Your Daily Martyr

YOUR DAILY MARTYR
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).

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

"The Roman Martyrology is an official and accredited record, on the pages of which are set forth in simple and brief, but impressive words, the glorious deeds of the Soldiers of Christ in all ages of the Church ; of the illustrious Heroes and Heroines of the Cross, whom her solemn verdict has beatified or canonized" (Taken from the "Introduction" from The Roman Martyrology).

The Roman Martyrology is, like the Roman Missal and the Roman Breviary, an official liturgical book of the Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church. The Roman Martyrology was first published in 1583 by Pope Gregory XIII, who in the year before had decreed the revision of the calendar that is called, after him, the Gregorian Calendar. A second edition was published in the same year. The third edition was made obligatory wherever the Roman Rite was in use.

In 1630 Pope Urban VIII ordered a new edition. 1748 saw the appearance of a revised edition by Pope Benedict XIV, who personally worked on the corrections: he suppressed some names, such as those of Clement of Alexandria and Sulpicius Severus, but kept others that had been objected to, such as that of Pope Siricius. Since then, the Martyrology has remained essentially unchanged, save for the addition of new saints canonized during the intervening years.

THE HONOR ROLL OF MARTYRS
for April 2nd
taken from the entry for the day
from the Roman Martyrology

In the year 1507, the death of holy confessor, St. Francis of Paola, founder of the Order of Friars Minim. He was famous for his graces and miracles, and Leo X enrolled his name among those of the Saints.

At Caesarea, in Palestine, the holy martyr St. Amphian. During the persecution under the Emperor Galerius Maximian he rebuked the Governor Urban as he was sacrificing unto idols, and for this cause he was savagely mangled, and most cruelly tormented. His feet being wrapped in flax steeped in oil, and set on fire, and at length he was drowned in the sea, and thus did he go through fire and through water, and was brought out into a place of refreshment.

There also, in the year 307, suffered the holy martyr St. Theodosia, a virgin of Tyre, during the same persecution. When she saw the holy Confessors standing before the judgment seat, she publicly saluted them, and besought them that when they should be come unto the Lord they would remember her. For this cause the soldiers took her, and led her before Urban the Governor, and by his command her sides and her breasts were deeply mangled, and she was cast into the sea.

At Lyon, in the year 573, St. Nicetius, bishop of that city, famous for his life and miracles.

At Como, in the year 468, the holy confessor St. Abundius, bishop of that see.

At Langres, in the year 395, St. Urban, the sixth bishop of that see.

In Palestine, in the fifth century, St. Mary of Egypt, commonly called the sinner.

April 2nd
The Martyr of the Day

ST. APIAN

Martyred in the Fourth Century, around the year 306

St. Apian was called Aphian by the Greeks and Latins, and sometimes Amphian. He was born of rich and illustrious parents in Lycia, and by them sent in his youth to study eloquence, philosophy, and the Roman laws, in the famous schools of Berytus, in Phœnicia. He made a most rapid progress in learning: but it was his greatest happiness that, having embraced the Christian Faith, he, by the means of prayer and retirement, preserved his innocence and virtue untainted in the midst of vice and lewdness.

Returning home after his studies, he found his parents yet idolaters; and therefore withdrew to Cæsarea in Palestine, being at that time eighteen years of age. St. Pamphilus there expounded the holy scriptures with great piety and learning, and Apian became one of his auditors. Such was his conduct in that school of martyrs, as prepared him to take the lead among them, and set the rest an example.

Diocletian having abdicated the empire at Nicomedia, on the 1st of May, in 305, Galerius Maximianus, the chief promoter of his bloody persecution, was declared Emperor of the East, which Maximinus Daia governed under him, as Cæsar. There came letters to Cæsarea from the last-mentioned, containing orders to the governor to compel all persons whatever to attend the public solemn sacrifices.

Then Apian, without having communicated his design to any person, “not even to us,” says the historian Eusebius, with whom he dwelt, went to find out the governor Urbanus, as he was sacrificing, and came near to him without being perceived by the guards that surrounded him; and taking hold of his right hand, with which he was performing the ceremony, stopped him, saying, it was an impious thing to neglect the worship of the true God, and to sacrifice to idols and demons.

God inspired this generous youth, not yet twenty years of age, by this daring and extraordinary action, to confound the impiety of the persecutors, and to show them the courage of his servants. The guards instantly fell upon him, like so many wild beasts, cruelly buffetted his face, beat him down to the ground, kicked him unmercifully, hideously tore his mouth and lips, and wounded him in every part of his body. He was then thrown into a dark dungeon, where he remained a day and a night with his feet stretched very wide in the stocks.

The next day he was brought before the governor, who commanded he should suffer the most exquisite tortures. He had his sides torn so that his bones and entrails appeared: and his face was so swollen with the blows he had received, that he could not be known by his most intimate acquaintance. His only answer to all questions was: “I am a servant of Christ.”

His constancy having thrown the tyrant into a transport of rage, he ordered the executioners to apply to his feet lighted matches of flax dipped in oil. The fire burned up his flesh and penetrated even to the very bones, and the juice of his body dropped from him like melted wax, but he still continued resolute. His patience struck the persecutors with astonishment: and when pressed by his tormentors to sacrifice and obey the judge, fixing his eyes upon them, he only replied: “I confess Christ the only God, and the same God with the Father.”

He was then remanded to prison, where he continued three days. Being then brought before the judge, he persisted in his confession, and, though half-dead, was by his order cast into the sea. A prodigy ensued, of which there were as many witnesses, says Eusebius, as citizens of Cæsarea. He was no sooner thrown into the water, with stones tied to his feet, but both the sea and the city were shook with an earthquake, accompanied with a dreadful noise, and the sea, as if it was not able to endure the corpse of the martyr, threw it up before the gates of the city: all the inhabitants went out to see this prodigy, and gave glory to the God of the Christians, confessing aloud the name of Jesus Christ. The triumph of St. Apian happened on the 2nd of April, 306, in the nineteenth year of his age.