slaves, and made as many more prisoners.

His fury did not stop here. He caused the traitor Menelaus, who had recovered his good graces, to lead him into the most holy recesses of the temple, and he laid his impious hands upon all that was most sacred. He seized the golden altar of incense, the golden table of the shew-bread, the golden candlestick, the censors, vessels, and other holy utensils, and the crowns, golden shields, and other ornaments which had been dedicated to the temple, besides one thousand eight hundred talents of gold and silver, which he forcibly took out of the treasury. He took away the gold plating that covered the gates, the veil of the innermost sanctuary, and all that was valuable, whether for its metal or workmanship. After this, leaving Philip, a most brutish Phrygian, governor of Judæa, and the impious Menelaus in possession of the high priesthood, he returned to Antioch in triumph, “thinking through pride, that he might now make the land navigable, and the sea passable on foot; such was the haughtiness of his mind.”

He thence set out at the head of a numerous army on another expedition into Egypt, having nothing less in view than the entire conquest of that rich kingdom. He reduced the country as far as Memphis, and there received the submission of most of the other cities and provinces. Thence he marched towards Alexandria, but at Eleusina, a village but four miles from that city, was met by Caius Popillius Lænas, Caius Decimius, and Caius Hostilius, three ambassadors sent by the Roman senate, with an order that he should suspend all hostilities, and put an end to the war; which, if he refused to do, the Roman people would no longer look upon him as their friend and ally. Popillius delivered to him this decree at the head of his army; and when the king desired leave to advise with his council about an answer, the ambassador drew a circle round him in the sand with the staff he held in his hand, and raising his voice said: “You shall not go out of this circle till you either accept or reject the proposal which is made you.”Hereupon the king answered: “I will do what your republic requires of me.”

Antiochus, exceedingly mortified at this check, led back his army; but being resolved to vent his rage upon the Jews, in his return detached Apollonius with twenty-two thousand men to plunder Jerusalem. Apollonius came to that city dissembling his design under an outward show of a peaceable intention. But on the next Sabbath day, when all things were in profound quiet he commanded his soldiers to go through the streets, and massacre all persons they should meet; which they did without the least resistance from the Jews, who suffered themselves to be butchered for fear of violating the Sabbath. About ten thousand persons who escaped the slaughter were carried away captives: and some others fled. Apollonius then ordered the city to be plundered, and afterwards set on fire. The walls were demolished, the service of the temple quite abandoned, and the holy place everywhere polluted. The temple itself was dedicated to Jupiter Olympius, and his statue was erected on the altar of burnt offerings, which was foretold by Daniel. 13 Sacrifices were begun to be offered to this abominable idol on the king’s birth-day, which was the 25th day of the month Casleu, which answers to part of our November and December.

About the same time the temple of the Samaritans on Mount Garizim was dedicated to Jupiter Hospitalis, or the Protector of Strangers; which implied that the Samaritans were not originally natives of that country, but a colony of strangers settled there. These latter strove to prevent the king’s orders, so ready were they to offer sacrifice to their abominable idol. Many also among the Jews, who professed the true religion, apostatized under this persecution; but others courageously sealed their fidelity to the law of God with their blood. Altars and statues were set up in every town of Judæa, and groves were in every part consecrated to idolatrous mysteries; and the Jews were compelled, under pain of death, to offer sacrifice to idols; so that the whole land became a scene of idolatry, debaucheries, and the most horrid butcheries. It was made immediate death to be caught observing the Sabbath, the rite of circumcision, or any other part of the Mosaic law.

Two women having been discovered to have circumcised their children, were led, with their infants hung about their necks, through the streets of Jerusalem, and at length thrown headlong from the walls. Great multitudes fled into the deserts, and hid themselves among craggy rocks in holes and caverns. Philip the governor being informed that a considerable number of Jews were assembled in caves to keep the Sabbath, marched against them with a sufficient force; and, after having in vain offered them a general amnesty if they would forsake their religion, caused them all, men, women and children, to be burnt. The persecutors committed to the flames the books of the law of God, and put to death every one with whom those books were found, and whoever observed the law of the Lord; but many determined that they would not eat unclean things, and chose rather to die than to be defiled with forbidden meats, or to break the holy law of God.

Among the glorious martyrs who preferred torments and death to the least violation of the divine law, one of the most eminent was Eleazer. He was one of the chief among the scribes or expounders of the law, a man ninety years old; and, notwithstanding his great age, of a comely aspect. His countenance breathing a mixture of majesty and sweetness, inspired all who approached him with veneration for his person, and confidence in his virtue. The persecutors flattered themselves that they should gain all the rest, if they could succeed in perverting this holy man, whose example held many others steadfast.

Him, therefore, they brought upon the butchering stage; and as it was their design not so much to torment as to seduce him, they employed successively threats and promises. Finding these weapons too feeble against so stout a soldier, they had recourse to a most ridiculous act of violence, opening his mouth by force that they might at least thrust into it some swine’s flesh; not considering that an action in which the heart has no share, can never be construed a criminal transgression of the law; but this free consent was what they could never extort from the martyr. To purchase life by such an infidelity he justly regarded as the basest infamy and crime; and, out of a holy eagerness rather to suffer the most dreadful torments and death, he courageously walked of his own accord towards the place of execution.

Certain Gentiles or apostates who were his friends, being moved with a false and wicked pity, taking him aside, desired that flesh might be brought which it was lawful for him to eat, that the people might believe that he had eaten swine’s flesh, and the king be satisfied by such a pretended obedience; but the holy old man rejected with horror the impious suggestion, and answered, that by such a dissimulation the young men would be tempted to transgress the law, thinking that Eleazer, at the age of fourscore and ten years, had gone over to the rites of the heathens; adding, that if he should be guilty of such a crime, he could not escape the hand of the Almighty, either alive or dead.

Having spoken thus, he was forthwith carried to execution; and they that led him were, by his resolute answer, exceedingly exasperated against him. When he was ready to expire under the stripes, he groaned, and said: “O Lord, Whose holy light pierces the most secret recesses of our hearts, Thou seest the miseries I endure; but my soul feeleth a real joy in suffering these things for the sake of Thy law, because I fear Thee.” With these words the holy man gave up the ghost, leaving, by his death, an example of noble courage, and a memorial of virtue to his whole nation.

The glorious conflict of this venerable old man was followed by the martyrdom of seven brothers, who suffered, one after another, the most exquisite torments, with invincible courage and constancy; whilst their heroic mother, divested of all the weakness of her sex, stood by, encouraging and strengthening them, in the Hebrew tongue, and last of all died herself with the same cheerfulness and intrepidity. Their victory was the more glorious because they triumphed over the king in person, who seems to have taken a journey to Jerusalem on purpose to endeavor, by the weight of his authority, and by the most barbarous inventions of cruelty, to overcome the inflexible constancy of men who were proof against all the artifices and most barbarous racks of his ministers.

Some moderns think they rather suffered at Antioch than at Jerusalem: but this latter city seems the theatre of this as well as the other transactions related by the sacred writer. By an order of Antiochus, these seven brothers were apprehended with their mother, and tormented with whips and scourges in order to compel them to eat swine’s flesh, against their divine law.

The eldest said to the tyrant: “We are ready to die rather than to transgress the laws of God.” The king being provoked at this resolute answer, commanded the frying pans and brazen caldrons to be made hot; then the tongue of him who had spoken thus to be cut out, and the skin of his head to be drawn off, and afterwards the extremities of his hands and feet to be chopped off, his mother and the rest of his brothers looking on. When he was maimed in all his parts, the tyrant commanded him, yet alive, to be brought to the fire, and to be fried in a pan. While he was suffering therein a long time, the other brothers and the mother exhorted one another to die manfully, because God, who is glorified by the fidelity of his servants, takes pleasure in beholding them suffering for his truth.

The first having thus ended his painful life, the guards advanced with his second brother. The executioner having flayed off all the hair and skin of his beard, face, and head, inquired whether he would eat of the meats the king commanded, before they proceeded any farther and tormented him? Finding, by his answer, that he was in the same noble resolution with his brother, they inflicted on him the same torments. When he was at the last gasp, he said to the king, with a courage and strength which God alone can inspire in those moments: “You indeed destroy our mortal life; but the King of the world for Whose laws we suffer, will raise us up in the resurrection of eternal life.”

After him the third was made a laughing-stock; and when he was commanded, he quickly put forth his tongue, and courageously stretched out his hands, saying with confidence: “These have I received from Heaven, and with pleasure resign them, to bear testimony to the laws of God; and I trust that I shall one day receive them again from the omnipotent hand of Him who gave them.” The king and his courtiers stood amazed at his courage, not understanding by what means religion could inspire such an excess of greatness of soul, by which a tender youth despised, in such an age, the most frightful torment.

The tyrant seeing his power set at nought and foiled grew more enraged than ever, and after this martyr was dead, without giving himself time to breathe, or to put any questions to the fourth, he commanded him to be flayed, his hands and feet maimed, and his body at length thrown into the burning pan; but he, looking upon the king, said: “Death is our advantage, who meet it with an assured hope in God that He will raise us up again. As for thee thou wilt have no share in the resurrection to eternal life.”

No sooner had his brother finished his course, but the fifth was brought forth to be butchered after the like manner, unless he chose to accept of the conditions of escape; but the executioners finding him resolute, they inflicted on him the same torments with those already mentioned. Being near his end, he told the king, that he ought not to imagine God had entirely forsaken his people, and that he had reason to tremble for himself, for he should very soon find himself and his family overtaken by the divine vengeance.

When he was dead the sixth youth was presently brought forward, and being put into the hands of the bloody executioners, on his refusal to comply with the king’s orders, they immediately fell to work, cutting, slashing, and burning him without being able to shake his constancy. Addressing himself also to the barbarous king in his latter moments he said: “Deceive not thyself; for though we suffer these things because we have offended God, do not flatter thyself that thou wilt escape unpunished: who hast attempted to fight against God.”

The admirable mother, animated by a lively Faith, saw her seven sons slain, one after another, by the most barbarous torments, in the space of one day. Filled with a heavenly wisdom, and more than heroic courage, she overcame the weakness of her sex, and giving nothing to nature, did not let drop one dangerous tear, which might have discouraged her children; all this time she thought of nothing but of securing their victory to which she animated them by the strongest and most inflamed exhortations. She bravely encouraged every one of them in her own language: “I know not how you were formed in my womb,” said she to them, “you received not a soul or life from me; nor did I frame your limbs. It is God, the Creator of the world, Who gave you all this; it is easy for Him to repair His own work, and He will again restore to you, in His mercy, that breath and life which you now despise for the sake of His laws.”

The tyrant all this while was intent only on the affront, which he thought put upon him by the courageous martyrs, who seemed to outbrave his power, to which he desired to make everything bend; and his mind was wholly taken up in carrying his impotent revenge to the utmost extremities; but his rage was turned into despair when he saw himself already so often vanquished, and that of these heroic brothers there now remained only one tender child alive. He earnestly desired at least to overcome him, and for this purpose he had recourse to that feigned compassion which tyrants often make so dangerous a use of, and by a thousand engaging caresses endeavored to seduce him. He called himself his master, his king, and his father; and promised him upon his oath, if he would comply with his desire and turn to his religion, he would make him rich, happy, and powerful; would treat him as his friend, and always rank him among his principal favorites; in a word, that his obedience should be recompensed beyond his utmost desires.

The youth not being yet moved, the king addressed himself also to the mother with a seeming compassion for her loss, and entreated her to prevail upon her only surviving child; in pity to herself at least to spare this small remnant of the family, and not give herself the affliction of having her whole offspring torn away from her at once. She joyfully undertook to give him counsel, but of a very different kind from that intended by the king; for, bearing towards her son, and leaning to his ear, she said in her own language:

“My dear child, now my only one, have pity on me thy mother, who bore thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age. Afflict me not by any base infidelity and cowardice. Look up to the heavens, behold the Earth, and the vast variety of creatures in both; and consider, I conjure thee, my son, that God made them all out of nothing, by his almighty power. This is the God whom thou adorest. Have him before thy eyes, and thou wilt not fear this bloody executioner. Show thyself worthy of thy brothers, and receive death with constancy; that I may have the comfort to see you all joined in martyrdom, and meet you in the place of eternal mercy and repose.” The young martyr had scarcely patience to hear his mother finish these words, but desiring ardently to complete his sacrifice, and to follow his brothers, cried out to his executioners: “For whom do you wait? I do not obey the command of the king, but the precept of the divine law.”

Then, addressing himself to the king, he said: “You, who glory in the invention of so much malice and evil against the Hebrews, shall not escape the hand of God. We suffer thus for our sins, yet God will be again reconciled to his servants. My brothers having now undergone a short pain, are under the covenant of eternal life. Like them I offer up my life and my body for the holy laws of our fathers, begging God to be speedily merciful to our people. In me and in my brothers the wrath of the Almighty, which has been justly brought upon our nation, shall cease.”

The king hearing him speak to this purpose, was no longer master of himself; but, condemning himself for having had this little spark of patience, resolved to wreak his vengeance on this tender child with greater excess and cruelty than he had done on all his brothers. This last therefore stood the utmost shock of the rage of the executioners, and exhausted both their invention and their strength. Persevering Faithful to his last breath, he deserved to receive the most glorious crown.

The mother, standing now alone amidst the mangled limbs of her seven sons, triumphed with joy, and embraced their dead bodies with greater tenderness than she had ever embraced them living. She sighed to arrive herself at the like crown of martyrdom, and prayed that God would give her a share in the glory of her sons, to survive whom one day would have been her grief. Antiochus, always the same tyrant, ashamed to yield, and incapable of relenting or forgiving, gave orders that the mother should likewise be tormented, and put to death. She therefore was cut off last of all. These martyrs suffered in the year of the world 3837, of the era of the Seleucidæ 145, before Christ 164.

Antiochus, covered with confusion and shame to see himself vanquished by a weak woman and her children, retired; giving everywhere the strictest orders for the extirpation of the Jewish religion; but God turned his rage and vain projects to his own disgrace and ruin, and raised his people again to a flourishing condition. This was effected by the glorious achievements chiefly of the sons of Mathathias, who, when the temple was profaned, had left Jerusalem, and retired into the mountains near Modin, his native place. He was an eminent priest, of the family of Joarib, which was the first of the twenty-four classes appointed by David to officiate in the temple. He was descended from Aaron by his eldest son and successor Eleazar, and was the son of John, the son of Simon, the son of Asmoneus, from whom the princes of this family, who afterwards reigned in Judæa, were called Asmoneans.

Mathathias was then very old, and had with him his five sons, John surnamed Gaddis, Simon surnamed Thasi, Judas called Machabeus, Eleazar, and Jonathan. When the officers of King Antiochus arrived at Modin, to compel all the Jews to forsake the true religion, he went to the town; and to encourage others to remain steadfast, declared to those officers that he would continue Faithful to God, and, imitating the zeal of Phineas, he slew an apostate who was going to offer sacrifice to an idol. After which he fled into the wilderness, and was followed by others. Dying soon after, in the hundred and sixty-sixth year before Christ, he appointed Judas Machabeus general.

This valiant captain, with six thousand men, defeated and slew Apollonius, the governor of Samaria, and a great persecutor of the Jews, who had marched against him with a numerous army. Seron, deputy-governor of Cœlesyria, under Ptolemy Macron, the chief governor, advanced with a fresh body of forces, but was overthrown and killed. Philip the Phrygian, governor of Jerusalem, sent to Antioch for succour. Antiochus, being absent beyond the Euphrates, Lysias, whom he had left regent, despatched forty thousand foot to Ptolemy Macron, governor of Cœlesyria and Phœnicia, with Nicanor and Gorgias, two experienced commanders; but Judas discomfited Nicanor, burned Gorgias’s camp, and when Timotheus, governor of the country beyond the Jordan, with Bacchides, another famous general, came up, he met and overthrew them in a set battle, killing twenty thousand of their men. Upon this news Lysias, the regent, came in person into Judæa with sixty thousand foot and five thousand horse.

