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The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

A >> Alban Butler >> The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints




Footnotes:
1. Ep. 8.
2. Serm. 274.
3. Footnote: S. Ambrose, l. 1, Virgin.
4. Prudent. S. Ambrose.
5. St. Basil witnesses, (l. de vera Virgin.,) that when virgins were
exposed by the persecutors to the attempts of lewd men, Christ
wonderfully interposed in defence of their chastity. Tertullian
reproached the heathens with this impiety, in these words: Apolog.
"By condemning the Christian maid rather to the lewd youth than to
the lion, you have acknowledged that a stain of purity is more
dreaded by us than any torments or death. Yet your crafty cruelty
avails you not: it rather serves to gain men over to our holy
religion."
6. This church gives title to a cardinal, and every year on her feast
the abbot of St. Peter's ad Vincula blesses in it, at high mass, two
lambs, which are thence carried to the pope, by whom they are again
blessed. After which they are sent to the nuns of St. Laurence's in
Panisperna, or sometimes to the Capucinesses, who make of their wool
palliums, which his holiness blesses, and sends to archbishops as
emblem of meekness and spotless purity.
7. Matt. xix. 11.
8. Wells, Paraph. on S. Matt. p. 185.
9. 1 Cor. vii. 7, 8, 25, 27, 32, 38.
10. Apoc. xiv. 1, 3, 4, 5.
11. S. Ambr. l. de Viduis, t. 5, p. 635.

SAINT FRUCTUOSUS, BISHOP OF TARRAGON, AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

From his most valuable acts in Ruinart, quoted by St. Austin, Serm. 273,
and transcribed by Prudentius, hymno 6.

A.D. 259.

ST. FRUCTUOSUS was the zealous and truly apostolical bishop of Tarragon,
then the capital city of Spain. The persecution of Valerian and Gallien
raging in the year 259, he was apprehended by an order of Emilian the
governor, who sent the soldiers, called Beneficiarii,[1] for that
purpose. They seized the good bishop in his lodgings, with two deacons,
Augurius and Eulogius, on Sunday the 16th of January. He was then laid
down on his bed, and only asked leave to put on his shoes; after which
he cheerfully followed the guards, who committed him and his two
companions to close prison, where he spent his time with them in fervent
prayer, full of joy at the prospect of the crown prepared for them. He
gave his benediction to the faithful who visited him, and recommended
themselves to his prayers. On Monday he baptized in jail a catechumen
named Rogatianus. On Wednesday he kept the usual fast of the stations[2]
till none, or three o'clock in {191} the afternoon. On Friday, the sixth
day after their commitment, the 21st of January, the governor ordered
them to be brought before him, and asked Fructuosus if he knew the
contents of the late edict of the emperors. The saint answered that he
did not, but that whatever they were, he was a Christian. "The
emperors," said Emilian, "command all to sacrifice to the gods."
Fructuosus answered, "I adore one God, who made heaven and earth and all
things therein." Emilian said, "Do you not know that there are gods?"
"No," replied the saint. The proconsul said, "I will make you know it
shortly." St. Fructuosus then lifted up his eyes to heaven, and began to
pray in private. The proconsul broke out into this exclamation: "What
will any man fear or adore on earth, if he contemns the worship of the
immortal gods, and of the emperors?" Then turning to the deacon
Angurius, he bade him not regard what Fructuosus had said: but he
satisfied him in a few words that he adored the same almighty God.
Emilian lastly addressed himself to the other deacon, Eulogius, asking
him if he did not adore Fructuosus. The holy man answered, "I adore not
Fructuosus, but the same God whom he adores." Emilian asked Fructuosus
if he was a bishop; and added, upon his confessing it, "say you have
been one;" meaning that he was going to lose his dignity with his life:
and immediately condemned them to be burnt alive.

