November Martyrs

THE MARTYRS OF NOVEMBER
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).

NOVEMBER 1ST
The Martyr of the Day
ST. MARY THE SLAVE
Martyred in Third Century, precise year unknown

God, Who, in the distribution of His graces makes no distinction of condition amongst men, raised an humble female slave to the dignity of martyrdom: and, in the proud capital of the world, the boasted triumphs of its deified conquerors and heroes were all eclipsed by the admirable courage and virtue of a weak woman.

Mary was slave to Tertullus, a Roman senator, a Christian from her cradle, though the only person in that great family who was favored with that grace. She prayed much and fasted frequently, especially on all the idolatrous festivals. This devotion displeased her superstitious mistress; but her fidelity, diligence, and approved probity endeared her to her master.

Diocletian’s bloody edicts against the Christians filling all places with terror, Tertullus privately made use of every artifice to engage Mary to renounce her Faith. But neither the caresses and promises of an indulgent master, nor the apprehension of his indignation and chastisements, could shake her constancy. The senator, fearing to lose her if she fell into the hands of the prefect, out of a barbarous compassion, in hopes of making her change her resolution, caused her to be unmercifully whipped, and then to be locked up in a dark cellar for thirty days, where no other sustenance was allowed her but bread and water.

Prayer, in the meantime, was her comfort and strength, and it was her joy to lose all the favor she could promise to herself in this world, and to suffer torments for Christ.

The matter, at length taking wind, the judge made it a crime in Tertullus, that he had concealed a Christian in his house, and the slave was forthwith delivered up to him. At her examination her answers were firm, but humble. The mob in the court, hearing her confess the name of Christ, demanded with loud cries that she should be burnt alive.

The martyr stood praying secretly that God would give her constancy, and said to the judge: “God, whom I serve, is with me; and I fear not your torments, which can only take away a life which I desire to lay down for Jesus Christ.”

The judge commanded her to be tormented; which was executed with such cruelty, that the inconstant fickle mob tumultuously cried out that they were not able, any longer to bear so horrible a spectacle, and entreated that she might be released.

The judge, to appease the commotion, ordered the torturers to take her from the rack, and committed her to the custody of a soldier. The virgin, fearing chiefly for her chastity, found means to escape out of her keeper’s hands, and fled to the mountains.

She finished her course by a happy death, though not by the sword. She is styled a martyr in the Roman and other Martyrologies, that title being usually given by St. Cyprian in his epistles, and by other ancient writers to all who had suffered torments with constancy and perseverance for Christ.

NOVEMBER 2ND
The Martyr of the Day
ST. VICTORINUS
Martyred in Fourth Century, around 304

St. Jerome styles this father one of the pillars of the church, and tells us, that his works were sublime in sense, though the Latin style was low, the author being, by birth, a Grecian. He professed oratory, probably in some city of Greece; but, considering the vanity of all earthly pursuits, consecrated both his learning and labors wholly to the advancement of virtue and religion, and was made a bishop of Pettau, in Upper Pannonia, now in Stiria. This Father wrote against most heresies of that age, and comments on a great part of the holy Scriptures; but all his works are lost except a little treatise on the creation of the world, published by Cave, from a Lambeth manuscript: and a treatise on the Apocalypse, extant in the library of the fathers, though not entire. St. Victorinus flourished in 290, and died a martyr, as St. Jerome testifies, probably in 304.

NOVEMBER 3RD
The Martyr of the Day
ST. WINIFRED
Martyred in Seventh Century, precise year unknown

Winifred [also spelt “Winefride”, or “Wenefride”] was born in Wales. Her father, whose name was Thevith, was very rich, and one of the prime nobility in the country, being son to Eluith, the chief magistrate, and second man in the kingdom, of North Wales, next to the king. Her virtuous parents desired above all things to breed her up in the fear of God, and to preserve her soul untainted amidst the corrupt air of the world.

About that time St. Beuno, Benno, or Benow, a holy priest and monk, who is said to have been uncle to our saint by the mother, having founded certain religious houses in other places, came and settled in that neighborhood. Thevith rejoiced at his arrival, gave him a spot of ground free from all burden or tribute to build a church on, and recommended his daughter to be instructed by him in Christian piety.

When the holy priest preached to the people, Winifred was placed at his feet, and her tender soul eagerly imbibed his heavenly doctrine, and was wonderfully affected with the great truths which he delivered, or rather which God addressed to her by his mouth. The love of the sovereign and infinite good growing daily in her heart, her affections were quite weaned from all the things of this world: and it was her earnest desire to consecrate her virginity by vow to God, and, instead of an earthly bridegroom, to choose Jesus Christ for her spouse. Her parents readily gave their consent, shedding tears of joy, and thanking God for her holy resolution. She first made a private vow of virginity in the hands of St. Beuno, and some time after received the religious veil from him, with certain other pious virgins, in whose company she served God in a small nunnery which her father had built for her, under the direction of St. Beuno, near Holy-Well.

After this, St. Beuno returned to the first monastery which he had built at Clunnock or Clynog Vaur, about forty miles distant, and there soon after slept in our Lord. His tomb was famous there in the thirteenth century. Leland mentions, that St. Benou founded Clunnock Vaur, a monastery of white monks, in a place given him by Guithin, uncle to one of the princes of North Wales. His name occurs in the English Martyrology.

After the death of St. Beuno, St. Winifred left Holy-Well, and after putting herself for a short time under the direction of St. Deifer, entered the nunnery of Gutherin in Denbighshire, under the direction of a very holy abbot called Elerius, who governed there a double monastery. After the death of the abbess Theonia, St. Winifred was chosen to succeed her.

Leland speaks of St. Elerius as follows: “Elerius was anciently, and is at present in esteem among the Welch. I guess that he studied at the banks of the Elivi where now St. Asaph’s stands. He afterwards retired in the deserts. It is most certain that he built a monastery in the vale of Cluide, which was double and very numerous of both sexes. Amongst these was the most noble virgin Guenvrede, who had been educated by Beuno, and who suffered death, having her head cut off by the furious Caradoc.”

Leland mentions not the stupendous miracles which Robert of Salop and others relate on that occasion, though in the abstract of her life inserted in an appendix to the fourth volume of the last edition of Leland’s Itinerary she is said to have been raised to life by the prayers of St. Beuno. In all monuments and calendars she is styled a martyr; all the accounts we have of her agree that Caradoc or Cradoc, son of Alain, prince of that country, having violently fallen in love with her, gave way so far to his brutish passion, that, finding it impossible to extort her consent to marry him, or gratify his desires, in his rage he one day pursued her, and cut off her head, as she was flying from him to take refuge in the church which St. Beuno had built at Holy-Well.

Robert of Shrewsbury and some others add, that Cradoc was swallowed up by the earth upon the spot; secondly, that in the place where the head fell, the wonderful well which is seen there sprang up, with pebble stones and large parts of the rock in the bottom stained with red streaks, and with moss growing on the sides under the water, which renders a sweet fragrant smell; and thirdly, that the martyr was raised to life by the prayers of St. Beuno, and bore ever after a mark of her martyrdom, by a red circle on her skin about her neck. If these authors, who lived a long time after these transactions, were by some of their guides led into any mistakes in any of these circumstances, neither the sanctity of the martyr nor the devotion of the place can be hereby made liable to censure.

St. Winifred died on the 22nd of June, as the old panegyric preached on her festival, mentioned in the notes, and several of her lives testify: the most ancient life of this saint, in the Cottonian manuscript, places her death or rather her burial at Guthurin on the 24th of June. The words are: “The place where she lived with the holy virgins was called Guthurin, where sleeping, on the eighth before the calends of July, she was buried, and rests in the Lord.”

Her festival was removed to the 3rd of November, probably on account of some translation; and in 1391, Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, with his clergy in convocation assembled, ordered her festival to be kept on that day throughout his province with an office of nine lessons, which is inserted in the Saurum Breviary.

The time when this saint lived is not mentioned in any of her lives; most with Alford and Cressy think it was about the close of the seventh century. Her relics were translated from Guthurin to Shrewsbury in the year 1138, and deposited with great honour in the church of the Benedictin abbey which had been founded there, without the walls, in 1083, by Roger Earl of Montgomery. Herbert, abbot of that house, procured the consent of the diocesan, the bishop of Bangor, (for the bishopric of St. Asaph’s in which Guthurin is situated, was only restored in 1143,) and caused the translation to be performed with great solemnity, as is related by Robert, then prior of that house, (probably the same who was made bishop of Bangor in 1210,) who mentions some miraculous cures performed on that occasion to which he was eye-witness. The shrine of this saint was plundered at the dissolution of monasteries.

Several miracles were wrought through the intercession of this saint at Guthurin, Shrewsbury, and especially Holy-Well.

To instance some examples: Sir Roger Bodenham, knight of the Bath, after he was abandoned by the ablest physicians and the most famous colleges of that faculty, was cured of a terrible leprosy by bathing in this miraculous fountain in 1606; upon which he became himself a Catholic, and gave an ample certificate of his wonderful cure signed by many others.

Mrs. Jane Wakeman of Sussex, in 1630, brought to the last extremity by a terrible ulcerated breast, was perfectly healed in one night by bathing thrice in that well, as she and her husband attested.

A poor widow of Kidderminster in Worcestershire, had been long lame and bed-ridden, when she sent a single penny to Holy-Well to be given to the first poor body the person should meet with there; and at the very time it was given at Holy-Well, the patient arose in perfect health at Kidderminster. This fact was examined and juridically attested by Mr. James Bridges, who was afterwards sheriff of Worcester, in 1651.

Mrs. Mary Newman had been reduced to a skeleton, and to such a decrepit state and lameness that for eighteen years she had not been able to point or set her foot on the ground. She tried all helps in England, France, and Portugal, but in vain. At last she was perfectly cured in the very well whilst she was bathing herself the fifth time.

Roger Whetstone, a quaker near Bromsgrove, by bathing at Holy-Well was cured of an inveterate lameness and palsy; by which he was converted to the Catholic Faith. Innumerable such instances might be collected.

Cardinal Baronius expresses his astonishment at the wonderful cures which the pious bishop of St. Asaph’s, the pope’s vicegerent for the episcopal functions at Rome, related to him as an eye-witness.

NOVEMBER 4TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. VITALIS & ST. AGRICOLA
Martyred in Fourth Century, around 304

St. Ambrose informs us that Agricola was a gentleman of Bologna, whose behavior, in the world, had engaged the emotions of the idolaters, amongst whom he lived. Vitalis, his slave, learned from Agricola the Christian religion, and first received the crown of martyrdom; for the servant and the freeman are one and the same thing in Christ, nor is there any difference from their condition in their reward.

They were both seized, probably in the year 304, and Vitalis first put to the torture. He ceased not to praise God so long as he had the use of his tongue; and seeing no part of his body left which was not covered with wounds and blood, he prayed Jesus Christ to receive his soul, and to bestow on him that crown which his angel had shown him. His prayer was no sooner ended than he gave up the ghost.

Agricola’s execution was deferred out of a cruel compassion, that time and the sight of the sufferings of his faithful servant might daunt his resolution. But he was animated and encouraged by such an example. Whereupon the affection of the judges and people was converted into fury; and the martyr was hung on a cross, and his body pierced with so many huge nails that the number of his wounds surpassed that of his limbs.

The bodies of the martyrs were laid in the burial place of the Jews. St. Ambrose fleeing from the tyrant Eugenius, came to Bologna in 393, and there discovered these relics. He took to himself some of the blood that was found in the bottom of the grave, and the cross and nails which were the instruments of Agricola’s martyrdom. Juliana, a devout widow of Florence, invited him to dedicate a church she had built in that city, and begged of him this treasure, which he was not able to refuse her, and the value of which he much extols to her three daughters, bidding them receive with respect these presents of salvation, which were laid under the altar.

NOVEMBER 5TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. GALACTEON & ST. EPISTEME
Martyred in Third Century, around 258

There was a rich and distinguished couple named Kletophon and Leukippe, who lived in the Syrian city of Emesa, and for a long time they were childless. They gave much gold to the pagan priests, but still they remained childless.

The city of Emesa was governed by a Syrian named Secundus, put there by the Roman Caesars. He was a merciless and zealous persecutor of Christians, and to intimidate them he ordered that the instruments of torture be displayed on the streets. The slightest suspicion of belonging to “the sect of the Galilean” (as thus Christians were called by the pagans), was enough to get a man arrested and handed over for torture. In spite of this, many Christians voluntarily surrendered themselves into the hands of the executioners, in their desire to suffer for Christ.

A certain old man by the name of Onuphrius, who concealed his monastic and priestly dignity beneath his beggar’s rags. He walked from house to house in Emesa, begging alms. At the same time, whenever he saw the possibility of turning people away from the pagan error, he preached about Christ.

Once, he came to the magnificent house of Leukippe. Accepting alms from her, he sensed that the woman was in sorrow, and he asked what was the cause of this sadness. She told the Elder about her familial misfortune. In consoling her, Onuphrius began to tell her about the one true God, about His omnipotence and mercy, and how He always grants the prayer of those turning to Him with Faith. Hope filled the soul of Leukippe. She believed and accepted Holy Baptism. Soon after this it was revealed to her in a dream that she would give birth to a son, who would be a true follower of Christ. At first, Leukippe concealed her delight from her husband, but after the infant was born, she revealed the secret to her husband and also persuaded him to be baptized.

They named the baby Galacteon and his parents raised him in the Christian Faith and provided him a fine education. He could make an illustrious career for himself, but Galacteon sought rather an unsullied monastic life in solitude and prayer.