Judas, by the divine assistance, gave him an entire overthrow, and obliged him to fly to Antioch. After the retreat of the enemy, Judas purified the temple, celebrated the dedication during eight days, and restored the sacrifices to the true God. This dedication was performed on the twenty-fifth of the month Casleu, in the hundred and sixtieth year before Christ, the second of Judas’s government, on the very day on which the temple had been polluted by the abomination of desolation, or the statue of Jupiter Olympius set up in it three years before. Judas prospered exceedingly, and performed exploits of valor against three Syrian kings and other enemies of the people of God, far more wonderful and more glorious than those of the most famous heroes recorded in profane history. He was no less eminent for virtue and religion. He died in battle with great honor in the hundred and fifty-seventh year before Christ, having been general six years, and executed the office of high-priest three years, as Josephus says.

Menelaus, the apostate high-priest, having been condemned to death by the young King Antiochus IV., or Eupator, son of Epiphanes, and smothered in ashes, Alcimus, an apostate of the race of Aaron, obtained of King Demetrius Soter (who by the murder of Antiochus Eupator, and his regent Lysias, had stepped onto the throne) the title of high-priest, and fought against Judas, and his religion and country. Onias, son of Onias III., to whom the high-priesthood belonged, upon the intrusion of Alcimus, retired to Alexandria, and with leave of Ptolemy Philometer built a temple at Heliopolis in Egypt for the Hellenistical Jews in the year 169 before Christ. Alcimus being struck with a palsy, and carried off by a miserable death, Jonathan, the worthy brother of Judas Machabeus, who after his death had been chosen general of the people of God, was appointed lawful high-priest in the hundred and fifty-third year before Christ, and was succeeded in both those dignities by his virtuous and valiant brother Simon.

The posterity of this last enjoyed the same, and are called the Asmonean princes. His son and immediate successor, John Hircanus, discharged the functions of that double office with virtue, wisdom, and valor; and added to his dominions Idumæa, Samaria, and Galilee, His sons Aristobulus (during a short reign of one year) and Alexander Jannæus, about one hundred and seven years before Christ, assumed the regal diadem and title, but degenerated from the virtue of their ancestors; and from their time pride, hypocrisy, and luxury, began to overrun the Jewish state and nation, and to pave the way to the most grievous of all crimes, the crucifixion of the Son of God, by which that ungrateful people completed the measure of their iniquities.

The servants of God equally triumphed, whether by a glorious death or by temporal victories in the cause of virtue. Infinitely different was the miserable conflict which the persecutor sustained with himself in the terrible agonies of his unhappy death. Antiochus being much distressed for money, his treasury being always drained by his perpetual follies and extravagant expenses, he marched with fifty thousand men beyond the Euphrates in quest of spoils; but attempting to plunder a rich temple in Persepolis, and afterwards another at Elymais, he was in both places repulsed by the inhabitants. Wherefore he fled with great grief and shame towards Babylonia, and met on the road about Ecbatana an express with news that Judas had defeated Lysias, taken his fortresses in Judæa, and exterminated the idol which he had set up.

Swelling with anger, he said he would march straight to Jerusalem, and make it a sepulcher of the Jews. In this fit of rage he commanded his chariot to be driven with the utmost speed, and without stopping. He had no sooner done speaking than God struck him with an incurable disease, and a dreadful pain in his bowels came upon him, and bitter torments of the inner parts. Still breathing revenge in his rage against the Jews, and travelling in great haste, he fell from his chariot, and his body was grievously bruised. Then he, who seemed to himself to command the waves of the sea, and to be raised above the condition of man, being cast down to the ground was carried in a litter, worms swarmed out of his body, and his flesh fell off; and the man, who, a little before, thought he could reach to the stars, no man could endure to carry, by reason of the intolerable stench of his body which was noisome to the whole army; and when he was not able to bear the smell of his own flesh, and great grief came upon him, he called for all his friends, and said to them: “Sleep is gone from my eyes, and I am fallen away, and my heart is cast down through anxiety. And I said in my heart: Into what tribulation am I come, and into what floods of sorrow, wherein I now am? I who was pleasant and beloved in my power; but now I remember the evils that I did in Jerusalem. I know that for this cause these evils have found me: and behold I perish with great grief in a strange land.”

He promised to make Jerusalem a free city, and to favor it with the most honorable privileges, equal to those which the commonwealth of Athens enjoyed; to adorn the temple with great gifts, increase the holy vessels, and allow out of his revenues the charges belonging to the sacrifices; also that he would become a Jew, and go through every place of the Earth, and declare the power of God; but his repentance was only founded on temporal motives. Wherefore the Holy Ghost says of him: This wicked man prayed to the Lord, of whom he was not like to obtain mercy. He died one hundred and sixty years before the Christian era.

AUGUST 2ND
The Martyr of the Day
POPE ST. STEPHEN
Martyred in the Third Century, around 257

St. Stephen was, by birth, a Roman, and being promoted to holy orders, was made archdeacon of that church under the holy popes and martyrs St. Cornelius and St. Lucius. The latter going to martyrdom recommended him to his clergy for his successor. He was accordingly chosen pope on the 3rd of May, 253, and sat four years, two months, and twenty-one days.

Soon after his election, he was called to put a stop to the havoc which certain wolves, under the name and habit of pastors, threatened to make in the churches of Gaul and Spain. Marcian, bishop of Arles (in which see he seems to have succeeded St. Regulus, immediate successor of St. Trophimus), embraced the error of Novatian, and, upon the inhuman maxim of that murderer of souls, refused the communion, that is, absolution, to many penitents even in the article of death. Faustinus, bishop of Lyons, and other Gaulish prelates, sent informations and complaints against him to St. Stephen and St. Cyprian: to the first, on account of the superior authority and jurisdiction of his see; to the other, on account of the great reputation of his sanctity, eloquence, and remarkable zeal against the Novatians.

St. Cyprian having no jurisdiction over Arles, could do no more than join the Gaulish (French) Catholics in stirring up the zeal of St. Stephen to exert his authority, and not suffer an obstinate heretic to disturb the peace of those churches to the destruction of souls. This he did by a letter to St. Stephen, in which he says, “It is necessary that you despatch away ample letters to our fellow-bishops in Gaul, that they no longer suffer the obstinate Marcian to insult our college. Write to that province, and to the people of Arles, that Marcian being excommunicated, a successor may be provided for his see. Acquaint us, if you please, who is made bishop of Arles in the room of Marcian, that we may know to whom we are to send letters of communion, and to direct our brethren.” Though the letters of St. Stephen on this head have not reached us, we cannot doubt but by his order everything here mentioned was carried into execution; for, in the ancient list of the bishops of Arles published by Mabillon, the name of Marcian does not occur.

An affair of no less consequence happened in Spain. Basilides, bishop of Merida, and Martialis, bishop of Leon and Astorga, had fallen into the crime of the Libellatici, that is, to save their lives in the persecution had purchased for money libels of safety from the persecutors as if they had sacrificed to idols. For this and other notorious crimes Martialis was deposed in a synod, and Basilides was so intimidated that he voluntarily resigned his see. Sabinus was placed in that of Basilides, and Felix in that of Martialis. Basilides soon after repented of what he had done, went to Rome, and imposing upon St. Stephen, was admitted by him to communion as a colleague in the episcopal Order; which was the more easy as no sentence of deposition had passed in his case.

Returning into Spain with letters of the pope in his favor, he was received in the same rank by some of the bishops; and Martialis, encouraged by his example, presumed to claim the same privilege. The Spanish bishops consulted St. Cyprian what they ought to do with regard to the two delinquents, and that learned prelate answered: that persons notoriously guilty of such crimes were, by the canons, utterly disqualified for presiding in the Church of Christ, and offering sacrifices to God; that the election and ordination of their two successors having been regular and valid, they could not be rescinded or made null; and lastly, that the pope’s letters were obreptitious, and obtained by fraud and a suppression of the truth, consequently were null.

“Basilides,” says he, “going to Rome, there imposed upon our colleague Stephen, living at a distance, and ignorant of the truth that was concealed from him. All this only tends to accumulate the crimes of Basilides, rather than to abolish the remembrance of them; since, to his former account, hereby is added the guilt of endeavoring to circumvent the pastors of the Church.” He lays the blame not on him who had been imposed upon, but Basilides, who fraudulently gained “access to him.” We know no more of this affair; but cannot doubt that the pope (whose jurisdiction none of the parties disclaimed) was better informed, and the proceedings of the Spanish bishops confirmed.

The controversy concerning the re-baptizing of heretics gave St. Stephen much more trouble. It was the constant doctrine of the Catholic Church, that baptism given in the evangelical words, that is, in the name of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, is valid, though it be conferred by a heretic. This was the practice even of the African Church till Agrippinus, bishop of Carthage, in the close of the second century, changed it, fifty years before St. Cyprian, as St. Austin and Vincent of Lerins testify; and St. Cyprian himself only appeals to a council held by Agrippinus for the origin of his pretended tradition.

St. Cyprian, in three African councils, decreed, according to this principle, that baptism given by a heretic is always null and invalid; which decision he founds in this false principle, that no one can receive the Holy Ghost by the hands of one who does not himself possess him in his soul. Which false reasoning would equally prove that no one in mortal sin can validly administer any sacrament; but Christ is the principal, though invisible minister in the administration of the sacraments; and though both Faith and the state of grace be required in him who confers any sacrament, not to incur the guilt of sacrilege; yet neither is required for the validity.

St. Cyprian sums up all the arguments which he thought might serve his purpose in his letter to Jubaianus, written in 256. Many bishops of Cilicia, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, having at their head Firmilian, the learned bishop of Cæsarea, and Helenus of Tarsus, fell in with the Africans, and maintained the same error. All the partisans of this practice falsely imagined it to be a point, not of Faith, which is everywhere invariable, but of mere discipline, in which every church might be allowed to follow its own rule or law. St. Cyprian and Firmilian carried on the dispute with too great warmth, the latter especially, who spoke of St. Stephen in an unbecoming manner. If such great and holy men could be betrayed into anger, how much ought we sinners to watch over our hearts against passion, and mistrust our own judgment!

The respect which is due to their name and virtue obliges us to draw a veil over this fault, as St. Augustine often puts us in mind, who, speaking of Firmilian, says: “I will not touch upon what he let fall in his anger against Stephen.” The pope, who saw the danger which threatened the Church under the color of zeal for its purity and unity, and an aversion from heresy, opposed himself as a rampart for the house of God, declaring that no innovation is to be allowed, but that the tradition of the Church, derived from the apostles, is to be inviolably maintained. He even threatened to cut off the patrons of the novelty from the communion of the Church. But St. Dionysius of Alexandria interceded by letters, and procured a respite, as Eusebius mentions.

St. Stephen suffered himself patiently to be traduced as a favorer of heresy in approving heretical baptism, being insensible to all personal injuries, not doubting but those great men, who, by a mistaken zeal, were led astray, would, when the heat of disputing should have subsided, calmly open their eyes to the truth. Thus by his zeal he preserved the integrity of Faith, and by his toleration and forbearance saved many souls from the danger of shipwreck. “Stephen,” says St. Augustine, “thought of excommunicating them; but being endued with the bowels of holy charity, he judged it better to abide in union. The peace of Christ overcame in their hearts.”

Of this contest, the judicious Vincent of Lerins gives the following account: “When all cried out against the novelty, and the priests everywhere opposed it in proportion to every one’s zeal, then Pope Stephen, of blessed memory, bishop of the apostolic see, stood up, with his other colleagues against it, but he in a signal manner above the rest, thinking it fitting, I believe, that he should go beyond them as much by the ardour of his Faith as he was raised above them by the authority of his see. In his letter to the church of Africa he thus decrees: ‘Let no innovation be introduced; but let that be observed which is handed down to us by tradition.’ The prudent and holy man understood that the rule of piety admits nothing new, but that all things are to be delivered down to our posterity with the same fidelity with which they were received; and that it is our duty to follow religion, and not make religion follow us; for the proper characteristic of a modest and sober Christian is, not to impose his own conceits upon posterity, but to make his own imaginations bend to the wisdom of those that went before him. What then was the issue of this grand affair, but that which is usual?—antiquity kept possession, and novelty was exploded.”

St. Stephen died on the 2nd of August, 257, and was buried in the cemetery of Calixtus. He is styled a martyr in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, and in the ancient Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerome. The persecution of Valerian was raised in the year 257, and in it St. Stephen could not fail to be sought out as the principal victim. The acts of his martyrdom deserve some regard, as Tillemont observes. They are esteemed genuine by Baronius and Berti. This latter shows the exceptions made to their authority by Basnage, to be altogether founded in mistakes. These acts relate that the saint was beheaded by the pursuers whilst he was sitting in his pontifical chair, which was buried with his body, and is still shown as stained with his blood. The relics were translated to Pisa in 1682, and are there venerated in the great church which bears his name. But his head is kept with great respect at Cologne.

Not only bishops, but all superiors, are Christ’s vicegerents, and are bound to be mindful of their charge, for which they will be demanded a rigorous account. How many such live as if they had only their own souls to take care of; yet think themselves good Christians? Few have the light, the courage, the charity, and the zeal necessary for such a charge; and many through sloth, self-love, or a passion for pleasure, company, vanity, and the world, neglect various obligations of their state. It will be a false plea for such to allege at the last day, that they have kept well their own vineyard, whilst they have suffered others under their care to be overgrown with briars and weeds.

AUGUST 3RD
The Martyr of the Day
THE FINDING OF THE BODY OF POPE ST. STEPHEN
Martyred in the Third Century, around 257

This second feast, in honor of the holy proto-martyr St. Stephen, was instituted by the Church on the occasion of the discovery of his precious remains. His body lay long concealed, whilst the glory of his sanctity shone both in Heaven and on Earth. The very remembrance of the place of his burial had been blotted out of the minds of men, and his relics lay covered under the ruins of an old tomb, in a place twenty miles from Jerusalem, called Caphargamala, that is, borough of Gamaliel, where there stood a church which was served by a venerable priest named Lucian.

In the year 415, in the tenth consulship of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius the Younger, on Friday the 3rd of December, about nine o’ clock at night, Lucian was sleeping in his bed, in the baptistery, where he commonly lay, in order to guard the sacred vessels of the church. Being half awake, he saw a tall comely old man of a venerable aspect, with a long white beard, clothed in a white garment, edged with small plates of gold, marked with crosses, and holding a golden wand in his hand.

This person approached Lucian, and calling him thrice by his name, bid him go to Jerusalem, and tell bishop John to come and open the tombs in which his remains, and those of certain other servants of Christ lay, that through their means God might open to many the gates of his clemency. Lucian asked his name.

“I am,” said he, “Gamaliel, who instructed Paul the apostle in the law; and on the east side of the monument lieth Stephen who was stoned by the Jews without the north gate. His body was left there exposed one day and one night; but was not touched by birds or beasts. I exhorted the Faithful to carry it off in the night-time, which when they had done, I caused it to be carried secretly to my house in the country, where I celebrated his funeral rites forty days, and then caused his body to be laid in my own tomb to the eastward. Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, lieth there in another coffin. He was excommunicated by the Jews for following Christ, and banished out of Jerusalem. Whereupon I received him into my house in the country, and there maintained him to the end of his life; after his death I buried him honourably near Stephen. I likewise buried there my son Abibas, who died before me at the age of twenty years. His body is in the third coffin which stands higher up, where I myself was also interred after my death. My wife Ethna, and my eldest son Semelias, who were not willing to embrace the Faith of Christ, were buried in another ground, called Capharsemalia.”

Lucian, fearing to pass for an impostor if he was too credulous, prayed, that if the vision was from God, he might be favored with it a second and a third time; and he continued to fast on bread and water. On the Friday following Gamaliel appeared again to him in the same form as before, and commanded him to obey. As emblems of the relics he brought and showed Lucian four baskets, three of gold and one of silver. The golden baskets were full of roses; two of white and one of red roses; the silver basket was full of saffron of a most delicious smell. Lucian asked what these were.

Gamaliel said: “They are our relics. The red roses represent Stephen, who lieth at the entrance of the sepulchre; the second basket Nicodemus, who is near the door; the silver basket represents my son Abibas, who departed this life without stain; his basket is contiguous to mine.” Having said this he disappeared.

Lucian then awoke, gave thanks to God, and continued his fasts. In the third week, on the same day, and at the same hour, Gamaliel appeared again to him, and with threats upbraided him with his neglect, adding, that the drought which then afflicted the world, would be removed only by his obedience, and the discovery of their relics. Lucian being now terrified, promised he would no longer defer it.

After this last vision, he made his way to Jerusalem, and laid the whole affair before bishop, John, who wept for joy, and bid him go and search for the relics, which the bishop concluded would be found under a heap of small stones, which lay in a field near his church. Lucian said he imagined the same thing, and returning to his borough, summoned the inhabitants to meet the next day in the morning, in order to search under the heap of stones.

