February Martyrs

THE MARTYRS OF FEBRUARY
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).

FEBRUARY 1ST
The Martyr of the Day
ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
Martyred in the Second Century, around 107

St. Ignatius, surnamed Theophorus, a word implying a divine or heavenly person, was a zealous convert and an intimate disciple of St. John the Evangelist, as his acts assure us; also the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, who united their labours in planting the Faith at Antioch. It was by their direction that he succeeded Evodius in the government of that important see, as we are told by St. John Chrysostom, who represents him as a perfect model of virtue in that station, in which he continued upwards of forty years.

During the persecution of Domitian, St. Ignatius defended his flock by prayer, fasting, and daily preaching the word of God. He rejoiced to see peace restored to the church on the death of that emperor, so far as this calm might be beneficial to those committed to his charge: but was apprehensive that he had not attained to the perfect love of Christ, nor the dignity of a true disciple, because he had not as yet been called to seal the truth of his religion with his blood, an honor he somewhat impatiently longed for.

The peaceable reign of Nerva lasted only fifteen months. The governors of several provinces renewed the persecution under Trajan his successor; and it appears from Trajan’s letter to Pliny the younger, governor of Bithynia, that the Christians were ordered to be put to death, if accused; but it was forbidden to make any inquiry after them. That emperor sullied his clemency and bounty and his other pagan virtues, by incest with his sister, by an excessive vanity, which procured him the surname of Parietmus, (or dauber of every wall with the inscription of his name and actions,) and by blind superstition, which rendered him a persecutor of the true followers of virtue, out of a notion of gratitude to his imaginary deities, especially after his victories over the Daci and Scythians in 101 and 105.

In the year 106, which was the ninth of his reign, he set out for the East on an expedition against the Parthians, and made his entry into Antioch on the 7th of January, 107, with the pomp of a triumph. His first concern was about the affair of religion and worship of the gods, and for this reason he resolved to compel the Christians either to acknowledge their divinity and sacrifice to them, or suffer death in case of refusal.

Ignatius, as a courageous soldier, being concerned only for his flock, willingly suffered himself to be taken, and carried before Trajan, who thus accosted him: “Who art thou, wicked demon, that durst transgress my commands, and persuade others to perish?”
The saint answered: “No one calls Theophorus a wicked demon.”
Trajan said: “Who is Theophorus?”
Ignatius answered: “He who carrieth Christ in his breast.”
Trajan replied: “And do not we seem to thee to bear the gods in our breasts, whom we have assisting us against our enemies?”
Ignatius said: “You err in calling those gods who are no better than devils: for there is only one God, who made Heaven and Earth, and all things that are in them: and one Jesus Christ His only Son, into Whose kingdom I earnestly desire to be admitted.”
Trajan said: “Do not you mean Him that was crucified under Pontius Pilate?”
Ignatius answered: “The very same, who by His death has crucified with sin its author, Who overcame the malice of the devils, and has enabled those, who bear Him in their heart, to trample on them.”
Trajan said: “Dost thou carry about Christ within thee?”
Ignatius replied: “Yes; for it is written: ‘I will dwell and walk in them?’”
Then Trajan dictated the following sentence: “It is our will that Ignatius, who saith that he carrieth the crucified Man within himself, be bound and conducted to Rome, to be devoured there by wild beasts, for the entertainment of the people.”
The holy martyr hearing this sentence, cried out with joy: “I thank thee, O Lord, for vouchsafing to honor me with this token of perfect love for thee, and to be bound with chains of iron in imitation of Thy Apostle Paul, for Thy sake.”
Having said this, and prayed for the church and recommended it with tears to God, he joyfully put on the chains, and was hurried away by a savage troop of soldiers to be conveyed to Rome. His inflamed desire of laying down his life for Christ made him embrace his sufferings with great joy.

On his arrival at Selucia, a sea-port, about sixteen miles from Antioch, he was put on board a ship which was to coast the southern and western parts of Asia Minor. Why this route was pitched upon, consisting of so many windings, preferably to a more direct passage from Selucia to Rome, is not known; probably to render the terror of his punishment the more extensive, and of the greater force, to deter men from embracing and persevering in the Faith: but providence seems to have ordained it for the comfort and edification of many churches.

Several Christians of Antioch, taking a shorter way, got to Rome before him, where they waited his arrival. He was accompanied thither from Syria, by Reus, Philo a deacon, and Agathopodus, who seem to have written these acts of his martyrdom. He was guarded night and day, both by sea and land, by ten soldiers, whom he calls ten leopards, on account of their inhumanity and merciless usage: who, the kinder he was to them, were the more fierce and cruel to him.

This voyage, however, gave him the opportunity of confirming in Faith and piety the several churches he saw on his route; giving them the strictest caution against heresies and schism, and recommending to them an inviolable attachment to the tradition of the Apostles. St. Chrysostom adds, that he taught them admirably to despise the present life, to love only the good things to come, and never to fear any temporal evils whatever.

The faithful flocked from the several churches he came near, to see him, and to render him all the service in their power, hoping to receive benefit from the plenitude of his benediction. The cities of Asia besides, deputing to him their bishops and priests to express their veneration for him, sent also deputies in their name to bear him company the remainder of his journey; so that he says he had many churches with him. So great was his fervor and desire of suffering, that by the fatigues and length of the voyage, which was a very bad one, he appeared the stronger and more courageous.

On their reaching Smyrna, he was suffered to go ashore, which he did with great joy to salute St. Polycarp, who had been his fellow-disciple, under St. John the Evangelist. Their conversation was upon topics suitable to their character, and St. Polycarp felicitated him on his chains and sufferings in so good a cause. At Smyrna he was met by deputies of several churches, who were sent to salute him. Those from Ephesus were Onesimus the bishop, Burrhus the deacon, Crocus, Euplus, and Fronto. From Magnesia in Lydia, Damas the bishop, Bassus and Apollo, priests, and Sotio deacon. From Tralles, also in Lydia, Polybius the bishop.

From Smyrna St. Ignatius wrote four letters: in that to the church of Ephesus, he commands the bishop Onesimus and the piety and concord of the people, and their zeal against all heresies, and exhorts them to glorify God all manner of ways: to be subject, in unanimity, to their bishop and priests, to assemble as often as possible with them in public prayer, by which the power of Satan is weakened: to oppose only meekness to anger, humility to boasting, prayers to curses and reproaches, and to suffer all injuries without murmuring. He says, that because they are spiritual, and perform all they do in a spiritual manner, that all, even their ordinary actions, are spiritualized, because they do all in Jesus Christ. That he ought to have been admonished by them, but his charity would not suffer him to be silent: wherefore he prevents them, by admonishing first, that both might meet in the will of God. He bids them not be solicitous to speak, but to live well, and to edify others by their actions; and recommends himself and his widow-church of Antioch to their prayers.

Himself he calls their outcast, yet declares that he is ready to be immolated for their sake, and says they were persons who had found mercy, but he a condemned man: they were strengthened in grace, but he straggling in the midst of dangers. He calls them fellow-travelers in the road to God, which is charity, and says they bore God and Christ in their breasts, and were his temples, embellished with all virtues, and that he exulted exceedingly for the honor of being made worthy to write to them, and rejoice in God with them: for setting a true value on the life to come, they loved nothing but God alone. Speaking of heretics, he says, that he who corrupts the Faith for which Christ died, will go into unquenchable fire, and also he who heareth him.

It is observed by him that God concealed from the devil three mysteries: the virginity of Mary, her bringing forth, and the death of the Lord: and he calls the Eucharist, the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death, by which we always live in Christ. “Remember me, as I pray that Jesus Christ be mindful of you. Pray for the church of Syria, from whence I am carried in chains to Rome, being the last of the faithful who are there—Farewell in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ our common hope.”

The same instructions he repeats with a new and most moving turn of thought, in his letters to the churches of Magnesia, and of the Trallians, inculcates the greatest abhorrence of schism and heresy, and begs their prayers for himself and his church in Syria, of which he is not worthy to be called a member, being the last of them.

His fourth letter was written to the Christians of Rome. The saint knew the all-powerful efficacy of the prayers of the saints, and feared lest they should obtain of God his deliverance from death. He therefore besought St. Polycarp and others at Smyrna, to join their prayers with his, that the cruelty of the wild beasts might quickly rid the world of him, that he might be presented before Jesus Christ. With this view he wrote to the faithful at Rome, to beg that they would not endeavor to obtain of God that the beasts might spare him as they had several other martyrs; which might induce the people to release him, and so disappoint him of his crown.

The ardor of divine love which the saint breathes throughout this letter is as inflamed as the subject is extraordinary. In it he writes: “I fear your charity lest it prejudice me. For it is easy for you to do what you please; but it will be difficult for me to attain unto God if you spare me. I shall never have such an opportunity of enjoying God: nor can you, if ye shall now be silent, ever be entitled to the honor of a better work. For if ye be silent in my behalf, I shall be made partarker of God; but if ye love my body, I shall have my course to run again. Therefore, a greater kindness you cannot do me, than suffer me to be sacrificed unto God, whilst the altar is now ready: that so becoming a choir in love, in your hymns ye may give thanks to the Father by Jesus Christ, that God has vouchsafed to bring me, the bishop of Syria, from the East unto the West, to pass out of the world unto God, that I may rise again unto him.

Ye have never envied any one. Ye have taught others. I desire therefore that you will firmly observe that which in your instructions you have prescribed to others. Only pray for me, that God would give me both inward and outward strength, that I may not only say, but do: that I may not only be called a Christian but be found one: for if I shall be found a Christian, I may then deservedly be called one; and be thought faithful, when I shall no longer appear to the world. Nothing is good that is seen.

A Christian is not a work of opinion, but of greatness, when he is hated by the world. I write to the churches, and signify to them all, that I am willing to die for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech you that you show not an unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to be the food of wild beasts, whereby I may attain unto God: I am the wheat of God, and I am to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the beasts to my sepulcher, that they may leave nothing of my body, that, being dead, I may not be troublesome to any. Then shall I be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body. Pray to Christ for me, that in this I may become a sacrifice to God.

I do not, as Peter and Paul, command you: they were Apostles, I am an inconsiderable person: they were free, I am even yet a slave. But if I suffer I shall then become the freeman of Jesus Christ, and shall arise a freeman in him. Now I am in bonds for him, I learn to have no worldly or vain desires. From Syria even unto Rome I fight with wild beasts both by sea and land, both night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, to a band of soldiers; who are the worse for kind treatment. But I am the more instructed by their injuries; yet I am not thereby justified.

I earnestly wish for the wild beasts that are prepared for me, which I heartily desire may soon despatch me; whom I will entice to devour me entirely and suddenly, and not serve me as they have done some whom they have been afraid to touch; but if they are unwilling to meddle with me, I will even compel them to it. Pardon me this matter, I know what is good for me. Now I begin to be a disciple. So that I have no desire after anything visible or invisible, that I may attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire, or the cross, or the concourse of wild beasts, let cutting or tearing of the flesh, let breaking of bones and cutting off limbs, let the shattering in pieces of my whole body, and all the wicked torments of the devil come upon me, so that I may but attain to Jesus Christ.

All the compass of the earth, and the kingdoms of this world will profit me nothing. It is better for me to die for the sake of Jesus Christ, than to rule unto the ends of the earth. Him I seek who died for us; Him I desire who rose again for us. He is my gain at hand. Pardon me, brethren: be not my hindrance in attaining to life, for Jesus Christ is the life of the faithful: whilst I desire to belong to God, do not ye yield me back to the world.

Suffer me to partake of the pure light. When I shall be there, I shall be a man of God. Permit me to imitate the passion of Christ my God. If anyone has him within himself, let him consider what I desire, and let him have compassion on me, as knowing how I am straitened. The prince of this world endeavors to snatch me away, and to change the desire with which I burn of being united to God. Let none of you who are present attempt to help me. Be rather on my side, that is, on God’s. Entertain no desires of the world, having Jesus Christ in your mouths. Let no envy find place in your breasts. Even were I myself to entreat you when present, do not obey me; but rather believe what I now signify to you by letter. Though I am alive at the writing of this, yet my desire is to die. My love is crucified.

The fire that is within me does not crave any water; but being alive and springing within, says: Come to the Father. I take no pleasure in the food of corruption, nor in the pleasure of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, and for drink his blood, which is incorruptible charity. I desire to live no longer according to men; and this will be if you are willing. Be then willing, that you may be accepted by God. Pray for me that I may possess God. If I shall suffer, ye have loved me: If I shall be rejected, ye have hated me. Remember in your prayers the church of Syria, which now enjoys God for its shepherd instead of me. I am ashamed to be called of their number, for I am not worthy, being the last of them, and an abortive: but through mercy I have obtained that I shall be something, if I enjoy God.”

The martyr gloried in his sufferings as in the highest honor, and regarded his chains as most precious jewels. His soul was raised above either the love or the fear of anything on earth, and as St. John Chrysostom says, he could lay down his life with as much ease and willingness as another man could put off his clothes. He even wished every step of his journey to meet with the wild beasts; and though that death was most shocking and barbarous, and presented the most frightful ideas, sufficient to startle the firmest resolution; yet it was incapable of making the least impression upon his courageous soul. The perfect mortification of his affections appears from his heavenly meekness; and he expressed how perfectly he was dead to himself and the world, living only to God in his heart, by that admirable sentence: “My love is crucified.” To signify, as he explains himself afterwards, that his appetites and desires were crucified to the world, and to all the lusts and pleasures of it.