When Galacteon turned twenty-four, his father resolved to marry him off and they found him a bride, a beautiful and illustrious girl by the name of Episteme. The son did not oppose the will of his father, but by the will of God, the wedding was postponed for a time. Visiting his betrothed, Galacteon gradually revealed his Faith to her. Eventually, he converted her to Christ and he secretly baptized her himself.

Besides Episteme he baptized also one of her servants, Eutolmius. The newly-illumined decided on the initiative of Galacteon, to devote themselves to the monastic life. Leaving the city, they hid themselves away on Mount Publion, where there were two monasteries, one for men and the other for women. The new monastics had to take with them all the necessities for physical toil, since the inhabitants of both monasteries were both old and infirm.

For several years the monastics struggled in work, fasting and prayer. Once, Episteme had a vision in her sleep: she and Galacteon stood in a wondrous palace before a radiant King, and the King bestowed golden crowns on them. This was a prefiguring of their impending martyrdom.

The pagans became aware of the existence of the monasteries, and a military detachment was sent to apprehend their inhabitants. But the monks and the nuns succeeded in hiding themselves in the hills. Galacteon, however, had no desire to flee and so he remained in his cell, reading Holy Scripture. When Episteme saw that the soldiers were leading Galacteon away in chains, she began to implore the Abbess to permit her to go also, since she wanted to accept torture for Christ together with her fiancé and teacher. The Abbess tearfully blessed Episteme to do so.

The saints endured terrible torments, while supplicating and glorifying Christ. Their hands and legs were cut off, their tongues were cut out, and then they were beheaded.

Eutolmius, the former servant of Episteme, and who had become her brother in Christ and fellow ascetic in monastic struggles, secretly buried the bodies of the holy martyrs. He later wrote an account of their virtuous life and their glorious martyrdom, for his contemporaries and for posterity.

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

Severus was born in Barcelona to a noble family and received a good education. In a hymn associated with his office, it is stated explicitly that he was a citizen of Barcelona. A variant of the legend status that he was a humble weaver upon whose head a dove landed. The people of the city saw this as a sign and elected him bishop.

He was chosen bishop of Barcelona around 290. During the persecution of Diocletian, Severus fled to Castrum Octavianum (Sant Cugat), where he encountered a fellow Christian, named Emeterius, sowing beans in the field. Severus instructed the man that if the soldiers, sent to kill him, asked the farmer where he had gone, to tell them that he had passed this way.

A miracle made the beans he was cultivating sprout immediately after Severus left. When the soldiers came across Emeterius and asked him if he had seen the bishop, Emeterius replied that he had and it was when he was sowing the fields. Angry at this lie and believing that Emeterius was mocking them, the soldiers arrested the man and took him to Castrum Octavianum.

Severus meanwhile appeared to the soldiers, along with four other priests from Barcelona who had fled with him. The four priests were flogged and then killed with a sword. Emeterius also suffered this fate. Severus was beaten with a “cat o’ nine tails” (nine-thonged-whip), and nails were driven into his head. The soldiers left the bishop on the ground. However, he did not die and when Christians from Barcelona heard that Severus was still alive, they attempted to revive him. However, he expired in the arms of one of them.

NOVEMBER 7TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. HERCULANUS
Martyred in Sixth Century, around 549

St. Herculanus of Perugia was a bishop of Perugia and is patron saint of that city. His main feast day is November 7th; his second feast is celebrated on March 1st. According to Saint Gregory the Great in his Dialogues, Herculanus suffered martyrdom when Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, captured Perugia in 549.

Before the city was captured, Herculanus is said to have tried to save the city with an old ruse: he fed the last sack of grain to the last lamb. This was meant to give the Ostrogoth forces the impression that the Perugians had food to spare, and were able to feed a weak lamb with their precious grain. With food to spare, they were thus able to withstand the siege. However, Totila was not fooled by this trick and captured the city just the same.

This same trick has also been attributed to Gagliaudo, who saved his city (Alessandria)—successfully—from the forces of Frederick Barbarossa. An interpretation of the tale is found in Umberto Eco’s novel Baudolino.

Totila is said to have given orders for Herculanus to be completely flayed (skinned alive). However, the Ostrogoth soldier who had to perform this gruesome task took pity on the bishop and decapitated Herculanus before the flaying had been completed.

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

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

NOVEMBER 8TH
The Martyrs of the Day
THE FOUR CROWNED MARTYRS
Martyred in Fourth Century, around 304

These four holy brothers in the persecution of Diocletian, employed in offices of trust and honor at Rome, were apprehended for declaring against the worship of idols, and whipped with scourges loaded with plummets of lead, till they expired in the hands of their tormentors. They were buried on the Lavican Way, three miles from Rome, and were at first called the Four Crowned Martyrs: their names were, Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorious.

Pope Gregory the Great mentions an old church of the four crowned martyrs in Rome. Pope Leo IV, in 841, caused the church to be repaired, and the relies of these martyrs to be translated thither out of the cemetery on the Lavican Way. When this church had been consumed by fire, Paschal II rebuilt it; upon which occasion the relics of these martyrs were discovered under the altar in two rich urns, the one of porphyry, the other of serpentine marble, deposited in a stone vault. The new altar was built upon the same spot; and these relics were again found in the same situation under Paul V.

This church is an ancient title of a cardinal-priest. Five other martyrs, called St. Claudius, St. Nicostratus, St. Symphorianus, St. Castorius, and St. Simplicius, who had suffered in the same persecution were buried in the same cemetery. Their precious remains were translated by Leo IV into the same church, and are likewise honored there to this day. These martyrs are named in the martyrology of St. Bede and others. These five are said to have been put to death, because, being carvers by profession, they refused to make idols.

NOVEMBER 9TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. THEODORUS
Martyred in Fourth Century, around 306

Today we celebrate St. Theodorus, surnamed Tyro, a martyr of the Fourth Century. St. Gregory of Nyssa begins the panegyric which he pronounced upon this martyr on his festival, at his tomb near Amasea, by gratefully ascribing to his intercession the preservation of that country from the inroads of the Scythians, who had laid waste all the neighboring provinces. Imploring his patronage, he says: “As a soldier defend us; as a martyr speak for us—ask peace: if we want a stronger intercession, gather together your brother martyrs, and with them all pray for us. Stir up Peter, Paul, and John, that they be solicitous for the churches which they founded. May no heresies sprout up: may the Christian commonwealth become, by your and your companions’ prayers, a flourishing field.”

St. Gregory testifies, that by his intercession, devils were expelled, and distempers cured: that many resorted to his church, and admired the stateliness of the buildings, and the actions of the saint painted on the wall; approached the tomb, being persuaded that the touch thereof imparted a blessing; that they carried the dust of the sepulcher, as a treasure of great value, and if any were allowed the happiness to touch the sacred relics, they respectfully applied them to their eyes, mouth, ears, and other organs of their senses.

“Then,” says the same St. Gregory, “they address themselves to the martyr as if he were present, and pray and invoke him, who is before God, and obtains gifts as he pleases.” St. Gregory then proceeds to give a short account of the martyr’s triumph.

Theodorus was a native of Syria or Armenia, young, and newly enlisted in the Roman army, whence he was surnamed Tyro. With his legion he was sent into winter quarters in Pontus, and was at Amasea when fresh edicts were published by Maximian Galerius and Maximin, for continuing with the utmost rigor the persecution which had been raised by Diocletian.

Our young soldier was so far from concealing his Faith, that he seemed to carry it written on his forehead. Being seized and presented to the governor of the province, and the tribune of his legion, he was asked by them how he dared to profess a religion which the emperors punished with death: to whom he boldly made the following declaration: “I know not your gods. Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, is my God. Beat, tear, or burn me; and if my words offend you, cut out my tongue: every part of my body is ready when God calls for it as a sacrifice.”

His judges, with a pretended compassion for his youth, allowed him time to give the affair a second thought, and dismissed him for the present. Theodorus employed the interval in prayer for perseverance, and being resolved to convince his judges that his resolution was inflexible, by an extraordinary impulse he set fire to a temple of Cybele, which stood upon the banks of the river Iris, in the middle of the city; and the fabric was reduced to ashes.

When he was carried a second time before the governor and his assistant, he was ready to prevent their questions by his confession. They endeavored to terrify him with threats of torments, and allure him by promising to make him the priest of the goddess, if he would offer sacrifice.

His answer was, that their priests were of all idolaters the most miserable, because the most criminal.

His body was unmercifully torn with whips; and afterwards hoisted on the rack. Under all manner of torments the saint maintained his former tranquility and greatness of soul, and, seemingly insensible to the smart of his wounds, ceased not to repeat those words of the psalmist: I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall be always in my mouth.

When the governor’s cruelty was tired, the martyr was remanded to prison, where, in the night, he was wonderfully comforted by God and his holy angels.

After a third examination, Theodorus was condemned to be burnt alive in a furnace; which sentence was executed in the year 306, probably on the 17th of February, on which day the Greeks and Muscovites celebrate his festival, though the Latins keep it on the 9th of November, with the Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, Bede, etc. The body of this martyr was translated in the twelfth century to Brindisi, and is there enshrined, except the head, which is at Cajeta. The ancient church of Venice, of which he is titular saint, is said to have been built by Narses. A collegiate church in Rome, which originally was a temple of Romulus, and several churches in the East bear his name.

NOVEMBER 10TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. TRYPHO, ST. RESPICIUS & ST. NYMPHA
Martyred in Third Century, around 250

St. Trypho and St. Respicius were natives of Bithynia, at or near Apamea, and upon the opening of Decius’s persecution, in 250, were seized, loaded with chains, and conducted to Nice, where Aquilinus, governor of Bithynia, and prefect of the East, then resided. After some days’ confinement they were brought to their trial before him, and upon their confession of their Faith, an officer that stood by them told them, that all who refused to offer sacrifice were to be burnt alive, and exhorted them to have compassion on themselves.

Respicius answered: “We cannot better have compassion on ourselves than by confessing Jesus Christ, the true judge, who will come to call everyone to an account for all their actions.”

Aquilinus told them they were old enough to know what they ought to do.

“Yes,” said Trypho, “and therefore we desire to attain to the perfection of true wisdom by following Jesus Christ.”

The judge ordered them to be put on the rack. The martyrs, to express their readiness to suffer, forthwith stripped themselves, and stepped forward with surprising alacrity. They bore the torture near three hours with admirable patience and tranquillity; and only opened their mouths to invoke God, and extol his mercy and power; and to give the judge to understand to what dangers he exposed himself by his blindness.

When they were taken down from the rack, Aquilinus, who was going out on a party of hunting, ordered them to be tied to the tails of horses, and led out into the fields, naked and torn and bruised all over as they were, that they might be exposed in that condition to the cold air; for it was winter, and the severity of the frost was so great that they were disabled from walking or standing without exquisite pain, for their feet were cloven by it. After this torment the governor asked them if they did not yet relent; and finding their constancy invincible, ordered them again to prison, threatening them that they should be treated with the utmost rigor.

Soon after this, Aquilinus set out to make the tour of some other cities that were under his jurisdiction, and at his return to Nice called for the two prisoners, and promising them great riches and honors if they complied, conjured them to consider their own good before it was too late. The martyrs, who had only God before their eyes, replied: “We cannot better follow your advice, and consider our own good, than by persevering firm in the confession of the name of Jesus Christ.”

Aquilinus finding himself defeated in all his attacks, in a fit of impotent rage commanded their feet to be pierced with large nails, and the martyrs to be dragged in that condition in the cold weather through the streets. He who is the strength of martyrs, gave them a courage superior to the malice of the enemy. The governor, surprised and confounded at their meek patience, ordered them to be whipped; which was done until the executioners were wearied. This enraged the judge still more, and he commanded their flesh to be torn with hooks, and afterwards lighted torches to be applied to their sides, the saints remaining the same in the midst of these torments, the governor cried out to the tormentors, bidding them exert their skill in torturing the obstinate wretches in the most exquisite manner.

But the saints were invincible and prayed thus: “Lord Jesus Christ, for whom we fight, suffer not the devil to vanquish us: strengthen and enable us to finish our course. The combat is yours: may the victory be yours.” The next day they were examined a third time, and being as constant as before, were beaten with plummets of lead, and afterwards beheaded in the year 250.

With these two martyrs, the Roman Martyrology joins St. Nympha, because her body reposes with theirs at Rome. She was a virgin of Palermo in Sicily, and, in the invasion of the Goths, in the fifth century, fled into Italy, where she served God in great sanctity, and died in peace at Suana in Tuscany. The Greeks honor St. Trypho on the 1st of February, and there stood formerly a church in Constantinople, near that of Sancta Sophia, which bore his name. The ancient church of St. Trypho in Rome, being fallen to decay in 1604, it was united to the church of St. Austin, which is now possessed of part of the relics of these three saints. But the principal parts of those of St. Trypho, St. Respicius, and St. Nympha, repose under the high altar in the church of the Holy Ghost in Saxia, belonging to a great hospital in Rome. This street lying between St. Peter’s church and the Tiber, is called Saxia, from a colony of Saxons whom Charlemagne, after he had defeated them in Germany, placed there, that they might be instructed in the Faith.