As Lucian was going the morning following to see the place dug up, he was met by Migetius, a monk of a pure and holy life, who told him, that Gamaliel had appeared to him and told him inform Lucian that they labored in vain in that place. “We were laid there,” said Migetius, “at the time of our funeral obsequies, according to the ancient custom; and that heap of stones was a mark of the mourning of our friends. Search elsewhere, in a place called Debatalia. In effect, I found myself on a sudden in the same field, where I saw a neglected ruinous tomb, and in it three beds adorned with gold; in one of them more elevated than the others, lay two men, an old man and a young one, and one in each of the other beds.”

Lucian having heard Migetius’s report, praised God for having another witness of his revelation, and having removed to no purpose the heap of stones, went to the other place. In digging up the Earth here three coffins or chests were found, as above mentioned, whereon were engraved these words in very large characters: Cheliel, Nasuam, Gamaliel, Abibas. The two first are the Syriac names of Stephen, or crowned, and Nicodemus, or victory of the people.

Lucian sent immediately to acquaint bishop John with this. He was then at the council of Diospolis, and taking along with him Eutonius, bishop of Sebaste, and Eleutherius, bishop of Jericho, came to the place. Upon the opening of St. Stephen’s coffin the Earth shook, and there came out of the coffin such an agreeable scent, that no one remembered to have ever smelt anything like it.

There was a vast multitude of people assembled in that place, among whom were many persons afflicted with divers distempers; of whom seventy-three recovered their health upon the spot. Some were freed from evil spirits, others cured of scrophulous tumors of various kinds, others of fevers, fistulas, the bloody flux, epilepsy, headaches, and pains in the bowels.

They kissed the holy relics, and then enclosed them. The bishop claimed those of St. Stephen for the church of Jerusalem, of which he had been deacon; the rest were left at Caphargamala. The protomartyr’s body was reduced to dust, excepting the bones, which were whole, and in their natural situation. The bishop consented to leave a small portion of them at Caphargamala; the rest were carried in the coffin with singing of psalms and hymns to the church of Sion at Jerusalem. At the time of this transference, there fell a great deal of rain, which refreshed the country after a long drought. The transference was performed on the 26th of December, on which day the church hath ever since honored the memory of St. Stephen, commemorating the discovery of his relics on the 3rd of August, probably on account of the dedication of some church in honor of St. Stephen, perhaps that of Ancona.

AUGUST 4TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. IA
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 360

The Holy Martyr Ia was a Greek slave slain for the Faith. Ia was so successful in converting Persian women that she was arrested along with 9,000 other Christians, by the Persian emperor Sapor II (Shapur II), and they were all brought to the Persian city of Bisada. The chief of the Persian sorcerers demanded that the saint renounce Christ, but she remained unyielding and so she was tortured by King Sapor II's forces for several months. Then St Ia was thrown into prison. She was flogged to near death and then beheaded after undergoing repeated other tortures. According to Tradition, the sun was darkened at the time of her martyrdom, and the air was filled with a sweet fragrance.

AUGUST 5TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. EUSIGNIUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 362

The martyr St. Eusignius was born at Antioch in the mid-third century, around 252. For sixty years he served in the Roman armies of the emperors Diocletian, Maximian Hercules, Constantius Chlorus, Constantine the Great and his sons. St Eusignius was a companion of St Basiliscus, and he provided an account of his martyrdom, how he saw many angels and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as He received the soul of this holy martyr from the angel’s hands. At the beginning of the reign of Constantine the Great, St Eusignius was made a general in the Roman army and was a witness to the miraculous appearance of the Cross in the sky, a prediction of victory.

St Eusignius, after sixty years in military service, during the reign of Constantine’s sons, retired in his old age from military service and returned to his own country, to his home town of Antioch. There he spent his time in prayer, fasting, and attending the church of God. So he lived until the reign of Julian the Apostate (361-363), who yearned for a return to paganism.

While living in Antioch in the time of Julian the Apostate, two men with a dispute asked him to judge between them. This was a way they settled disputes in his time. He judged right to the righteous, and the one at fault became enraged. He went to the Emperor and denounced Eusignius as a Christian.

Due to this denunciation by one of the Antiochian citizens, emperor summoned him to trial. St Eusignius stood trial as a Christian before the emperor Julian in the year 362. He fiercely denounced the Emperor for his apostasy from the Faith of Christ, and reproached him with the example of his relative, Constantine the Great, and he described in detail how he himself had been an eyewitness to the appearance of the sign of the Cross in the sky. The proud Julian ordered him to denounce Christianity and honor the Roman gods, or be beheaded. Julian did not spare the aged St Eusignius, then 110 years old, but ordered him beheaded. Even though Eusignius suffered greatly in the old age of 110, he would not give up his great Faith, and was beheaded in the year 362. Inside St. Peter’s Square in Rome, the Colonnade is surrounded and adorned with 140 Great Saints, St. Eusignius is among them.

St. Eusignius teaches us the importance of the Faith from his life of over 1800 years ago. He worked hard his entire life defending the Faith and working in the army for Christian Emperors. When he retired to his homeland of Antioch, he was asked to denounce his Faith at the age of 110, because of an Apostate Emperor. He refused, and was martyred at an old age. His life also teaches us that it doesn’t matter how young or old we are, we should always stand up and defend the Faith. In order to defend the Faith, one must know the Faith. It is our challenge to make sure we know the Faith well, so we can defend it well, just like St. Eusignius.

AUGUST 6TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. XYSTUS II (SIXTUS II)
Martyred in the Third Century, around 258

He was a Grecian by birth, deacon of the Roman Church under St. Stephen, and upon his demise, in 257 was chosen pope, being the twenty-fifth from St. Peter. St. Dionysius of Alexandria consulted him by three letters on certain difficulties, and recommended to him to bear a little while with the Africans and some among the Asiatics with regard to their error concerning the validity of baptism given by heretics. Accordingly this pope used towards them indulgence, contenting himself with strongly recommending the truth to them; and his successors pursued the same conduct till that error was condemned in the plenary council often mentioned by St. Augustine. St. Sixtus is styled by St. Cyprian a peaceable and excellent prelate. Though some have ascribed eight years to his pontificate, it is certain from all the circumstances of his history, that he only sat one year.

Gallus, the successor of Decius in the empire, and a persecutor of the Christians, being despised for his cowardice, was slain with his son and colleague Volusius in 253, after having reigned eighteen months. Æmilius then assumed the title of emperor; but was killed after he had reigned four months, without having been acknowledged by the senate; and Valerianus, a person of a noble family, and great reputation, who had been censor and chief of the senate, was acknowledged emperor by the consent of the whole world. He was at first more favorable to the Christians than any of the emperors before him had been, not excepting the Philips; and his palace was full of religious persons.

By this means the church enjoyed peace during three years and a half: which tranquility afforded an opportunity of holding many councils; but in 257 Valerian raised the eighth, or, according to Sulpicius Severus, the ninth general persecution, which continued three years and a half, till he was taken prisoner by the Persians. The change wrought in this emperor is ascribed by Eusebius to a motive of superstition, and to the artifices and persuasion of one Macrianus, who was extremely addicted to the Persian sect of the Magians, and to the black art.

This man, whom St. Dionysius of Alexandria calls the Archmagian of Egypt, had worked himself into the highest favor with the superstitious emperor, was raised by him to the first dignities of the state, and persuaded him that the Christians by being avowed enemies to art magic, and to the gods, obstruct the effects of the sacrifices, and the prosperity of his empire. Valerian had reason to tremble for his own safety upon the pinnacle of his honors; for some compute that only six, out of thirty emperors, who had reigned from Augustus to his time, had escaped the violent hands of murderers; but, by declaring himself an enemy to the servants of God, he dug a pit for his own ruin. He published his first edict against them in April, 257, which was followed by the martyrdom of Pope Stephen and many others.

The persecution grew much more fierce in the following year, when Valerian marching into the East against the Persians, sent a new rescript to the senate to be passed into a law, the tenor and effect of which St. Cyprian notified to his fellow bishops in Africa as follows:

“Valerian has sent an order to the senate, importing that bishops, priests, and deacons should forthwith suffer,”(even although they should be willing to conform), “but that senators, persons of quality, and Roman knights, should forfeit their honors, should have their estates forfeited, and if they still refused to sacrifice, should lose their heads: that matrons should have their goods seized, and be banished: that any of Cæsar’s officers or domestics who had already confessed the Christian Faith, or should now confess it, should forfeit their estates to the exchequer, and should be sent in chains to work in Cæsar’s farms. To this order the emperor subjoined a copy of the letters which he hath despatched to the presidents of the several provinces concerning us: which letter I expect, and hope will soon be brought hither. You are to understand that Sixtus (bishop of Rome) suffered in a cemetery upon the 6th day of August, and with him Quartus. The officers of Rome are very intent upon this persecution; and the persons who are brought before them are sure to suffer and to forfeit their estates to the exchequer. Pray notify these particulars to my colleagues, that so our brethren may everywhere be prepared for their great conflict; that we may all think rather of immortality than death, and derive more joy than fear or terror from this confession, in which we know that the soldiers of Christ are not so properly killed as crowned.”

St. Sixtus suffered in a cemetery; for the Christians, in the times of persecution, resorted to those subterraneous caverns to celebrate the divine mysteries. Here they met, though Valerian had forbidden them to hold assemblies, and here they were hunted out. Quartus must have been a priest or deacon; otherwise he would not have suffered upon the spot, but been first pressed by the rack to sacrifice.

Some think this name Quartus a slip of the copiers, and read this passage as follows: “with four deacons;” for, say these authors, about that time four deacons suffered at Rome, Prætaxtatus, Felicissimus, and Agapitus, with their bishop, as the Liberian and other ancient Calendars testify; and Lawrence, who suffered soon after him. This last was his archdeacon, and seeing him led to execution, expostulated with him, lamenting to be left behind. “St. Sixtus replied that he should follow him within three days, by a more glorious triumph; himself being spared on account of his old age.”

Those are mistaken who say that St. Sixtus was crucified; for the Liberian Calendar assures us, that he was beheaded in the cemetery of Calixtus, and the expression which St. Cyprian uses signifies the same. St. Cyprian suffered in the September following; and all the provinces of the empire were watered with the blood of innumerable martyrs; for though Valerian’s first edicts regarded chiefly the clergy, they were soon extended to the whole body of Christians; old and young, men, women, and children; and great numbers of every condition, rich and poor, soldiers, husbandmen, slaves, and even children, were put to cruel deaths, as Eusebius, St. Cyprian, and the ancient Martyrologies testify.

AUGUST 7TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. DONATUS & ST. HILARINUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 361

St. Donatus He was born at Nicomedia of parents who had both been slain for Christ's sake and has been revered from most ancient times. With the holy monk Hilarinus he fled to Arezzo in Tuscany, of which city he afterwards became Bishop. There became famous as the Bishop of Arezzo in Tuscany in the fourth century. Being illustrious for sanctity and miracles, as St. Gregory the Great considered him one of the great Fathers of the Church and assures us that St. Donatus was apprehended by the Quadratianus, the Augustalis, or imperial prefect of Tuscany, in the reign of Julian the Apostate. Refusing to adore the idols, he was savagely tortured in various ways and suffered many torments with invincible constancy, and, at length, finished his martyrdom by the sword in 361. His relics are enshrined in the cathedral of Arezzo. At the same time and place St. Hilarinus, a monk, received the like crown, being beaten to death with clubs. His relics were afterwards translated to Ostia.

AUGUST 8TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. HORMISDAS
Martyred in the Sixth Century, around 523

The King of Persia, Isdegerdes, renewed the persecution which King Cosroes II had raised against the Church of Christ. It is not easy, says Theodoret, to describe or express the cruelties which were then invented against the disciples of Christ. Some were flayed alive, others had the skin torn from off their backs only, others off their faces from the forehead to the chin. Some were stuck all over with reeds split in two, and appeared like porcupines; then these reeds were forcibly plucked out, so as to bring off the skin with them. Some were bound hands and feet, and in that condition thrown into great vaults which were filled with hungry rats, mice, or other such vermin, which gnawed and devoured them by degrees, without their being able to defend themselves.

Nevertheless, these cruelties hindered not the Christians from running with joy to meet death, that they might gain eternal life. After King Isdegerdes died, the persecution was carried on by his son Varanes; and St. Hormisdas was one of the most illustrious victims of his tyranny and malice.

St. Hormisdas was of the chief nobility among the Persians, son to the governor of a province, and of the race of the Achemenides. King Varanes sent for him, and commanded him to renounce Jesus Christ. St. Hormisdas answered him: “That this would offend God, and transgress the laws of charity and justice; that whoever dares to violate the supreme law of the sovereign Lord of all things, would more easily betray his king, who is only a mortal man. If the latter be a crime deserving the worst of deaths, what must it be to renounce the God of the universe?”

The king was enraged at this wise and just answer, and caused him to be deprived of his office, honors, and goods, and even stripped of his very clothes, except a small piece of linen that went round his waist; and ordered him in this naked condition to drive and look after the camels of the army.

A long time after, the king, looking out of his chamber window, saw Hormisdas all sunburnt, and covered with dust, and calling to mind his former dignity and riches, and the high station of his father, sent for him, ordered a shirt to be given him, and said to him: “Now at least lay aside thy obstinacy, and renounce the carpenter’s son.”

The saint transported with holy zeal, tore the shirt or tunic, and threw it away, saying: “If you thought that I should so easily be tempted to abandon the law of God, keep your fine present with your impiety.” The king, incensed at his boldness, banished him again with indignation from his presence. St. Hormisdas happily finished his course in 523; and is named in the Roman Martyrology.

AUGUST 9TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. ROMANUS
Martyred in the Third Century, around 258

St. Romanus was a soldier in Rome, at the time of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. Seeing the joy and constancy with which that holy martyr suffered his torments, he was moved to embrace the Faith, and addressing himself to St. Lawrence, was instructed and baptized by him in prison. Confessing aloud what he had done, he was arraigned, condemned, and beheaded, the day before the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. Thus he arrived at his crown before his guide and master.

The body of St. Romanus was first buried on the road to Tibur, but his remains were translated to Lucca, where they are kept under the high altar of a beautiful church which bears his name. St. Romanus is mentioned on this day in the Antiphonary of St. Gregory, and in ancient Martyrologies.

The example of the martyrs and other primitive saints, by the powerful grace of God, had not less force in converting infidels than the most evident miracles. St. Justin observed to the heathens, that many of them by living among Christians, and seeing their virtue, if they did not embrace the Faith, at least were worked into a change of manners, were become meek and affable, from being overbearing, violent, and passionate; and by seeing the patience, constancy, and contempt of the world which the Christians practiced, had learned themselves some degree of those virtues.

Thus are we bound to glorify God by our lives, and Christ commands that our good works shine before men. St. Clement of Alexandria tells us, that it was the usual saying of the apostle St. Matthias: “The Faithful sins if his neighbor sins.” Such ought to be the zeal of every one to instruct and edify his neighbor by word and example. But woe to us on whose hearts no edifying examples or instructions, even of saints, make any impression! And still a more dreadful woe to us who by our lukewarmness and scandalous lives are to others an odor, not of life, but of death, and draw the reproaches of infidels on our holy religion and its divine author!

AUGUST 10TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. LAWRENCE
Martyred in the Third Century, around 258

There are few martyrs in the church whose names are so famous as that of the glorious St. Lawrence, in whose praises the most illustrious among the Latin fathers have exerted their eloquence, and whose triumph, to use the words of St. Maximus, the whole Church joins in a body to honor with universal joy and devotion. The ancient fathers make no mention of his birth or education; but the Spaniards call him their countryman.

His extraordinary virtue in his youth recommended him to St. Xystus, then archdeacon of Rome, who took him under his protection, and would be himself his instructor in the study of the Holy Scriptures, and in the maxims of Christian perfection. St. Xystus being raised to the pontificate in 257, he ordained Lawrence deacon; and though he was yet young, appointed him the first among the seven deacons who served in the Roman church; hence by several fathers he is called “The Pope’s Archdeacon”. This was a charge of great trust, to which was annexed the care of the treasury and riches of the church, and the distribution of its revenues among the poor. How Faithful and disinterested our holy deacon was in the discharge of this important and difficult office appears from the sequel.