The guards pressed the saint to leave Smyrna, that they might arrive at Rome before the shows were over. He rejoiced exceedingly at their hurry, desiring impatiently to enjoy God by martyrdom. They sailed to Troas, where he was informed that God had restored peace to his church at Antioch: which freed him from the anxiety he had been under, fearing lest there should be some weak ones in his flock. At Troas he wrote three other letters, one to the church of Philadelphia, and a second to the Smyrnæans, in which he calls the heretics who denied Christ to have assumed true flesh, and the Eucharist to be his flesh, wild beasts in human shape; and forbids all communication with them only allowing them to be prayed for, that they may be brought to repentance, which is very difficult.

His last letter is addressed to St. Polycarp, whom he exhorts to labor for Christ without sparing himself; for the measure of his labor will be that of his reward. The style of the martyr everywhere follows the impulses of a burning charity, rather than the rules of grammar, and his pen is never able to express the sublimity of his thoughts. In every word there is a fire and a beauty not to be paralleled: everything is full of a deep sense. He everywhere breathes the most profound humility and contempt of himself as an abortive, and the last of men; a great zeal for the church, and abhorrence of schisms; the most ardent love of God and his neighbor, and tenderness for his own flock: begging the prayers of all the churches in its behalf to whom he wrote, and entreating of several that they would send an embassy to his church at Antioch, to comfort and exhort them.

St. Ignatius, not being allowed time to write to the other churches of Asia, commissioned St. Polycarp to do it for him. From Troas they sailed to Neapolis in Macedonia, and went thence to Philippi, from which place they crossed Macedonia and Epirus on foot; but took shipping again at Epidamnum in Dalmatia, and sailing by Rhegium and Puteoli were carried by a strong gale into the Roman port, the great station of the navy near Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen miles from Rome. He would gladly have landed at Puteoli, to have traced St. Paul’s steps, by going on foot from that place to Rome, but the wind rendered it impracticable.

On landing, the authors of these acts, who were his companions, say they were seized with great grief, seeing they were soon to be separated from their dear master; but he rejoiced to find himself so near the end of his race. The soldiers hastened him on, because the public shows were drawing to an end. The faithful of Rome came out to meet him, rejoicing at the sight of him, but grieving that they were so soon to lose him by a barbarous death. They earnestly wished that he might be released at the request of the people.

The martyr knew in spirit their thoughts, and said much more to them than he had done in his letter on the subject of true charity, conjuring them not to obstruct his going to the Lord. Then kneeling with all the brethren, he prayed to the Son of God for the Church, for the ceasing of the persecution, and for perpetual charity and unanimity among the faithful. He arrived at Rome the 20th of December, the last day of the public entertainments, and was presented to the prefect of the city, to whom the emperor’s letter was delivered at the same time. He was then hurried by the soldiers into the amphitheatre. The saint hearing the lions roar, cried out: “I am the wheat of the Lord; I must be ground by the teeth of these beasts to be made the pure bread of Christ.”

Two fierce lions being set upon him, they instantly devoured him, leaving nothing of his body but the larger bones: thus his prayer was heard. “After having been present at this sorrowful spectacle,” say our authors, “which made us shed many tears, we spent the following night in our house in watching and prayer, begging of God to afford us some comfort by certifying us of his glory.” They relate, that their prayer was heard, and that several of them in their slumber saw him in great bliss. They are exact in setting down the day of his death, that they might assemble yearly thereon to honor his martyrdom. They add, that his bones were taken up and carried to Antioch, and there laid in a chest as an inestimable treasure.

St. John Chrysostom says, his relics were carried in triumph on the shoulders of all the cities from Rome to Antioch. They were first laid in the cemetery without the Daphnitic gate, but in the reign of Theodosius the younger were translated thence with great pomp to a church in the city, which had been a temple of Fortune, but from this time bore his name, as Evagrius relates. St. John Chrysostom exhorts all people to visit them, assuring them they would receive thereby many advantages, spiritual and corporal, which he proves at length. They are now at Rome, in the church of St. Clement, pope, whither they were brought about the time when Antioch fell into the hands of the Saracens in the reign of Heraclius, in 637. The regular canons at Arouaise near Bapaume in Artois, the Benedictine monks at Liesse in Haynault, and some other churches, have obtained each some bone of this glorious martyr. The Greeks keep his feast a holyday on the day of his death, the 20th of December. His martyrdom happened in 107.

The perfect spirit of humility, meekness, patience, charity, and all other Christian virtues, which the seven epistles of St. Ignatius breathe in every part, cannot fail deeply to affect all who attentively read them. Critics confess that they find in them a sublimity, an energy and beauty of thought and expression, which they cannot sufficiently admire. But the Christian is far more astonished at the saint’s perfect disengagement of heart from the world, the ardor of his love for God, and the earnestness of his desire of martyrdom. Every period in them is full of profound sense, which must be attentively meditated on before we can discover the divine sentiments of all virtues which are here expressed. Nor can we consider them without being inspired by some degree of the same, and being covered with confusion to find ourselves fall so far short of the humility and fervor of the primitive saints.

Let us listen to the instructions which this true disciple of Christ gives in his letter to the Philadelphians, an abstract of his other six epistles being given above. He begins it by a strenuous recommendation of union with their bishop, priests, and deacons; and gives to their bishop (whom he does not name) great praises, especially for his humility and meekness, insomuch that he says his silence was more powerful than the vain discourses of others, and that conversing with an unchangeable serenity of mind, and in the sweetness of the living God, he was utterly a stranger to anger. He charges them to refrain from the pernicious weeds of heresy and schism, which are not planted by the Father, nor kept by Christ.

“Whoever belong to God and Jesus Christ, these are with the bishop. If anyone follows him who maketh a schism, he obtains not the inheritance of the kingdom of God. He who walks in the simplicity of obedience is not enslaved to his passion. Use one Eucharist: for the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and the cup is one in the unity of His blood. There is one altar, as there is one bishop, with the college of the priesthood and the deacons, my fellow-servants, that you may do all things according to God. My brethren, my heart is exceedingly dilated in the tender love which I bear you, and exulting beyond bounds, I render you secure and cautious: not I indeed, but Jesus Christ, in Whom being bound, I fear the more for myself, being yet imperfect. But your prayer with God will make me perfect, that I may obtain the portion which his mercy assigns me.”

Having cautioned them against adopting Jewish ceremonies, and against divisions and schisms, he mentions one that had lately happened among them, and speaks of a revelation which he had received of it as follows:

“When I was amongst you, I cried out with a loud voice, with the voice of God, saying: Hearken to your bishop, and the priesthood, and the deacons. Some suspected that I said this from a foresight of the division which some afterwards made. But He for whom I am in chains is my witness, that I knew it not from man, but the Spirit declared it, saying: Do ye nothing without your bishop. Keep your body holy as the temple of God. Be lovers of unity; shun all divisions. Be ye imitators of Jesus Christ, as He is of the Father, I therefore did what lay in me, as one framed to maintain union. Where disagreement or anger is found, there God never dwells. But God forgives all penitents.”

He charges them to send some person of honor, from their church, to congratulate his church in Syria, upon peace being restored to it, and calls him blessed who should be honored with this commission.

FEBRUARY 2ND
The Martyr of the Day
ST. APRONIAN OF ROME
Martyred in the Third Century, around 258

St. Apronian suffered at Rome with the hieromartyr Marcellinus, Bishop of Rome, and the holy deacons Sisinius and Cyriacus; also Smaragdus, Saturninus, Largus, Papias, Crescentian, and Maurus and the holy women martyrs Lucina (Lucy), and the emperor’s daughter Artemia during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian (284-305) and their successors, Galerius (305-311) and Maxentius (305-312).

The Emperor Maximian, ruler of the Western Roman Empire, deprived all Christians of military rank and sent them into penal servitude.

A certain rich Christian, Thrason, sent food and clothing to the prisoners through the Christians Sisinius, Cyriacus, Smaragdus and Largus. Marcellus thanked Thrason for his generosity, and ordained Sisinius and Cyriacus as deacons.

While rendering aid to the captives, Sisinius and Cyriacus also were arrested and condemned to harsh labor. They fulfilled not only their own work quota, but worked also for the dying captive Saturninus. Therefore, Maximian sent Sisinius to Laodicius, the governor of the district.

They locked the saint in prison. The head of the prison, Apronian, summoned Sisinius for interrogation but, seeing his face shine with a heavenly light, he was converted and believed in Christ and was baptized. Later, he went with Sisinius to Marcellus and received the Holy Ghost in Confirmation. Marcellus served the Holy Mass, and they partook of the Holy Eucharist.

On June 7th, Saints Sisinius and Saturninus were brought before Laodicius in the company of Apronian. Apronian confessed that he was a Christian, and was beheaded. Saints Sisinius and Saturninus were thrown into prison. Then Laodicius gave orders to bring them to a pagan temple to offer sacrifice. Saturninus said, “If only the Lord would turn the pagan idols into dust!”

At that very moment the tripods, on which incense burned before the idols, melted. Seeing this miracle, the soldiers Papias and Maurus confessed ChriAfter prolonged tortures Sisinius and Saturninus were beheaded, and Papias and Maurus were locked up in prison, where they prayed to receive illumination by holy Baptism. The Lord fulfilled their desire. Leaving the prison without being noticed, they received Baptism from Marcellus and returned to the prison.

At the trial they again confessed themselves Christians and died under terrible tortures. Their holy bodies were buried by the priest John and Thrason.

Saints Cyriacus, Smaragdus, Largus and other Christian prisoners continued to languish at hard labor.

Diocletian’s daughter Artemia suffered from demonic oppression. Having learned that the prisoner Cyriacus could heal infirmities and cast out devils, the emperor summoned him to the sick girl. In gratitude for the healing of his daughter, the emperor freed Cyriacus, Smaragdus and Largus. Soon the emperor sent Cyriacus to Persia to heal the daughter of the Persian emperor.

Upon his return to Rome, Cyriacus was arrested on orders of the emperor Galerius, the son-in-law of Diocletian, who had abdicated and retired as emperor. Galerius was very annoyed at his predecessor because his daughter Artemia had converted to Christianity. He gave orders to drag Cyriacus behind his chariot stripped, bloodied, and in chains, to be shamed and ridiculed by the crowds.

Marcellus denounced the emperor openly before everyone for his cruelty toward innocent Christians. The emperor ordered the holy bishop to be beaten with rods, and dealt severely with him. Saints Cyriacus, Smaragdus, Largus, and another prisoner, Crescentian, died under torture. And at this time the emperor’s daughter Artemia and another twenty-one prisoners were also executed with Cyriacus.

Marcellus was secretly freed by Roman clergy. Exhuming the bodies of the holy martyrs Cyriacus, Smaragdus and Largus, they reburied them on the estates of two Christian women, Priscilla and Lucy, on the outskirts of Rome, after they had transformed Lucy’s house into a church.

Ascending the throne, Maxentius gave orders to destroy the church and turn it into a stockyard, and he sentenced the holy bishop to herd the cattle. Exhausted by hunger and cold, and wearied by the tortures of the soldiers, Marcellus became ill and died in the year 310.

The holy women Priscilla and Lucy were banished from Rome in disgrace, and their estates confiscated and plundered.

FEBRUARY 3RD
The Martyr of the Day
ST. BLASE
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 316

St. Blase was born at Sebaste, Armenia. He became a physician, but at the same time devoted himself zealously to the practice of his Christian duties. His virtuous conduct gained for him the esteem of the Christian clergy and people to such a degree, that he was ordained and selected bishop of his native city. Henceforth he devoted himself to ward off the dangers of soul from the faithful, as he had hitherto been intent on healing their bodily ills. To all, he was a shining example of virtue.

During the reign of Emperor Licinius a cruel persecution of Christians broke out. The persecutors directed their fury principally against the bishops, well knowing that when the shepherd is stricken the flock is dispersed. Listening to the entreaties of the faithful, and mindful of the words of Our Lord, “When they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another” [Matt. 10: 23], St. Blase hid himself in a cave. But one day the prefect Agricola instituted a chase, and his party discovered the holy bishop and brought him before their master.

St. Blase remained steadfast in the Faith, and by its able confession and defense attracted the attention of the attendants at his trial. The cruel tyrant had him bound and tortured with iron combs. After suffering these torments with great patience and meekness, the saint was cast into prison. He was kept there a long time, because the prefect hoped to exhaust his powers of endurance, and to bring him to sacrifice to the idols. His jailer permitted the holy bishop to receive visitors in his prison, and many sick and suffering availed themselves of this privilege. He cured some of them and gave good advice to others.

One day a mother brought to him her boy, who, while eating, had swallowed a fishbone, which remained in his throat, and, causing great pain, threatened suffocation. St. Blase prayed and made the Sign of the Cross over the boy, and behold, he was cured. For this reason the Saint is invoked in throat troubles.

At length the holy bishop was again brought before the judge and commanded to sacrifice to the idols. But he said: “Thou art blind, because thou art not illuminated by the true light. How can a man sacrifice to idols, when he adores the true God alone? I do not fear thy threats. Do with me according to thy pleasure. My body is in thy power, but God alone has power over my soul. Thou seekest salvation with the idols; I hope and trust to receive it from the only true and living God whom I adore.”