NOVEMBER 11TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. MENNAS
Martyred in Fourth Century, around 304 or 305

The edicts of Diocletian were rigorously executed in the East, when Mennas or Menas, an Egyptian by birth, was a soldier in the Roman troops, then quartered at Cotyæus in Phrygia. During the persecution under Diocletian he cast away his military belt, and served the King of Heaven in secret in the desert. Then he went forth, and freely declared himself to be a Christian. He was arrested, questioned and examined, and, boldly confessing his Faith, was consequently, by the command of Pyrrhus, governor, cruelly scourged, then tormented in the most inhuman manner on the rack, and then as he was kneeling in prayer, giving thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, he was beheaded, probably about the year 304 or 305. His name has been always very famous in the calendars of the church, especially in the East. After his death he was famous for many miracles.

NOVEMBER 12TH
The Martyr of the Day
POPE ST. MARTIN
Martyred in Seventh Century, around 655

St. Martin was a native of Todi in Tuscany, and became renowned in the clergy of Rome for his learning and sanctity. Whilst he was deacon of that church he was sent by Pope Theodorus, in role of apocrisiarius or nuncio to Constantinople, where he showed his zeal against the reigning heresy of the Monothelites. Upon the death of Theodorus, after a vacancy of near three weeks, Martin was elected pope in July, 649, and, in the October following, held in the Lateran church a council of one hundred and five bishops, against the Monothelites, in which he condemned the ringleaders of that sect, particularly Sergius and Pyrrhus, who had been formerly bishops of Constantinople, and Paul, who was then in possession of that see.

The Ecthesis of Heraclius and the Typus of Constans, two imperial edicts, were likewise censured: the former, because it contained an exposition of Faith entirely favorable to the Monothelites; the latter, because it was a formulary by which silence was imposed on both parties, and it was forbidden by it to mention either one or two operations in Christ, “The Lord,” said the Lateran fathers, “hath commanded us to shun evil and do good; but not to reject the good with the evil. We are not to deny at the same time both truth and error.”

The Emperor Constans sent Olympius, his chamberlain, in quality of exarch into Italy, with an order either to cause Martin to be massacred, or to send him prisoner into the East. Olympius, coming to Rome whilst the council was assembled, endeavored to raise a schism; but not succeeding by open violence, had recourse to treachery, and commanded one of his attendants to murder the pope whilst he was administering the communion in the church of St. Mary Major, which might be more easily done, as the pope carried the communion to everyone in his own place.

The servant who had undertaken to execute this commission afterwards swore that he had been struck with blindness, and could not see the pope. Olympius, therefore, seeing the pope had been thus protected by heaven, declared to him the orders which he had received, made his peace with him, and marched into Sicily, then in the hands of the Saracens, where his army perished, and he died of sickness. The emperor then sent Theodorus Calliopas exarch, with Theodorus Pellurus, one of his chamberlains, with a strict charge to seize Martin, whom he accused of heresy, because he condemned the type; and charged him with Nestorianism, as the Egyptians did all Catholics.

The new exarch and the chamberlain arrived at Rome with the army from Ravenna on Saturday, the 15th of June, 653. The pope, who had been sick ever since October, shut himself up in the Lateran church, but sent some of his clergy to salute the exarch, who inquired where the pope was, saying, he desired to adore him, which he repeated the next day. Two days after, on Monday, Calliopas accused him of having arms concealed: but the pope bade him search his palace, which he did; and no arms being found, the pope said: “Thus have calumnies been always employed against us.”

Half an hour after, the soldiers returned and seized the pope, who lay sick on a couch near the gate of the church; and Calliopas presented the clergy a rescript of the emperor, commanding Saint Martin to be deposed as unworthy of the popedom.

The clergy cried out, “Anathema to him who shall say that Pope Martin hath changed any point of Faith, and to him who perseveres not in the Catholic Faith till death.”

Calliopas, fearing the multitude, said, “There is no other Faith but yours; nor have I any other:”

Several of the bishops said, “We will live and die with him.”

The pope was led out of the church into the palace, and on the 18th of June, taken thence at midnight, and carried in a boat down the Tiber to Porto, where he was put on board a vessel to be conveyed to Constantinople. After three months’ sail he arrived at the isle of Naxos, where he stayed with his guards a whole year, being allowed to lodge in a house. For a long time he was afflicted with a dysentery and a loathing of food. When the bishops and inhabitants sent him any provisions, the guards plundered them, and abused with injurious language and blows those who brought him presents, saying, “Whoever shows any kindness to this man is an enemy to the state.”

St. Martin was more afflicted et the injuries which his benefactors received than at his own sufferings. He was brought to Constantinople on the 17th of September, in 654, and, after much ill usage, lay in a dungeon without speaking to anybody but his keepers for near three months, from the 17th of September to the 15th of December.

In one of his letters he wrote as follows: “It is now forty-seven days since I have been permitted to wash myself either in cold or warm water. I am quite wasted and chilled, and have had no respite either upon sea or land from the flux which I suffer. My body is broken and spent, and, when I would take any nourishment, I want such kind of food as is necessary to support me; and have a perfect aversion and loathing to what I have. But I hope that God, who knows all things, when he shall have taken me out of this world, will bring my persecutors to repentance.”

On the 15th of December he was examined by the Sacellarius, or treasurer, in the chamber of that magistrate, in presence of the senate, which was then assembled there. He was removed thence to a terrace, where the emperor might have a sight of him from his window: and the Sacellarius ordered his guards to divest him of the marks of his episcopal dignity. Then delivering him into the hands of the prefect of the city, he said, “Take him, my lord prefect, and pull him to pieces immediately.” He likewise commanded those who were present to anathematize him. But not above twenty persons cried out anathema: all the rest hung down their heads, and retired overwhelmed with grief.

The executioners, laying hold of the saint, took away his sacerdotal pallium, and stripped him of all his clothes, except a tunic which they left him without a girdle, having torn it from the top to the bottom, so that his naked body was exposed to sight. They put an iron collar about his neck, and dragged him in this manner from the palace through the midst of the city, the gaoler being fastened to him, and an executioner carrying the sword before him, to show that he was condemned to die. The people wept and sighed, except a small number who insulted him; but the martyr preserved a calm and serene countenance.

Being come to the prætorium he was thrown into a prison with murderers; but about an hour afterwards was taken thence, and cast into the prison of Diomedes, so much hurt and bruised, that he left the staircase besmeared with his blood, and seemed ready to give up the ghost. He was placed on a bench, chained as he was, and almost dead with cold; for the winter was very severe. He had none of his own friends or servants about him, but a young clerk who had followed him weeping. The jailer was chained to him, and the order for his execution was expected every moment: and the holy pope impatiently waited for martyrdom. But it was delayed, and his irons were knocked off.

The emperor went next day to visit the patriarch Paul, who lay very sick, and related to him all that had been done against the pope. Paul sighed and said, “Alas! this is still to augment my punishment.” And he conjured the emperor to be satisfied with what the pope had suffered. Paul died soon after, and Pyrrhus, who had been formerly patriarch, was very desirous to recover that see.

During his exile he had abjured the Monothelite heresy under Pope Theodorus at Rome, and had been entertained as a bishop by that church, according to its accustomed law of hospitality towards strangers. Constans sent Demosthenes, deputy to the Sacellarius, to examine St. Martin in prison, whether Pyrrhus had made his recantation at Rome of his own accord, or through solicitations. St. Martin satisfied him that he had done it of his own accord; though he had soon relapsed again.

Demosthenes said, “Consider in what glory you once lived, and to what a condition you are now reduced. This is entirely owing to yourself.”
The pope only replied, “God be praised for all things.”

St. Martin continued in the prison of Diomedes near three months, to the 10th of March, 615, when he was ordered to be banished to the Taurica Chersonesus on the 15th of May. The famine was so great in that country, that the pope assured his friends, in one of his letters: “Bread is talked of here, but never seen. If some relief is not sent us from Italy, or Pontus, it is impossible to live.”

He wrote another letter in September, wherein he says: “We are not only separated from the rest of the world, but are even deprived of the means to live. The inhabitants of the country are all pagans; and they who come hither, besides their learning the manners of the people of the country, have no charity, nor even that natural compassion which is to be found among barbarians. Neither do they bring anything from other places in the barks which come hither to be loaded with salt; nor have I been able to buy anything but one bushel of corn, which cost me four gold pence. I admire the insensibility of all those who have heretofore had some relation to me, who have so entirely forgot me, that they do not so much as seem to know whether I am in the world. I wonder still more at those who belong to the church of St. Peter, for the little concern they show for one of their body. If that church has no money, it wants not corn, oil, or other provisions, out of which they might send us some small supply. What fear hath seized all these men, which can hinder them from fulfilling the commands of God, in relieving the distressed? Have I appeared such an enemy to the whole church, or to them in particular? However, I pray God, by the intercession of St. Peter, to preserve them steadfast and immovable in the orthodox Faith. As to this wretched body, God will have care of it. He is at hand; why should I give myself any trouble? I hope in his mercy, he will not prolong my course.” The good pope was not disappointed of his hope; for he died on the 16th of September, in 655, having held the holy see six years, one month, and twenty-six days.

He was interred in a church of the Blessed Virgin, within a furlong from the city of Chersona: a great concourse of people resorted to his tomb. His relics were afterwards carried to Rome, and deposited in a church dedicated long before in honor of St. Martin of Tours. He is honored by the Latins, on the 12th of November, the day of the translation of his relics to Rome, and by the Greeks on the 13th of April; also on the 15th and 20th of September. By the Muscovites on the 14th of April. His constancy and firmness appear in his letters. They are well written, with strength and wisdom: the style is great and noble, worthy of the majesty of the Holy See.

NOVEMBER 13TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. MITRIUS
Martyred in Fourth Century, around 314

A Greek by birth and slave of a hard and cruel master in the south of Gaul (France). The slave master was a pagan and a hater of Christianity, who treated Mitrius savagely because of his Faith in Christ. This persecution was a life-long suffering, until Mitrius finally passed away to the Lord in 314. This ancient martyr suffered under Diocletian, at Aix in Provence, and is honored as principal patron of that city. St. Gregory of Tours makes honorable mention of him. His torments were various and dreadful; but a miraculous constancy enabled him to bear them with joy.

NOVEMBER 14TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. JOSAPHAT
Martyred in Seventeenth Century, around 1623

Josaphat is one of those figures in history caught in a web of controversy where even good people find it hard to keep their heads. He was caught in a battle between Catholic and Orthodox, Latin and Byzantine, and found himself criticized and opposed on every side: by the Orthodox for being Catholic and by the Latins for being Byzantine. He held firmly to Catholic unity against the Orthodox and just as firmly to Byzantine rights against the Latins. At that period of history, it was a no-win situation, and he is the great martyr to the cause of unity.

Josaphat Kuncewitz was born in Lithuania about 1580 into a family of noble Catholic parents at Vladimir in Volhynia. As a child, when he heard his mother speaking of the passion of Christ, he received in his heart a wound from an arrow coming from the side of the image of Christ crucified. When he was twenty, he entered the Byzantine monastery of Holy Trinity in Vilna in 1604 and he was professed among the cloistered monks of St Basil. It was not long before he was elected Catholic Archbishop of Polotsk in 1614 and showed himself a model of all virtues. Politically, the Catholic and Orthodox clergy were rivals in Lithuania, and the archbishopric of Polotsk was one of the contested sees. A zealous promoter of the unity of the Greek with the Latin Church, he called innumerable heretics back to the bosom of their mother, the Church.

One of the hotbeds of trouble in Josaphat’s diocese was Witebsk, and in November of 1623 he went there to bring about peace in his flock, preaching in the churches and trying to reconcile differences. On November 12th, a mob broke into the house where he was staying, shouting hatred and violence. “My children”, he said, “if you have anything against me, here I am” With that they rushed at him, beat and stabbed him, delivered the death blow with an axe and threw his body into the river. The first to benefit from the Martyr’s blood were those very parricides: condemned to death nearly all of them adjured their schism and repented of their crime. Pope Urban VIII gave Josaphat the honors of the Blessed, and Pius IX added to the number of Saints this first promoter of the unity of the Church among the Easterners. He was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867.

NOVEMBER 15TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. GURIAS, ST. SAMONAS & ST. HABIBUS
Martyred in Fourth Century, exact year unknown

The holy Martyrs and confessors, St. Gurias, St. Samonas and St. Habibus, suffered during the persecution against Christians under the emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (305-311). The two friends Gurias and Samonas, preachers of the Word of God, were arrested in the city of Edessa.

The saints refused to offer sacrifice to the gods, and boldly confessed their Faith in Christ. For this they were subjected to cruel tortures: they were beaten, hung up by their hands, heavy weights were tied to their feet, and they were cast into a stifling prison.

The martyrs endured everything with firmness and Samonas uttered a prayer to the Lord, which one of the witnesses to their death wrote down: “O Lord my God, against Whose will not a single sparrow falls into the snare. It was You Who made room for David in his sorrow (Ps. 4:1), Who proved the Prophet David stronger than lions (Dan. ch. 6), and granted a child of Abraham to be victor over torture and flames (Dan. ch. 3, ch. 14). You know also, Lord, the infirmity of our nature, You see the struggle set before us. Our foe strives to snatch us, the work of Your right hand, away from You and to deprive us of the glory which is in You. With Your compassionate eye watching over us, preserve in us the inextinguishable light of Your Commandments. Guide our steps by Your light, and make us worthy of Your Kingdom, for You are blessed unto ages of ages.” By night, they took the martyrs out beyond the city and beheaded them (+ 299-306). Christians buried their holy bodies with reverence.