The Emperor Valerian, through the persuasion of Macrian, in 257, published his bloody edicts against the Church, which he foolishly flattered himself he was able to destroy, not knowing it to be the work of the Almighty. That by cutting off the shepherds he might disperse the flocks, he commanded all bishops, priests, and deacons to be put to death without delay.

The holy Pope St. Xystus, the second pope of that name, was arrested the year following. As he was led to execution, his deacon, St. Lawrence, followed him weeping; and judging himself ill-treated, because he was not to die with him, said to him: “Father, where are you going without your son? Whither are you going, O holy priest, without your deacon? You were never wont to offer sacrifice without me, your minister. Wherein have I displeased you? Have you found me wanting to my duty? Try me now, and see, whether you have made choice of an unfit minister for dispensing the blood of the Lord.” He could not, without an holy envy, behold his bishop go to martyrdom, and himself left behind; and being inflamed with a desire to die for Christ, he burst into this complaint.

From the love of God, and an earnest longing to be with Christ, he contemned liberty and life, and thought of no other honor but that of suffering for his Lord. Hence he reputed the world as nothing, and accounted it his happiness to leave it, that he might come to the enjoyment of his God; for this he grieved to see himself at liberty, was desirous to be in chains, and was impatient for the rack.

The holy pope, at the sight of his grief, was moved to tenderness and compassion, and comforting him, he answered: “I do not leave you, my son; but a greater trial and a more glorious victory are reserved for you who are stout and in the vigour of youth. We are spared on account of our weakness and old age. You shall follow me in three days.” He added a charge to distribute immediately, among the poor, the treasures of the Church which were committed to his care, lest the poor should be robbed of their patrimony if it should fall into the hands of the persecutors.

Lawrence was full of joy, hearing that he should be so soon called to God, set out immediately to seek all the poor widows and orphans, and gave among them all the money which he had in his hands; he even sold the sacred vessels to increase the sum, employing it all in the like manner. The Church at Rome was then possessed of considerable riches. For, besides the necessary provision of its ministers, it maintained many widows and virgins, and fifteen hundred poor people, of whose names the bishop or his archdeacon kept the list; and it often sent large alms into distant countries. It had likewise very rich ornaments and vessels for the celebration of the divine mysteries, as appears from Tertullian, and the profane heathen scoffer, Lucian. Eusebius tells us, that the magnificence of the sacred vessels inflamed the covetousness of the persecutors. St. Optatus says, that in the persecution of Diocletian the churches had very many ornaments of gold and silver. St. Ambrose, speaking of St. Lawrence, mentions consecrated vessels of gold and silver; and Prudentius speaks of chalices of gold and silver, embossed, and set with jewels.

The prefect of Rome was informed of these riches, and imagining that the Christians had hid considerable treasures, he was extremely desirous to secure them; for he was no less a worshipper of gold and silver than of Jupiter and Mars. With this view he sent for St. Lawrence, to whose care these treasures were committed. As soon as he appeared, he said to him, according to Prudentius: “You often complain that we treat you with cruelty; but no tortures are here thought of; I only inquire mildly after what concerns you. I am informed that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups, and that in your nocturnal sacrifices you have wax tapers fixed in golden candlesticks. Bring to light these concealed treasures; the prince has need of them for the maintenance of his forces. I am told, that according to your doctrine you must render to Cæsar the things that belong to him. I do not think that your God causeth money to be coined; he brought none into the world with him; he only brought words. Give us therefore the money, and be rich in words.”

St. Lawrence replied, without showing any concern: “The Church is indeed rich; nor hath the emperor any treasure equal to what it possesseth. I will show you a valuable part; but allow me a little time to set everything in order, and to make an inventory.”

The prefect did not understand of what treasure Lawrence spoke, but imagining himself already possessed of hidden wealth, was satisfied with this answer, and granted him three days’ respite. During this interval, Lawrence went all over the city, seeking out in every street the poor who were supported by the Church, and with whom no other was so well acquainted.

On the third day he gathered together a great number of them before the church, and placed them in rows, the decrepit, the blind, the lame, the maimed, the lepers, orphans, widows, and virgins; then he went to the prefect, invited him to come and see the treasure of the church, and conducted him to the place. The prefect, astonished to see such a number of poor wretches, who made a horrid sight, turned to the holy deacon with looks full of disorder and threatenings, and asked him what all this meant, and where the treasures were which he had promised to show him.

St. Lawrence answered: “What are you displeased at? The gold which you so eagerly desire is a vile metal, and serves to incite men to all manner of crimes. The light of Heaven is the true gold, which these poor objects enjoy. Their bodily weakness and sufferings are the subject of their patience, and the highest advantages; vices and passions are the real diseases by which the great ones of the world are often most truly miserable and despicable. Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones,—those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the Church’s crown, by which it is pleasing to Christ; it hath no other riches; make use then of them for the advantage of Rome, of the emperor, and yourself.”

Thus he exhorted him as Daniel did Nabuchodonosor, to redeem his sins by sincere repentance and alms-deeds, and showed him where the Church placed its treasure. The earthly-minded man was far from forming so noble an idea of an object, the sight of which offended his carnal eyes, and he cried out in a transport of rage: “Do you thus mock me? Is it thus that the axes and the fasces, the sacred ensigns of the Roman power, are insulted? I know that you desire to die; this is your frenzy and vanity: but you shall not die immediately, as you imagine. I will prolong your tortures, that your death may be the more bitter as it shall be slower. You shall die by inches.”

Then he caused a great gridiron to be made ready, and live coals almost extinguished to be thrown under it, that the martyr might be slowly burnt. Lawrence was stripped, extended, and bound with chains, upon this iron bed over a slow fire, which roasted his flesh by little and little, piercing at length to his very bowels. His face appeared to the Christians newly baptized, to be surrounded with a beautiful extraordinary light, and his roasted body to exhale a sweet agreeable smell; but the unbelievers neither saw this light nor perceived this smell. The martyr felt not the torments of the persecutor, says St. Augustine, so vehement was his desire of possessing Christ. St. Ambrose observes, that whilst his body roasted in the material flames, the fire of divine love, which was far more active within his breast, made him regardless of the pain: having the law of God before his eyes, he esteemed his torments to be a refreshment and a comfort. Such was the tranquility and peace of mind which he enjoyed amidst his torments, that having suffered a long time, he turned to the judge, and said to him, with a cheerful and smiling countenance: “Let my body be now turned; one side is cooked enough.” When, by the prefect’s order, the executioner had turned him, he said: “It is dressed enough, you may eat.”

The prefect insulted him, but the martyr continued in earnest prayer, with sighs and tears imploring the divine mercy with his last breath for the conversion of the city of Rome. This he begged Christ speedily to accomplish, who had subjected the world to this city, that his Faith might, by triumphing one day in it, more easily spread itself from the head over all the provinces or members of its empire. This grace he asked of God for that city for the sake of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who had there began to plant the cross of Christ, and had watered that city with their blood. The saint having finished his prayer, and completed his holocaust, lifting up his eyes towards Heaven, gave up the ghost.

Prudentius doubts not to ascribe to his prayer the entire conversion of Rome, and says, God began to grant his request at the very time he put it up; for several senators who were present at his death, were so powerfully moved by his tender and heroic fortitude and piety, that they became Christians upon the spot. These noblemen took up the martyr’s body on their shoulders, and gave it an honorable burial in the Veran field, near the road to Tibur, on the 10th of August in 258.

His death, says Prudentius, was the death of idolatry in Rome, which from that time began more sensibly to decline; and now, adds the same father, the senate itself venerates the tombs of the apostles and martyrs. He describes with what devotion and fervor the Romans frequented the church of St. Lawrence, and commended themselves in all their necessities to his patronage; and the happy success of their prayers proves how great his power is with God. The poet implores the mercy of Christ for himself, and begs he may obtain by the prayers of the martyrs, what his own cannot. St. Augustine assures us that God wrought in Rome an incredible number of miracles through the intercession of St. Lawrence. St. Gregory of Tours, Fortunatus, and others, relate several performed in other places. It appears from the sacramentary of Pope Gelasius, that his feast has been kept with a vigil and an octave at least ever since the fifth age. In the reign of Constantine the Great, a church was built over his tomb, on the road to Tibur, which is called St. Lawrence’s without the walls; it is one of the five patriarchal churches in Rome. Seven other famous churches in that city bear the name of this glorious saint.

In St. Lawrence we have a sensible demonstration how powerful the grace of Jesus Christ is, which is able to sweeten whatever is bitter and harsh to flesh and blood. If we had the resolution and fervor of the saints in the practice of devotion, we should find all seeming difficulties which discourage our pusillanimity to be mere shadows and phantoms. A lively Faith, like that of the martyrs, would make us, with them, contemn the honors and pleasures of the world, and measure the goods and evils of this life, and judge of them, not by nature, but by the light and principles of Faith only; and did we sincerely love God, as they did, we should embrace his holy will with joy in all things, have no other desire, and find no happiness but in it. If we are dejected or impatient under troubles, indulge murmurs and complaints, or call ourselves unhappy in them, it is evident that inordinate self-love reigns in our hearts, and that we seek our own inclinations more than the will of God. The state of suffering is the true test of our love, by which we may judge whether in duties that are agreeable to nature we love the will of God, or only do in them our own will. If self-love discovers itself in our sufferings, all the rest of our lives is to be suspected of the same disorder; nor can we easily give any other evidence that Faith and divine love are the principles of our actions.

AUGUST 11TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. SUSANNA
Martyred in the Third Century, around 295

Susanna was born to a noble family of Rome, and is said to have been niece to Pope Caius. Having made a vow of virginity, she refused the Emperor Diocletian’s command that she marry his son-law, Maximinian. She even converted, to the Faith, two of her uncles, Claudius and Maximus, who had been sent by the Emperor to get her to marry Maximinian. Her refusal enraged the Emperor and he sent one of his favorites, Julian, to deal with matter. Julian had Claudius and his wife, Praepedigna, and their two sons burned to death for having embraced Christianity. Julian then had Susanna and her father beheaded. She suffered with heroic constancy this cruel martyrdom. No genuine acts of her life are now extant; but she is commemorated in many ancient Martyrologies, and the famous church which is at present served by Cistercian monks, has borne her name ever since the fifth century, when it was one of the titles or parishes of Rome. St. Susanna suffered towards the beginning of Diocletian’s reign, about the year 295.

Sufferings were to the martyrs the most distinguishing mercy, extraordinary graces, and sources of the greatest crowns and glory. All afflictions which God sends are in like manner the greatest mercies and blessings; they are the most precious talents to be improved by us to the increasing of our love and affection to God, and the exercise of the most heroic virtues of self-denial, patience, humility, resignation, and penance. They are also most useful and necessary to bring us to the knowledge of ourselves and our Creator, which we are too apt to forget without them. Wherefore whatever crosses or calamities befall us, we must be prepared to bear them with a patient resignation to the divine will; we ought to learn from the martyrs to comfort ourselves, and to rejoice in them, as the greatest blessings.

How base is our cowardice, and how criminal our folly, if, by neglecting to improve these advantageous talents of sickness, losses, and other afflictions, we make the most precious mercies our heaviest curse! By honoring the martyrs, we pronounce our own condemnation for our avoidance or refusal of suffering.

AUGUST 12TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. EUPLIUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 304

In Sicily, in the year 304, under the ninth consulate of Diocletian, and the eighth of Maximian, on the 12th of August, in the city of Catana, Euplius, a deacon, was brought to the governor’s audience-chamber, and while waiting on the outside of the curtain, he cried out: “I am a Christian, and shall rejoice to die for the name of Jesus Christ.”
The governor, Calvisianus, who was of consular dignity, heard him, and ordered that he who had made that outcry should be brought in, and presented before him. Euplius went in with the Book of the Gospels in his hand. One of Calvisianus’s friends, named Maximus, said: “You ought not to keep such writings, contrary to the edicts of the emperors.”
Calvisianus said to Euplius: “Where had you those writings? did you bring them from your own house?”
Euplius replied: “That he had no house, but that he was seized with the book about him.”
The judge bid him read something in it.
The martyr opened it, and read the following verses: “Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” And in another place: “He that will come after Me, let him take up his cross, and follow Me.” The judge asked him what that meant.
The martyr answered: “It is the law of my Lord, which hath been delivered to me.”
Calvisianus said: “By whom?”
Euplius answered: “By Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Calvisianus then pronounced this interlocutory order: “Since his confession is evident, let him be delivered up to the executioners, and examined on the rack.”

This was immediately done, and the martyr was interrogated accordingly. Whilst they were tormenting him the same day, Calvisianus asked him whether he persisted in his former sentiments?
Euplius, making the sign of the cross on his forehead with the hand that he had at liberty, said: “What I formerly said I now declare again, that I am a Christian, and read the Holy Scriptures.” He added, that he dared not deliver up the sacred writings, by which he should have offended God, and that death was more eligible, by which he should gain eternal life. Calvisianus ordered him to be hoisted on the rack, and more cruelly tormented.

The martyr said, whilst he was tormented: “I thank thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, that I suffer for thy sake: save me, I beseech thee.”
Calvisianus said: “Lay aside thy folly; adore our gods, and thou shalt be set at liberty.”
Euplius answered: “I adore Jesus Christ; I detest the devils. Do what you please; add new torments; for I am a Christian. I have long desired to be in the condition in which I now am.”
After the executioners had tormented him a long time, Calvisianus bade them desist, and said: “Wretch, adore the gods; worship Mars, Apollo, and Æsculapius.”
Euplius replied: “I adore the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I worship the Holy Trinity, besides whom there is no God.” Calvisianus said: “Sacrifice, if you would be delivered!”
Euplius answered: “I sacrifice myself now to Jesus Christ, my God. All your efforts to move me are to no purpose. I am a Christian.”

Then Calvisianus gave orders for increasing his torments. Whilst the executioners were exerting their utmost in tormenting him, Euplius prayed thus: “I thank thee, my God; Jesus Christ, succour me. It is for thy name’s sake that I endure these torments.” This he repeated several times. When his strength failed him, his lips were seen still to move, the martyr continuing the same or the like prayer with his lips when he could no longer do it with his voice.

At length Calvisianus went behind the curtain, and dictated his sentence, which a secretary wrote. Afterwards he came out with a tablet in his hand, and read the following sentence: “I command that Euplius, a Christian, be put to death by the sword, for contemning the prince’s edicts, blaspheming the gods, and not repenting. Take him away.”The executioners hung the Book of the Gospels, which the martyr had with him when he was seized, about his neck, and the public crier proclaimed before him: “This is Euplius the Christian, an enemy to the gods and the emperors.”

Euplius continued very cheerful, and repeated as he went: “I give thanks to Jesus Christ, my God. Confirm, O Lord, what thou hast wrought in me.” When he was come to the place of execution, he prayed a long time on his knees, and once more returning thanks, presented his neck to the executioner, who cut off his head. The Christians carried off his body, embalmed and buried it. He is named in all the martyrologies of the western church.

AUGUST 13TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. HIPPOLYTUS
Martyred in the Third Century, around 258

One of the most illustrious martyrs who suffered in the reign of Gallus was St. Hippolytus, one of the twenty-five priests of Rome, who had the misfortune for some time to have been deceived by the hypocrisy of Novation and Novatus, and to have been engaged in their schism; but this fault he expiated by his public repentance, and a glorious martyrdom. He was apprehended, and interrogated on the rack in Rome; but the prefect of the city having filled it with Christian blood, went to Ostia to extend the persecution in those parts of the country, and ordered our saint and several other Christians who were then in prison at Rome, to be conducted thither after him. St. Hippolytus being brought out of prison, many of those who had been under his care, came to beg his last advice and blessing, as he was going to martyrdom; and he vehemently exhorted them to preserve the unity of the church.

“Flee,” said he, “from the unhappy Novatus, and return to the Catholic church. Adhere to the only Faith which subsists from the beginning, which was preached by Paul, and is maintained by the chair of Peter. I now see things in a different light, and repent of what I once taught.”