Then the prefect sentenced him to death. St. Blase was beheaded, suffering death for the Faith February 3rd, 316.

St. Blase’s name is also spelled Blaise and Blasius. He is invoked in throat ailments. The blessing of throats takes place on his Feast Day, February 3rd.

His festival is kept as a holiday in the Greek Church on the 11th of February. He is mentioned in the ancient Western Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerome, Ado and Usuard, with several more ancient manuscript Martyrologies, quoted by Chatelain, which place his name on the 15th. In the holy war his relics were dispersed over the West, and his veneration was propagated by many miraculous cures, especially of sore throats.

He is the principal patron of the commonwealth of Ragusa. No other reason than the great devotion of the people to this celebrated martyr of the church seems to have given occasion to the wool-combers to choose him the titular patron of their profession: on which account his festival is still kept by them with a solemn guild at Norwich. Perhaps also his country might in part determine them to this choice: for it seems that the first branch, or at least hint of this manufacture, was borrowed from the remotest known countries of the East, as was that of silk: or the iron combs, with which he is said to have been tormented, gave occasion to this choice.

The iron combs, hooks, racks, swords, and scaffolds, which were purpled with the blood of the martyrs, are eternal proofs of their invincible courage and constancy in the divine service. But are they not at the same time subjects of our condemnation and confusion? How weak are our resolutions! How base our pusillanimity and cowardice in the pursuit of virtue! We have daily renewed our most sacred baptismal engagements, and our purposes of faithfully serving God; these we have often repeated at the feet of God’s ministers, and in presence of his holy altars; and we have often begun our conversion with great fervor. Yet these fair blossoms were always nipped in the bud: for want of constancy we soon fell back into our former sloth and disorders, adding to our other prevarications that of base infidelity.

Instead of encountering gibbets and wild beasts, we were scared at the sight of the least difficulty; or we had not courage to make the least sacrifice of our passions, or to repulse the weakest and most contemptible assaults of the world. Its example, or that dangerous company from which we had not resolution to separate ourselves, carried us away: and we had not courage to withstand those very maxims which we ourselves condemn in the moments of our serious reflections, as contrary to the spirit of the gospel. Perhaps we often flew back for fear of shadows, and out of apprehensions frequently imaginary, lest we should forfeit some temporal advantage, some useful or agreeable friend. Perhaps we were overcome by the difficulties which arose barely from ourselves, and wanted resolution to deny our senses, to subdue our passions, to renounce dangerous occasions, or to enter upon a penitential life. Blinded by self-love, have we not sheltered our dastardly pusillanimity under the cloak of pretended necessity, or even virtue?

FEBRUARY 4TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. PHILEAS & ST. PHILOROMUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 306 to 312

Phileas was a rich nobleman of Thmuis in Egypt, very eloquent and learned. Being converted to the Faith, he was chosen bishop of that city; but was taken and carried prisoner to Alexandria by the persecutors, under the successors of Diocletian. Eusebius has preserved part of a letter which he wrote in his dungeon, and sent to his flock to comfort and encourage them.

Describing the sufferings of his fellow confessors at Alexandria, he says, that everyone had full liberty allowed to insult, strike, and beat them with rods, whips, or clubs. Some of the confessors, with their hands behind their backs, were tied to pillars, their bodies stretched out with engines, and their sides, belly, thighs, legs, and cheeks hideously torn with iron hooks: others were hung by one hand, suffering excessive pain by the stretching of their joints: others hung by both hands, their bodies being drawn down.

The governor thought no treatment too bad for Christians. Some expired on the racks; others expired soon after they were taken down: others were laid on their backs in the dungeons, with their legs stretched out in the wooden stocks to the fourth hole, etc.
Culcian, who had been prefect at Thebais, was then governor of all Egypt, under the tyrant Maximinus, but afterwards lost his head in 313, by the order of Licinius.

We have a long interrogatory of St. Phileas before him from the presidial registers.

Culcian, after many other things, asked him, “Was Christ God?”
The saint answered, “Yes” and alleged His miracles as a proof of His divinity.
The governor professed a great regard for his quality and merit, and said: “If you were in misery, or necessity, you should be despatched without more ado; but as you have riches and estates sufficient not only for yourself and family, but for the maintenance almost of a whole province, I pity you, and do all in my power to save you.”
The counsellors and lawyers, desirous also of saving him, said: “He had already sacrificed in the Phrontisterium”(an academy for the exercises of literature).
Phileas cried out: “I have not by any immolation; but say barely that I have sacrificed, and you will say no more than the truth.”
Having been confined there some time, he might perhaps have said Mass in that place.

His wife, children, brother, and other relations, persons of distinction, and Pagans, were present at the trial. The governor hoping to overcome him by tenderness for them, said:—”See how sorrowful your wife stands with her eyes fixed upon you.”
Phileas replied: “Jesus Christ, the Savior of souls, calls me to his glory: and he can also, if he pleases, call my wife.”
The counsellors, out of compassion, said to the judge: “Phileas begs a delay.”
Culcian said to him: “I grant it you most willingly, that you may consider what to do.”
Phileas replied: “I have considered, and it is my unchangeable resolution to die for Jesus Christ.”

Then all the counsellors, the emperor’s lieutenant, who was the first magistrate of the city, all the other officers of justice, and his relations, fell down together at his feet, embracing his knees, and conjuring him to have compassion on his disconsolate family, and not to abandon his children to their tender years whilst his presence was absolutely necessary for them. But he, like a rock unshaken by the impetuous waves that dash against it, stood unmoved; and raising his heart to God, protested aloud that he owned no other kindred but the Apostles and martyrs.

Philoromus a noble Christian was present: he was a tribune or colonel, and the emperor’s treasurer-general in Alexandria, and had his tribunal in the city, where he sat every day hearing and judging causes, attended by many officers in great state.

Admiring the prudence and inflexible courage of Phileas, and moved with indignation against his adversaries, he cried out to them: “Why strive ye to overcome this brave man, and to make him, by an impious compliance with men, renounce God? Do not you see that, contemplating the glory of heaven, he makes no account of earthly things?”

This speech drew upon him the indignation of the whole assembly, who in rage demanded that both might be condemned to die. To which the judge readily assented.

As they were led out to execution, the brother of Phileas, who was a judge, said to the governor: “Phileas desires his pardon.”
Culcian therefore called him back, and asked him if it were true.
He answered: “No: God forbid. Do not listen to this unhappy man. Far from desiring the reversion of my sentence, I think myself much obliged to the emperors, to you, and to your court, for by your means I become co-heir with Christ, and shall enter this very day into the possession of his kingdom.”

Hereupon he was remanded to the place of execution, where having made his prayer aloud, and exhorted the faithful to constancy and perseverance, he was beheaded with Philoromus. The exact time of their martyrdom is not known, but it happened between the years 306 and 312. Their names stand in the ancient martyrologies.

FEBRUARY 5TH
The Martyrs of the Day
THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN
Martyred in the Sixteenth Century, around 1597

The Empire of Japan, so called from one of the islands of which it is composed, was discovered by certain Portuguese merchants, about the year 1541. It was generally divided into several little kingdoms, all which obeyed one sovereign emperor. The capital cities were Meaco and Jedo. The manners of this people was the reverse of ours in many things. Their characteristic was pride and an extravagant love of honor. They adored idols of grotesque shapes, by which they represented certain famous wicked ancestors: the chief ones were Amida and Xacha. Their priests were called Bonzas, and all obeyed the Jaco, or high priest. St. Francis Xavier arrived in Japan in 1549, baptized great numbers, and whole provinces received the Faith.

The great kings of Arima, Bungo, and Omura, sent a solemn embassy of obedience to Pope Gregory XIII in 1582: and, in 1587, there were, in Japan, above two hundred thousand Christians, and among these several kings, princes, and bonzas, but, in 1588, Cambacundono, the haughty emperor, having usurped the honors of a deity, commanded all the Jesuits to leave his dominions within six months: however, many remained there disguised. In 1592, the persecution was renewed, and several Japanese converts received the crown of martyrdom.

The emperor Tagcosama, one of the proudest and most vicious of men, was worked up into rage and jealousy by a suspicion, suggested by certain European merchants desirous of the monopoly of this trade, that the view of the missionaries, in preaching the Christian Faith, was to facilitate the conquest of their country by the Portuguese or Spaniards. Three Jesuits and six Franciscans were crucified on a hill near Nangasaqui in 1597.

The latter were partly Spaniards and partly Indians, and had, at their head, F. Peter Baptist, commissary of his Order, a native of Avilla, in Spain. As to the Jesuits, one was Paul Michi, a noble Japanese and an eminent preacher, at that time thirty-three years old. The other two, John Gotto, and James Kisai, were admitted into the Society in prison, a little before they suffered. Several Japanese converts suffered with them.

The martyrs were twenty-six in number, and among them were three boys, who used to serve the friars at Mass; two of them were fifteen years of age, and the third only twelve, yet each showed great joy and constancy in their sufferings. Of these martyrs, twenty-four had been brought to Meaco, where only a part of their left ears was cut off, by a mitigation of the sentence which had commanded the amputation of their noses and both ears. They were conducted through many towns and public places, their cheeks stained with blood, for a terror to others.

When the twenty-six soldiers of Christ arrived at the place of execution, near Nangasaqui, they were allowed to make their confession to two Jesuits of the convent in that town, and, being fastened to crosses by cords and chains around their arms and legs, and an iron collar about their necks, they were raised into the air, the foot of each cross falling into a hole prepared for it in the ground. The crosses were planted in a row, about four feet apart, and each martyr had an executioner near him, with a spear ready to pierce his side―for such is the Japanese manner of crucifixion.

As soon as all the crosses were planted, the executioners lifted up their lances, and, at a given signal, all pierced the martyrs almost in the same instant; upon which they expired and went to receive the reward of their sufferings. Their blood and garments were procured by Christians, and miracles were wrought by them. Urban VIII ranked them among the martyrs, and they are honored on the 5th of February, the day of their triumph. The rest of the missionaries were put on board a vessel, and carried out of the dominions, except twenty-eight priests, who stayed behind in disguise.

Emperor Tagcosama, when dying, ordered that his body should not be burned, as was the custom in Japan, but preserved enshrined in his palace of Fuximi, that he might be worshiped among the gods, under the title of the new god of war. The most stately temple in the empire was built to him, and his body deposited in it.

The Jesuits returned soon after, and, though the missionaries were only a hundred in number, they converted, in 1599, forty thousand souls, and, in the following year, 1600, more than thirty thousand souls, and built fifty churches; for the people were highly scandalized to see the dead emperor worshiped as a god, whom they had remembered a most covetous, proud, and vicious tyrant.

But in 1602, Emperor Cubosama renewed the bloody persecution, and many Japanese converts were beheaded, crucified, or burned. In 1614, new cruelties were exercised to overcome their constancy, as by bruising their feet between certain pieces of wood, cutting off or squeezing their limbs one after another, applying red-hot irons or slow fires, flaying off the skin of the fingers, putting burning coals to their hands, tearing off the flesh with pincers, or thrusting reeds into all parts of their bodies, and turning them about to tear their flesh, till they should say they would forsake their Faith: all which, innumerable persons, even children, bore with invincible constancy till death.

In 1616, Emperor Xogun, succeeding his father Cubosama in the empire, surpassed him in cruelty. The most illustrious of these religious heroes was Fr. Charles Spinola. He was of a noble Genoese family and entered the Society at Nola, whilst his uncle, Cardinal Spinola, was bishop of that city. Out of zeal and a desire of martyrdom, he begged to be sent on the Japanese mission. He arrived there in 1602; labored many years in that mission, gained many to Christ, by his mildness, and lived in great austerity, for his usual food was only a little rice and herbs. He suffered four years a most cruel imprisonment, during which, in burning fevers, he was not able to obtain of his keepers a drop of cold water out of meals: yet he wrote from his dungeon:

“Father, how sweet and delightful is it to suffer for Jesus Christ! I have learned this better by experience than I am able to express, especially since we are in these dungeons where we fast continually. The strength of my body fails me, but my joy increases as I see death draw nearer. O what a happiness for me, if next Easter I shall sing the heavenly Alleluia in the company of the blessed!”

In a long letter to his cousin Maximilian Spinola, he said: “O, if you had tasted the delights with which God fills the souls of those who serve him, and suffer for him, how would you contemn all that the world can promise! I now begin to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, since for his love I am in prison, where I suffer much. But I assure you, that when I am fainting with hunger, God hath fortified me by his sweet consolations, so that I have looked upon myself as well recompensed for his service. And though I were yet to pass many years in prison, the time would appear short, through the extreme desire which I feel of suffering for him, who even here so well repays our labors. Besides other sickness I have been afflicted with a continual fever a hundred days without any remedies or proper nourishment. All this time my heart was so full of joy, that it seemed to me too narrow to contain it. I have never felt any equal to it, and I thought myself at the gates of paradise.”