After some years, the last pagan emperor, Licinius (311-324), began a persecution against Christians. Habibus, a deacon of the Church of Edessa whom the emperor ordered to be arrested for his zealous spreading of the true Faith, presented himself before the executioners when he learned they were searching for him. The saint confessed his Faith in Christ and was sentenced to be burned alive. The martyr went willingly into the fire and with a prayer surrendered his soul to the Lord. When the fire went out, the mother and relatives of the saint found his body unharmed. They buried the martyr next to Sts Gurias and Samonas.

After the death of the saints, numerous miracles were wrought by them for those who entreated their help with Faith and love. Once, a certain Gothic soldier, sent to serve at Edessa, took the pious virgin Euphemia as his wife. Before this the barbarian vowed to her mother Sophia at the graves of the Martyrs Gurias, Samonas and Habibus that he would do his spouse no harm, and would never insult her, but would always love and cherish her.

At the completion of his service in Edessa, he took Euphemia with him back to his native land. It turned out that he had deceived her, for he already had a wife at home, and Euphemia became her slave. Her evil husband threatened to kill her if she revealed to anyone that they were married. Euphemia suffered much abuse and humiliation. When she gave birth to a son, the jealous Gothic woman poisoned him. Euphemia turned with prayer to the holy Martyrs Gurias, Samonas and Habibus, the witnesses to the perjurer’s oath, and the Lord delivered Euphemia from her suffering and miraculously returned her to Edessa, where she was welcomed by her mother.

After a certain while the Goth was again sent to serve in Edessa. The whole city learned of his misdeeds after he was denounced by Sophia. The Goth was executed by order of the prefect of the city.

NOVEMBER 16TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. ELPIDIUS, ST. MARCELLUS & ST. EUSTOCHIUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century

The holy martyrs St. Elpidius, St. Marcellus and St. Eustochius suffered under the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). St Elpidius was a senator. They tried him before the imperial judge on charges of being a Christian.

The martyrs endured many terrible torments, and they died after being thrown into a fire. At the place where Christians buried the relics of the saints, Christ appeared with an host of angels and resurrected Elpidius. Then the emperor gave orders to arrest the holy martyr again.

During the torture, idols standing nearby crumbled into dust through the prayer of the saint. More than six thousand pagans witnessed this miracle and were converted to Christ. St Elpidius was burned again.

NOVEMBER 17TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. ALPHAEUS & ST. ZACCHEUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 303 or 304

Saints Alphaeus and Zaccheus were two Christians who were put to death in Caesarea, Palestine, in 303 or 304, according to Church historian Eusebius, in his Martyrs of Palestine. Eusebius was present in Caesarea during the persecutions, part of the empire-wide campaign to suppress Christianity.

The Emperor Diocletian had ordered that all in the Empire should perform worship and sacrifices to the Roman gods. The authorities in Caesarea were so keen that all should obey this order that, according to the shorter recension of Eusebius’ Martyrs of Palestine, they seized one Christian leader by the hands, led him to the altar and thrust the offering into his right hand. He was then dismissed as if he had performed the sacrifice. It was agreed by those in charge that they would attest that two others had made the offerings, even though they had not. Another Christian opened his mouth to say that he refused to worship the Roman gods when the guards struck him across the face, prevented him from speaking, and dismissed him, so that, says Eusebius, of the many brought in from the area to perform acts of worship to the Roman gods or die, only two, Alphaeus and Zaccheus, “were honored with the crown of the holy martyrs.”

The authorities in Caesarea had brought in Christians from the surrounding area to apostatize or face death. Among them was a deacon from Gadara, Zaccheus, so-called after the person in the New Testament, according to Eusebius in the long recension of Martyrs of Palestine, owing to his short stature and sweet nature. He spoke boldly of his Faith before the judges, was tortured and put into a prison cell.

Being the cousin of Zaccheus, Alphaeus was the lector of the church in Caesarea. Many Christians in the city and its surroundings, faced with the choice of their religious principles or death, were crowding into the city to perform sacrifices to the gods, when Alphaeus loudly and publicly denounced their apostasy. Whereupon he was brought before the judges, ordered to sacrifice, but refused, making defiant statements of his Faith.

Alphaeus and Zaccheus were tortured together over a period of days, and repeatedly offered the opportunity to sacrifice to the gods and be freed, but they refused despite their sufferings. They were finally both decapitated on the same day.

A certain eagerness to achieve martyrdom may be observed in these accounts, notably when Eusebius says that the Romans pretended that a number of Christians had performed the sacrifices to the gods and dismissed them, even though they had not, and so only Alphaeus and Zaccheus were honored with the crown of the holy martyrs.

NOVEMBER 18TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. ROMANUS
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 303

In 303 or 304, at the beginning of the Diocletian persecution, a deacon called Romanus of Caesarea in Palestine suffered martyrdom at Antioch. Upon the proclamation of Diocletian's edict he strengthened the Christians of Antioch and openly exhorted the weaker brethren, who were willing to offer heathen sacrifices, not to waver in the Faith. He was taken prisoner, was condemned to death by fire, and was bound to the stake; however, as the Emperor Galerius was then in Antioch, Romanus was brought before him. At the emperor's command the tongue of the courageous confessor was cut out. Tortured in various ways in prison he was finally strangled.

NOVEMBER 19TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. BARLAAM
Martyred in the Fourth Century, around 304

St. Barlaam led an obscure country life, from his childhood, in a village near Antioch, doing manual labor, which he sanctified by a heroic spirit and practice of Christian piety, prepared him for the crown of martyrdom. Though he was a stranger to every other language but his mother-tongue, and to all learning, except that of the maxims of the Gospel, he was an overmatch for the pride and tyranny of the masters of the world.

His zealous confession of the name of Christ provoked the persecutors, who detained him a long time in the dungeons at Antioch before he was brought to his trial; during which rigorous confinement, in the simplicity of an upright heart, he continually entertained himself with God, so as to want no worldly company to relieve his mind, and God had embellished his soul with his choicest graces.

When he was called to the court for judgment, the judge laughed at his rustic language and manners; but, in spite of his prepossessions and rage, could not but admire exceedingly his greatness of soul, his virtue, and his meek constancy, which even gathered strength by his long imprisonment.

He was cruelly scourged; but no sigh, no word of complaint was extorted from him. He was then hoisted on the rack, and his bones in many parts dislocated. Amidst these torments, such was the joy which was painted in his countenance, that one would have judged he had been seated at some delicious banquet, or on a throne.

The prefect threatened him with death, and caused swords and axes fresh stained with the blood of martyrs to be displayed before him; but Barlaam beheld them without being daunted, and, without words, his meek and composed countenance spoke a language which confounded and disconcerted the persecutors.

He was therefore sent to prison, and the judge, who was ashamed to see himself vanquished by an illiterate peasant, studied to invent some new artifice or torment, resolving to revenge his gods, whom he thought injured by the saint’s constancy.

At length he flattered himself that he had found out a method by which the martyr should be compelled, in spite of all his resolution, to offer sacrifice. Barlaam was brought out of prison, and an altar with burning coals upon it being made ready for sacrifice, the martyr’s hand was forcibly held over the flames, and incense with live coals was laid upon it, that, if he shook the coals off his hand, he might be said to offer sacrifice by throwing the incense into the fire upon the altar.

The saint, fearing the scandal and very shadow of the crime, though by throwing off the fire to save his hand, he could not be reasonably esteemed to have meant to sacrifice, kept his hand steady whilst the coals burnt quite through it, and so, with the incense, dropped upon the altar. At such an instance of fortitude the taunts and scoffs of the heathens were converted into admiration. God, soon after this victory, called his soldier to himself, to crown him with glory. This happened during the course of the persecution first raised by Diocletian.

NOVEMBER 20TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. EDMUND
Martyred in the Ninth Century around 870

Though from the time of King Egbert, in 802, the kings of the West-Saxons were monarchs of all England, yet several kings reigned in certain parts after that time, in some measure subordinate to them. One Offa was king of the East-Angles, who, being desirous to end his days in penance and devotion at Rome, resigned his crown to St. Edmund, at that time only fifteen years of age, but a most virtuous prince, and descended from the old English-Saxon kings of this isle.

The saint was placed on the throne of his ancestors, as Lydgate, Abbo, and others express themselves, and was crowned by Hunbert, bishop of Elman, on Christmas-Day in 855, at Burum, a royal villa on the Stour, now called Bures or Buers. Though very young, he was by his piety, goodness, humility, and all other virtues, the model of good princes. He was a declared enemy of flatterers and informers, and would see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears, to avoid being surprised into a wrong judgment, or imposed upon by the passions or ill designs of others. T

he peace and happiness of his people were his whole concern, which he endeavored to establish by an impartial administration of justice and religious regulations in his dominions. He was the father of his subjects, particularly of the poor, the protector of widows and orphans, and the support of the weak. Religion and piety were the most distinguishing part of his character. Monks and devout persons used to know the psalter without book, that they might recite the psalms at work, in travelling, and on every other occasion. To learn it by heart St. Edmund lived in retirement a whole year in his royal tower at Hunstanton, (which he had built for a country solitude,) which place is now a village in Norfolk. The book which the saint used for that purpose was religiously kept at St. Edmundsbury till the dissolution of abbeys.

The holy king had reigned fifteen years when the Danes infested his dominions. The Danish Chronicle relates, that Regner Lodbrog, king of Denmark, was taken prisoner, and put to death in Ireland, which he had invaded. Harald Klag, who had fled from his tyranny to Lewis Debonnair in Germany, and received the Christian Faith, succeeded him, but relapsed into idolatry. After him Syward III, and Eric I, and II, reigned; the latter, towards the end of his life, was converted to the Faith by St. Anscharius.

In his time the sons of Regner Lodbrog, after having subdued Norway, laid England waste. Their names were Eric, Orebic, Godfrey, Hinguar, Hubba, Ulfo, and Biorno, who, with mighty armies which they collected in the northern kingdoms, all commenced adventurers and pirates. Hinguar and Hubba, two of these brothers, the most barbarous of all the Danish plunderers, landing in England, wintered among the East-Angles; then, having made a truce with that nation, they in summer sailed to the north, and, landing at the mouth of the Tweed, plundered with fire and sword Northumberland, and afterwards Mercia, directing their march through Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Cambridgeshire.

Out of a lust of rage and cruelty, and the most implacable aversion to the Christian name, they everywhere destroyed the churches and monasteries; and, as it were, in barbarous sport, massacred all priests and religious persons whom they met with. In the great monastery of Coldingham, beyond Berwick, the nuns fearing not death, but insults which might be offered to their chastity, at the instigation of St. Ebba, the holy abbess, cut off their noses and upper lips, that, appearing to the barbarians frightful spectacles of horrors, they might preserve their virtue from danger: the infidels accordingly were disconcerted at such a sight, and spared their virtue, but put them all to the sword.

In their march, amongst other monasteries, those of Bardney, Croyland, Peterborough, Ely, and Huntingdon were levelled with the ground, and the religious inhabitants murdered. In the cathedral of Peterborough is shown a monument (removed thither from a place without the building) called Monk’s-Stone, on which are the effigies of an abbot and several monks. It stood over the pit in which fourscore monks of this house were interred, whom Hinguar and Hubba massacred in 870.

The barbarians, reeking with blood, poured down upon St. Edmund’s dominions, burning Thetford, the first town they met with, and laying waste all before them. The people, relying upon the faith of treaties, thought themselves secure, and were unprepared. However, the good king raised what forces he could, met the infidels, or at least a part of their army, near Thetford, and discomfited them. But seeing them soon after reinforced with fresh numbers, against which his small body was not able to make any stand, and being unwilling to sacrifice the lives of his soldiers in vain, and grieving for the eternal loss of the souls of his enemies, who would be slain in a fruitless engagement, he disbanded his troops, and retired himself towards his castle of Framlingham in Suffolk.

The barbarian had sent him proposals which were inconsistent both with religion and with the justice which he owed to his people. These the saint rejected, being resolved rather to die a victim of his Faith and duty to God, than to do anything against his conscience and religion. In his flight he was overtaken and surrounded by infidels at Oxon, upon the Waveney: he concealed himself for some short time, but, being discovered, was bound with heavy chains, and conducted to the general’s tent.

Terms were again offered him equally prejudicial to religion and to his people, which the holy king refused to confirm, declaring that religion was dearer to him than his life, which he would never purchase by offending God. Hinguar, exasperated at this answer, in his barbarous rage caused him to be cruelly beaten with cudgels; then to be tied to a tree, and torn a long time together with whips. All this he bore with invincible meekness and patience, never ceasing to call upon the name of Jesus.

The infidels were the more exasperated, and as he stood bound to the tree, they made him a mark wantonly to shoot at, till his body was covered with arrows, like a porcupine. Hinguar at length, in order to put an end to the butchery, commanded his head to be struck off. Thus the saint finished his martyrdom on the 20th of November, in 870, the fifteenth of his reign, and twenty-ninth of his age; the circumstances of which St. Dunstan learned from one who was armour-bearer to the saint, and an eye-witness. The place was then called Henglesdun, now Hoxon, or Hoxne; a priory of monks was afterwards built there, which bore the name of the martyr.

The saint’s head was carried by the infidels into a wood, and thrown into a brake of bushes; but miraculously found by a pillar of light, and deposited with the body at Hoxon. These sacred remains were very soon after conveyed to Bedricsworth, or Kingston, since called St. Edmundsbury, because this place was St. Edmund’s own town and private patrimony; not on account of his burial, for Bury in the English-Saxon language signified a court or palace.