After he had thus undeceived his flock, and earnestly recommended to all the unity of holy Faith, he was conducted to Ostia. The prefect, who was gone before the prisoners the same day, as soon as they arrived, ascended his tribunal, surrounded with his executioners, and various instruments of torture. The confessors were ranged in several companies before him, and by their emaciated faces, the length of their hair, and the filth with which they were covered, showed how much they had suffered by their long imprisonment. The judge, finding that he was not able to prevail with any of them by torments, at length condemned them all to be put to death. Some he caused to be beheaded, others to be crucified, others burnt, and some to be put out to sea in rotten vessels, which immediately foundered. When the venerable old man, Hippolytus, was in his turn brought to him loaded with chains, a crowd of young people cried out to the judge, that he was a chief among the Christians, and ought to be put to death by some new and remarkable kind of punishment.

“What is his name?” said the prefect.
They answered: “Hippolytus.”
The prefect said: “Then let him be treated like Hippolytus, and dragged by wild horses.”

By this sentence he alluded to Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, who, flying from the indignation of his father, met a monster, the sight of which affrighted his horses, so that he fell from his chariot, and, being entangled in the harness, was dragged along, and torn to pieces. No sooner was the order given but the people set themselves to work in assisting the executioners. Out of the country, where untamed horses were kept, they took a pair of the most furious and unruly they could meet with, and tied a long rope between them instead of a poll, to which they fastened the martyr’s feet. Then they provoked the horses to run away by loud cries, whipping and pricking them. The last words which the martyr was heard to say as they started, were: “Lord, they tear my body, receive thou my soul.”

The horses dragged him away furiously into the woods, through brooks, and over ditches, briers, and rocks: they beat down the hedges, and broke through everything that came in their way. The ground, the thorns, trees, and stones, were sprinkled with his blood, which the Faithful that followed him at a distance weeping, respectfully sucked up from every place with sponges, and they gathered together all the mangled parts of his flesh and limbs, which lay scattered all about. They brought these precious relics to Rome, and buried them in the subterraneous caverns called catacombs, which Prudentius here describes at large.

He says that the sacred remains of St. Hippolytus were deposited in this place near an altar, at which the Faithful were fed with the heavenly banquet, and the divine sacraments, and obtained the speedy effect of their requests to God. He testifies, that as often as he had prayed there when he was at Rome, for the remedy of his infirmities, whether of body or mind, he had always found the desired relief; but professes that he was indebted to Christ for all favors received, because he gave to his martyr Hippolytus the power to obtain for him the divine succor.

He adds, that the chapel which contained these sacred relics shone within with solid silver with which the walls were incrustated, and on the outside with the brightest marble like looking-glass, which covered the walls, the whole being ornamented with abundance of gold. He says, that from the rising to the setting of the sun, not only the inhabitants of Rome, but many from remote countries, resorted in great numbers to this holy place, to pay adoration to God; and that especially on the martyr’s festival, on the Ides or 13th of August, both senators and people came thither to implore the divine mercy, and kiss the shrine which contained the relics. He moreover describes a sumptuous great church which was built in honor of the martyr near his tomb, and which was thronged with multitudes of devout Christians. He mentions the effigies of the saint’s martyrdom skillfully drawn over his tomb.

It is the reflection of St. Augustine, that if, with the martyrs, we seriously considered the rewards that await us, we should account all trouble and pains in this life as nothing; and should be astonished that the divine bounty gives so great a salary for so little labor. To obtain eternal rest, should require, if it had been possible, eternal labor; to purchase a happiness without bounds, a man should be willing to suffer for a whole eternity. That indeed is impossible; but our trials might have been very long. What are a thousand years, or ten hundred thousand ages in comparison to eternity? There can be no proportion between what is finite and that which is infinite. Yet God in his great mercy does not bid us suffer so long. He says, not a million, or a thousand years, or even five hundred; but only labor the few years that you live; and in these the dew of my consolations shall not be wanting; and I will recompense your patience for all with a glory that has no end. Though we were to be loaded with miseries, pain, and grief our whole life, the thoughts of Heaven alone ought to make us bear its sharpest trials with cheerfulness and joy.

Decius raised the seventh general persecution against the church, which he carried on with the utmost cruelty during his whole reign, though this did not much exceed two years; for presuming to rage against God, says Lactantius, he was immediately thrown down. Having marched against the Carpi, a Scythian nation, who had possessed themselves of Dacia and Mœsia, in Thrace, he was surrounded by the barbarians and a great part of his army was cut off; his eldest son was killed in the battle: Decius himself, in his flight, sunk in a morass, together with his horse, and there perished. His body could never be found, and he was deprived of the honor of a funeral. His death, which happened on the 27th of October, 251, restored peace to the church for a short time.

Gallus, who was then his general on the Tanais, to whose treachery his misfortune is ascribed, succeeded him in the empire, and created his son Volusianus, Cæsar. Hostilius, the second son of Decius, was acknowledged his colleague in the throne, but soon died, whether by a natural distemper or through some contrivance of Gallus, is uncertain. The new emperor having purchased an ignominious peace of the Scythians, by subjecting the empire to an annual tribute, and yielding up a considerable territory to them, instead of taking warning from the chastisement of Decius, soon renewed the persecution.

The great plague which began in 250, and ravaged several provinces of the empire during ten years, was a pretence made use of for spilling the blood of the Christians. Gallus commanded sacrifices everywhere to be made to Apollo for averting that scourge. This gave occasion to the reviving of the persecution, which, as even Dodwell confesses, was hotter and more bloody than it had been under Decius, and continued till Gallus and Volusianus, in the year 254, the third of their reign, were slain at Interamne, now called Terni; where Æmilianus (who having quelled the Goths in Thrace, had been proclaimed emperor by his army) gave them battle; but three months after, Æmilianus being slain by his own soldiers near Spoletto, Valerian, who commanded the army in Gaul, got possession of the throne, and for some time gave peace to the church. The reign of Gallus was remarkable for nothing but the blood of many martyrs, and a continual train of misfortunes, especially the great pestilence.

AUGUST 14TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. EUSEBIUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 357

In the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, before they had published any new edicts against the Christians, Eusebius, a holy priest, a man eminently endowed with the spirit of prayer, and all apostolical virtues, suffered death for the Faith, probably in Palestine. The Emperor Maximian, happening to be in that country, an information was lodged with Maxentius, governor of the province, against Eusebius, that he distinguished himself by his zeal in invoking and preaching Christ, and the holy man was apprehended, and brought before him.

Maxentius, whom the people stirred up by furious clamors against the servant of Christ, said to him: “Sacrifice to the gods freely, or you shall be made to do it against your will.”
The martyr replied: “There is a greater law which says, Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.”
Maxentius urged: “Choose either to offer sacrifice, or to suffer the most rigorous torments.”
Eusebius answered: “It is not consistent with reason for a person to adore stones, than which nothing is viler or more brittle.”
Maxentius: “These Christians are a hardened race of men, to whom it seems desirable rather to die than to live.”
Eusebius: “It is impious to despise the light for the sake of darkness.”
Maxentius: “You grow more obstinate by lenity and entreaties. I therefore lay them aside, and frankly tell you, that, unless you sacrifice, you shall be burnt alive.”
Eusebius: “As to that I am in no pain. The more severe or cruel the torments are, the greater will the crown be.”

Upon this, Maxentius ordered that he should be stretched on the rack, and his sides rent with iron hooks.
Eusebius repeated whilst he was tormenting: “Lord Jesus preserve me! Whether we live or die, we are yours!”
The governor was amazed at his constancy and fortitude, and after some time, commanded that he should be taken off the rack. Then he said to him: “Do you know the decree of the senate, which commands all to sacrifice to the gods?” These words show that the saint was indicted upon former laws, and that this happened before the general edicts of Diocletian.
Eusebius answered: “The command of God is to take place before that of man.”
The judge, flushed with rage, commanded that he should be led to the fire as if it were to be burnt alive.

Eusebius walked out with a constancy and joy painted in his countenance which struck the prefect and the by-standers with amazement, and the prefect called after him: “You run to an unnecessary death! Your obstinacy astonishes me! Change your mind!”
The martyr said: “If the emperor commands me to adore dumb metal in contempt of the true God, let me appear before him.” This he said because he was impeached upon old laws, the present emperors not having yet made any new ones against the Christians.

Maxentius therefore said to his guards and keepers: “Let him be imprisoned till tomorrow!” and forthwith going in to the emperor, he said: “Great emperor, I have found a seditious man who is disobedient to the laws, and even denies to my face that the gods have any power, and refuses to sacrifice, or to adore your name.”

The emperor answered: “Let him be brought before me.”
A person present, who had seen him at the prefect’s tribunal, said: “If you see him, you will be moved by his speech.” The emperor replied: “Is he such a man that he can even change me?”
The prefect then spoke: “He will change not only you, but the minds of all the people. If you once behold his looks, you will feel yourself strangely moved to follow his inclinations.”

The emperor, however, ordered that he should be brought in. As he entered, everyone was struck in beholding the dazzling brightness which appeared in his countenance, the joy and the affecting composure, sweetness and undaunted courage which shone in his looks and eye, and the gracefulness of his air, and whole mien, which in his venerable old age seemed to breathe an air of virtue above what is human.

The emperor fixed his eyes steadfastly upon him, as if he beheld in him something divine, and spoke thus: “Old man, why are you come before me? Speak, and be not afraid!”
Seeing him still silent, he said: “Speak freely! Answer my questions! I desire that you be saved!”
Eusebius answered: “If I hope to be saved by man, I can no longer expect salvation from God. If you excel in dignity and power, we are, nevertheless, all mortal alike. Neither will I be afraid to repeat before you what I have already declared. I am a Christian; nor can I adore wood and stones; but I most readily obey the true God whom I know, and whose goodness I have experienced.”
The emperor said to the governor: “What harm is it if this man adores the God of whom he speaks, as above all others.”
Maxentius made answer: “Be not deceived, most invincible emperor; he does not call what you imagine God, but I know not what Jesus, whom our nation or ancestors never knew.”
The emperor said: “Go you forth, and judge him according to justice and the laws. I will not be judge in such an affair.”

This Maximian was by birth a barbarian, one of the roughest, most brutish and savage of all men. Yet the undaunted and modest virtue of this stranger set off by a heavenly grace, struck him with awe. He desired to save the servant of Christ, but, like Pilate, would not give himself any trouble, or hazard incurring the displeasure of those whom on all other occasions he despised. So unaccountably cowardly are worldly and wicked men in the practice of virtue, who in vice are unbridled and daring.

Maxentius, going out, ascended his tribunal, and sternly commanded Eusebius to sacrifice to the gods.
He answered: “I will never sacrifice to those who can neither see nor hear.”
Maxentius said: “Sacrifice, or torments and flames must be your portion. He whom you fear is not able to deliver you from them.”
Eusebius replied: “Neither fire nor the sword will work any change in me. Tear this weak body to pieces with the utmost cruelty; treat it in what manner you please. My soul, which is God’s, cannot be hurt by your torments. I persevere firm in the holy law to which I have adhered from my cradle.”
The governor, upon this, condemned him to be beheaded.

Eusebius, hearing the sentence pronounced, said aloud: “I thank your goodness, and praise your power, O Lord Jesus Christ, that by calling me to the trial of my fidelity, you have treated me as one of yours.”
He, at that instant, heard a voice from Heaven saying to him: “If you had not been found worthy to suffer, you could not be admitted into the court of Christ, or to the seats of the just.”

Being come to the place of execution, he knelt down, and his head was struck off. His soul flew to Christ; but Maxentius, afflicted with numberless pains, would not please Christ, and never was able to please the world, which he so much dreaded and courted.

This is the martyr Eusebius, who is mentioned on this day in some ancient Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerome, and others, which place his death in Palestine.

The martyrs, by their meek constancy, vanquished the fiercest tyrants, and haughty lords of the world; they struck with a secret awe those who tormented them, whose obstinacy, malice, and love of the world, still shut their heart to the truth.

AUGUST 15TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. TARCISIUS
Martyred in the Third Century, around 254

Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. At one point, there was no deacon to send and so the priest was wondering who he could send—for it was too dangerous for the priest to attempt the mission, in case he was caught.

At this point Tarcisius the acolyte volunteered. The initial reaction was that he was far too young to be entrusted with such a mission. “My youth”, Tarcisius said, “will be the best shield for the Eucharist”. Finally convinced, the priest entrusted to him the precious Bread, saying: “Tarcisius, remember that a heavenly treasure has been entrusted to your weak hands. Avoid crowded streets and do not forget that holy things must never be thrown to dogs nor pearls to pigs. Will you guard the Sacred Mysteries Faithfully and safely?” Tarcisius answered with determination: “I would rather die than let go of them.” St. Tarcisius the acolyte, was thus sent carrying the "Holy Mysteries" to those in prison.

On the way, he was stopped by some friends, boys his own age who were not Christians, and did not know that Tarcisius was a Christian, but only knew him as a playmate who loved games. He was asked to join their games, but this time he refused. The crowd of pagan boys noticed that he was secretly carrying and protecting something and asked him what he was carrying. Tarcisius asked Jesus for strength and may have been overheard by the pagan boys. At this point they discovered that he was a Christian, and the small gang of boys, anxious to see the Christian "Mysteries," became a mob and turned upon Tarcisius with fury. They tried to prize it away from him, but in vain; the struggle became ever fiercer, especially since they realized that Tarcisius was a Christian. They kicked him, they threw stones at him, but he did not surrender. While Tarcisius was being attacked, a Roman solider from the Pretorian guard called Quadratus, who had also, secretly, become a Christian, drove away the gang of boys and carried Tarcisius to the priest. Tarcisius was already dead from his injuries when they arrived, but was still clutching to his breast a small linen bag containing the Eucharist.

He was buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus, and his relics are claimed by the church of San Silvestro in Capite. In the fourth century, Pope St. Damasus wrote a poem about this "boy-martyr of the Eucharist" and says that, like another St. Stephen, he suffered a violent death at the hands of a mob rather than give up the Sacred Body to "raging dogs." His story became well known when Cardinal Wiseman made it a part of his novel Fabiola, in which the story of the young acolyte is dramatized and a very moving account given of his martyrdom and death.

Tarcisius, one of the patron saints of altar boys, has always been an example of youthful courage and devotion, and his story was one that was told again and again to urge others to a like heroism in suffering for their Faith. In the Passion of Pope Stephen, written in the sixth century, Tarcisius is said to be an acolyte of the pope himself and, if so, this explains the great veneration in which he was held and the reason why he was chosen for so difficult a mission.

AUGUST 16TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. DIOMEDES
Martyred in the late Third Century or early Fourth Century, around 298-311

Saint Diomedes (Diomede) of Tarsus was martyred somewhere between 298 and 311 AD. He is venerated as a Greek saint and martyr, and is listed as one of the “Holy Unmercenaries.” Holy Unmercenaries is an epithet applied to a number of Christian saints who did not accept payment for good deeds. These include healers or Christian physicians who, in conspicuous opposition to medical practice of the day, tended to the sick free of charge.

Diomedes was born in Tarsus, and became a physician by profession. He was a zealous Christian evangelist and was arrested and beheaded under Diocletian at Nicaea. One source states: “It is said that when his head was taken to the emperor, that all were blinded, and only after his body has been returned and they had prayed, was their sight restored.”

There is a fresco of him at the monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos, Greece. The Diomede Islands derive their name from this saint. Vitus Bering sighted the Diomede Islands on the 16th of August, 1728, the day when the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Diomedes.

AUGUST 17TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. LIBERATUS & COMPANIONS
Martyred in the Fifth Century, around 483

Hunneric, the Arian Vandal king in Africa, in the seventh year of his reign, published fresh edicts against the Catholics, and ordered their monasteries to be everywhere demolished. Seven monks who lived in a monastery near Capsa, in the province of Byzacena, were at that time summoned to Carthage. Their names were Liberatus the Abbot, Boniface deacon, Servus and Rusticus subdeacons, Rogatus Septimus, and Maximus, monks.

They were first tempted with great promises; but answered, “One Faith, one Lord, and one baptism. As to our bodies, do with them what you please, and keep to yourselves those riches which you promise us, and which will shortly perish.” As they remained constant in the belief of the Trinity, and of one baptism, they were loaded with irons, and thrown into a dark dungeon. The Faithful having bribed the guards, visited them day and night, to be instructed by them, and mutually to encourage one another to suffer for the Faith of Christ.

The king, being informed of this, commanded them to be more closely watched and confined, loaded with heavier chains, and tortured with inventions of cruelty which had never been heard of till that time. Soon after, he condemned them to be put into an old ship, and burnt at sea. The martyrs walked cheerfully to the shore, contemning the insults of the Arians as they passed along.