His joy was excessive at the news that he was condemned to be burnt alive, and he never ceased to thank God for so great a mercy, of which he owned himself unworthy. He was conducted from his last prison at Omura to Nangasaqui, where fifty martyrs suffered together on a hill within sight of that city, nine Jesuits, four Franciscans, and six Dominicans, the rest seculars: twenty-five were burned, the rest beheaded. The twenty-five stakes were fixed all in a row, and the martyrs tied to them. Fire was set to the end of the pile of wood twenty-five feet from the martyrs, and gradually approached them, two hours before it reached them.

Fr. Spinola stood unmoved, with his eyes lifted up towards heaven, till the cords which tied him being burnt, he fell into the flames, and was consumed on the 2nd of September, in 1622, being fifty-eight years old. Many others, especially Jesuits, suffered variously, being either burnt at slow fires, crucified, beheaded, or thrown into a burning mountain, or hung with their heads downward in pits, which cruel torment usually put an end to their lives in three or four days. In 1639, the Portuguese and all other Europeans, except the Dutch, were forbidden to enter Japan, even for trade: the very ambassadors which the Portuguese sent there were beheaded.

In 1642, five Jesuits landed secretly in Japan, but were soon discovered, and after cruel tortures were hung in pits till they expired. Thus hath Japan encouraged the church militant, and filled the triumphant with glorious martyrs: though only the first mentioned have as yet been publicly declared such by the Holy See, who were mentioned in a later edition of the Roman Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV in 1749.

FEBRUARY 6TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. DOROTHY
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 304

St. Aldhelm relates from the Acts of St. Dorothy, that Fabricius, the governor of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, inflicted on her most cruel torments, because she refused to marry, or to adore idols: that she converted two apostate women sent to seduce her: and that being condemned to be beheaded, she converted one Theophilus, by sending him certain fruits and flowers miraculously obtained of her heavenly spouse. She seems to have suffered under Diocletian.

Her body is kept in the celebrated church which bears her name, beyond the Tiber, in Rome. She is mentioned on this day in the ancient Martyrology under the name of St. Jerom. There was another holy virgin, whom Rufin calls Dorothy, a rich and noble lady of the city of Alexandria, who suffered torments and a voluntary banishment, to preserve her Faith and chastity against the brutish lust and tyranny of the emperor Maximinus, in the year 308, as is recorded by Eusebius and Rufinus: but many take this latter, whose name is not mentioned by Eusebius, to be the famous St. Catharine of Alexandria.

The blood of the martyrs flourished in its hundred-fold increase, as St. Justin has well observed: “We are slain with the sword, but we increase and multiply: the more we are persecuted and destroyed, the more are added to our numbers. As a vine, by being pruned and cut close, shoots forth new suckers, and bears a greater abundance of fruit; so is it with us.”

Among other false reflections, the baron of Montesquieu, an author too much admired by many, writes: “It is hardly possible that Christianity should ever be established in China. Vows of virginity, the assembling of women in the churches, their necessary intercourse with the ministers of religion, their participation of the sacraments, auricular confession, the marrying but one wife; all this oversets the manners and customs, and strikes at the religion and laws of the country.”

Could he forget that the Gospel overcame all these impediments where it was first established, in spite of the most inveterate prejudices, and of all worldly opposition from the great and the learned; whereas philosophy, though patronized by princes, could never in any age introduce its rules even into one city. In vain did the philosopher Plotinus solicit the emperor Gallienus to rebuild a ruined city in Campania, that he and his disciples might establish in it the republic of Plato: a system, in some points, flattering the passions of men, almost as Mahometism fell in with the prejudices and passions of the nations where it prevails. So visibly is the church the work of God.

FEBRUARY 7TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. THEODORE OF HERACLEA
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 319

Among those holy martyrs whom the Greeks honor with the title of Megalomartyrs (i.e. great martyrs) such as St. George, St. Pantaleon, etc. ― four are distinguished by them above the rest as principal patrons, namely: St. Theodore of Heraclea, surnamed Stratilates (i.e. general of the army); St. Theodore of Amasea, surnamed Tyro; St. Procopius; and St. Demetrius.

St. Theodore of Heraclea, was general of the forces of Licinius, and governor of the country of the Mariandyni, who occupied part of Bythynia, Pontus, and Paphlagonia, whose capital at that time was Heraclea of Pontus, though originally a city of Greeks, being founded by a colony from Megara. Heraclea was the place of our saint’s residence as soldier and governor, and here he glorified God by martyrdom, being beheaded for his Faith by an order of the Emperor Licinius, on Saturday, February 7th, in 319, as the Greek Menæa and Menologies all agree: for the Greek Acts of his martyrdom, under the name of Augarus, are of no authority.

The Great Martyr Theodore Stratelatos of Hereclea originally came from the city of Euchaita in Asia Minor. He was endowed with many talents, and was handsome in appearance. For his charity God enlightened him with the knowledge of Christian truth. The bravery of the saintly soldier was revealed after he, with the help of God, killed a giant serpent living on a precipice in the outskirts of Euchaita. The serpent had devoured many people and animals, terrorizing the countryside. St. Theodore armed himself with a sword and vanquished it, glorifying the name of Christ among the people.

For his bravery St. Theodore was appointed military commander [stratelatos] in the city of Heraclea, where he combined his military service with preaching the Gospel among the pagans subject to him. His gift of persuasion, reinforced by his personal example of Christian life, turned many from their false gods. Soon, nearly all of Heraclea had accepted Christianity.

During this time the emperor Licinius (311-324) began a fierce persecution against Christians. In an effort to stamp out the new Faith, he persecuted the enlightened adherents of Christianity, who were perceived as a threat to paganism. Among these was St. Theodore. Licinius tried to force St. Theodore to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. The saint invited Licinius to come to him with his idols so both of them could offer sacrifice before the people.

Blinded by his hatred for Christianity, Licinius trusted the words of the saint, but he was disappointed. St. Theodore smashed the gold and silver statues into pieces, which he then distributed to the poor. Thus he demonstrated the vain Faith in soulless idols, and also displayed Christian charity.

St. Theodore was arrested and subjected to fierce and refined torture. He was dragged on the ground, beaten with iron rods, had his body pierced with sharp spikes, was burned with fire, and his eyes were plucked out. Finally, he was crucified. Varus, the servant of St. Theodore, barely had the strength to write down the incredible torments of his master.

God, however, in His great mercy, willed that the death of St. Theodore should be as fruitful for those near him as his life was. An angel healed the saint’s wounded body and took him down from the cross. In the morning, the imperial soldiers found him alive and unharmed. Seeing with their own eyes the infinite might of the Christian God, they were baptized not far from the place of the unsuccessful execution.

Thus St. Theodore became “like a day of splendor” for those pagans dwelling in the darkness of idolatary, and he enlightened their souls “with the bright rays of his suffering.” Unwilling to escape martyrdom for Christ, St. Theodore voluntarily surrendered himself to Licinius, and discouraged the Christians from rising up against the torturer, saying, “Beloved, halt! My Lord Jesus Christ, hanging upon the Cross, restrained the angels and did not permit them to take revenge on the race of man.”

Going to execution, the holy martyr opened up the prison doors with just a word and freed the prisoners from their bonds. People who touched his robe were healed instantly from sicknesses, and freed from demonic possession. By order of the emperor, St. Theodore was beheaded by the sword. Before his death he told Varus, “Do not fail to record the day of my death, and bury my body in Euchaita.” He also asked to be remembered each year on this date. Then he bent his neck beneath the sword, and received the crown of martyrdom which he had sought. This occurred on February 8, 319, on a Saturday, at the third hour of the day.

St. Theodore is regarded as the patron saint of soldiers.

It appears from a Novella of the emperor Manuel Comnenus, and from Balsamon’s Scholia on the Nomocanon of Photius, that the Greeks kept as semi-festivals, that is, as holydays till noon, both the 7th of February, which was the day of his martyrdom, and that of the translation of his relics, the 8th of June, when they were conveyed soon after his death, according to his own appointment, to Euchaia, or Euchaitæ, where was the burial place of his ancestors, a day’s journey from Amasea, the capital of all Pontus.

This town became so famous for his shrine, that the name of Theodoropolis was given it; and out of devotion to this saint, pilgrims resorted thither from all parts of the east, as appears from the Spiritual Meadow, Zonaras and Cedrenus. The two latter historians relate, that the emperor John I, surnamed Zemisces, about the year 970, ascribed a great victory which he gained over the Saracens, to the patronage of this martyr: and in thanksgiving rebuilt in a stately manner the church where his relics were deposited at Euchaitæ.

The republic of Venice has a singular veneration for the memory of St. Theodorus of Heraclea, who as Bernard Justiniani proves was titular patron of the church of St. Mark in that city, before the body of that evangelist was translated into it from another part of the city.

A famous statue of this St. Theodorus is placed upon one of the two fine pillars which stand in the square of St. Mark. The relics of this glorious martyr are honoured in the magnificent church of St. Saviour at Venice, whither they were brought by Mark Dandolo in 1260, from Constantinople; James Dandolo having sent them to that capital from Mesembria, an archiepiscopal maritime town in Romania, or the coast of Thrace, when in 1256 he scoured the Euxine sea with a fleet of galleys of the republic, as the Venetian historians inform us.

FEBRUARY 8TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. COINTHE OF ALEXANDRIA
Martyred in the Third Century, around 249

The holy martyr St. Cointhe was living at Alexandria, during the Christian persecution under the Emperor Decius. Once it was discovered that she was a Christian, the pagans forcefully took her and dragged her before the idols in order to make her worship them. She steadfastly refused to do so amidst many insults and threats. Finally, realizing that they would have no success in forcing her to honor and worship their idols, the pagans tied her feet with chains and dragged her through the streets of the city until she was mangled to death in the year 249.

FEBRUARY 9TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. APPOLONIA
Martyred in the Third Century, around 249

St. Dionysius of Alexandria gave, to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, an account of the persecution raised at Alexandria by the heathen populace of that city, in the last year of the reign of the emperor Philip. A certain poet of Alexandria, who pretended to foretell things to come, stirred up this great city against the Christians on the motive of religion.

The first victim of their rage was a venerable old man, named Metras, or Metrius, whom they would have compelled to utter impious words against the worship of the true God: which, when he refused to do, they beat him with staffs, thrust splinters of reeds into his eyes, and having dragged him into one of the suburbs, stoned him to death.

The next person they seized was a Christian woman, called Quinta, whom they carried to one of their temples to pay divine worship to the idol. She loaded the execrable divinity with many reproaches, which so exasperated the people that they dragged her by the heels upon the pavement of sharp pebbles, cruelly scourged her, and put her to the same death.

The rioters, by this time, were in the height of their fury. Alexandria seemed like a city taken by storm. The Christians made no opposition, but betook themselves to flight, and beheld the loss of their goods with joy; for their hearts had no ties on earth. Their constancy was equal to their disinterestedness; for of all who fell into their hands, St. Dionysius knew of none that renounced Christ.

The admirable Apollonia, whom old age and the state of virginity rendered equally venerable, was seized by them. The persecutors under the Emperor Decius, with repeated blows on her jaws first beat out all her teeth. Then they built and kindled a fire outside the city and threatened to burn her alive upon it unless she would join them in uttering sinful and certain impious words. She begged a moment’s delay, as if it had been to deliberate on the proposal. She thought a little while within herself, and then the fire of the Holy Ghost flaming up within her, she tore herself suddenly out of the hands of those wicked men and leapt of her own accord into the fire which they had made ready, so that the very torturers in this cruelty were awestruck to find a woman more ready to die than were they to kill her.

They next exercised their fury on a holy man called Serapion, and tortured him in his own house with great cruelty. After bruising his limbs, disjointing and breaking his bones, they threw him headlong from the top of the house on the pavement, and so completed his martyrdom. A civil war among the pagan citizens put an end to their fury this year, but the edict of Decius renewed it in 250. See the rest of the relation on the 27th of February. An ancient church in Rome, which is frequented with great devotion, bears the name of St. Apollonia: under whose patronage we meet with churches and altars in most parts of the Western church.

The last part of our saint’s conduct is not proposed to our imitation, as self-murder is unjustifiable. If any among the Fathers have commended it, they presumed, with St. Austin, that it was influenced by a particular direction of the Holy Ghost, or was the effect of a pious simplicity, founded in motives of holy zeal and charity. For it can never be lawful for a person by any action willfully to concur to, or hasten his own death, though many martyrs out of an ardent charity, and desire of laying down their lives for God, and being speedily united to him, anticipated the executioners in completing their sacrifice.

Among the impious, absurd, and false maxims of the Pagan Greeks and Romans, scarcely anything was more monstrous than the manner in which they canonized suicide in distress, as a remedy against temporal miseries, and a point of heroism. To hear infamy and all kind of sufferings with unshaken constancy and virtue is true courage and greatness of soul, and the test and triumph of virtue: and to sink under misfortunes, is the most unworthy baseness of soul. But what name can we find for the pusillanimity of those who are not able so much as to look humiliations, poverty, or affliction in the face?

Our life we hold of God, and he who destroys it injures God, to whom he owes it. He refuses also to his friends and to the republic of mankind, the comfort and assistance which they are entitled in justice or charity to receive from him.

Moreover, if to murder another is the greatest temporal injustice a man can commit against a neighbor, life being of all temporal blessings the greatest and most noble, suicide is a crime so much more enormous, as the charity which everyone owes to himself, especially to his immortal soul, is stricter, more noble, and of a superior order to that which he owes to his neighbor.