The pagans themselves could not refrain from tears, on seeing them led
to the amphitheatre; for they loved Fructuosus on account of his rare
virtues. The Christians accompanied them with a sorrow mixed with joy.
The martyrs exulted to behold themselves on the verge of a glorious
eternity. The faithful offered St. Fructuosus a cup of wine, but he
would not taste it, saying, it was not yet the hour of breaking the
fast, which was observed on Fridays till three o'clock, and it was then
only ten in the morning. The holy man hoped to end the station, or fast
of that day, with the patriarchs and prophets in heaven. When they were
come into the amphitheatre, Augustalis, the bishop's lector, came to him
weeping, and begged he would permit him to pull off his shoes. The
martyr said he could easily put them off himself, which he did. Felix, a
Christian soldier, stepped in, and desired he would remember him in his
prayers. Fructuosus said aloud: "I am bound to pray for the whole
Catholic church spread over the world from the east to the west;" as if
he had said, as St. Austin observes, who much applauds this sentence:[3]
"Remain always in the bosom of the Catholic church, and you will have a
share in my prayers." Martial, one of his flock, desired him to speak
some words of comfort to his desolate church. The bishop, turning to the
Christians, said, "My brethren, the Lord will not leave you a flock
without a pastor. He is faithful to his promises. Do not grieve for me.
The hour of my suffering is short." The martyrs were fastened to wooden
stakes to be burnt; but the flame seemed at first to respect their
bodies, having consumed only the bands with which their hands were tied,
giving them liberty to stretch out their arms in the form of a cross in
prayer, in which posture they gave up their souls to God before the fire
had touched them. Babylas and Mygdone, two Christian servants of the
governor, saw the heavens open, and the saints carried up with crowns on
their heads. The faithful came in the night, extinguished the fire, and
took out the half-burnt bodies. Every one carried some part of their
remains home with them; but being admonished from heaven, brought them
back and laid them in the same monument. St. Austin has left us a
panegyric on St. Fructuosus, pronounced on the anniversary day of his
martyrdom, on which his name has been always famous in the western
church, especially in Spain and Africa.

Footnotes:
1. Beneficiarii were soldiers distinguished by certain privileges, and
who stood for promotion, as Vege{tius} informs us, l. 2, c. 7.
2. Wednesdays and Fridays were fast-days at that time; but only till
none, that is, three in the afternoon, and called the fast of the
stations.
3. Serm. 273.

{192}


ST. VIMIN, OR VIVIAN, B.C., IN SCOTLAND.

BY the fervent practices of the most perfect monastic discipline in one
of the famous abbeys in Fifeshire, he qualified himself to become, by
word and example, a guide and director to many chosen souls in the paths
of evangelical perfection. This appeared in the fruits of his zealous
preaching and labors, when he was raised to the abbatial, and soon after
to the episcopal dignity; for at that time, very few bishoprics being
erected in Scotland, it was customary for learned and holy abbots of
great monasteries to be often consecrated bishops, and to be attended by
their monks in performing their functions; as venerable Bede informs us,
speaking of St. Aidan.[1] St. Vimin, to shun the danger of vain-glory,
to which the reputation of many miracles which he had wrought exposed
him, removed to a more solitary place, and there founded the abbey of
Holywood, called in Latin Sacrum-boscum, in succeeding ages famous for
many learned men; particularly the great mathematician, John a
Sacro-bosco, in the thirteenth century. King places the death of St.
Vimin in 615, but brings no proofs for dating it so high. The noble and
very ancient family of Wemse, in Fifeshire, is said in Scotland to be of
the same lineage with this saint. The ancient prayer in the Aberdeen
breviary on his festival, and other monuments, bear evidence to the
great devotion of the ancient Scottish church to his memory. See
Breviarium Aberdonense of Chronicou Skonense.

Footnotes:
1. Bede, Hist. l. 4, c. 17, &c.

ST. PUBLIUS, B.M.

HE succeeded St. Dionysius the Areopagite in the see of Athens, as we
are assured by St. Dionysius of Corinth, quoted by Eusebius.[1] He went
to God by martyrdom, and St. Quadratus was chosen third bishop of that
city. See Le Quien, Or. Christ. t. 2, p. 169.

Footnotes:
1. Euseb. l. 4, c. 22.

ST. EPIPHANIUS, BISHOP OF PAVIA,

FROM 467 TO 497.

THE reputation of Epiphanius for sanctity and miracles, gave him the
highest credit with all the last weak Roman emperors, and with the kings
Odoacer and Theodoric, though all of opposite interests. By his
admirable eloquence and charity he often disarmed the most savage
barbarians, obtained the lives and liberty of whole armies of captives,
the abolition of several oppressive laws, and the mitigation of heavy
public imposts and taxes. By his profuse charities he preserved an
incredible number of distressed persons from perishing, and by his zeal
he stemmed the torrent of iniquity in times of universal disorder and
calamity. He performed an embassy to the emperor Anthemius, and another
to king Euric at Toulouse; both to avert the dangers of war. He rebuilt
Pavia, which had been destroyed by Odoacer, and mitigated the fury of
Theodoric in the heat of his victories. He undertook a journey into
Burgundy, to redeem captives detained by the kings Gondebald and
Godegisile, and died of a cold and fever at Pavia, in the fifty-eighth
year of his age. His body was translated to Hildesheim in Lower {193}
Saxony, in 963. Brower thinks it lies in a silver coffin near the high
altar. His name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology. See his panegyric
in verse, by Ennodius, his successor, the master-piece of that author,
published by Bollandus and F. Sirmond. Consult also Marroni, of the
Schola Pia Comment. de Ecclesia & Episcopis Papiensibus. Romae. An. 1758.