Particular endeavors were used by the persecutors to gain Maximus, who was a very young boy; but God, who makes the tongues of children eloquent to praise His Name, gave him strength to withstand all their efforts, and he boldly told them, that they should never be able to separate him from his holy abbot and brethren, with whom he had borne the labors of a penitential life for the sake of everlasting glory.

An old vessel was filled with dry sticks, and the seven martyrs were put on board and nailed onto the wood; and fire was put to it several times, but it went out immediately, and all endeavors to kindle it were in vain. The tyrant, in rage and confusion, gave orders that the martyrs’ brains should be beaten-out with oars; which was done, and their bodies were cast into the sea, which, contrary to what was usual on that coast, threw them all on the shore. The Catholics buried them honorably with solemn singing, in the monastery of Bigua, near the church of St. Celerinus. They suffered in the year 483. See their authentic acts, published by Ruinart, at the end of his edition of Victor Vitensis’s History of the Vandalic Persecution.

AUGUST 18TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. AGAPITUS
Martyred in the Third Century, around 275

Saint Agapitus suffered in his youth a cruel martyrdom, about the year 275, at Praeneste, now called Palestrina, twenty-four miles from Rome. He had dared to reproach for his cruelty towards the Christians, one of the Emperor Aurelian's favorites, who immediately gave the order to arrest him. He was flogged with leaden-tipped straps and scorpions; his constancy and his prayer under torture converted five hundred pagans, who declared themselves Christians and were executed at once. The young martyr was thrown into a horrible prison where a celestial vision fortified him. After a second questioning, he was again scourged, then laid upon the rack that his body might be torn with iron nails.

He still lived and was again ordered to sacrifice to Apollo; his refusals won for him still more torments: live coals on his head, suspension by his feet, boiling water poured over him. His courage was superhuman, his answers admirable. Wild beasts in the arena spared him and lay down at his feet, and still more pagans were converted. He was finally beheaded, and his body buried by the Christians, in a field where they found a new tomb prepared as though for his sepulcher. Two churches in Palestrina and others in various places are dedicated to God under his name.

AUGUST 19TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. TIMOTHY, ST. AGAPIUS & ST. THECLA
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 304

Whilst Diocletian yet held the reins of the government in his own hands, Urban, the president of Palestine, signalized his rage and cruelty against the Christians. In the second year of the general persecution, by his order, St. Timothy, for having boldly confessed his Faith, was inhumanly scourged, his sides were torn with iron combs on the rack, and he was at length burnt to death at a slow fire at Gaza, on the 1st of May, 304, giving by his patience, a certain proof that his charity was perfect.

Saints Agapius and Thecla, after suffering many torments, were condemned by the same judge to be led to Cæsarea, and there exposed to wild beasts. Thecla was despatched by the beasts in the amphitheater; but Agapius escaped both from their fury and from the swords of the confectors on that day. He was therefore detained two years longer in prison, till Maximin Daia Cæsar gave orders that this confessor should be one of the victims to grace the festival, unless he would abjure the Christian Faith. His sufferings had no way abated his constancy, and the delay of his crown had increased the ardour of his desires speedily to join his companions in glory. In the amphitheater he was torn by a bear, but not killed either by the beasts or confectors; and wounded as he was, on the following day he was thrown into the sea. Both Latins and Greeks celebrate the memory of these martyrs on the 19th of August.

A glorious company of happy friends waits for us in God’s heavenly kingdom! Innumerable legions of angels, and all the saints who have lived on Earth before us from the beginning of the world; so many holy kings, doctors, hermits, martyrs, virgins, and confessors, and several friends with whom we here conversed. They are already arrived at the safe harbor of eternal bliss.

With what pleasure do we, with Agapius, raise our thoughts and eyes towards them, contemplating the joys and glory of which they are now possessed, and comparing with it our present state of conflicts, dangers, and sufferings! They look down from their seats of glory on us, and behold our combats with affection and solicitude for us. We are called to follow them, and do not we redouble our desires to join them? Do not we earnestly prepare ourselves by compunction, penance, divine love, and the practice of all good works, to be worthy of their fellowship? Do not we exult at the thought that we are very shortly, by the divine mercy, to be united to that blessed company, and made partners of their joy, triumph, and glory? Do not we sigh for that hour, and, in the meantime, despise from our hearts all foolish promises or threats of the world, and bear with joy all labors or pains, that we may with the saints enjoy Christ? “Oh! If the glorious day of eternity had already shone upon us, whither would it even now have carried us? In what joys should we have been this instant overwhelmed?” says the devout Thomas à Kempis.

AUGUST 20TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. OSWIN
Martyred in the Seventh Century, around 651

Oswin, king and martyr, the son of Osric, King of Deira, was murdered and martyred at Gilling, near Richmond, Yorkshire, England, on August 20th, 651, in Britain. Before we come to King Oswin, let us do some history and see how his kingdom first came into existence. Ida, descended from Woden, landed with an army of English Saxons, at Flamborough in Yorkshire in 547, and founded the kingdom of Northumberland, or rather of that part of it called Bernicia, was succeeded by Ethelfrid, whose two sons, and successively heirs, Oswald and Oswy, established the Faith of Christ in the northern parts of England. After the death of Ida, his cousin Ælla, a descendant also from Woden, conquered Deira, or the rest of Yorkshire, to which afterwards Lancashire was added. His valiant and religious son Edwin embraced the Christian Faith in 617, and sealed it with his blood in 633. St. Oswald received the same crown in 642, whose brother Oswy inherited his crown.

On the murder of his father, King Osric, by Cadwalla in 634, Oswin still quite young was carried away for safety into Wessex, but returned on the death of his kinsman St. Oswald, in 642, either because Oswy had bestowed upon him Deira, one portion of the Kingdom of Northumbria, himself ruling Bernicia, or, as is more probable, because the people of Deira chose him for king in preference to Oswy. Under his sway of seven years, peace, order, and happiness reigned throughout the kingdom.

With his agreement his cousin Oswin, son of Osric, cousin-german to Edwi, having passed ten years in banishment, was called by right of inheritance to take possession of the kingdom of Deira in 642, which he governed seven years with great virtue, prudence, and prosperity, beloved by all, and enjoyed plenty and every spiritual and temporal advantage. He was tall of stature, comely in his person, liberal and affable to all, especially to the poor, sober at table, modest and most devout.

For an instance of his humility St. Bede relates that he had bestowed on the holy bishop Aidan a horse, on which, though he usually made his journeys on foot, he might sometimes ride, and cross rivers. Soon after the bishop meeting a poor man who asked an alms of him, not having anything else, gave him his horse with all his rich furniture. Next time he waited on the king, before they sat down to table, the king asked him why he had given so fine a horse to a beggar which he intended for his own use: adding, we had horses of less value, or other presents which would have supplied his wants. The bishop answered: “Is then a colt of more value in your majesty’s eye than a son of God?”

When they had entered the dining-room, the bishop took his seat, but the king being just come in from hunting, stood by the fire with his servants warming himself. Here, calling to mind the bishop’s words, he put off his sword, and going in haste cast himself at the bishop’s feet, begging his pardon for having found fault with his charity, and promising never again to censure whatever of his goods he should give to the poor, how valuable soever. The bishop, struck with such an example of humility, raised him up with confusion, and assured him he was well satisfied, on condition his majesty was cheerful and sat down. The king hereupon expressed great joy at table, but the bishop appeared sorrowful, and said to his attendants in the Scottish language, which the king and his courtiers did not understand, that he was assured so humble and so good a king would not live long.

A quarrel arose betwixt Oswy and Oswin about the boundaries of their dominions, and they raised armies. Oswin seeing his weakness, and being desirous to spare human blood, dismissed his forces at a place called Wilfar’s Dun, or the hill of Wilfare, situated ten miles westward from a town called Cataract. Attended with one Faithful soldier named Tonder, he retired to a town called Ingethling, now Gilling, near Richmond in Yorkshire, which estate he had lately bestowed on Count Hudwald. He hoped under his protection to lie here concealed, or at least that Oswy would content himself with possessing his kingdom, and would suffer him to live; but Oswy apprehended that so long as a prince so much beloved was alive, his usurpation could not be secured to him. He therefore ordered Count Ethelwin with a body of soldiers to march in search of him, and to kill him.

Hudwald treacherously betrayed his guest. When Oswin saw the castle surrounded with soldiers he courageously disposed himself for death, only entreating Ethelwin to content himself with his life, and spare that of his Faithful servant Tonder. The generous officer seemed unwilling to survive his master, and both were slain together, and buried at Gilling in 651, on the 20th of August. Queen Eanfled daughter to king Edwin, wife of Oswy, and near relation of Oswin, with her husband’s leave, founded a monastery at Gilling, in which prayers might be ever put up for both kings. It was afterwards destroyed by the Danes. She appointed Trumhere the first abbot, an Englishman, who had been instructed and ordained by the Scots at Lindisfarne. He was afterwards made bishop of South-Mercia, which he converted to the Faith in the days of king Wulfere.

The body of St. Oswin, whose shrine was made illustrious by many miracles, was some time after translated to the strong fortress of Tinmouth, and laid in a stone coffin, in a secret part of the chapel built under the rock, secured against the approach of any enemy. The country being sometimes under infidel Danish princes, this precious treasure was forgotten till a monk of Tinmouth, named Edward or Edmund, (for these names were the same, and were given promiscuously to this monk,) discovered it, admonished it is said in a vision, and informed Egilwin bishop of Durham, in whose presence with the count and people, the sepulcher was dug open, and the sacred remains taken up, cleansed, and wrapped in precious linen and rich cloths, in 1065, on the 11th of March.

Tosti Earl of Northumberland repaired and endowed more richly this monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Tinmouth; he had married Judith, daughter of Baldwin Earl of Flanders, who with the bishop’s leave washed with her own hands the hair, still stained with blood, and the bones of the martyr; for only these parts remained entire, the flesh being returned to dust. Robert of Mowbray, a nobleman illustrious by a long line of noble and great ancestors, and by the glory of his own military skill and exploits, was made Earl of Northumberland by William the Conqueror. As he resided in the castle of Tinmouth he had a great devotion to St. Oswin, finished the new monastery and church of our Lady, which Tosti had begun, and subjected it to the abbey of St. Alban’s in Hertfordshire. St. Oswin’s remains were at his desire translated into the same out of the old oratory of our Lady, then falling to decay. The translation was performed on the 20th of August, the day of his death, in 1103, by Ranulf, bishop of Durham, attended by Richard abbot of St. Alban’s, Hugh abbot of Salisbury, and many other persons of distinction.

AUGUST 21ST
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. BONONUS & ST. MAXIMILIAN
Martyred in the Third Century, around 254

The Emperor Julian the Apostate commanded the cross and name of Jesus Christ, which Constantine had placed in the Labarum, or chief standard of the army, to be struck out, and had the standards reduced to the ancient form used under the pagan emperors, on which the images of false gods were represented. The apostate emperor had created Julian, who was his uncle by the mother’s side, and was an apostate from the Christian Faith like himself, count or governor of the East; and he became a more barbarous persecutor of the Christians than his nephew himself.

There were in the troops called the Old Herculians, two officers of distinguished virtue and zealous Christians, named Bonosus and Maximilian, who refused to change their standards; for each legion had a Labarum for its principal ensign. Count Julian sternly commanded them to give their troops the new ensigns, and to adore the same gods which he and the emperor worshipped. Bonosus answered: “We cannot adore gods which have been made by the hands of men.”

The count ordered him to be tied up, and above three hundred lashes to be given him with leathern thongs, loaded at the end with balls of lead. Under this torment Bonosus only smiled, and made no answer to his questions.

The count afterwards caused Maximilian to approach, who said: “Let your gods first hear and speak to you, and then we will adore them; for you know that we Christians are forbidden to worship deaf and dumb idols.”

Julian caused them both to be stretched on the rack, and when a crier had called them each by their name, the count said to them: “You now lie on the rack, and are on the point of being tormented. Obey; exchange the representation of the cross on your standard for the images of the immortal gods.”

They answered: “We cannot obey the emperor in these matters, because we have before our eyes the invisible immortal God, in whom we place our confidence.”

Julian ordered them to be beaten with balls of lead three several times, and said to the executioners: “Exert your utmost strength, give them no respite.” But the martyrs felt not the least pain. Julian then commanded them to be plunged into boiling pitch; by which they receiving no hurt, both Jews and pagans cried out that they were magicians.

Count Julian ordered them back to prison, and sent them bread sealed with his own signet, on which was probably engraved the figure of some idol; for they would not eat of it.

Prince Hormisdas, brother to Sapor, king of Persia, (who having left his own country had embraced the Faith, and had spent the better part of his days in the courts of Constantine and Constantius,) paid them a visit in prison, and finding them in perfect health and very cheerful, recommended himself to their prayers.

The count threatened the martyrs in a second and a third interrogatory. But they answered him they were Christians, and were determined to continue such. They added, that Constantine, near the end of his life, had made them take an oath to be Faithful to his children and to the church, a promise they would inviolably observe. The count was all for having them tormented; but Secundus, prefect of the East, (whom, though a pagan, St. Gregory Nazianzen commends for his probity and mildness, and who sat with him on the bench,) refused absolutely to hear of it. Wherefore Julian, without more ado, condemned them and several other Christian prisoners to be beheaded. St. Meletius, patriarch of Antioch, and several other bishops, attended them to the place of their martyrdom, which they suffered with incredible joy.

Count Julian was very soon after seized with a terrible disease in his bowels and the adjacent parts of his body, whereby they putrified and bred such an incredible quantity of worms that it was impossible to destroy them. The physicians tried all sorts of remedies; several rare birds were procured at a great expense, which being killed, the blood of them was applied to the parts affected, in order to draw out the worms; but they, crawling higher into the bowels, and into the most sensible and tender parts of the body, only rendered his pains the more intolerable, whilst he voided his excrements at his mouth.

His wife, who continued a zealous Christian, said to him: “You ought to give thanks to Christ our Savior, for having by this chastisement made you sensible of His power; you would not have known who He is to whom you have declared yourself an enemy, had He shown his usual forbearance.”

Count Julian, in this extremity, repented of his persecutions, bade his wife run to the churches of the Christians, and beg them to pray for him; and he besought the emperor to restore to the Christians their churches; but his entreaties were not regarded. He, however, in his last moments invoked, like Antiochus, the true God, protesting aloud that he had no hope but in His mercy; and in this miserable condition he expired. Nor did the emperor himself reign long unpunished.

AUGUST 22ND
The Martyr of the Day
ST. HIPPOLYTUS
Martyred in the Third Century, around 235

Hippolytus of Rome (170-235) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome, where he was probably born. He was a “good-guy”, turned “bad-guy” (schismatic and anti-pope) and then came back to being a “good-guy” and a martyr for the Faith. The Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople describes him in his Bibliotheca (cod. 121) as a disciple of St. Irenaeus, who was said to be a disciple of St. Polycarp, and from the context of this passage it is supposed that he suggested that Hippolytus so styled himself. However, this assertion is doubtful. He came into conflict with the popes of his time opposed the Roman bishops, who softened the penitential system to accommodate the large number of new pagan converts.

As a priest of the Church at Rome, under Pope Zephyrinus (199 – 217 AD), Hippolytus was distinguished for his learning and eloquence. It was at this time that Origen of Alexandria, then a young man, heard him preach. He accused Pope Zephyrinus of modalism, the heresy which held that the names Father and Son are simply different names for the same subject. Hippolytus championed the Logos doctrine of the Greek apologists, most notably Justin Martyr, which distinguished the Father from the Logos ("Word"). An ethical conservative, he was scandalized when Pope Callixtus I (217 – 222 AD) extended absolution to Christians who had committed grave sins, such as adultery.

As the heresy in the doctrine of the Modalists was not at first clearly apparent, Pope Zephyrinus declined to give a decision. For this Hippolytus gravely censured him, representing him as an incompetent man, unworthy to rule the Church of Rome and as a tool in the hands of the ambitious and intriguing deacon Callistus, whose early life is maliciously depicted (Philosophumena, IX, xi-xii). Consequently when Callistus was elected pope (217-218) on the death of Zephyrinus, Hippolytus immediately left the communion of the Roman Church and had himself elected antipope by his small band of followers. These he calls the Catholic Church and himself successor to the Apostles, terming the great majority of Roman Christians the School of Callistus. He accuses Callistus of having fallen first into the heresy of Theodotus, then into that of Sabellius; also of having through avarice degraded ecclesiastical, and especially the penitential, discipline to a disgraceful laxity. These reproaches were altogether unjustified. Hippolytus himself advocated an excessive rigorism.