A church of timber was erected over the place where he was interred; which was thus built, according to the fashion of those times. Trunks of large trees were sawn lengthways in the middle, and reared up with one end fixed in the ground, with the bark or rough side outermost. These trunks being made of an equal height, and set up close to one another and the interstices filled up with mud or mortar, formed the four walls, upon which was raised a thatched roof. Nor can we be surprised at the homeliness of this structure, since the same was the fabric of the royal rich abbey of Glastenbury, the work of the most munificent and powerful West-Saxon kings, till in latter ages it was built in a stately manner of stone.

The precious remains of St. Edmund were honored with many miracles. In 920, for fear of the barbarians under Turkil the Dane, in the reign of king Ethelred, they were conveyed to London by Alfun, bishop of that city, and the monk Eglewin, or Ailwin, the keeper of this sacred treasure, who never abandoned it.

After remaining three years in the church of St. Gregory in London, it was translated again with honour to St. Edmundsbury, in 923. The great church of timber-work stood till King Knute, or Canutus, to make reparation for the injuries his father Swein or Sweno, had done to this place, and to the relics of the martyr, built and founded there, in 1020, a new most magnificent church and abbey in honor of this holy martyr.

The unparalleled piety, humility, meekness, and other virtues of St. Edmund are admirably set forth by our historians. This incomparable prince and holy martyr was considered by succeeding English kings as their special patron, and as an accomplished model of all royal virtues. Henry VI. who, with a weak understanding in secular matters, joined an uncommon goodness of heart, made the practice of religion the study of his whole life, and shared largely in afflictions, the portion of the elect, had a singular devotion to this saint, and enjoyed nowhere so much comfort, peace, and joy as in the retreats which he made in the monastery of St. Edmundsbury.

The feast of St. Edmund is reckoned among the holidays of precept in this kingdom by the national council of Oxford, in 1222; but is omitted in the constitutions of Archbishop Simon Islep, who retrenched certain holidays in 1362.

No Christian can be surprised that innocence should suffer. Prosperity is often the most grievous judgment that God exercises upon a wicked man, who by it is suffered, in punishment of his impiety, to blind and harden himself in his evil courses, and to plunge himself deeper in iniquity. On the other hand, God, in his merciful providence, conducts second causes, so that afflictions fall to the share of those souls whose sanctification he has particularly in view.

By tribulation a man learns perfectly to die to the world and himself, a work which without its aid, even the severest self-denial, and the most perfect obedience, leave imperfect. By tribulation we learn the perfect exercise of humility, patience, meekness, resignation, and pure love of God; which are neither practiced nor learned without such occasions. By a good use of tribulation a person becomes a saint in a very short time, and at a cheap rate. The opportunity and grace of suffering well is a mercy in favor of chosen souls; and a mercy to which every saint from Abel to the last of the elect is indebted for his crown.

We meet with sufferings from ourselves, from disappointments, from friends and from enemies. We are on every side beset with crosses. But we bear them with impatience and complaints. Thus we cherish our passions, and multiply sins by the very means which are given us to crucify and overcome them. To learn to bear crosses well is one of the most essential and most important duties of a Christian life. To make a good use of the little crosses which we continually meet with, is the means of making the greatest progress in all virtue, and of obtaining strength to stand our ground under great trials. St. Edmund’s whole life was a preparation for martyrdom.

NOVEMBER 21ST
The Martyr of the Day
ST. ALBERT OF LIEGE
Martyred in the Twelfth Century around 1192

Albert de Louvain (1166—1192) was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and the Prince-Bishop of Liège. He was canonized as a saint on August 9th, 1613. Albert de Louvain was born in 1166 as the second of two sons to Duke Godfrey III, Count of Leuven, and his first wife Margareta van Limburg. He was the brother of Henry I, Duke of Brabant.

Albert was educated at the cathedral school of Saint-Lambert in Liège. In 1187, when news of the fall of Jerusalem reached Liege, Albert resigned his offices, took the cross, and had himself knighted. The following year Cardinal Henry of Albano, restored his ecclesiastical status.

In 1188, he became the Archdeacon of Liège and later received the subdiaconate in 1191. That same year he was elected Bishop of Liège and despite the fact that he had not reached the canonical age of 30, his appointment was widely approved. Gilbert of Mons, chancellor of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut, who attended the election, along with other princes and nobles, described the proceedings as a power struggle between Albert's brother Henry and Baldwin.[

Albert's appointment was opposed by Baldwin, who had a second group of canons elect his own relative, Albert de Rethel. Albert de Rethel was the uncle of the Emperor's wife Constance. As the election appeared to be in dispute, the Emperor supported Lothar of Hochstaden, provost of the church of St Cassius in Bonn and brother of Count Dietrich of Hochstaden.

Albert took the matter to Rome and appealed to Pope Celestine III. In May, 1192, Pope Celestine III made Albert a cardinal, and ordained him in Rome as a deacon on May 30th, 1192. He was then ordained to the priesthood on September 19th, 1192, by Cardinal Guillaume de Champagne. He received episcopal consecration the next day and celebrated his first Mass on September 21st, in the Reims Cathedral.

Albert met three German knights in 1192, who persuaded him to ride on horseback with them outside of Reims. Outside of the city they attacked Albert with their swords and struck him on the head, which crushed his skull and caused him to fall, where they made sure they killed him prior to making an escape.

The immediate reaction to the murder was an uprising of the princes of Lower Lorraine led by the dukes of Brabant and Limburg, brother and uncle respectively of the slain bishop. They formed a group that eventually came to include the archbishops of Cologne and Mainz and other princes, and laid waste the territory of Dietrich of Hochstaden. Faced with the hostility of the people of Leige, Bishop-elect Lothar fled to the imperial court. He was excommunicated by Pope Celestine. The assassins, including one Otto of Barenste, fled to the imperial court, where Henry seems to have taken no particular action against them. Historians are divided as to the part the Emperor may or may not have played in planning the murder of the Bishop Albert.

The reputation of the holiness of Albert de Louvain soon spread after his death and was hailed as a martyr, thus, leading to the opening of his cause for canonization. Pope Paul V canonized him on August 9th, 1613 and instituted his feast day as the date of his death. His body reposed at Rheims until 1921, when they were moved to Brussels.

NOVEMBER 22ND
The Martyr of the Day
ST. CECILIA
Martyred in the Third Century around 230

The name of St. Cecilia has always been most illustrious in the church, and ever since the primitive ages is mentioned with distinction in the Canon of the Mass, and in the sacramentaries and calendars of the Church. Her spouse Valerian, Tiburtius, and Maximus, an officer, who were her companions in martyrdom, are also mentioned in the same authentic and venerable writings.

St. Cecilia was a native of Rome, and of good family, and educated in the principles and perfect practice of the Christian religion. In her youth she, by vow, consecrated her virginity to God, yet was compelled by her parents to marry a nobleman named Valerian. She converted him to the Faith, and, soon after, won to Faith his brother, Tiburtius. The men first suffered martyrdom, being beheaded for the Faith. St. Cecilia finished her glorious triumph some days after them.

Their acts, which are of very small authority, make them contemporary with Pope Urban I, and, consequently, place their martyrdom about the year 230, under Alexander Severus—for, though that emperor was very favorable to the Christians, sometimes in popular commotions, or by the tyranny of prefects, several martyrs suffered in his reign.

Ulpian, the prefect of the prætorian guards and prime minister, was a declared enemy and persecutor; but was at length murdered by the prætorian troops which were under his command. Others, however, place the triumph of these martyrs under Marcus Aurelius, between the years 176 and 180.

Their sacred bodies were deposited in part of the cemetery of Calixtus, which part from our saint was called St. Cecilia’s cemetery. Mention is made of an ancient church of St. Cecilia in Rome in the fifth century, in which Pope Symmachus held a council in the year 500. This church being fallen to decay, Pope Paschal I began to rebuild it; but was in some pain how he should find the body of the saint, for it was thought that the Lombards had taken it away, as they had many others from the cemeteries of Rome, when they besieged that city under King Astulphus, in 755.

One Sunday, as this pope was assisting at matins, as he was wont, at St. Peter’s, he fell into a slumber, in which he was told, by St. Cecilia herself, that the Lombards had in vain sought for her body, and that he should find it; and he accordingly discovered it in the cemetery called by her name, clothed in a robe of gold tissue, with linen cloths at her feet, dipped in her blood. With her body was found that of Valerian, her husband. The pope caused them to be translated to her church in the city; as also the bodies of St. Tiburtius and St. Maximus, martyrs, and of the popes Urban and Lucius, which lay in the adjoining cemetery of Prætextatus, on the same Appian road. This translation was made in 821. Pope Paschal founded a monastery in honor of these saints, near the church of St. Cecilia, that the monks might perform the office day and night.

St. Cecilia, from her assiduity in singing the divine praises, (in which, according to her Acts, she often joined instrumental music with vocal,) is regarded as patroness of church music. The psalms and many sacred canticles in several other parts of the holy scripture, and the universal practice both of the ancient Jewish and of the Christian church, recommend the religious custom of sometimes employing a decent and grave music in sounding forth the divine praises. By this homage of praise we join the heavenly spirits in their uninterrupted songs of adoration, love, and praise. And by such music we express the spiritual joy of our hearts in this heavenly function, and excite ourselves therein to holy jubilation and devotion. Divine love and praise are the work of the heart, without which all words or exterior signs are hypocrisy and mockery.

Yet as we are bound to consecrate to God our voices, and all our organs and faculties, and all creatures which we use; so we ought to employ them all in magnifying his sanctity, greatness, and glory, and sometimes to accompany our interior affections of devotion with the most expressive exterior signs. St. Chrysostom elegantly extols the good effects of sacred music, and shows how strongly the fire of divine love is kindled in the soul by devout psalmody.

St. Augustine teaches that “it is useful in moving piously the mind, and kindling the affections of divine love.” And he mentions that when he was but lately converted to God, by the sacred singing at church, he was moved to shed abundance of sweet tears. But he much bewails the danger of being too much carried away by the delight of the harmony, and confesses that he had some time been more pleased with the music than affected with what was sung, and for which he severely condemns himself.

St. Charles Borromeo in his youth allowed himself no other amusement but that of grave music, with a view to that of the church. As to music as an amusement, too much time must never be given to it, and extreme care ought to be taken, as a judicious and experienced teacher observes, that children be not set to learn it very young, because it is a thing which bewitches the senses, dissipates the mind exceedingly, and alienates it from serious studies, as daily experience shows. Soft and effeminate music is to be always shunned with abhorrence, as the corrupter of the heart, and the poison of virtue.

NOVEMBER 23RD
The Martyr of the Day
POPE ST. CLEMENT
Martyred in the First Century around 100

St. Clement, the son of Faustinus, a Roman by birth, was of Jewish extraction; for he tells us himself, that he was of the race of Jacob. He was converted to the Faith by St. Peter or St. Paul, and was so constant in his attendance on these apostles, and so active in assisting them in their ministry, that St. Jerome and other fathers call him an apostolic man; St. Clement of Alexandria styles him an apostle; and Rufinus, almost an apostle.

Some authors attribute his conversion to St. Peter, whom he met at Cæsarea with St. Barnabas; but he attended St. Paul at Philippi in 62, and shared in his sufferings there. We are assured by St. Chrysostom, that he was a companion of this latter, with St. Luke and St. Timothy, in many of his apostolic journeys, labors, and dangers. St. Paul (Philippians 4:3) calls him his fellow-laborer, and ranks him among those whose names are written in the book of life: a privilege and matter of joy far beyond the power of commanding devils (Luke 10:17).

St. Clement followed St. Paul to Rome, where he also heard St. Peter preach, and was instructed in his school, as St. Irenæus, and Pope Zozimus testify. Tertullian tells us, that St. Peter ordained him bishop, by which some understand that he made him a bishop of nations, to preach the gospel in many countries; others, with Epiphanius, that he made him his vicar at Rome, with an episcopal character to govern that church during his absence in his frequent missions. Others suppose he might at first be made bishop of the Jewish church in that city.

After the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Linus was appointed bishop of Rome, and after eleven years was succeeded by St. Cletus. Upon his demise, in 89, or rather in 91, St. Clement was placed in the apostolic chair. According to the Liberian Calendar he sat nine years, eleven months, and twenty days.

At Corinth an impious and detestable division, as our saint called it, happened amongst the faithful, like that which St. Paul had appeased in the same church; and a party rebelled against holy and irreproachable priests, and presumed to depose them. It seems to have been soon after the death of Domitian in 96, that St. Clement, in the name of the Church of Rome, wrote to them his excellent epistle, a piece highly extolled and esteemed in the primitive church as an admirable work, as Eusebius calls it. It was placed in rank next to the canonical books of the Holy Scriptures, and with them read in the churches.

St. Clement begins his letter by conciliating the benevolence of those who were at variance, tenderly putting them in mind, how edifying their behavior was when they were all humble-minded, not boasting of anything, desiring rather to be subject than to govern, to give than to receive, content with the portion God had dispensed to them, listening diligently to his word, having an insatiable desire of doing good, and a plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost upon all of them. At that time they were sincere, without offence, not mindful of injuries, and all sedition and schism was an abomination to them.

The saint laments that they had then forsaken the fear of the Lord, and were fallen into pride, envy, strife, and sedition, and pathetically exhorts them to lay aside all pride and anger, for Christ is theirs who are humble, and not theirs who exalt themselves. The scepter of the majesty of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came not in the show of pride, though he could have done so; but with humility. He bids them look up to the Creator of the world, and think how gentle and patient he is towards his whole creation; also with what peace it all obeys his will, and the heavens, earth, impassable ocean, and worlds beyond it, are governed by the commands of this great master.