FEBRUARY 10TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. SOTERIS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 304

St. Soteris was a Roman maiden who lived during the fourth century. She was related to Saint Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan. The ancient Greek name “Soteris” means “Savior.”

St. Ambrose boasts of this saint as the greatest honor of his family. St. Soteris was descended from a long series of consuls and prefects: but her greatest glory was her despising, for the sake of Christ, her noble birth, riches, great beauty, and all that the world prizes as valuable. Her only goal was the purification of her heart. She consecrated her virginity to God, and to avoid the dangers her beauty exposed her to, neglected it entirely, and trampled under her feet all the vain ornaments that might set it off. Unlike other women of her day, she dressed plainly with no ornamentation so men would ignore her, and lived a quiet, simple life, forshadowing the female religious orders in years to come. Arrested and tortured in her youth during the persecutions of Decius. Released, she returned to her prayerful life only to be murdered a half-century later in the persecutions of Diocletian for refusing sacrifice to pagan gods.

Her virtue prepared her to make a glorious confession of her Faith before the persecutors, after the publication of the cruel edicts of Diocletian and Maximian against the Christians. When she was accused of being a Christian, she was continuously hit in the face. Her accusers thought that they could humiliate her in this way, with her being a wealthy lady.

However, she responded with courage. She rejoiced to be treated as her divine Savior had been, and to have her face all wounded and disfigured by the merciless blows of the executioners. The judge ordered her to be tortured many other ways, but without being able to draw from her one sigh or tear. At length, overcome by her constancy and patience, he commanded her head to be struck off. Finally, she was tortured and beheaded, about 304 AD. The ancient martyrologies mention her.

FEBRUARY 11TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. SATURNINUS, ST. DATIVUS & COMPANIONS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 304

The Emperor Diocletian had commanded all Christians under pain of death to deliver up the Holy Scriptures to be burnt. This persecution had raged a whole year in Africa; some had betrayed the cause of religion, but many more had defended it with their blood, when these saints were apprehended. Abitina, a city of the proconsular province of Africa, was the theater of their triumph.

Saturninus, priest of that city, celebrated the divine mysteries on a Sunday, in the house of Octavius Felix. The magistrates having notice of it, came with a troop of soldiers, and seized forty-nine persons of both sexes. The principal among them were the priest Saturninus, with his four children, namely: young Saturninus, and Felix, both Lectors, Mary, who had consecrated her virginity to God, and Hilarianus, yet a child; also Dativus, a noble senator, Ampelius, Rogatianus, and Victoria.

Dativus, the ornament of the senate of Abitina, whom God destined to be one of the principal senators of Heaven, marched at the head of this holy troop. Saturninus walked by his side, surrounded by his illustrious family. The others followed in silence. Being brought before the magistrates, they confessed Jesus Christ so resolutely, that their very judges applauded their courage, which repaired the infamous sacrilege committed there a little before by Fundanus, the bishop of Abitina, who in that same place had given up to the magistrates the sacred books to be burned: but a violent shower suddenly falling, put out the fire, and a prodigious hail ravaged the whole country.

The confessors were shackled and sent to Carthage, the residence of the proconsul. They rejoiced to see themselves in chains for Christ, and sang hymns and canticles during their whole journey to Carthage, praising and thanking God. The proconsul, Anulinus, addressing himself first to Dativus, asked him of what condition he was, and if he had assisted at the collect or assembly of the Christians? He answered, that he was a Christian, and had been present at it.

The proconsul bid him discover who presided, and in whose house those religious assemblies were held: but without waiting for his answer, commanded him to be put on the rack and torn with iron hooks, to oblige him to a discovery.
They underwent, several at a time, the tortures of the rack, iron hooks, and cudgels. The weaker sex fought no less gloriously, particularly the illustrious Victoria; who, being converted to Christ in her tender years, had signified a desire of leading a single life, which her pagan parents would not agree to, having promised her in marriage to a rich young nobleman. Victoria, on the day appointed for the wedding, full of confidence in the protection of Him, whom she had chosen for the only spouse of her soul, leaped out of a window, and was miraculously preserved from hurt. Having made her escape, she took shelter in a church; after which she consecrated her virginity to God, with the ceremonies then used on such occasions at Carthage in Italy, Gaul, and all over the West. To the crown of virginity, she earnestly desired to join that of martyrdom.

The proconsul, on account of her quality, and for the sake of her brother, a pagan, tried all means to prevail with her to renounce her Faith. He inquired what was her religion? Her answer was: “I am a Christian.” Her brother Fortunatianus undertook her defense, and endeavored to prove her lunatic. The saint, fearing his plea might be the means of her losing the crown of martyrdom, made it appear by her wise confutations of it, that she was in her perfect senses, and protested that she had not been brought over to Christianity against her will.

The proconsul asked her if she would return with her brother? She said: “She could not, being a Christian, and acknowledging none as brethren but those who kept the law of God.” The proconsul then laid aside the quality of judge to become her humble suppliant, and entreated her not to throw away her life. But she rejected his entreaties with disdain, and said to him: “I have already told you my mind. I am a Christian, and I assisted at the prayers.”Anulinus, provoked at this constancy, reassumed his rage, and ordered her to prison with the rest to wait the sentence of death which he not long after pronounced upon them all.

The proconsul would yet try to gain Hilarianus, Saturninus’s youngest son, not doubting to vanquish one of his tender age. But the child showed more contempt than fear of the tyrant’s threats, and answered his interrogatories: “I am a Christian: I have been at the prayer meetings, and it was of my own voluntary choice without any compulsion.” The proconsul threatened him with those little punishments with which children are accustomed to be chastised, little knowing that God himself fights in his martyrs. The child only laughed at him. The governor then said to him: “I will cut off your nose and ears.” Hilarianus replied: “You may do it; but I am a Christian!” The proconsul, hiding his confusion, ordered him to prison. Upon which the child said: “Lord, I give thee thanks!”

These martyrs ended their lives under the hardships of their confinement, and are honoured in the ancient calendar of Carthage, and the Roman Martyrology, on the 11th of February, though only two (of the name of Felix) died on that day of their wounds.

The example of these martyrs condemns the sloth with which many Christians in this age celebrate the Lord’s Day. When the judge asked them, how they durst presume to hold their assembly against the imperial orders, they always repeated, even on the rack: “The obligation of the Sunday is indispensable. It is not lawful for us to omit the duty of that day. We celebrated it as well as we could. We never passed a Sunday without meeting at our assembly. We will keep the commandments of God at the expense of our lives.” No dangers nor torments could deter them from this duty.

A rare example of fervor in keeping that holy precept, from which too many, upon lame pretenses, seek to excuse themselves. As the Jew was known by the religious observance of the Sabbath, so is the true Christian by his manner of celebrating the Sunday. And as our law is more holy and more perfect than the Jewish, so must our manner of sanctifying the Lord’s Day. This is the proof of our religion, and of our piety towards God. The primitive Christians kept this day in the most holy manner, assembling at public prayer, in dens and caves, knowing that, “without this religious observance, a man cannot be a Christian,” to use the expression of an ancient father.

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

This holy virgin, Eulalia, was brought up in the Faith, and in the practice of piety, at Barcelona in Spain. In the persecution of Diocletian, under the cruel governor Dacian, while still only 13-years-old. For refusing to recant her Christianity, the Romans subjected her to thirteen tortures; including:

● Putting her into a barrel with knives (or broken glass) stuck into it and rolling it down a street. According to tradition, the one now called Baixada de Santa Eulalia “Saint Eulalia's descent”.
● Cutting off her breasts
● Crucifixion on an X-shaped cross. She is depicted with this cross, the instrument of her martyrdom.
● Finally, she was beheaded.

A dove is supposed to have flown forth from her neck following her decapitation. This is one point of similarity with the story of Eulalia of Mérida, in which a dove flew from the girl's mouth at the moment of her death.

Her relics are preserved at Barcelona, by which city she is honored as its special patroness. She is titular saint of many churches, and her name is given to several villages of Guienne and Languedoc, and other neighboring provinces, where, in some places, she is called St. Eulalie, in others St. Olaire, St. Olacie, St. Occille, St. Olaille, and St. Aulazie. Sainte-Aulaire and Sainte-Aulaye are names of two ancient French families taken from this saint.

FEBRUARY 13TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. POLYEUCTUS
Martyred in the Third Century, around 250 to 257

The city of Melitine, a station of the Roman troops in the Lesser Armenia, is illustrious for a great number of martyrs, whereof the first in rank is Polyeuctus. He was a rich Roman officer, and had a friend called Nearchus, a zealous Christian, who when the news of the persecution, raised by the emperor against the church, reached Armenia, prepared himself to lay down his life for his Faith; and grieving to leave Polyeuctus in the darkness of Paganism, was so successful in his endeavors to induce him to embrace Christianity, as not only to gain him over to the Faith, but to inspire him with an eager desire of laying down his life for the same.

He openly declared himself a Christian, and was apprehended and condemned to cruel tortures. The executioners being weary with tormenting him, betook themselves to the method of argument and persuasion in order to prevail with him to renounce Christ. The tears and cries of his wife Paulina, of his children, and of his father-in-law, Felix, were sufficient to have shaken a mind that was not superior to all the assaults of Hell.

But Polyeuctus, strengthened by God, grew only the firmer in his Faith, and received the sentence of death with such cheerfulness and joy, and exhorted all to renounce their idols with so much energy on the road to execution, that many were converted.

He was beheaded on the 10th of January, in the persecution of Decius, or Valerian, about the year 250, or 257. The Christians buried his body in the city. Nearchus gathered his blood in a cloth, and afterwards wrote his acts. The Greeks keep his festival very solemnly: and all the Latin martyrologies mention him.

There was in Melitine a famous Church of St. Polyeuctus, in the fourth age, in which St. Euthymius often prayed. There was also a very stately one in Constantinople, under Justinian, the vault of which was covered with plates of gold, in which it was the custom for men to make their most solemn oaths, as is related by St. Gregory of Tours. The same author informs us, in his history of the Franks, that the kings of France of the first race used to confirm their treaties by the name of Polyeuctus. The martyrology ascribed to St. Jerome, and the most ancient Armenian calendars, place his feast on the 7th of January, which seems to have been the day of his martyrdom. The Greeks defer his festival to the 9th of January: but it is marked on the 13th of February in the ancient martyrology, which was sent from Rome to Aquileia in the eight century.

FEBRUARY 14TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. VALENTINE
Martyred in the Third Century, around 270

St. Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome; who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his Faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards to be beheaded, which was executed on the 14th of February, about the year 270.

Pope Julias I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to his memory, which, for a long time, gave name to the gate, now called Porta del Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini. The greater part of his relics are now in the church of St. Praxedes.

His name is celebrated as that of an illustrious martyr in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, the Roman missal of Thomasius, in the calendar of F. Fronto, and that of Allatius, in Bede, Usuard, Ado, Notker, and all other martyrologies on this day. To abolish the heathen’s lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls in honor of their goddess Februta Juno, on the 15th of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets given on this day.

READ MORE HERE

FEBRUARY 15TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. FAUSTINUS & ST. JOVITA
Martyred in the Second Century, around 121

Faustinus and Jovita were brothers, nobly born, and zealous professors of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their city of Brescia, whilst the bishop of that place lay concealed during the persecution. The acts of their martyrdom seeming of doubtful authority, all we can affirm with certainty of them is that their remarkable zeal excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a glorious death for their Faith at Brescia in Lombardy, under the Emperor Hadrian. Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them; and the emperor himself passing through Brescia, when neither threats nor torments could shake their constancy, commanded them to be beheaded. They seem to have suffered about the year 121.

The city of Brescia honors them as its chief patrons, and possesses their relics. A very ancient church in that city bears their name, and all martyrologies mention them.

The spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom, at least of mortification and penance. It is always the spirit of the cross. The remains of the old man, of sin and of death, must be extinguished, before one can be made heavenly by putting on affections which are divine. What mortifies the senses and the flesh gives life to the spirit, and what weakens and subdues the body strengthens the soul. Hence the divine love infuses a spirit of mortification, patience, obedience, humility, and meekness, with a love of sufferings and contempt, in which consists the sweetness of the cross.

The more we share in the suffering life of Christ, the greater share we inherit in his spirit, and in the fruit of his death. To souls mortified to their senses and disengaged from earthly things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of eternal life, and the most ardent desires of possessing him in his glory. This is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come.

FEBRUARY 16th
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. PAMPHILUS & COMPANIONS
(Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 16th
Martyred in the Fourth Century around 309

In the year 309, the Emperors Galerius Maximianus and Maximinis continuing the persecution begun by Dioclesian, these five pious Egyptians went to visit the confessors condemned to the mines in Cilicia, and on their return were stopped by the guards of the gates of Cæsarea, in Palestine, as they were entering the town. They readily declared themselves Christians, together with the motive of their journey; upon which they were apprehended. The day following they were brought before Firmilian, the governor of Palestine, together with St. Pamphilus and others.

The judge, before he began his interrogatory, ordered the five Egyptians to be laid on the rack, as was his custom. After they had long suffered all manner of tortures, he addressed himself to him who seemed to be their chief, and asked him his name and his country. They had changed their names, which, perhaps, before their conversion, where those of some heathen gods, as was customary in Egypt.