He continued in opposition as antipope throughout the reigns of the two immediate successors of Callistus, Urban (222 or 223 to 230) and Pontius (230-35), and during this period, probably during the pontificate of Pontianus, he wrote the "Philosophumena". He was banished to the unhealthful island (insula nociva) of Sardinia at the same time as Pontianus; and shortly before this, or soon afterward, he became reconciled with the legitimate bishop and the Church of Rome. For, after both exiles had died on the island of Sardinia, their mortal remains were brought back to Rome on the same day, the 13th of August (either 236 or one of the following years), and solemnly interred, Pontianus in the papal vault in the catacomb of Callistus and Hippolytus in a spot on the Via Tiburtina. Both were equally revered as martyrs by the Roman Church: certain proof that Hippolytus had made his peace with that Church before his death.

Hippolytus himself advocated an excessive rigorism and continued to attack Pope Urban I (222 – 230) and Pope Pontian (230 – 235). One historian suggests that Hippolytus was the leader of the Greek-speaking Christians of Rome. Another historian sees the development of Roman house-churches into something akin to Greek philosophical schools gathered around a compelling teacher.

Under the persecution at the time of Emperor Maximinus Thrax, Hippolytus and Pontian were exiled together in 235 AD to Sardinia, likely dying in the mines. It is quite probable that, before his death there, he was reconciled to the other party at Rome, for, under Pope Fabian (236–250), his body and that of Pontian were brought to Rome. The so-called chronography of the year 354 (more precisely, the Catalogus Liberianus, or Liberian Catalogue) reports that on August 13th, probably in 236 AD, the two bodies were interred in Rome, that of Hippolytus in a cemetery on the Via Tiburtina, his funeral being conducted by Justin the Confessor. This document indicates that, by about 255 AD, Hippolytus was considered a martyr and gives him the rank of a priest, not of a bishop.

Legends
The facts of his life as well as his writing were soon forgotten in the West, perhaps by reason of his criticism of the bishops of Rome and because he wrote in Greek. Pope Damasus I dedicated to him one of his famous epigrams, making him, however, a priest of the Novatianist schism, a view later accepted by Prudentius in the 5th century in his "Passion of St Hippolytus". In the Passionals of the 7th and 8th centuries he is represented as a soldier converted by Saint Lawrence, a legend that long survived in the Roman Breviary. He was also confused with a martyr of the same name who was buried in Portus, of which city he was believed to have been a bishop, who was put to death by drowning in a deep well.

According to Prudentius' account, Hippolytus was dragged to death by wild horses, a striking parallel to the story of the mythological Hippolytus, who was dragged to death by wild horses at Athens. He described the subterranean tomb of the saint and states that he saw there a picture representing Hippolytus’ execution. He also confirms August 13th as the date on which a Hippolytus was celebrated but this again refers to the convert of Lawrence, as preserved in the Menaion of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The latter account led to Hippolytus being considered the patron saint of horses. During the Middle Ages, sick horses were brought to St Ippolyts, Hertfordshire, England, where a church is dedicated to him.

Writings
Roman sculpture, maybe of Hippolytus, found in 1551 and used for the attribution of the Apostolic Tradition
Hippolytus' principal work is the Refutation of all Heresies. Of its ten books, Book I was the most important.5 It was long known and was printed (with the title Philosophumena) among the works of Origen. Books II and III are lost, and Books IV–X were found, without the name of the author, in a monastery of Mount Athos in 1842. E. Miller published them in 1851 under the title Philosophumena, attributing them to Origen of Alexandria. They have since been attributed to Hippolytus.

Hippolytus' voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be compared with those of Origen of Alexandria, embrace the spheres of exegesis, homiletics, apologetics and polemic, chronography, and ecclesiastical law. Hippolytus recorded the first liturgical reference to the Virgin Mary, as part of the ordination rite of a bishop.

Of exegetical works usually attributed to Hippolytus, the best preserved are the Commentary on the Prophet Danieland the Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles. This is the earliest attested Christian interpretation of the Canticle of Canticles, covering only the first three chapters to Canticles 3:7.

The Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles survives in two Georgian manuscripts, a Greek epitome, a Paleo-Slavonic florilegium, and fragments in Armenian and Syriac as well as in many patristic quotations, especially in Ambrose of Milan's Exposition on Psalm 118 (119). It is generally regarded as an instruction relating to a post-Baptismal rite of anointing with oil as a symbol of receiving the Holy Spirit. The commentary was originally written as part of a mystagogy, an instruction for new Christians. Scholars have usually assumed the Commentary On the Canticle of Canticles was originally composed for use during Passover, a season favored in the West for Baptism. Hippolytus supplied his commentary with a fully developed introduction known as the schema isagogicum, indicating his knowledge of the rhetorical conventions for teachers discussing classical works. He employs a common rhetorical trope, ekphrasis, using images on the walls or floors of Greco-Roman homes, and in the catacombs as paintings or mosaics. Origen felt that the Canticle of Canticles should be reserved for the spiritually mature and that studying it might be harmful for the novice.

About 215, he wrote the Apostolic Tradition, which contains the earlier known ritual of ordination. The influence of Hippolytus was felt chiefly through his works on chronography and ecclesiastical law. His chronicle of the world, a compilation embracing the whole period from the creation of the world up to the year 234, formed a basis for many chronographical works both in the East and West.

In the great compilations of ecclesiastical law that arose in the East since the 3rd century, the Church Orders many canons were attributed to Hippolytus, for example in the Canons of Hippolytus or the The Constitutions through Hippolytus. How much of this material is genuinely his, how much of it worked over, and how much of it wrongly attributed to him, can no longer be determined beyond dispute, however a great deal was incorporated into the Fetha Negest, which once served as the constitutional basis of law in Ethiopia — where he is still remembered as Abulides.

AUGUST 23RD
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. CLAUDIUS, ST. ASTERIUS, ST. NEON,
ST. DOMNINA & ST. THEONILLA
Martyred in the Third Century, around 285

Though the emperors Diocletian and Maximian were, for a great part of their reign, favorable to the Christians, and passed no edicts against them till the latter end; nevertheless several martyrs suffered in the beginning of their reign, especially at Rome, in Gaul and in Britain, and some also in the East. This was owing to particular occasions, or to the humor or whims of certain governors of provinces, who acted by virtue of former laws which had never been repealed.

In this manner the above-mentioned five martyrs were crowned in Cilicia. Claudius, Asterius, and Neon were three brothers, who were impeached as Christians before the magistrates of the city, Ægea, in which they dwelt, by their mother-in-law, whose principal view was to possess herself of their estate. About the same time two pious women named Domnina and Theonilla with a little child (perhaps Domnina’s) were likewise, on account of their Faith, thrown into prison by the same magistrate, and brought to their trial before the pro-consul of Cilicia, whose name was Lysias. Their acts are extant and entire, as they were copied from the proconsular register.

The pro-consul visiting his province arrived at Ægea, a sea-port, and a free town of Cilicia, forty-six miles south-east from Tarsus: and being there seated on his tribunal, said: “Let them bring before me the Christians whom the officers have delivered to the city magistrate.”

Euthalius the jailor said: “The magistrate of this city having, pursuant to your orders, made the strictest inquiry after the Christians, has apprehended six of this profession; three young men all brothers, two women, and a small child. One of them is here before you.”

Lysias said to him: “Well; what is your name?”

He answered: “Claudius.”

“Be not such a madman,” said Lysias, “as to throw thyself away in thy youthful days; but sacrifice to the gods, the only way to escape the torments prepared for thee in case of refusal.”

Claudius: “My God requires no such sacrifices; he rather delights in alms-deeds and holiness of life. Your gods are unclean demons, who are pleased with such sacrifices, whilst they are preparing eternal punishments for those who offer them.”

Lysias: “Let him be bound in order to be beaten with rods; there is no other way of bringing him to reason.”

Claudius: “Though you should inflict upon me the most cruel torments, you will not move or hurt me.”

Lysias: “The emperors have commanded that the Christians sacrifice to the gods; that they who refuse to do it be punished, but that honours and rewards be bestowed on such as obey.”

Claudius: “Their rewards are temporary and short-lived; whereas the confession of Jesus Christ has everlasting glory for its recompense.”

Then the pro-consul commanded him to be put upon the rack: fire to be applied to his feet, and little slices of flesh to be cut off his heels, and presented to him.

The martyr said: “Neither your fire nor all your other torments can hurt those who fear God. All this conduces to bring them to eternal life.”

Lysias ordered his flesh to be torn with iron hooks; then his sides to be rubbed with broken pottery, and burning torches to be applied to them.

Claudius said: “I esteem it a great benefit to suffer for God, and the greatest riches to die for Jesus Christ.”

Lysias: “Take him hence, carry him back to prison, and bring another.”

Euthalius, the keeper of the prison, said: “According to your orders, my lord, we have brought hither Asterius the second brother.”

Lysias said to him: “Take my advice and sacrifice to the gods; you have before your eyes the torments that are prepared for those who refuse.”

Asterius: “There is one God who dwelleth in the heavens, and in the greatness of his power regardeth the lowest things. Him my parents have taught me to love and adore. I know not those that you worship, and call gods.”

Lysias then ordered him to be laid on the rack, saying: “Squeeze his sides, tear them with iron hooks, and bid him comply instantly, and sacrifice to the gods.”

Asterius replied: “I am his brother whom you just now interrogated. Our sentiments are the same, and we make the same confession. My body is in your power; but my soul is out of your reach.”

Lysias said: “Bring the iron pincers and pulleys, bind his feet, squeeze and torture him to the purpose, that he may perceive I can inflict torments.” After this he said: “Put live coals under his feet; and lash him on the back and belly with whips of leather thongs.”

The martyr replied: “The only favor I desire of you is, that you suffer no part of my body to be exempt from torment.”

Lysias said: “Take him hence, put him with the rest, and bring the third.”

When Neon was brought Lysias called him son, and treated him with mildness, exhorting him to sacrifice to the gods that he might escape torments.

Neon answered, that his gods had no power if they were not able to defend themselves without having recourse to his authority.

Lysias said: “Strike him on the neck, and bid him not blaspheme the gods.”

Neon replied: “You think I blaspheme when I speak the truth.”

Lysias said: “Stretch him by the feet upon the rack; put burning coals upon him, and scourge his back with thongs.”

While this was executing Neon said: “I will do what is profitable for my soul, and no man shall ever make me change this resolution.”

Lysias then dictated this sentence: “Euthalius the keeper, and Archelaus the executioner shall take care that these three brothers be crucified without the town, that the birds of the air may devour their bodies.”

Then Euthalius presented Domnina; whereupon Lysias said to her: “You see, woman, the fire and torments which are preparing for you; if you would avoid them, draw near, and sacrifice.”

Domnina replied: “I shall not do it, lest I fall into eternal fire, and perpetual torments. I worship God and his Son Jesus Christ, who hath made Heaven and Earth, and all that is therein.”

Lysias said: “Take off her garments, lay her at her length, and scourge her with rods.”

After this was done, Archelaus, the executioner, said to Lysias: “May it please you, Domnina is just expired.”

Lysias said: “Throw her body into the midst of the river.”

Euthalius said: “Here, my lord, is Theonilla.”

Lysias said to her: “You have seen the flames and torments with which the others have been punished. Honour the gods, and sacrifice.”

Theonilla replied: “I dread eternal torments, which will destroy both body and soul.”

Lysias said: “Buffet her, lay her flat, and bind her, and torment her with the utmost violence.”

Theonilla said: “Are you not ashamed to inflict such punishments on a woman that is free and a stranger too? You know it to be true, and God sees what you do.”

Lysias said: “Hang her up by the hair of her head, and strike her on the face.”

Theonilla said: “Is it not enough that you have stripped me naked? It is not me only that you have injured, but your mother and your wife are also put to confusion in my person.”

Lysias said: “Are you a married woman, or are you a widow?”

Theonilla replied: “I have been a widow these three and twenty years. It is for the love of God that I have continued in this state, accustoming myself to fasting, watching, and prayer, ever since I have forsaken your unclean idols.”

Lysias said: “Shave her head, that she may undergo the greater confusion. Gird her about with thorns; extend her body, and tie it to four stakes; scourge her with thongs, not only upon the back, but over all her body; lay live coals upon her belly, and so let her die.”

Euthalius, the goaler, and Archelaus, the executioner, said: “My lord, she is now dead.”

Then said Lysias to them: “Sew her body up in a sack; tie it fast, and throw it into the water.”

Euthalius and Archelaus said: “We have executed your orders relating to the bodies of the Christians.”

The persecutors took these precautions with regard to their dead bodies, that the Christians might not get possession of their relics. These holy martyrs suffered at Ægea, in the consulate of Diocletian and Aristobulus, on the tenth of the calends of September—that is, on the 23rd of August, in the year of Our Lord, 285, Lysias being proconsul of Cilicia, by whose command St. Cosmas and St. Damian, brothers and physicians, and a great number of other martyrs suffered.

AUGUST 24TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. BARTHOLOMEW
Martyred in the First Century, around 71

The name here given to this Apostle is not his proper, but patronymical name: and imports, the son of Tholomew or Tolmai, like Barjona and Bartimeus. Rupertus, Jansenius, and several other learned interpreters of the Holy Scripture, take this apostle to have been the same person with Nathaniel, a native of Cana, in Galilee, a doctor in the Jewish law, and one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, to whom he was conducted by St. Philip, and whose innocence and simplicity of heart deserved to be celebrated with the highest eulogium by the divine mouth of our Redeemer.

Bartholomew Gavant, the learned commentator on the Rubrics of the Roman Missal and Breviary, has endeavored, by an express dissertation, to prove this conjecture. F. Stilting, the Bollandist, has undertaken to confirm this opinion more at large; for whereas St. John never mentions Bartholomew among the apostles, so the other three evangelists take no notice of the name of Nathaniel; and they constantly put together Philip and Bartholomew, as St. John says Philip and Nathaniel came together to Christ. Also Nathaniel is reckoned with other apostles when Christ appeared to them at the sea of Galilee after his resurrection; and if he had not already belonged to that sacred college, why was he not propounded a candidate for the apostleship to fill the vacant place of Judas?

St. Bartholomew was chosen by Christ one of his twelve Apostles, when he formed that sacred college. He was with them witness of Our Lord’s glorious resurrection, and his other principal actions on Earth, and was instructed in his divine school, and from His sacred mouth. He is mentioned among the other disciples, who were met together, joining in devout prayer, after Christ’s ascension, and he received the Holy Ghost with the rest.

Having been prepared by the example and instructions of our Redeemer, and by humble and fervent prayer, he was replenished, in the descent of the Holy Ghost, with a heroic spirit of humility, mortification, contempt of the world, compunction, prayer, holy zeal, and burning charity. Thus armed and filled with the eminent spirit of all virtues, twelve Apostles converted many great nations to Christ, and carried the sound of His name into the remotest corners of the Earth.

How comes it that nowadays the apostolic labors of so many ministers of the divine word produce so little fruit? One great reason of this difference is, their neglect to obtain of God a large share in the spirit of the Apostles. Their success and the influence of their words upon the hearts of men depend, not upon human prudence, eloquence, and abilities; the principal instrument of God’s grace in multiplying the fruit of his word in the hearts of men, is the spirit with which it is announced by those whom He honors with the ministry. Their sincere disinterestedness, humility, and overflowing zeal and charity give, as it were, a living voice to that divine Faith and virtue which they preach; and those who take upon them this charge, are doubly bound to prepare themselves for it by strenuously laboring to obtain of Christ this perfect spirit in the sanctification of their own souls, not to profane their holy ministry, and destroy the work of God which is committed to their charge.

St. Bartholomew being eminently qualified by the divine grace to discharge the functions of an Apostle, carried the Gospel through the most barbarous countries of the East, penetrating into the remoter Indies, as Eusebius and other ancient writers testify. By the name of Indies, the ancients sometimes mean only Arabia and Persia; but here they speak of proper India; for they make mention of the Brahmans of that country, famous over the whole world for their pretended skill in philosophy, and in the superstitious mysteries of their idolatry.