Considering how near God is to us and that none of our thoughts are hid from him, how ought we never to do anything contrary to his will, and honor them who are set over us, showing with a sincere affection of meekness, and manifesting the government of our tongues by a love of silence. “Let your children,” says the saint, “be bred up in the instruction of the Lord, and learn how great a power humility has with God, how much a pure and holy charity avails with him, and how excellent and great his fear is.”

It appears by what follows, that some at Corinth boggled at the belief of a resurrection of the flesh, which the saint beautifully shows to be easy to the almighty power, and illustrates by the vine which sheds its leaves, then buds, spreads its leaves, flowers and afterwards produces first sour grapes, then ripe fruit; by the morning rising from night, and corn brought forth from seed.

The resurrection of the fabulous Phoenix in Arabia, which he adds, was at that time very strongly affirmed and believed by judicious Roman critics, and might be made use of for illustration; and whether the author of this epistle believed it or no, is a point of small importance, whatever some may have said upon that subject.

The saint adds a strong exhortation to shake off all sluggishness and laziness, for it is only the good workman who receives the bread of his labor. “We must hasten,” says he, “with all earnestness and readiness of mind, to perfect every good work, laboring with cheerfulness; for even the Creator and Lord of all things rejoices in his own works.”

The latter part of this epistle is a pathetic recommendation of humility, peace, and charity. “Let everyone,” says the saint, “be subject to another, according to the order in which he is placed by the gift of God. Let not the strong man neglect the care of the weak; let the weak see that he reverence the strong. Let the rich man distribute to the necessity of the poor, and let the poor bless God who giveth him one to supply his want. Let the wise man show forth his wisdom, not in words, but in good works. Let him that is humble, never speak of himself, or make show of his actions.—Let him that is pure in the flesh, not grow proud of it, knowing that it was another who gave him the gift of continence. They who are great cannot yet subsist without those that are little; nor the little without the great.—In our body, the head without the feet is nothing; neither the feet without the head. And the smallest members of our body are yet both necessary and useful to the whole.”

Thus the saint teaches that the lowest in the church may be the greatest before God, if they are most faithful in the discharge of their respective duties; which maxim Epictetus, the heathen philosopher, illustrates by a simile taken from a play, in which we inquire not so much who acts the part of the king, and who that of the beggar, as who acts best the character which he sustains, and to him we give our applause.

St. Clement puts pastors and superiors in mind, that, with trembling and humility, they should have nothing but the fear of God in view, and take no pleasure in their own power and authority. “Let us,” says he, “pray for all such as fall into any trouble or distress; that being endued with humility and moderation, they may submit, not to us but to the will of God.” Fortunatus, who is mentioned by St. Paul, was come from the church of Corinth to Rome, to inform that holy see of their unhappy schism. St. Clement says, he had dispatched four messengers to Corinth with him, and adds: “Send them back to us again with all speed in peace and joy, that they may the sooner acquaint us with your peace and concord, so much prayed for and desired by us: and that we may rejoice in your good order.”

We have a large fragment of a second epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians, found in the same Alexandrian manuscript of the Bible: from which circumstance it appears to have been also read like the former in many churches, which St. Dionysius of Corinth expressly testifies of that church, though it was not so celebrated among the ancients as the other.

In it our saint exhorts the faithful to despise this world and its false enjoyments, and to have those which are promised us always before our eyes; to pursue virtue with all our strength, and its peace will follow us with the inexpressible delights of the promise of what is to come. The necessity of perfectly subduing both the irascible and concupiscible passions of our soul, he lays down as the foundation of a Christian life, in words which St. Clement of Alexandria enforces and illustrates.

Besides these letters of St. Clement to the Corinthians, two others have been lately discovered, which are addressed to spiritual eunuchs, or virgins. Of these St. Jerome speaks, when he says of certain epistles of St. Clement: “In the epistles which Clement, the successor of the Apostle Peter, wrote to them, that is, to such eunuchs, almost his whole discourse turns upon the excellence of virginity.” These letters are not unworthy this great disciple of St. Peter; and in them the counsels of St. Paul concerning celibacy and virginity are explained; that state is pathetically recommended, without prejudice to the honor due to the holy state of marriage; and the necessity of shunning all familiarity with persons of a different sex, and the like occasions of incontinence are set in a true light.

St. Clement with patience and prudence got through the persecution of Domitian. Nerva’s peaceable reign being very short, the tempest increased under Trajan, who, even from the beginning of his reign, never allowed the Christian assemblies. It was in the year 100, that the third general persecution was raised by him, which was the more afflicting, as this reign was in other respects generally famed for justice and moderation. Rufin, Pope Zosimus, and the council of Bazas in 452, expressly style St. Clement a martyr. In the ancient Canon of the Roman Mass, he is ranked among the martyrs.

There stood in Rome, in the eighth century, a famous church of St. Clement, in which the cause of Celestius the Pelagian was discussed. This was one of the titles, or parishes of the city: for Renatus, legate from St. Leo to the false council of Ephesus, was priest of the title of St. Clement’s. At that time only martyrs gave titles to churches.

Eusebius tells us, that St. Clement departed this life in the third year of Trajan, of Christ 100. From this expression some will have it that he died a natural death. But St. Clement says of St. Paul, who certainly died a martyr, that “he departed out of the world.” It is also objected, that St. Irenæus gives the title of martyr only to St. Telesphorus among the popes before St. Eleutherius. But it is certain that some others were martyrs, whatever was the cause of his omission.

St. Irenæus mentions the epistle of St. Clement, yet omits those of St. Ignatius, though in some places he quotes him. Shall we hence argue, that St. Ignatius wrote none? When the Emperor Louis the Debonnair founded the great abbey of Cava in Abruzzo, four miles from Salerno, in 872, he enriched it with the relics of St. Clement, pope and martyr, which Pope Adrian sent him, as is related at length in the chronicle of that abbey, with a history of many miracles. These relics remain there to this day. The ancient church of St. Clement in Rome, in which St. Gregory the Great preached several of his homilies, still retains part of his relics. It was repaired by Clement XI. but still shows entire the old structure of Christian churches, divided into three parts, the narthex, the ambo, and the sanctuary.

St. Clement insists that the spirit of Christianity is a spirit of perfect disengagement from the things of this world. “We must,” says he, “look upon all the things of this world, as none of ours, and not desire them. This world and that to come are two enemies. We cannot therefore be friends to both; but we must resolve which we would forsake, and which we would enjoy. And we think, that it is better to hate the present things, as little, short-lived, and corruptible; and to love those which are to come, which are truly good and incorruptible. Let us contend with all earnestness, knowing that we are now called to the combat. Let us run in the straight road, the race that is incorruptible. This is what Christ said: keep your bodies pure, and your souls without spot, that ye may receive eternal life.”

NOVEMBER 24TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. FLORA & ST. MARY
Martyred in the Ninth Century around 851

In the reign of Abderramene II, king of the Saracens, at Cordova in Spain, St. Flora, because she was of Mahometan extraction by her father, but had been secretly instructed in the Faith by her mother, was impeached by her own brother before the cadi, or judge of the city. This magistrate caused her to be scourged, and beaten on the head until parts her skull were bare. Then he put her into the hands of her brother, that he might overcome her resolution.

After some time she made her escape over a high wall, and took shelter with a sister at Ossaria. Having lain concealed some time, she ventured back to Cordova, and prayed publicly in the church of St. Aciclus, the martyr. There she met with Mary, sister to the deacon St. Valabonsus, who had lately received the crown of martyrdom.

The zealous virgins agreed to present themselves in the court of the cadi (judge), by whose order they were arrested and confined to a closed dungeon, where no one had access to them, except certain impious lewd women. St. Eulogius, who was at that time detained in another prison, wrote and sent to them his Exhortation to Martyrdom. After a third examination, the judge commanded them both to be beheaded. The sentence was executed on the same day, the 24th of November, in 851. They are named in the Roman Martyrology.

NOVEMBER 25TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA
Martyred in the Fourth Century around 305

St. Catherine, whom the Greeks call Æcatherina, glorified God by an illustrious confession of the Faith of Christ, at Alexandria, under Maximinus II. The Emperor Basil, in his Greek Menology, relates that this saint, who was of the royal blood, and an excellent scholar, confuted a company of the ablest heathen philosophers, whom Maximinus had commanded to enter into a disputation with her, and that being converted by her to the Faith, they were all burnt in one fire, for confessing the same.

According to the traditional narrative, Catherine was the daughter of Constus, the governor of Alexandrian Egypt during the reign of the emperor Maximian (286-305). From a young age she had devoted herself to study. A vision of the Madonna and Child persuaded her to become a Christian. When the persecutions began under Maxentius, she went to the emperor and rebuked him for his cruelty. The emperor summoned fifty of the best pagan philosophers and orators to dispute with her, hoping that they would refute her pro-Christian arguments, but Catherine won the debate. Several of her adversaries, conquered by her eloquence, declared themselves Christians and were at once put to death.

Catherine was then scourged and imprisoned, during which time over 200 people came to see her, including Maxentius' wife, Valeria Maximilla; all converted to Christianity and were subsequently martyred. Upon the failure of Maxentius to make Catherine yield by way of torture, he tried to win the beautiful and wise princess over by proposing marriage. The saint refused, declaring that her spouse was Jesus Christ, to whom she had consecrated her virginity. The furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel. She is said first to have been put upon an engine made of four wheels joined together, and stuck with sharp pointed spikes, that, when the wheels were moved, her body might be torn to pieces. The Acts of St. Catherine add, that at the first stirring of the terrible engine, the cords, with which the martyr was tied, were broken asunder by the invisible power of an angel, and, the engine at her touch, ended up falling to pieces, by the wheels being separated from one another. Hence the name of “St. Catherine’s Wheel.” Maxentius finally had her beheaded.

The learned Joseph Assemani thinks that all the account we have of the particulars relating to this saint upon which we can depend, is what we meet with in Eusebius, though that historian mentions not her name. His relation is as follows:

“There was a certain woman, a Christian, and the richest and most noble of all the ladies of Alexandria, who, when the rest suffered themselves to be deflowered by the tyrant (Maximin), resisted and vanquished his unbounded and worse than beastly lust. This lady was most illustrious for her high birth and great wealth, and likewise for her singular learning; but she preferred her virtue and her chastity to all worldly advantages. The tyrant, having in vain made several assaults upon her virtue, would not behead her, seeing her ready to die, but stripped her of all her estates and goods, and sent her into banishment.”

Maximin, not long after, declared war against Licinius, and, after several engagements, was at length defeated by him in 313. Having lost his empire after a reign of five years, he fled to Tarsus, and there died in extreme misery. The body of St. Catherine was discovered by the Christians in Egypt, about the eighth century, when they groaned under the yoke of the Saracens. It was soon after translated to the great monastery on the top of Mount Sinai, in Arabia, built by St. Helen, and sumptuously enlarged and beautified by the Emperor Justinian, as several old inscriptions and pictures on Mosaic work in that place testify.

Falconius, archbishop of San-Severino, speaks of this translation as follows: “As to what is said, that the body of this saint was conveyed by angels to Mount Sinai, the meaning is, that it was carried by the monks of Sinai to their monastery, that they might devoutly enrich their dwelling with such a treasure. It is well known that the name of an angelical habit was often used for a monastic habit, and that monks, on account of their heavenly purity and functions, were anciently called Angels.”

From that time we find more frequent mention made of the festival and relics of St. Catherine. St. Paul of Latra kept her feast with extraordinary solemnity and devotion. In the eleventh age, Simeon, a monk of Sinai, coming to Rouen to receive an annual alms of Richard, Duke of Normandy, brought with him some of her relics, which he left there. The principal part of the mortal remains of this saint is still kept in a marble chest in the church of this monastery on Mount Sinai.

From this martyr’s uncommon erudition, and the extraordinary spirit of piety by which she sanctified her learning, and the use she made of it, she is chosen in the schools the patroness and model of Christian philosophers. Learning is, next to virtue, the most noble ornament, and the highest improvement of the human mind, by which all its natural faculties obtain an eminent degree of perfection.

The memory is exceedingly improved by exercise: those who complain that in them this faculty is like a sieve, may, especially in youth, render it by use retentive of whatever is necessary, and particularly adapted to be a storehouse of names, facts, or entire discourses, according to every one’s exigency or purposes. But nothing ought to be learned by heart by children but what is excellent or absolutely necessary. To load a mind with other men’s lumber, and to make it a magazine of errors, trumpery, or toys, is to pervert all the purposes of this faculty, and a certain proof of the sloth, ignorance, and stupidity of a master. As the understanding is the light of the soul, so is it plain how exceedingly this is enlarged both by exercise and by the acquisition of solid science and useful knowledge.

Judgment, the most valuable of all the properties of the mind, and by which the other faculties are poised, governed, and directed, is formed and perfected by experience and regular well-digested studies and reflection; and by them it attains to true justness and taste. The mind, by the same means, acquires a steadiness, and conquers the aversion which sloth raises against the serious employment of its talents. It is doubtless the will of the Creator that all his works be raised to that degree of perfection of which they are capable, and, where our industry is required to this, it becomes a duty incumbent upon us.

This is in nothing so essential and important as in our own mind, the dignity of our being, and the masterpiece of the visible world. How much its perfection depends upon culture appears in the difference of understanding between the savages (who, except in treachery, cunning, and shape, scarcely seem to differ from the apes which inhabit their forests) and the most elegant civilized nations. A piece of ground left wild produces nothing but weeds and briers, which by culture would be covered with corn, flowers, and fruit.