The martyr answered, according to the names they had given themselves, that he was called Elias, and his companions, Jeremy, Isaias, Samuel, and Daniel. Firmilian then asked their country; he answered Jerusalem, meaning the heavenly Jerusalem, the true country of all Christians.

The judge inquired in what part of the world that was, and ordered him to be tormented with fresh cruelty. All this while the executioners continued to tear his body with stripes, whilst his hands were bound behind him, and his feet squeezed in the woodstocks, called the Nervus. The judge, at last, tired with tormenting them, condemned all five to be beheaded, which was immediately executed.

Porphyrius, a youth who was a servant of St. Pamphilus, hearing the sentence pronounced, cried out, that at least the honor of burial ought not to be refused them. Firmilian, provoked at this boldness, ordered him to be apprehended; and finding that he confessed himself a Christian, and refused to sacrifice, ordered his sides to be torn so cruelly, that his very bones and bowels were exposed to view. He underwent all this without a sigh or tear, or so much as making the least complaint.

The tyrant, not to be overcome by so heroic a constancy, gave orders for a great fire to be kindled, with a vacant space to be left in the midst of it, for the martyr to be laid in, when taken off the rack. This was accordingly done, and he lay there a considerable time surrounded by the flames, singing the praises of God, and invoking the name of Jesus; till at length, quite broiled by the fire, he consummated a slow, but glorious martyrdom.

Seleucus, an eye-witness of this victory, was heard by the soldiers applauding the martyr’s resolution; and being brought before the governor, he, without more ado, ordered his head to be struck off.

FEBRUARY 17th
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. PAMPHILUS & COMPANIONS
(Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 17th
Martyred in the Fourth Century around 309

Theodulus and Julian suffered at Cæsarea in Palestine, at the same time with those mentioned yesterday, but are named on this day in the Roman Martyrology.

Theodulus was an old man of eminent virtue and wisdom, who enjoyed one of the most honorable posts in the household of Firmilian, the governor of Palestine, and had several sons. His personal merit gained him the love of all that knew him, and the governor had a particular esteem for him. This holy man had seen the invincible courage and patience of the five Egyptian martyrs at Cæsarea, and, going to the prisons, made use of their example to encourage the other confessors, and prepare them for the like battles.

Firmilian, vexed at this conduct of an old favorite servant, sent for him, reproached him strongly with ingratitude, and, without hearing his defense, condemned him to be crucified. Theodulus received the sentence with joy, and went with transports to a death which was speedily to unite him to his Savior, and in which he was thought worthy to bear a near resemblance to him.

Julian, who shared the glory of that day with the other martyrs, was a Cappadocian, as was also St. Seleucus. He was only a catechumen, though highly esteemed by the faithful for his many great virtues, and he had just then come to Cæsarea.

At his arrival, hearing of the conflicts of the martyrs, he ran to the place, and finding the execution over, expressed his veneration for them, by kissing and embracing the bodies which had been animated by those heroic and happy souls.

The guards apprehended him, and carried him to the governor, who, finding him as inflexible as the rest, would not lose his time in useless interrogatories; but immediately ordered him to be burnt. Julian, now master of all he wished for, gave God thanks for the honor done him by this sentence, and begged he would be pleased to accept of his life as a voluntary sacrifice. The courage and cheerfulness which he maintained to his last moment, filled his executioners with surprise and confusion.

FEBRUARY 18th
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. SIMEON OF JERUSALEM
(Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 18th
Martyred in the Second Century around 116

St. Simeon was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called Alpheus, brother to St. Joseph, and of Mary, sister of the Blessed Virgin. He was therefore nephew both to St. Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin-german to Christ. Simeon and Simon are the same name, and this saint is, according to the best interpreters of the Holy Scripture, the Simon mentioned, who was brother to St. James the Lesser, and St. Jude, Apostles, and to Joseph of José. He was eight or nine years older than our Savior.

We cannot doubt but he was an early follower of Christ, as his father and mother and three brothers were, and an exception to that of St. John, that our Lord’s relations did not believe in him. Nor does St. Luke leave us any room to doubt but that he received the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost with the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles; for he mentions present St. James and St. Jude, and the brothers of our Lord. Saint Epiphanius relates, that when the Jews massacred St. James the Lesser, his brother Simeon reproached them for their atrocious cruelty. St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, being put to death in the year 62, twenty-nine years after our Savior’s resurrection, the Apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint him a successor. They unanimously chose St. Simeon, who had probably before assisted his brother in the government of that church.

Around the year 66, in which St. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome, the civil war began in Judea, by the seditions of the Jews against the Romans. The Christians in Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending destruction of that city, and by a divine revelation commanded to leave it, as Lot was rescued out of Sodom. They therefore departed out of it the same year, before Vespasian, Nero’s general, and afterwards emperor, entered Judæa, and retired beyond the Jordan to a small city called Pella; having St. Simeon at their head. After the taking and burning of Jerusalem, they returned thither again, and settled themselves amidst its ruins, till Adrian afterwards entirely razed it. St. Epiphanius and Eusebius assure us, that the church here flourished extremely, and that multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of prodigies and miracles wrought in it.

St. Simeon, amidst the consolations of the Holy Ghost and the great progress of the church, had the affliction to see two heresies arise within its bosom, namely, those of the Nazareans and the Ebionites; the first seeds of which, according to St. Epiphanius, appeared at Pella. The Nazareans were a sect of men between Jews and Christians, but abhorred by both. They allowed Christ to be the greatest of the prophets, but said he was a mere man, whose natural parents were Joseph and Mary: they joined all the ceremonies of the old law with the new, and observed both the Jewish Sabbath and the Sunday. Ebion added other errors to these, which Cerenthus had also espoused, and taught many superstitions, permitted divorces, and allowed of the most infamous abominations. He began to preach at Cocabe, a village beyond the Jordan, where he dwelt; but he afterwards travelled into Asia, and thence to Rome. The authority of St. Simeon kept the heretics in some awe during his life, which was the longest upon earth of any of our Lord’s disciples. But, as Eusebius says, he was no sooner dead than a deluge of execrable heresies broke out of hell upon the church, which durst not openly appear during his life.

Vespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put to death who were of the race of David. St. Simeon had escaped their searches; but Trajan having given the same order, certain heretics and Jews accused him, as being both of the race of David and a Christian, to Atticus, the Roman governor in Palestine. The holy bishop was condemned by him to be crucified: who, after having undergone the usual tortures during several days, which, though one hundred and twenty years old, he suffered with so much patience that he drew on him a universal admiration, and that of Atticus in particular, he died in 107, according to Eusebius in his chronicle, but in 116. He must have governed the church of Jerusalem about forty-three years.

The eminent saints among the primitive disciples of Jesus Christ, were entirely animated by his spirit, and being dead to the world and themselves, they appeared like angels among men. Free from the secret mixture of the sinister views of all passions, to a degree which was a miracle of grace, they had in all things only God, his will and honor before their eyes, equally aspiring to him through honor and infamy.

In the midst of human applause they remained perfectly humbled in the center of their own nothingness: when loaded with reproaches and contempt, and persecuted with all the rage that malice could inspire, they were raised above all these things so as to stand fearless amidst racks and executioners, inflexibly constant in their fidelity to God, before tyrants, invincible under torments, and superior to them almost as if they had been impassible. Their resolution never failed them, their fervor seemed never slackened.

Such wonderful men wrought continual miracles in converting souls to God. We bear the name of Christians, and wear the habit of saints; but are full of the spirit of worldlings, and our actions are infected with its poison. We secretly seek ourselves, even when we flatter ourselves that God is our only aim, and whilst we undertake to convert the world, we suffer it to pervert us. When shall we begin to study to crucify our passions and die to ourselves, that we may lay a solid foundation of true virtue and establish its reign in our hearts?

FEBRUARY 19th
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. LEO & ST. PAREGORIUS
There is no detailed account of any of the martyrs for today.
Martyred in the Third Century

St. Paregorius having spilt his blood for the Faith at Patara, in Lycia, St. Leo, who had been a witness of his conflict, found his heart divided between joy for his friend’s glorious victory and sorrow to see himself deprived of the happiness of sharing in it.

The proconsul of Asia being absent in order to wait on the emperors, probably Valerian and Galien, the governor of Lycia, residing at Patara, to show his zeal for the idols, published an order on the festival of Serapis, to oblige all to offer sacrifice to that false god. Leo, seeing the heathens out of superstition, and some Christians out of fear, going in crowds to adore the idol, sighed within himself, and went to offer up his prayers to the true God, on the tomb of St. Paregorius, to which he passed before the temple of Serapis, it lying in his way to the martyr’s tomb.

The heathens that were sacrificing in it knew him to be a Christian by his modesty. He had exercised himself from his childhood in the austerities and devotions of an ascetic life, and possessed, in an eminent degree, chastity, temperance, and all other virtues. His clothes were of a coarse cloth made of camel’s hair. Not long after his return home from the tomb of the martyr, with his mind full of the glorious exit of his friend, he fell asleep, and from a dream he had on that occasion, understood, when he awaked, that God called him to a conflict of the same kind with that of St. Paregorius, which filled him with inexpressible joy and comfort.

Wherefore the next time he visited the martyr’s tomb, instead of going to the place through by-roads, he went boldly through the market-place, and by the Tychæum, or temple of Fortune, which he saw illuminated with lanterns. He pitied their blindness; and, being moved with zeal for the honour of the true God, he made no scruple to break as many of the lanterns as were within reach, and trampled on the tapers in open view, saying: “Let your gods revenge the injury if they are able to do it.”

The priest of the idol having raised the populace, cried out: “Unless this impiety be punished, the goddess Fortune will withdraw her protection from the city.”

An account of this affair soon reached the ears of the governor, who ordered the saint to be brought before him, and on his appearance addressed him in this manner: “Wicked wretch, thy sacrilegious action surely bespeaks thee either ignorant of the immortal gods, or downright mad, in flying in the face of our most divine emperors, whom we justly regard as secondary deities and saviors.”

The martyr replied with great calmness: “You are under a great mistake, in supposing a plurality of gods: there is but one, who is the God of Heaven and Earth, and who does not stand in need of being worshipped after that gross manner that men worship idols. The most acceptable sacrifice we can offer him is that of a contrite and humble heart.”

“Answer to your indictment,” said the governor, “and don’t preach your Christianity. I thank the gods, however, that they have riot suffered you to lie concealed after such a sacrilegious attempt. Choose therefore either to sacrifice to them, with those that are here present, or to suffer the punishment due to your impiety.”

The martyr said: “The fear of torments shall never draw me from my duty. I am ready to suffer all you shall inflict. All your tortures cannot reach beyond death. Eternal life is not to be attained but by the way of tribulations; the scripture accordingly informs us, that narrow is the way that leadeth to life.”

“Since you own the way you walk in is narrow,” said the governor, “exchange it for ours, which is broad and commodious.”

“When I called it narrow,” said the martyr, “this was only because it is not entered without difficulty, and that its beginnings are often, attended with afflictions and persecutions for justice sake. But being once entered, it is not difficult to keep in it by the practice of virtue, which helps to widen it and render it easy to those that persevere in it, which has been done by many.”

The multitude of Jews and Gentiles cried out to the judge to silence him. But he said, he allowed him liberty of speech, and even offered him his friendship if he would but sacrifice.

The confessor answered: “You seem to have forgotten what I just before told you, or you would not have urged me again to sacrifice. Would you have me acknowledge for a deity that which has nothing divine in its nature?”

These last words put the governor in a rage, and he ordered the saint to be scourged. Whilst the executioners were tearing his body unmercifully, the judge said to him: “This is nothing to the torments I am preparing for you. If you would have me stop here, you must sacrifice.”

Leo said: “O judge, I will repeat to you again what I have so often told you: I own not your gods, nor will I ever sacrifice to them.”

The judge said: “Only say the gods are great, and I will discharge you. I really pity your old age.”

Leo answered: “If I allow them that title, it can only be with regard to their power of destroying their worshippers.”

The judge in a fury said: “I will cause you to be dragged over rocks and stones, till you are torn to pieces.”

Leo said: “Any kind of death is welcome to me, that procures me the kingdom of heaven, and introduces me into the company of the blessed.”

The judge said: “Obey the edict, and say, the gods are the preservers of the world, or you shall die.”

The martyr answered: “You do nothing but threaten: why don’t you proceed to effects?”

The mob began to be clamorous, and the governor, to appease them, was forced to pronounce sentence on the saint, which was, that he should be tied by the feet, and dragged to the torrent, and there executed; and his orders were immediately obeyed in a most cruel manner.

The martyr being upon the point of consummating his sacrifice, and obtaining the accomplishment of all his desires, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, prayed thus aloud: “I thank thee, O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for not suffering me to be long separated from thy servant Paregorius. I rejoice in what has befallen me as the means of expiating my past sins. I commend my soul to the care of thy holy angels, to be placed by them where it will have nothing to fear from the judgments of the wicked. But thou, O Lord, who willest not the death of a sinner, but his repentance, grant them to know thee, and to find pardon for their crimes, through the merits of thy only son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

He no sooner repeated the word Amen, together with an act of thanksgiving, but he expired. His executioners then took the body and cast it down a great precipice into a deep pit; and notwithstanding the fall, it seemed only to have received a few slight bruises. The very place which was before a frightful precipice, seemed to have changed its nature; and the act says, no more dangers or accidents happened in it to travelers. The Christians took up the martyr’s body, and found it of a lively color, and entire, and his face appeared comely and smiling; and they buried it in the most honorable manner they could.