Eusebius relates that St. Pantænus, about the beginning of the third century, going into the Indies to confute their Brahmans, found there some who still retained the knowledge of Christ, and showed him a copy of St. Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew, which they assured him that St. Bartholomew had brought into those parts, when he planted the Faith among them. This Apostle returned again into the north-west parts of Asia; and met St. Philip at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. Hence he travelled into Lycaonia, where St. Chrysostom affirms that he instructed the people in the Christian Faith; but we know not even the names of many of the countries to which he preached.

We are struck with astonishment when we call to mind how many prisons the Apostles sanctified, how many dangers they braved, how many vast regions they travelled over, and how many nations they conquered to Christ; but if we admire their courage, zeal, and labors, we have still greater reason to wonder and be confounded at our supine sloth and insensibility, who do nothing for the enlargement of God’s kingdom in others, or even for the sanctification of our own souls. It is not owing to the want of means or of strength through the divine grace, but to the want of courage and sincere resolution that we do so little; that we find no opportunities for exercising charity towards our neighbor, no time for prayer and recollection of spirit, no strength for the practice of fasting and penance. If we examine into the truth, we shall find that we blind ourselves by vain pretenses, and that sloth, tepidity, and indifference have many hindrances, which fervor, resolution, industry, and contrivance find ways readily to remove. The Apostles, who did and suffered so much for God, still sincerely called themselves unprofitable servants, made no account of their labors, and were altogether taken up with the thoughts of what they owed to God, and how infinitely they yet fell short of this. True love exerts itself beyond what seems possible, yet counts all it does as nothing.

St. Bartholomew’s last removal was into Great Armenia, where, preaching in a place obstinately addicted to the worship of idols, he was crowned with a glorious martyrdom, as St. Gregory of Tours mentions. The modern Greek historians say, that he was condemned by the governor of Albanopolis to be crucified. Others affirm, that he was flayed alive, which might well enough be attached to his crucifixion; this double punishment being in use, as we learn from Plutarch and Arrian, not only in Egypt, but also among the Persians, the next neighbors to these Armenians, who might very easily borrow from them this piece of barbarous cruelty.

Theodorus Lector says, that the Emperor Anastasius having built the city of Duras, in Mesopotamia, in 508, caused the relics of St. Bartholomew to be removed thither. St. Gregory of Tours assures us that, before the end of the sixth age they were carried to the isle of Lipari, near Sicily. Anastasius, the Librarian, informs us that, in 809, they were translated from Lipari to Benevento; from whence they were conveyed to Rome in 983, as Baronius relates. Ever since that time they lie deposited in a porphyry monument under the high altar, in the famous church of St. Bartholomew, in the isle of the Tiber, in Rome. An arm of this Apostle’s body was sent a present by the bishop of Benevento to St. Edward the Confessor, and by him bestowed on the cathedral church of Canterbury. The feast of St. Bartholomew in ancient Martyrologies is marked on the 24th of August in the West, but among the Greeks on the 11th of June.

The characteristic virtue of the Apostles was zeal for the divine glory; the first property of the love of God. A soldier is always ready to defend the honor of his prince, and a son that of his father; and can a Christian say he loves God, who is indifferent to his honor? Or can charity towards his neighbor be lodged in his breast, if he can see him in danger of perishing, and not endeavor, at least by tears and prayers, to avert his misfortune? Every faithful servant of God makes the first petition which Our Lord teaches us in His divine prayer, the object of his perpetual ardent desires and tears, that the God of his heart, and of all creatures, may be known, perfectly loved, and faithfully served by all; and he never ceases earnestly to invite, with the royal prophet, all creatures with their whole strength, and with all their powers, to magnify the Lord with him; but then it is the first part of his care and prayer that he may himself perfectly attain to this happiness of devoting to God all the affections of his soul, and all the actions of his life; and it is to him a subject of perpetual tears and compunction that he should have ever offended so good a God, and so kind a Redeemer.

AUGUST 25TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. EUSEBIUS, ST. PONTIAN, ST. VINCENT &
ST. PEREGRINE
Martyred in the Second Century, around 192

The story begins under Emperor Commodus in the year 192. On the anniversary of the Emperor's birthday, all Rome was to pay homage to him as the demigod Hercules. On the appointed day Commodus appeared clad only in a lion-skin, crowned, a club in hand, expecting, not only adulation, but also adoration from the Romans. He received, of course, what he demanded; but the more intelligent chewed on laurel leaves to hide their laughter and so to save their heads.

A community of Christians in Rome, devoted to prayer and to the poor, was most eager to die for Christ. Four young men were especially prominent: Eusebius, Vincent, Pontian and the boy Peregrine. When they heard of the blasphemous conduct of emperor and people, they were inflamed with holy fervor. Incited by the Holy Spirit, they hurried into the streets condemning the revolting Roman practices.

“O dear friends,” they cried, “abandon the worship of demons. Give honor to the one God, the Blessed Trinity, the omnipotent Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Do penance and be baptized, lest you perish together with Commodus!”

Among the results of their heroic street preaching was the conversion of the Roman senator Julius. The newly received gift of Faith burned brightly in his soul; he made the poor people the beneficiaries of his wealth and his pagan associates the object of his zeal and eloquence. Christ became the object of his love, which was stronger than death. Soon the Emperor Commodus heard about the Senator Julius and put him in chains. In prison Julius was given the alternative of worshiping the Emperor or suffering death. Julius did not hesitate. Peregrine and his companions found his battered body outside the amphitheater; lovingly they buried it.

The senator Julius had been wealthy. Where, asked the Emperor and others of his type, had his fortune gone? The senator's Christian friends, Eusebius, the boy Peregrine and the rest, would know; they must be made to speak—the dungeon would reveal all. If not, torture on the rack would surely separate them from their unworldly Faith, would draw forth the desired knowledge. No results? Then let whips and lashes be added. Constancy in Christ prevailed. A final torture: let burning torches be applied to their naked limbs. From the tongues of the sufferers, however, arises a joyous song: “Glory be to the Lord Who has granted to exalt us with such visitations!” LA radiant youth, an angel was standing among them—with a sponge he soothed their scorched bodies, shielding them from the flames.

Instantly one of the torturers, who witnessed the apparition, shouted his belief in the Faith of the tortured and hurried off for Baptism. Back in prison the four Christians passed day and night in prayer and holy meditation. Christians came to console them and left consoled themselves. The gift of miracles was attributed to the heroic sufferers. Had not the jailer himself asked for Baptism?

The Emperor became furious; he would put a stop to their evil influence. He gave them one final chance to denounce their Faith. If they did not, then the sentence would be administered: death by flogging with leaden scourges. Of course, they chose death! Devout Christians recovered the bodies and buried them in the peace of the Lord, August 25, 192 A.D. Small portions of Saint Peregrine's relics are solemnly venerated every August in the Collegiate Church of Altavilla Irpina, near Avellino, Italy.

AUGUST 26TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. ZEPHYRINUS
Martyred in the Third Century, around 219

St. Zephyrinus, a native of Rome, succeeded Pope St. Victor I in the pontificate, in the year 202, in which Severus raised the fifth most bloody persecution against the Church, which continued, not for two years only, as some imagined; but nine years until the death of that Emperor in 211. Under this furious storm, this holy pastor was the support and comfort of the distressed flock of Christ, and he suffered by charity and compassion what every confessor underwent. The triumphs of the martyrs were indeed his joy, but his heart received many deep wounds from the fall of apostates and heretics. Neither did this latter affliction cease by the peace, which Caracalla restored to the church, and which was not disturbed by Macrinus, by whose contrivance Caracalla was murdered in Mesopotamia, in 217, nor by the successor and murderer of this latter, the impure Heliogabalus, who reigned to the year 221. The chief among these heretics were Marcion, Praxeas, Valentine, and the Montanists; for St. Optatus testifies, that all these were vanquished by Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome.

Our saint had also the affliction to see the fall of Tertullian, which seems to have been casued, partly by his pride, and partly by a heretic named Proclus, or Proculus, an eloquent Montanist, whom Tertullian highly extolled, after he had become an abettor of that heresy. This Proculus was publicly put to confusion at Rome by Caius, a most learned priest of that church, under St. Zephyrinus, who was afterwards consecrated a regionary bishop—that is, with a commission to preach the Gospel without being fixed in any particular see, as Photius assures us.

Eusebius, St. Jerome, and Photius much commend the dialogue of Caius with Proculus; a work which has not reached our times. Photius tells us that Caius also composed a treatise against Artemon, who believed that Jesus Christ was only a mere man, and several other learned works, from which Eusebius took the account he has given us of the penance of Natalis.

This man lived at Rome, and having confessed the Faith before the persecutors, underwent torments in defence of it; but afterwards was seduced into heresy by Asclepiodotus and Theodotus the banker, who were both disciples of Theodotus the tanner, whom Victor, bishop of Rome, had excommunicated for reviving the heresy of Ebion, affirming that Christ was no more than a mere man, though a prophet. These two heretics had persuaded Natalis to suffer them to ordain him a bishop of their sect, promising that he should be furnished monthly with one hundred and fifty silver denarii, upwards of three pounds sterling.

God, however, having compassion on his confessor, warned him by several visions to abandon these heretics; among whom he was detained only by interest and vanity. At length he was whipped a whole night by an angel. The day following he covered himself with sackcloth and ashes, and shedding abundance of tears, went and threw himself at the feet of Zephyrinus: he prostrated himself also before both the clergy and the laity in a manner with which the whole assembly was much affected. However, though he entreated very earnestly, and showed the marks of the stripes he had received, it was with much difficulty that St. Zephyrinus readmitted him to the communion of the church, granting him, in recompense of his great compunction, an indulgence or relaxation of the severity of the discipline, which required a penitential delay and trial.

Eusebius tells us, in the same place, that this holy pope exerted his zeal so strenuously against the blasphemies of the two Theodotuses, that those heretics treated him in the most contumelious manner; but it was his glory that they called him the principal defender of Christ’s divinity. St. Zephyrinus filled the pontifical chair seventeen years, dying in 219.

He was buried in his own cemetery (comprised in that of Calixtus) on the 26th of August, on which most martyrologies commemorate him; though those of Vandelbert and Rabanus, with the old martyrology, under the name of St. Jerome, published by Florentinius, mark his festival on the 20th of December, probably on account of some translation, or the day of his ordination. He is, in some martyrologies, styled a martyr, which title he might deserve by what he suffered in the persecution, though he perhaps did not die by the executioner.

AUGUST 27TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. MALUBRIUS
Martyred in the Eleventh Century, around 1040

St. Malrubius led an eremitical life in Scotland, entirely occupied in penitential works, and in the exercise of holy contemplation. The incursions of the idolatrous Norwegians induced him to quit his desert, in order to administer comfort to his countrymen, and, if possible, to convert the barbarians. With this view, the servant of God began to preach to them the truths of the gospel; but death was the recompense for his charity, the Norwegians having cruelly murdered him. His martyrdom happened in the province of Mernis, about the year 1040, in the reign of King Duncan. See Lesley and Adam King.

AUGUST 28TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. JULIAN
Martyred in the Fourth Century

St. Julian was descended from, one of the best families of Vienne in Dauphiné. He served with the tribune Ferreol; and knew well how to reconcile the profession of arms with the maxims of the Gospel. Crispin, the governor of the province of Vienne, having declared himself against the Christians, therefore Julian withdrew to Auvergne, not that he dreaded the persecution, but that he might be at hand to be of service to the faithful; for being acquainted, that he was sought after by the persecutors, of his own accord he presented himself before them saying: “Alas, I am too long in this bad world! Oh how I burn with desire to be with Jesus!” He had scarcely uttered these words, when they separated his head from his body.

Having decapitated the saint, his executioners took his head to Vienne, leaving the body to be buried in Brioude by two old men, who received an invigorating miracle that made them feel young again thereafter. This was simply the first of a series of miracles, healing several people—including St. Gallus, St. Gregory and Gregory's brother Peter—of various afflictions, punishing the wicked, and even defeating the armies of King Theuderic I, during the “Ravaging of the Auvergne.” After this episode, the miracles stopped being focused solely on Brioude and its environs, as St. Julian's relics were redistributed.

It was near Brioude; but the place of his interment was for a long time unknown, until God revealed it to St. Germain of Auxerre, when he passed by Brioude on his return from Arles, about the year 431. His head was afterwards tranferred to Vienne, with the body of St. Ferreol. St. Gregory of Tours relates a great number of miracles wrought by his intercession. The same author mentions a church dedicated at Paris under the invocation of the holy martyr; it is that which is near the bridge called Petit Pont (Little Bridge), and has successively gone under the name of St. Julian the Old, and St. Julian the Poor.

AUGUST 29TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. SABINA
Martyred in the Second Century, around 126

St. Sabina was a rich widow of high birth— the widow of Senator Valentinus and daughter of Herod Metallarius—who lived in the province of Umbria in Italy. She had a servant called Seraphia, a native of Antioch in Syria, who was a zealous Christian, and served God in the holy state of virginity. The religious deportment of this virtuous maid-servant had such an influence over the mistress, that she was converted to the Christian Faith; and so powerfully did the great truths of our holy religion operate on her soul, that her fervor and piety soon rendered her name illustrious among the great lights of the church, in the beginning of the second century.

The persecution of Adrian beginning to rage, Beryllus, governor of the province, caused Sabina and Seraphia to be arrested, and Seraphia to be beaten with clubs and beheaded. Sabina was released, out of respect to nobility, high-standing and her influential friends. Sabina rescued Seraphia's remains and had them interred in the family mausoleum where she also expected to be buried. However, her zeal earned for her the crown of martyrdom the following year. Denounced and accused of being a Christian by Elpidio the Prefect, Sabina was arrested once again and martyred in the year 126, in the city of Vindena in the state of Umbria, Italy.

She is honored on the 29th of August, and again with St. Seraphia on the 3rd of September, because, on that day, in the year 430, as Ado informs us, a famous ancient church was dedicated to God in Rome, under the patronage of those two saints. At present, it bears only the name of St. Sabina. In it was kept the first among the stations in Lent, until, in the 1700’s, the public prayers of Forty Hours succeeded the devotion of the stations, both being equally the general assembly of the city in the same church to join in prayer.

AUGUST 30TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. FELIX & ST. ADAUCTUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 303

St. Felix was a holy priest in Rome, no less happy in his life and virtue, than in his name. Being apprehended in the beginning of Diocletian’s persecution, he was put to cruel torments, which he suffered with admirable constancy, and was at length condemned to lose his head.

As he was going to execution he was met by a stranger, who, being a Christian, was so inflamed at the sight of the martyr, and the lively prospect of the glory to which he was hastening, that he was not able to contain himself, but cried out aloud: “I confess the same law which this man professeth; I confess the same Jesus Christ; and it is also my desire to lay down my life in this cause.”

The magistrates hearing this, caused him forthwith to be seized, and the martyrs were both beheaded together about the year 303. The name of this latter not being known, he was called by the Christians Adauctus, because he was joined to Felix in martyrdom. These holy martyrs are commemorated in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, and many ancient calendars. F. Stilting, the Bollandist historian, asserts the authenticity of their acts.

AUGUST 31ST
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. THEODOTUS, ST. RUFINA & ST. AMMIA
Martyred in the Third Century, around 270

The holy martyrs Theodotus and Rufina were the parents of St. Mamas. They came from patrician families, and were honored by all for their Christian piety. Alexander, the magistrate of the city of Gangra, summoned them because they refused to obey the imperial decree requiring all citizens to worship the pagan gods. Those who disobeyed would be tortured and put to death.

Since Theodotus refused to comply with this order, Alexander sent him to Governor Faustus in Caesarea of Cappadocia. Alexander could not torture or kill Theodotus because of his noble rank. Faustus, however, had no such scruples, and threw Theodotus into prison as soon as he arrived.

Even though she was pregnant at the time, Rufina followed her husband. She stayed in the prison with Theodotus, where they both suffered for Christ. Fearing that he would not be able to withstand the cruel tortures, Theodotus asked God to take his soul. The Lord heard his prayer and sent him a blessed repose, establishing his soul in the heavenly mansions.

St. Rufina endured privations and sufferings in prison, and experienced great sorrow at the death of her husband. Because of these things, she gave birth to her child before the proper time. She prayed that God would permit her to follow her husband in death, and that He would also protect her child. Her prayers were granted, and she gave her virtuous soul into God’s hands.

Their child, St. Mamas, was raised by a pious woman named Ammia (or Matrona) who became a second mother to him.