The difference is not less between a rough mind and one that is well cultivated. The same culture, indeed, suits not all persons. Geniuses must be explored, and the manner of instructing proportioned to them. Conditions and circumstances must be considered. Generally the more sublime theological studies suit not those who are excluded from teaching, though women, upon whom the domestic instruction of children in their infancy mainly depends, ought to be well instructed in the motives of religion, articles of Faith, and all the practical duties and maxims of piety. Then history, geography, and some tincture of works of genius and spirit, may be joined with suitable arts and other accomplishments of their sex and condition, provided they be guided by, and referred to religion, and provided books of piety and exercises of devotion always have the first place both in their hearts and in their time.

NOVEMBER 26TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. PETER OF ALEXANDRIA
Martyred in the Fourth Century around 311

Eusebius calls this great prelate the excellent doctor of the Christian religion, and the chief and divine ornament of bishops; and tells us that he was admirable both for his extraordinary virtue, and for his skill in the sciences, and profound knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.

In the year 300 he succeeded Theonas in the see of Alexandria, being the sixteenth archbishop from St. Mark; he governed that church with the highest commendation, says the same historian, during the space of twelve years, for the nine last of which he sustained the fury of the most violent persecutions carried on by Diocletian and his successors.

Virtue is tried and made perfect by sufferings; and Eusebius observes that the fervor of our saint’s piety and the rigour of his penance increased with the calamities of the church. That violent storm which affrighted and disheartened several bishops and inferior ministers of the church, did but awake his attention, inflame his charity, and inspire him with fresh vigour. He never ceased begging of God for himself and his flock necessary grace and courage, and exhorting them to die daily to their passions, that they might be prepared to die for Christ. The confessors he comforted and encouraged by word and example, and was the father of many martyrs who sealed their Faith with their blood. His watchfulness and care were extended to all the churches of Egypt, Thebais or Upper Egypt, and Lybia, which were under his immediate inspection.

Notwithstanding the activity of St. Peter’s charity and zeal, several in whom the love of this world prevailed, basely betrayed their Faith, to escape torments and death. Some, who had entered the combat with excellent resolutions, and had endured severe torments, had been weak enough to yield at last. Others bore the loss of their liberty and the hardships of imprisonment, who yet shrank at the sight of torments, and deserted their colors when they were called to battle. A third sort prevented the inquiries of the persecutors, and ran over to the enemy before they had suffered any thing for the Faith. Some seeking false cloaks to palliate their apostasy, sent heathens to sacrifice in their name, or accepted of attestations from the magistrates, setting forth that they had complied with the imperial edict, though in reality they had not. These different degrees of apostasy were distinctly considered by the holy bishop, who prescribed a suitable term of public penance for each in his canonical epistle.

Among those who fell during this storm, none was more considerable than Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis in Thebais. That bishop was charged with several crimes; but apostacy was the main article alleged against him. St. Peter called a council, in which Meletius was convicted of having sacrificed to idols, and of other crimes, and sentence of deposition was passed against him. The apostate had not humility enough to submit, or to seek the remedy of his deep wounds by condign repentance, but put himself at the head of a discontented party which appeared ready to follow him to any lengths. To justify his disobedience, and to impose upon men by pretending a holy zeal for discipline, he published many calumnies against St. Peter and his council; and had the assurance to tell the world that he had left the archbishop’s communion, because he was too indulgent to the lapsed in receiving them too soon and too easily to communion.

Thus he formed a pernicious schism which took its name from him, and subsisted a hundred and fifty years. The author laid several snares for St. Peter’s life, and though, by an overruling providence, these were rendered ineffectual, he succeeded in disturbing the whole church of Egypt with his factions and violent proceedings: for he infringed the saint’s patriarchal authority, ordained bishops within his jurisdiction, and even placed one in his metropolitical see. Sozomen tells us, these usurpations were carried on with less opposition during a certain time when St. Peter was obliged to retire, to avoid the fury of the persecution.

Arius, who was then among the clergy of Alexandria, gave signs of his pride and turbulent spirit by espousing Meletius’s cause as soon as the breach was open, but soon after quitted that party, and was ordained deacon by St. Peter. It was not long before he relapsed again to the Meletians, and blamed St. Peter for excommunicating the schismatics, and forbidding them to baptize.

The holy bishop, by his knowledge of mankind, was by this time convinced that pride, the source of uneasiness and inconstancy, had taken deep root in the heart of this unhappy man; and that so long as this evil was not radically cured, the wound of his soul was only skinned over by a pretended conversion, and would break out again with greater violence than ever. He, therefore, excommunicated him, and could never be prevailed with to revoke that sentence.

St. Peter wrote a book on the Divinity, out of which some quotations are preserved in the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. 3 Also a paschal treatise of which some fragments are extant. From St. Epiphanius it appears that St. Peter was in prison for the Faith in the reign of Dioclesian, or rather of Galerius Maximian; but after some time recovered his liberty. Maximin Daia, Cæsar in the East, renewed the persecution in 311, which had been considerably abated by a letter written the same year by the emperor Galerius in favour of the Christians. Eusebius informs us, that Maximin coming himself to Alexandria, St. Peter was immediately seized, when no one expected such a storm, and, without any form of trial, by the sole order of the tyrant, hurried to execution. With him were beheaded three of his priests, Faustus, Dio, and Ammonius. This Faustus seems, by what Eusebius writes, to be the same person of that name who, sixty years before, was deacon to St. Dionysius, and the companion of his exile.

NOVEMBER 27TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. JAMES THE DISMEMBERED
Martyred in the Fifth Century around 421

St. James was a native of Beth-Lapeta, a royal city in Persia; a nobleman of the first rank, and of the highest reputation in that kingdom for his birth and great qualifications, both natural and acquired, and for the extraordinary honors and marks of favor which the king conferred upon him, and which were his most dangerous temptation. For when his prince declared war against the Christian religion, this courtier had not the courage to renounce his royal master and benefactor’s friendship; and, rather than forfeit his favor, abandoned the worship of the true God, which he before professed. His mother and his wife were extremely afflicted at his fall, which they ceased not every day bitterly to deplore before God, and earnestly to recommend his unhappy soul to the divine mercy.

Upon the death of King Isdegerdes they wrote to him the following letter: “We were informed long ago that, for the sake of the king’s favor, and for worldly riches, you have forsaken the love of the immortal God. Think where that king now lies, on whose favor you set so high a value. Unhappy man! behold he is fallen to dust, which is the fate of all mortals; nor can you any longer hope to receive the least help from him, much less to be protected by him from eternal torments. And know that if you persevere in your crimes, you yourself, by the divine justice, will fall under that punishment, together with the king your friend. As for our parts, we will have no more contact with you.”

James was strongly affected by reading this letter, and began to reflect with himself what just reproaches his apostasy would deserve at the last day from the mouth of the great Judge. He appeared no more at court, shunned the company of those who would have endeavored to seduce him, and renounced honors, pomp, and pleasures, the fatal lure which had occasioned his ruin.

We see every day pretended penitents forget the danger they have just been rescued from; lay their hands again upon the hole of the aspic which stung them before, and unadvisedly put their foot into the snare out of which they had just escaped. The very beasts, which have been once taken in the trap, if they have broken it and recovered their liberty, by bare instinct never venture themselves again in that place. Infinitely more will every man who governs himself by reason or religion, or who sincerely abhors sin above all evils, fly all the approaches of his mortal enemy.

This was the disposition of our true penitent: nor did he scruple, in the bitterness of his grief for his crime, openly to condemn himself. His words were soon carried to the new king, who immediately sent for him. The saint boldly confessed himself a Christian. Veraranes, with indignation and fury, reproached him with ingratitude, enumerating the many high favors and honors he had received from his royal father.

St. James calmly said: “Where is he at present? What is now become of him?” These words exceedingly exasperated the tyrant, who threatened that his punishment should not be a speedy death, but lingering torments. Saint James said: “Any kind of death is no more than a sleep. May my soul die the death of the just.”
“Death,” said the tyrant, “is not a sleep; it is a terror to lords and kings.”
The martyr answered: “It indeed terrifies kings, and all others who contemn God; because the hope of the wicked shall perish.”
The king took him up at these words, and sharply said: “Do you then call us wicked men, O idle race, who neither worship God, nor the sun, moon, fire, or water, the illustrious offspring of the gods?”
“I accuse you not,” replied St. James, “but I say that you give the incommunicable name of God to creatures.”

The king, whose wrath was more and more kindled, called together his ministers and the judges of his empire, in order to deliberate what new cruel death could be invented for the chastisement of so notorious an offender. After a long consultation the council came to a resolution, that, unless the pretended criminal renounced Christ, he should be hung on the rack, and his limbs cut off one after another, joint by joint.

The sentence was no sooner made public but the whole city flocked to see this uncommon execution, and the Christians, falling prostrate on the ground, poured forth their prayers to God for the martyr’s perseverance, who had been carried out from the court without delay to the place of execution. When he was arrived there, he begged a moment’s respite, and turning his face towards the east, fell on his knees, and, lifting up his eyes to heaven, prayed with great fervor. After waiting some time, the executioners approached the intrepid servant of Christ, and displayed their sharp gleaming scimitars (swords) and other frightful weapons and instruments before his eyes; then they took hold of his hand, and violently stretched out his arm: and in that posture explained to him the cruel death he was just going to suffer, and pressed him to avert so terrible a punishment by obeying the king.

His birth, and the high rank which he had held in the empire, the flower of his age, and the comeliness and majesty of his person, moved the whole multitude of spectators to tears at the sight. The heathens conjured him with the most passionate and moving expressions and gestures to dissemble his religion only for the present time, saying he might immediately return to it again.

The martyr answered them: “This death, which appeared to them to wear so dreadful a face, was very little for the purchase of eternal life.” Then, turning to the executioners, he said: “Why stand ye idle looking on? Why begin ye not your work?”

They therefore cut off his right thumb. Upon which he prayed thus aloud: “O Saviour of Christians, receive a branch of the tree. It will putrify, but will bud again, and, as I am assured, will be clothed with glory.”

The judge, who had been appointed by the king to oversee the execution, burst into tears at this spectacle, and all the people that were present did the same, and many cried out to the martyr: “It is enough that you have lost thus much for the sake of religion. Suffer not your most tender body thus to be cut piecemeal, and destroyed. You have riches; bestow part of them on the poor for the good of your soul: but die not in this manner.”

St. James answered: “The vine dies in winter, yet revives in spring: and shall not the body when cut down sprout up again?” When his first finger was cut off, he cried out: “My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord; and my soul hath exulted in His salvation. Receive, O Lord, another branch.”

Here the joy of his heart seemed sensibly to overcome the pain he suffered, and appeared visibly in his countenance. At the lopping off every finger he exulted and thanked God afresh. After the loss of the fingers of his right hand, and again after those of his left, he was conjured by the judges to conform, and save himself. To whom he meekly answered: “He is not worthy of God, who, after putting his hand to the plough, shall look back.”

The great toe of his right foot was next cut off, and followed by the rest; then the little toe of the left foot, and all the others after it. At the loss of each part the martyr repeated the praises of God, exulting as at a subject of fresh joy. When his fingers and toes were lopped off, he cheerfully said to the executioners: “Now the boughs are gone, cut down the trunk. Do not pity me; for my heart hath rejoiced in the Lord, and my soul is lifted up to Him who loveth the humble and the little ones.”

Then his right foot, after that his left foot: next the right, then the left hand were cut off. The right arm, and the left: then the right, and after that the left leg felt the knife. Whilst he lay weltering in his own blood, his thighs were torn from the hips.

Lying a naked trunk, and having already lost half his body, he still continued to pray, and praise God with cheerfulness, till a guard, by severing his head from his body, completed his martyrdom. This was executed on the 27th of November, in the year of Our Lord 421.

The Christians offered a considerable sum of money for the martyr’s relics, but were not allowed to redeem them. However, they afterwards watched an opportunity, and carried them off by stealth. They found them in twenty-eight different pieces, and put them with the trunk into a chest or urn, together with the congealed blood, and that which had been received in linen cloths. But part of the blood had been sucked up by the sun and its rays were so strongly died therewith as to tinge the sacred limbs of the martyr, upon which they darted, with a red color. The author of these acts, who was an eye-witness, adds: “We all, suppliant, implored the aid of the blessed James.”

The faithful buried his remains in a place unknown to the heathens. The triumph of this illustrious penitent and martyr has, in all succeeding ages, been most renowned in the churches of the Persians, Syrians, Copts, Greeks, and Latins.

NOVEMBER 28TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. STEPHEN THE YOUNGER
Martyred in the Eighth Century around 764

St. Stephen, surnamed the Younger, or of St. Auxentius’s Mount, was one of the most renowned martyrs in the persecution of the Iconoclasts. He was born at Constantinople in 714, and dedicated to God by his parents before he came into the world. They were rich in temporal possessions, but much richer in virtue; and took special care to see their son provided with proper masters, and grounded in pious sentiments from his infancy. Thus he was instructed in the perfect knowledge of the Catholic Faith, and his tender breast was fortified by the love and practice of the duties of religion; by which antidotes he was afterwards preserved from the poison of profane novelties.

Leo the Isaurian, who was infamous for the sacrilegious plunder of many churches, and for several other crimes, as Theophanes relates, to the vices of impiety and tyranny, added that of heresy, being prevailed upon by the Jews whom he had persecuted a little before, to oppose the respect paid by the faithful to holy images. The tyrant endeavored to establish his error by a cruel persecution, and the parents of our saint with many others left their country, that they might not be exposed to the danger of offending God by staying there.