FEBRUARY 20th
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. TYRANNIO & ST. ZENOBIUS
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 20th
Martyred in the Fourth Century around 304 and 310

Eusebius, the parent of church history, and an eye-witness of what he relates concerning these martyrs, gives the following account of them:

“Several Christians of Egypt, whereof some had settled in Palestine, others at Tyre, gave astonishing proofs of their patience and constancy in the Faith. After innumerable stripes and blows, which they cheerfully underwent, they were exposed to wild beasts such as leopards, wild bears, boars, and bulls.

I myself was present, when these savage creatures, accustomed to human blood, being let out upon them, instead of devouring them, or tearing them to pieces, as it was natural to expect, stood off, refusing even to touch or approach them, at the same time that they fell foul on their keepers, and others that came in their way. The soldiers of Christ were the only persons they refused, though these martyrs, pursuant to the order given them, tossed about their arms, which was thought a ready way to provoke the beasts, and stir them up against them. Sometimes, indeed they were perceived to rush towards them with their usual impetuosity, but, withheld by a divine power, they suddenly withdrew; and this many times, to the great admiration of all present.

The first having done no execution, others were a second and a third time let out upon them, but in vain; the martyrs standing all the while unshaken, though many of them very young. Among them was a youth not yet twenty, who had his eyes lifted up to Heaven, and his arms extended in the form of a cross, not in the least daunted, nor trembling nor shifting his place, while the bears and leopards, with their jaws wide open, threatening immediate death, seemed just ready to tear him to pieces; but, by a miracle, not being suffered to touch him, they speedily withdrew.

Others were exposed to a furious bull, which had already gored and tossed into the air several infidels who had ventured too near, and left them half dead: only the martyrs he could not approach; he stopped, and stood scraping the dust with his feet, and though he seemed to endeavor it with his utmost might, butting with his horns on every side, and pawing the ground with his feet, being also urged on by red hot iron goads, it was all to no purpose. After repeated trials of this kind with other wild beasts, with as little success as the former, the saints were slain by the sword, and their bodies cast into the sea. Others who refused to sacrifice were beaten to death, or burned, or executed divers other ways.” This happened in the year 304, under Veturius, a Roman general, in the reign of Diocletian.

The church on this day commemorates the other holy martyrs, whose crown was deferred till 310. The principal of these was St. Tyrannic, bishop of Tyre, who had been present at the glorious triumph of the former, and encouraged them in their conflict. He had not the comfort to follow them till six years after; when, being conducted from Tyre to Antioch, with St. Zenobius, a holy priest and physician of Sidon, after many torments he was thrown into the sea, or rather into the river Orontes, upon which Antioch stands, at twelve miles distant from the sea. Zenobius expired on the rack, whilst his sides and body were furrowed and laid open with iron hooks and nails. St. Sylvanus, bishop of Emisa, in Phœnicia, was, some time after, under Maximinus, devoured by wild beasts in the midst of his own city, with two companions, after having governed that church forty years. Peleus and Nilus, two other Egyptian priests, in Palestine, were consumed by fire with some others. St. Sylvanus, bishop of Gaza, was condemned to the copper mines of Phœnon, near Petra, in Arabia, and afterwards beheaded there with thirty-nine others.

St. Tyrannio is commemorated on the 20th of February, in the Roman Martyrology, with those who suffered under Veturius, at Tyre, in 304. St. Zenobius, the priest and physician of Sidon, who suffered with him at Antioch, on the 29th of October: St. Sylvanus of Emisa, to whom the Menology gives many companions, on the 6th of February: St. Sylvanus of Gaza, on the 29th of May.

The love of Christ triumphed in the hearts of so many glorious martyrs, upon racks, in the midst of boiling furnaces, or flames, and in the claws or teeth of furious wild beasts. How many inflamed with his love have forsaken all things to follow him, despising honors, riches, pleasures, and the endearments of worldly friends, to take up their crosses, and walk with constancy in the narrow paths of a most austere penitential life! We also pretend to love him: but what effect has this love upon us? What fruit does it produce in our lives?

If we examine our own hearts, we shall be obliged to confess that we have great reason to fear that we deceive ourselves. What pains do we take to rescue our souls from the slavery of the world, and the tyranny of self-love, to purge our affections of vice, or to undertake anything for the divine honor, and the sanctification of our souls? Let us earnestly entreat our most merciful Redeemer, by the power of this his holy love to triumph over all his enemies, which are our unruly passions, in our souls, and perfectly to subdue our stubborn hearts to its empire. Let it be our resolution, from this moment, to renounce the love of the world, and all self-love, to seek and obey him alone.

FEBRUARY 21st
The Martyr of the Day
ST. SEVERIAN
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 21st
Martyred in the Fifth Century around 452

In the reign of Marcian and St. Pulcheria, the council of Chalcedon, which condemned the Eutychian heresy, was received by St. Euthymius, and by a great part of the monks of Palestine. But Theodosius, an ignorant Eutychian monk, and a man of a most tyrannical temper, under the protection of the empress Endoxia, widow of Theodosius the Younger, who lived at Jerusalem, perverted many among the monks themselves, and having obliged Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, to withdraw, unjustly possessed himself of that important see, and in a cruel persecution which he raised, filled Jerusalem with blood, as the Emperor Marcian assures us: then, at the head of a band of soldiers, he carried desolation over the country.

Many however had the courage to stand their ground. No one resisted him with greater zeal and resolution than Severian, bishop of Scythopolis, and his recompense was the crown of martyrdom; for the furious soldiers seized his person, dragged him out of the city, and massacred him in the latter part of the year 452, or in the beginning of the year 453. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology, on the 21st of February.

Palestine, the country which for above one thousand four hundred years had been God’s chosen inheritance under the Old Law, when other nations were covered with the abominations of idolatory, had been sanctified by the presence, labors, and sufferings of our divine Redeemer, and had given birth to his church, and to so many saints, became often the theatre of enormous scandals, and has now, for many ages, been enslaved to the most impious and gross superstition.

So many flourishing churches in the East, which were planted by the labors of the most chief among the apostles, watered with the blood of innumerable glorious martyrs, illustrated with the bright light of the Ignatiuses, the Polycarps, the Basils, the Ephrems, and the Chrysostoms, blessed by the example and supported by the prayers of legions of eminent saints, are fallen a prey to almost universal vice and infidelity. With what floods of tears can we sufficiently bewail so grievous a misfortune, and implore the divine mercy in behalf of so many souls! How ought we to be alarmed at the consideration of so many dreadful examples of God’s inscrutable judgments, and tremble for ourselves! Let him who stands beware lest he fall. Hold fast what thou hast, says the oracle of the Holy Ghost to every one of us, lest another bear away thy crown.

FEBRUARY 22nd
The Martyrs of the Day
HOLY MARTYRS OF ARABIA
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 22nd
Martyred in the Fifth Century around 303 to 311

On this day, the Church remembers, as a whole, the many holy martyrs of Arabia, who were barbarously put to death during the 8-year persecution of the Roman Emperor Galerius Maximian. Christians had lived in peace during most of the rule of Diocletian. The persecutions that began with an edict of February 24th, 303, were credited by Christians to Galerius’ work, as he was a fierce advocate of the old ways and old gods. Christian houses of assembly were destroyed, for fear of sedition in secret gatherings.

Diocletian was not anti-Christian during the first part of his reign, and historians have claimed that Galerius decided to prod him into persecuting them by secretly burning the Imperial Palace and blaming it on Christian saboteurs. Regardless of who was at fault for the fire, Diocletian's rage was aroused and he began one of the last and greatest Christian persecutions in the history of the Roman Empire.

It was at the insistence of Galerius that the last edicts of persecution against the Christians were published, beginning on February 24th, 303, and this policy of repression was maintained by him until the appearance of the general edict of toleration, issued from Nicomedia in April 311, apparently during his last bout of illness (the Edict of Toleration by Galerius). Galerius's last request, that Christians should pray for him as he suffered with a painful and fatal illness, was in vain, for he died six days later.

Initially one of the leading figures in the persecutions, Galerius later admitted that the policy of trying to eradicate Christianity had failed, saying: “wherefore, for this our indulgence, they ought to pray to their God for our safety, for that of the republic, and for their own, that the republic may continue uninjured on every side, and that they may be able to live securely in their homes.” Lactantius gives the text of the edict in his moralized chronicle of the bad ends to which all the persecutors came, De Mortibus Persecutorum (The Deaths of Persecutors). This marked the end of official persecution of Christians. Christianity was officially legalized in the Roman Empire two years later in 313 by Constantine and Licinius in the Edict of Milan.

The Emperor Galerius Maximian died in 311 from a horribly gruesome disease described by Eusebius and Lactantius, possibly some form of bowel cancer, gangrene or Fournier gangrene.

FEBRUARY 23rd
The Martyr of the Day
ST. SERENUS THE GARDENER
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 23rd
Martyred in the Fourth Century around 307

Serenus was by birth a Grecian. He quitted estate, friends, and country to serve God in an ascetic life, that is, in celibacy, penance, and prayer. Coming with this design to Sirmium, in Pannonia or Hungary, he there bought a garden which he cultivated with his own hands, and lived on the fruits and herbs it produced.

The apprehension of the persecution made him hide himself for some months; after which he returned to his garden. On a certain day, there came thither a woman, with her two daughters, to walk. Serenus seeing them come up to him: “What do you seek here?”

“I take a particular satisfaction,” she replied, “in walking in this garden.”

“A lady of your quality,” said Serenus, “ought not to walk here at unseasonable hours, and this you know is an hour you ought to be at home. Some other design brought you here. Let me advise you to withdraw, and be more regular in your hours and conduct for the future, as decency requires in persons of your sex and condition.”

It was usual for the Romans to repose themselves at noon, as it is still the custom in Italy. The woman stung at our saint’s charitable remonstrance, retired in confusion, but resolved on revenging the supposed affront. She accordingly wrote to her husband, who belonged to the guards of the Emperor Maximian, to complain of Serenus as having insulted her.

Her husband, on receiving her letter, went to the emperor to demand justice, and said: “Whilst we are waiting on your majesty’s person, our wives in distant countries are insulted.” Whereupon the Emperor gave him a letter to the governor of the province to enable him to obtain satisfaction. With this letter he set out for Sirmium, and presented it to the governor, conjuring him, in the name of the Emperor his master, to revenge the affront offered to him in the person of his wife during his absence.

“And who is that insolent man,” said the magistrate, “who dared to insult such a gentleman’s wife?”
“It is,” said he, “a vulgar pitiful fellow, one Serenus, a gardener.”
The governor ordered him to be immediately brought before him, and asked him his name.

“It is Serenus,” said he.
The judge said: “Of what profession are you?”
He answered: “I am a gardener.”
The governor said: “How dare you have the insolence and boldness to affront the wife of this officer?”
Serenus: “I never insulted any woman, to my knowledge, in my life.”
The governor then said: “Let the witnesses be called in to convict this fellow of the affront he offered this lady in a garden.”

Serenus, hearing the garden mentioned, recalled this woman to mind, and answered: “I remember that some time ago, a lady came into my garden at an unseasonable hour, with a design, as she said, to take a walk, and I own I took the liberty to tell her it was against decency for one of her sex and quality to be abroad at such an hour.”

This plea of Serenus having put the officer to the blush for his wife’s action, which was too plain an indication of her wicked purpose and design, he dropped his prosecution against the innocent gardener, and withdrew out of court.

But the governor, understanding by this answer that Serenus was a man of virtue, suspected by it that he might be a Christian, such being the most likely, he thought, to resent visits from ladies at improper hours. Wherefore, instead of discharging him, he began to question him on this head, saying: “Who are you, and what is your religion?”

Serenus, without hesitating one moment, answered: “I am a Christian.”
The governor said: “Where have you concealed yourself? And how have you avoided sacrificing to the gods?”
“It has pleased God,” replied Serenus, “to reserve me for this present time. It seemed a while ago as if he rejected me as a stone unfit to enter his building, but he has the goodness to take me now to be placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for his name, that I may have a part in his kingdom with his saints.”

The governor, hearing this generous answer, burst into rage, and said: “Since you sought to elude by flight the emperor’s edicts, and have positively refused to sacrifice to the gods, I condemn you for these crimes to lose your head.” The sentence was no sooner pronounced, but the saint was carried off and led to the place of execution, where he was beheaded, on the 23rd of February, in 307.

The ancient Martyrology attributed to St. Jerome, published at Lucca by Florentinius, joins with him sixty-two others, who, at different times, were crowned at Sirmium. The Roman Martyrology, with others, says seventy-two.

The garden presents a beautiful emblem of a Christian’s continual progress in the path of virtue. Plants always mount upwards, and never stop in their growth till they have attained to that maturity which the author of nature has prescribed: all the nourishment they receive ought to tend to this end; if any part waste itself in superfluities, this is a kind of disease.

So in a Christian, everything ought to carry him towards that perfection which the sanctity of his state requires; and every desire of his soul, every action of his life, to be a step advancing to this in a direct line. When all his inclinations have one uniform bent, and all his labors the same tendency, his progress must be great, because uninterrupted, however imperceptible it may often appear. Even his temporal affairs must be undertaken with this intention, and so conducted as to fall within the compass of this his great design.

The saints so regulated all their ordinary actions, their meals, their studies, their conversation and visits, their business and toil, whether tilling a garden or superintending an estate, as to make the love of God their motive, and the accomplishment of his will their only ambition in every action. All travail which leadeth not towards this end is but so much of life misspent and lost, whatever names men may give to their political or military achievements, study of nature, knowledge of distant shores, or cunning in the mysteries of trade, or arts of conversation. Though such actions, when of duty, fall under the order of our salvation, and must be so moderated, directed, and animated with a spirit of religion, as to be made means of our sanctification.

But in a Christian life the exercises of devotion, holy desires, and tender affections, which proceed from a spirit of humble compunction, and an ardent love of our Savior, and by which a soul raises herself up to, and continually sighs after him, and what everyone ought most assiduously and most earnestly to study to cultivate. By these is the soul daily more and more purified, and all her powers united to God, and made heavenly. These are properly the most sweet and beautiful flowers of paradise, or of a virtuous life.

FEBRUARY 24th
The Martyr of the Day
ST. MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 24th
Martyred in the First Century around 80

St. Clement of Alexandria assures us, from tradition, that this saint was one of the seventy-two disciples, which is confirmed by Eusebius and St. Jerome; and we learn from the Acts of the Apostles, that he was a constant attendant on our Lord, from the time of his baptism by St. John to his ascension. St. Peter having, in a general assembly of the faithful held soon after, declared from holy scripture, the necessity of choosing a twelfth Apostle, in the room of Judas; two were unanimously pitched upon by the assembly, as most worthy of the dignity Joseph, called Barsabas, and, on account of his extraordinary piety, surnamed the Just, and Matthias.

After devout prayer to God, that he would direct them in their choice, they proceeded in it by way of lot, which falling by divine direction on Matthias, he was accordingly associated with the eleven, and ranked among the Apostles. When in deliberations each side appears equally good, or each candidate of equally approved merit, lots may be sometimes lawfully used; otherwise, to commit a thing of importance to such a chance, or to expect a miraculous direction of divine providence in it, would be a criminal superstition and a tempting of God, except he himself, by an evident revelation or inspiration, should appoint such a means for the manifestation of his will, promising his supernatural interposition in it, which was the case on this extraordinary occasion. The miraculous dreams or lots, which we read of in the prophets, must no ways authorize any rash superstitious use of such means in others who have not the like authority.

We justly admire the virtue of this holy assembly of saints. Here were no solicitations or intrigues. No one presented himself to the dignity. Ambition can find no place in a virtuous or humble heart. He who seeks a dignity either knows himself unqualified, and is on this account guilty of the most flagrant injustice with regard to the public, by desiring a charge to which he is no ways equal; or he thinks himself qualified for it, and this self-conceit and confidence in his own abilities renders him the most unworthy of all others. Such a disposition deprives a soul of the divine assistance, without which we can do nothing; for God withdraws his grace and refuses his blessing where self-sufficiency and pride have found any footing. It is something of a secret confidence in ourselves, and a presumption that we deserve the divine succor, which banishes him from us.

This is true even in temporal undertakings; but much more so in the charge of souls, in which all success is more particularly the special work of the Holy Ghost, not the fruit of human industry. These two holy candidates were most worthy of the apostleship, because perfectly humble, and because they looked upon that dignity with trembling, though they considered its labors, dangers, and persecutions with holy joy, and with a burning zeal, for the glory of God. No regard was had to worldly talents, none to flesh and blood. God was consulted by prayer, because no one is to be assumed to his ministry who is not called by him, and who does not enter it by the door, and with the undoubted marks of his vocation.

Judas’s misfortune filled Saint Matthias with the greater humility and, lest he also should fall. We Gentiles are called upon the disinheriting of the Jews, and are ingrafted on their stock. We ought therefore to learn to stand always in watchfulness and fear, or we shall be also cut off ourselves, to give place to others whom God will call in our room, and even compel to enter, rather than spare us. The number of his elect depends not on us. His infinite mercy has invited us without any merit on our side; but if we are ungrateful, he can complete his heavenly city without us, and will certainly make our reprobation the most dreadful example of his justice, to all eternity. The greater the excess of his goodness and clemency has been towards us, the more dreadful will be the effects of his vengeance. Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God; but the sons of the kingdom shall he cast forth.

St. Matthias received the Holy Ghost with the rest soon after his election; and after the dispersion of the disciples, applied himself with zeal to the functions of his apostleship, in converting nations to the Faith. He is recorded by St. Clement of Alexandria, to have been remarkable for inculcating the necessity of the mortification of the flesh with regard to all its sensual and irregular desires, an important lesson he had received from Christ, and which he practiced assiduously on his own flesh.

The tradition of the Greeks in their menologies tells us that St. Matthias planted the Faith about Cappadocia and on the coasts of the Caspian Sea, residing chiefly near the port Issus. He must have undergone great hardships and labors amidst so savage a people. The same authors add that he received the crown of martyrdom in Colchis, which they call Ethiopia. The Latins keep his festival on the 24th of February. Some portions of his relics are shown in the abbatical church of Triers, and in that of St. Mary Major in Rome, unless these latter belong to another Matthias, who was one of the first bishops of Jerusalem: on which see the Bollandists.

As the call of St. Matthias, so is ours purely the work of God, and his most gratuitous favor and mercy. What thanks, what fidelity and love do we not owe him for this inestimable grace! When he decreed to call us to his holy Faith, cleanse us from sin, and make us members of his spiritual kingdom, and heirs of his glory, he saw nothing in us which could determine him to such a predilection. We were infected with sin, and could have no title to the least favor, when God said to us: “I have loved Jacob!” and when He distinguished us from so many millions who perish in the blindness of infidelity and sin, and drew us out of the mass of perdition, and bestowed on us the grace of his adoption, and all the high privileges that are annexed to this dignity.

In what transports of love and gratitude ought we not, without intermission, to adore his infinite goodness to us, and beg that we may be always strengthened by his grace to advance continually in humility and his holy love, lest, by slackening our pace in his service, we fall from this state of happiness, forfeit this sublime grace, and perish with Judas. Happy would the church be, if all converts were careful to maintain themselves in the same fervor in which they returned to God. But by a neglect to watch over themselves, and to shun dangers, and by falling into sloth, they often relapse into a condition much worse than the former.

FEBRUARY 25th
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. VICTORINUS & SIX COMPANIONS
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 25th
Martyred in the Third Century around 284

These seven martyrs were citizens of Corinth, and confessed their faith before Tertius the proconsul, in their own country, in 249, in the beginning of the reign of Decius. After their torments they passed into Egypt, whether by compulsion, or by voluntary banishment is not known, and there finished their martyrdom at Diospolis, capital of Thebais, in the reign of Numerian, in 284, under the governor Sabinus.

After the governor had tried the constancy of martyrs by racks, scourges, and various inventions of cruelty, he caused Victorinus to be thrown into a great mortar (the Greek Menology says, of marble.) The executioners began by pounding his feet and legs, saying to him at every stroke: “Spare yourself, wretch. It depends upon you to escape this death, if you will only renounce your new God.” The prefect grew furious at his constancy, and at length commanded his head to be beaten to pieces in a large mortar.

The sight of this brutality, so far from weakening the spirit of his companions, seemed to inspire them with the greater ardor to be treated in the like manner. So that when the tyrant threatened Victor with the same death, he only desired him to hasten the execution; and, pointing to the mortar, said: “In that is salvation and true felicity prepared for me!” He was immediately cast into it and beaten to death.

Nicephorus, the third martyr, was impatient of delay, and leaped of his own accord into the bloody mortar. The judge enraged at his boldness, commanded not one, but many executioners at once, to pound him in the same manner.

He caused Claudian, the fourth, to be chopped in pieces, and his bleeding joints to be thrown at the feet of those who were yet living. He expired, after his feet, hands, arms, legs, and thighs were cut off. The tyrant, pointing to his mangled limbs and scattered bones, said to the other three: “It concerns you to avoid this punishment; I do not compel you to suffer.”

The martyrs answered with one voice: “On the contrary, we rather pray that if you have any other more exquisite torment you would inflict it on us. We are determined never to violate the fidelity which we owe to God, or to deny Jesus Christ our Savior, for he is our God, from whom we have our being, and to whom alone we aspire.”

The tyrant became almost distracted with fury, and commanded Diodorus to be burnt alive, Serapion to be beheaded, and Papias to be drowned. This happened on the 25th of February; on which day the Roman and other Western Martyrologies name them; but the Greek Menæa, and the Menology of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus honor them on the 21st of January, the day of their confession at Corinth.

FEBRUARY 26th
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. NESTOR
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 26th
Martyred in the Third Century around 251

Little is known about St. Nestor, who was also known as St. Nestor of Perge, or the “Hieromartyr Nestor of Magydos.” What is known is that he was Bishop of Magydos in Pamphylia, in what is now modern Turkey. During the persecution under the Roman Emperor Decius, he was constant and insistent in prayer, by day and by night, so that Christ’s flock might be kept safe. When he was arrested he confessed the Name of the Lord with wonderful freedom and readiness.

His courage and authority were so noteworthy that a Roman magistrate uttered these words: “Until we have got the better of the bishop, we shall be powerless against the Christians.” He was arrested under Emperor Decius, and sentenced to death by the local Roman governor, Pollio or Epolius of Lycia, after refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods of the state.

By command of the governor Pollio he was most cruelly racked, and as he steadfastly declared that he would always cleave unto Christ, he was at last crucified, and from the cross passed to Heaven a conqueror in the year 251.

His feast day is February 26th in the Roman Catholic Church and February 28th in the Orthodox Church.

FEBRUARY 27th
The Martyr of the Day
ST. JULIAN OF ALEXANDRIA
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 27th
Martyred in the Third Century around 250

At Alexandria, in the year 250, the holy martyr St. Julian. He was so crippled by the gout that he could neither walk nor stand, and was carried before the judge in a chair by two servants. Of these two servants one denied the Faith the other, whose name was Eunus, persisted in confessing Christ along with Julian. They were both placed upon camels and led about the whole city, lashed, and at length publicly burnt upon a pyre.

FEBRUARY 28th
The Martyr of the Day
MARTYRS OF THE GREAT PESTILENCE
Mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for February 28th
Martyred in the Third Century around 261 to 263

A violent pestilence laid waste the greater part of the Roman Empire during twelve years, from 249 to 263. Five thousand persons died of it in one day in Rome, in 262. St. Dionysius of Alexandria relates, that a cruel sedition and civil war had filled that city with murders and tumults; so that it was safer to travel from the eastern to the western parts of the then known world, than to go from one street of Alexandria to another.

The pestilence succeeded this first scourge, and with such violence, that there was not a single house in that great city which entirely escaped it, or which had not some dead to mourn for. All places were filled with groans, and the living appeared almost dead with fear. The noisome exhalations of carcasses, and the very winds, which should have purified the air, loaded with infection and pestilential vapors from the Nile, increased the evil.

The fear of death rendered the heathens cruel towards their nearest relations. As soon as any of them had caught the contagion, they found that their dearest friends avoided and fled from them as their greatest enemies. They threw them half-dead into the streets, and abandoned them without any help; they left their bodies without burial, so fearful were they of catching that mortal distemper, which, however, it was very difficult to avoid, notwithstanding all their precautions.

This sickness, which was the greatest of calamities to the pagans, was but an exercise and trial to the Christians, who showed, on that occasion, how contrary the spirit of charity is to the interestedness of self-love. During the persecutions of Decius, Gallus, and Valerian, they did not dare appear in public, but were obliged to keep their assemblies in solitudes, or in ships tossed on the waves, or in infected prisons, or the like places, which the sanctity of our mysteries made venerable.

Yet in the time of this public calamity, most of them, regardless of the danger of their own lives in assisting others, visited, relieved, and attended the sick, and comforted the dying. They closed their eyes, carried them on their shoulders, laid them out, washed their bodies, and decently interred them, and soon after shared the same fate themselves; but those who survived still succeeded to their charitable office, which they paid to the very pagans, their persecutors.

“Thus,” adds St. Dionysius, “the best of our brethren have departed this life, some of the most valuable, both of priests, deacons, and laics; and it is thought that this kind of death is in nothing different from martyrdom.” And the Roman Martyrology says, the religious faith of pious Christians honors them as martyrs.

In these happy victims of holy charity we admire how powerfully perfect virtue, and the assured expectation of eternal bliss, raises the true Christian above all earthly views. He who has always before his eyes the incomprehensible happiness of enjoying God in his glory, and seriously considers the infinite advantage, peace, and honor annexed to his divine service; he who is inflamed with an ardent love of God, and zeal for his honor, sets no value on anything but in proportion as it affords him a means of improving his spiritual stock, advancing the divine honor, and more perfectly uniting his soul to God by every heroic virtue: disgraces, dangers, labor, pain, death, loss of goods or friends, and every other sacrifice here become his gain and his greatest joy. That by which he most perfectly devotes himself to God, and most speedily and securely attains to the bliss of possessing him, he regards as his greatest happiness.