To dispose of their son in a way table to his pious inclinations, and their own views in his education, they placed him when he was fifteen years old in the monastery of St. Auxentius, not far from Chalcedon, and the abbot admitted him in the year following to the monastic habit and profession. Our saint entered into all the penitential exercises of the community with incredible ardor, and his first employment was to fetch in the daily provisions for the monastery.

The death of his father, which happened some time after, obliged him to make a journey to Constantinople, where he sold his whole fortune, and distributed the price among the poor. He had two sisters; one of which was already a nun at Constantinople; the other he took with his mother into Bithynia, where he placed them in a monastery.

Stephen made sacred studies and meditation on the Holy Scriptures, his principal employment, and the works of St. Chrysostom were his Commentary on the Divine Oracles. John the abbot dying, the saint, though but thirty years of age, was unanimously placed at the head of the monastery. There were only a number of small cells scattered up and down the mountain, one of the highest in that province; and the new abbot succeeded his predecessor in a very small cave on the summit, where he joined labor with prayer, copying books, and making nets; by which he gained his own subsistence, and increased the stock of his monastery for the relief of the poor. His only garment was a thin sheep’s skin, and he wore an iron girdle round his loins.

Great numbers renounced the world to serve God under his direction. And a young widow of great quality, who changed her name to that of Anne, became his spiritual daughter, and took the religious veil in a convent, situated at the foot of his mountain. After some years Stephen, out of a love of closer retirement, and a severer course of life, resigned his abbacy to one Marinus, built himself a remote cell, much narrower than his cave, so that it was impossible for him to lie or stand up in it at his ease, and shut himself up in this sepulcher in the forty-second year of his age.

For twenty years Constantine Copronymus carried on the war, which his father Leo had begun against holy images. In 754 he caused a pretended council of three hundred and thirty-eight Iconoclast bishops to meet at Constantinople, and to condemn the use of holy images as a remnant of idolatry, and in all parts of the empire persecuted the Catholics to compel them to subscribe to this decree. His malice was chiefly levelled against the monks, from whom he apprehended the most resolute opposition.

Being sensible of the influence of the example of our saint, and the weight which the reputation of his sanctity gave to his actions, he was particularly solicitous to engage his subscription. Callistus, a patrician, was despatched to him on that errand, and used all the arts in his power to prevail with the saint to consent to the emperor’s desire: but he was obliged to return full of confusion at a miscarriage where he had promised himself certain success.

Constantine, incensed at St. Stephen’s resolute answers, which the patrician reported to him, sent Callistus back with a party of soldiers with an order to drag him out of his cell. They found him so wasted with fasting, find his limbs so much weakened by the narrowness of his cell, that they were obliged to carry him on their shoulders to the bottom of the mountain, and there they kept him under a strong guard. Witnesses were suborned to accuse the saint, and he was charged with having criminally conversed with the holy widow Anne. This lady protested he was innocent, and called him a holy man; and because she would not come into the emperor’s measures, she was severely whipped, and then confined to a monastery at Constantinople, where she died soon after of the hard usage she suffered.

The emperor, seeking a new occasion to put Stephen to death, persuaded one of his courtiers, called George Syncletus, to draw him into a snare. Constantine had forbidden the monasteries to receive any novice to the habit. George going to Mount St. Auxentius, fell on his knees to St. Stephen, and begged to receive the monastic habit. The saint knew him to belong to the court, because he was shaved, the emperor having forbidden any at his court to wear beards; but the more St. Stephen urged the emperor’s prohibition, the more earnestly the imposter pressed him to admit him to the habit, pretending that both his temporal safety from the persecutors, and his eternal salvation depended upon it.

Soon after he had received the habit he ran with it to the court, and the next day the emperor produced him in that garb in the amphitheater before the people, who were assembled by his order for that purpose. The emperor inflamed them by a violent invective against the saint and the monastic Order; then publicly tore his habit off his back, and the populace trampled upon it.

The emperor immediately sent a body of armed men to St. Auxentius’s Mount, who dispersed all the monks, and burned down the monastery and church to the very foundation. They took St. Stephen from the place of his confinement there, and carried him to the sea-side, striking him with clubs, taking him by the throat, tearing his legs in the thorns, and treating him with injurious language. In the port of Chalcedon they put him on board of a small vessel, and carried him to a monastery at Chrysopolis, a small town not very far from Constantinople, where Callistus and several Iconoclast bishops, with a secretary of state, and another officer, came to visit and examine him. They treated him first with civility, and afterwards with extreme harshness.

He boldly asked them how they could call that a general council which was not approved by the pope of Rome, without whose participation the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs was forbid by a canon. Neither had the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, or Jerusalem approved of that assembly. He, with the liberty of a martyr, defended the honor due to holy images, insomuch that Callistus, when they returned to Constantinople, said to the emperor: “My lord, we are overcome: this man is very powerful in argument and learning; and despises death.”

The emperor, transported with rage, condemned the holy man to be carried into banishment into the island of Proconesus, in the Propontis. In that place he was joined by many of his monks, and his miracles increased the reputation of his sanctity, and multiplied the defenders of holy images. This circumstance mortified the tyrant, who, two years after, ordered him to be removed to a prison in Constantinople, and loaded with irons.

Some days after the saint was carried before the emperor, who asked him whether he believed that men trampled on Christ by trampling on his image? “God forbid,” said the martyr. Then taking a piece of money in his hand, he asked what treatment he should deserve who should stamp upon that image of the emperor? The assembly cried out that he ought to be severely punished. “Is it then,” said the saint, “so great a crime to insult the image of the Emperor of the Earth, and no crime to cast into the fire that of the King of Heaven?”

Some days after this examination, the emperor commanded that he should be beheaded; but recalled the sentence before the martyr arrived at the place of execution, resolving to reserve him for a more cruel death; and, after some deliberation, sent an order that he should be scourged to death in prison. They who undertook this barbarous execution left the work imperfect. The tyrant, understanding that he was yet alive, cried out: “Will no one rid me of this monk?” Whereupon certain courtiers stirred up a mob of impious wretches, who, running to the jail, seized the martyr, dragged him through the streets of the city, with his feet tied with cords, and many struck him with stones and staves, till one despatched him by dashing out his brains with a club. The rest continued their insults on his dead body till his limbs were torn asunder, and his brains and bowels were left on the ground.

Cedrenus places his martyrdom in the year 764, who seems to have been better informed than Theophanes, who mentions it in 757.

The martyrs, under their torments and the ignominy of a barbarous death, seem the most miserable of men to carnal eyes, but to those of faith nothing is more glorious, nothing more happy. What can be greater or more noble than for a man to love those who most unjustly hate and persecute him, and only to wish and pray for their temporal and eternal happiness? To bear the loss of all that the world can enjoy, and to suffer all pains rather than to depart in the least tittle from his duty to God? What marks do we show of this heroic fortitude, of this complete victory over our passions, of this steady adherence to God and the cause of virtue?

This heroic disposition of true virtue would appear in smaller trials, such as we daily meet with, if we inherited the spirit of our holy faith. Let us take a review of our own hearts, and of our conduct, and examine whether this meekness, this humility, this charity, and this fortitude appear to be the spirit by which our souls are governed? If not, it behooves us without loss of time to neglect nothing for attaining that grace by which our affections will be molded into this heavenly frame, the great fruit of our divine religion.

NOVEMBER 29TH
The Martyr of the Day
ST. SATURNINUS
Martyred in the Third Century around 257

St. Saturninus went from Rome by the direction of Pope Fabian, about the year 245, to preach the faith in Gaul, where St. Trophimus, the first bishop of Arles, had some time before gathered a plentiful harvest. In the year 250, when Decius and Gratus were consuls, St. Saturninus fixed his episcopal see at Toulouse. Fortunatus tells us, that he converted a great number of idolaters by his preaching and miracles.

This is all the account we have of him till the time of his holy martyrdom. The author of his acts, who wrote about fifty years after his death relates, that he assembled his flock in a small church; and that the capitol, which was the chief temple in the city, lay in the way between that church and the saint’s habitation. In this temple oracles were given; but the devils were struck dumb by the presence of the saint as he passed that way. The priests spied him one day going by, and seized and dragged him into the temple, declaring, that he should either appease the offended deities by offering sacrifice to them, or expiate the crime with his blood.

Saturninus boldly replied: “I adore one only God, and to him I am ready to offer a sacrifice of praise. Your gods are devils, and are more delighted with the sacrifice of your souls than with those of your bullocks. How can I fear them who, as you acknowledge, tremble before a Christian?”

The infidels, incensed at this reply, abused the saint with all the rage that a mad zeal could inspire, and after a great variety of indignities, tied his feet to a wild bull, which was brought thither to be sacrificed. The beast being driven from the temple ran violently down the hill, so that the martyr’s scull was broken, and his brains dashed out. His happy soul was released from the body by death, and fled to the kingdom of peace and glory, and the bull continued to drag the sacred body, and the limbs and blood were scattered on every side, till the cord breaking, what remained of the trunk was left in the plain without the gates of the city. Two devout women laid the sacred remains on a bier, and hid them in a deep ditch, to secure them from any further insult, where they lay in a wooden coffin till the reign of Constantine the Great.

Then Hilary bishop of Toulouse, built a small chapel over this his holy predecessor’s body. Sylvius, bishop of that city towards the close of the fourth century, began to build a magnificent church in honor of the martyr, which was finished and consecrated by his successor Exuperius, who with great pomp and piety translated the venerable relics into it. This precious treasure remains there to this day with due honor. The martyrdom of this saint probably happened in the reign of Valerian, in 257.

Another St. Saturninus is named on this day in the Roman Martyrology, who was beheaded for the faith at Rome with St. Sisinnius, in the reign of Dioclesian, in 304, and interred two miles from the city on the road to Nomentum.

In the spirit of the primitive apostles of nations we see what that of a true disciple of Christ ought to be. What was a Christian in those happy times of fervor? He was a man penetrated with the most lively sentiments of his own nothingness; yet courageous and magnanimous in his humility; disengaged from and raised above the world: crucified to his senses, and dead to himself: having no interest but that of Jesus Christ; mild, affable, patient, full of tenderness and charity for others, burning with zeal for religion, always ready to fly to the remotest parts of the globe to carry the light of the Gospel to infidels, or to die with the martyrs in defense of the divine truth.

Such a spirit and such a life, is something far greater and more astonishing than any signs or external miracles. What wonder if such men converted an infidel world, subdued the hearts of many immersed in vice, and wedded to the earth; and infused into others the spirit of that holy and divine religion which their lives and whole conduct preached more powerfully than their words?

NOVEMBER 30TH
The Martyrs of the Day
ST. SAPOR, ST. ISAAC, ST. MAHANES,
ST. ABRAHAM & ST. SIEMEON
Martyred in the Fourth Century around 339

In the thirtieth year of Sapor II, the Magians accused the Christians to the king, with loud complaints, saying: “No longer are we able to worship the sun, nor the air, nor the water, nor the earth: for the Christians despise and insult them.” Sapor, incensed by their discourse against the servants of God, laid aside his intended journey to Aspharesa, and published a severe edict commading the Christians everywhere to be taken into custody.

Mahanes, Abraham, and Simeon were the first who fell into the hands of his messengers. The next day the magians laid a new information before the king, saying: “Sapor, bishop of Beth-Nictor, and Isaac, bishop of Beth-Seleucia, build churches, and seduce many.”

The king answered in great wrath: “It is my command that strict search be made to discover the criminals throughout my dominions, and that they be brought to their trials within three days.”
The king’s horsemen immediately flew day and night in swift journeys over the kingdom, and brought up the prisoners, whom the Magians had particularly accused; and they were thrown into the same prison with the aforesaid confessors.

The day after the arrival of this new company of holy champions, Sapor, Isaac, Mahanes, Abraham, and Simeon, were presented to the king, who said to them: “Have not you heard that I derive my pedigree from the gods? Yet I sacrifice to the sun, and pay divine honors to the moon. And who are you who resist my laws, and despise the sun and fire?”
The martyrs, with one voice, answered: “We acknowledge one God, and Him alone we worship.”
Sapor said: “What God is better than Hormisdatas, or stronger than the angry Armanes? And who is ignorant that the sun is to be worshiped.”
The holy bishop Sapor replied: “We confess only one God, who made all things, and Jesus Christ born of him.”

The king commanded that he should be beaten on the mouth; which order was executed with such cruelty, that all his teeth were knocked out. Then the tyrant ordered him to be beaten with clubs, till his whole body was bruised and his bones broken. After this he was loaded with chains.

Isaac appeared next. The king reproached him bitterly for having presumed to build churches; but the martyr maintained the cause of Christ with inflexible constancy. By the king’s command several of the chief men of the city who had embraced the faith, and abandoned it for fear of torments, were sent for, and by threats engaged to carry off the servant of God, and stone him to death.

At the news of his happy martyrdom, St. Sapor exulted with holy joy, and expired himself two days after in prison, of his wounds. The barbarous king, nevertheless, to be sure of his death, caused his head to be cut off and brought to him. The other three were then called by him to the bar: and the tyrant finding them no less invincible than those who were gone before them, caused the skin of Mahanes to be flayed from the top of the head to the navel; under which torment he expired. Abraham’s eyes were bored out with a hot iron, in such a manner, that he died of his wounds two days after. Simeon was buried in the earth up to his breast, and shot to death with arrows. The Christians privately interred their bodies. The glorious triumph of these martyrs happened in the year 339.