Footnotes:
1. B. MACELAIN, A. His name in Irish signifies the son of Chilian.
Passing into Belgic Gaul, in order to lead there an anchoretical
life, he was appointed abbot of St. Michael's on the borders of
Hainault, and of Vasour, or Vasencour, on the Meuse, in the diocese
of Namur: monasteries which were just founded. He appointed St.
Cadroe, who had accompanied him from Ireland, provost of the latter
in 946, and died in 978. Ferrarius, Saussaye, and Wilson, falsely
place this monastery of St. Michael's at Virdun, mistaking the
epithet Vir Dni, which is given him in the chronicle of Flodoard,
for the name of that town. Though he is styled saint in the
catalogue of the abbots of Vasour, and by several martyrologists on
this day, he never was honored in any public office even in either
of his monasteries, as Bollandus observes; who makes the same remark
of his two companions, B. Forannand and B. Cadroe. This latter was
called from Vasour, and made abbot of St. Clement's, at Metz, where
he died in 975. See Bolland. t. 2, p. 386. Chatelain, p. 371. Gallia
Christ. Nova, t. 3, p. 570.

B. FORANNAND, B.C. This saint is styled in ancient chronicles,
Archbishop of Domnachmor, in Ireland. Domnach signifying church, and
mor, the greater, says Mabillon: by which epithet many understand
Armagh. Resigning his see, he travelled into Belgic Gaul, with
twelve companions, among whom were B. Macelain, and B. Cadroe. After
leading for some time an eremitical life, he was commanded by pope
Benedict VII. to take upon him the charge of the government of
Vasour, in which employment he died on the last day of April, in
982. See Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 3. p. 571.


JANUARY XXII.

ST. VINCENT, MARTYR.

From Prudentius, hymn 5, and St. Austin, serm, 274, 275, 276, 277, all
four preached on his festivals. His ancient acts in Bollandus are also
authentic, but not those in Metaphrastes and Surius. See Tillemont t. 5,
p. 217.

A.D. 399.

THE most glorious martyr St. Vincent was born, some say at Saragossa,
others at Valentia, but most authors, and most probably, at Osca, now
Huesca, in Granada. He was instructed in the sacred sciences and in
Christian piety by Valerius, the bishop of that city, who ordained him
his deacon, and appointed him, though very young, to preach and instruct
the people. Dacian, a most bloody persecutor, was then governor of
Spain. The emperors Dioclesian and Maximian published their second and
third bloody edicts against the Christian clergy in the year 303, which
in the following year were put in force against the laity. It seems to
have been before these last that Dacian put to death eighteen martyrs at
Saragossa, who are mentioned by Prudentius, and in the Roman
Martyrology, January the 16th, and that he apprehended Valerius and
Vincent. They spilt some of their blood at Saragossa, but were thence
conducted to Valentia, where the governor let them lie long in prison,
suffering extreme famine and other miseries. The proconsul hoped that
this lingering torture would shake their constancy; but when they were
brought out before him, he was surprised to see them still intrepid in
mind, and vigorous in body, and reprimanded his officers, as if they had
not treated the prisoners according to his orders. Then, turning to the
champions of Christ, he employed alternately threats and promises to
induce them to sacrifice. Valerius, who had an impediment in his speech,
making no answer, Vincent said to him "Father, if you order me, I will
speak." "Son," said Valerius, "as I committed to you the dispensation of
the word of God, so I now charge you to answer in vindication of the
faith which we defend." The holy deacon then acquainted the judge that
they were ready to suffer every thing for the {194} true God, and little
regarded either his threats or promises in such a cause. Dacian
contented himself with banishing Valerius.[1] As for St. Vincent, he was
determined to assail his resolution by every torture his cruel temper
could suggest. St. Austin assures us, that he suffered torments far
beyond what any man could possibly have endured, unless supported by a
supernatural strength; and that he preserved such a peace and
tranquillity in his words, countenance, and gestures in the midst of
them, as astonished his very persecutors, and visibly appeared as
something divine; while the rage and distraction of Dacian's soul was as
visible in the violent agitations of his body, by his eyes sparkling
with fury, and his faltering voice.

The martyr was first stretched on the rack by his hands and feet, drawn
by cords and pulleys, till his joints were almost torn asunder: while he
hung in this posture, his flesh was unmercifully torn off with iron
hooks. Vincent, smiling, called the executioners weak and faint-hearted.
Dacian thought they spared him, and caused them to be beaten, which
afforded the champion an interval of rest: but they soon returned to
him, resolved fully to satisfy the cruelty of their master, who excited
them all the while to exert their utmost strength. They twice stayed
their hands to take breath, and let his wounds grow cold; then began
with fresh vigor to rend and tear his body, which they did in all its
limbs and parts with such cruelty, that his bones and bowels were in
most places exposed bare to sight. The more his body was mangled, the
more did the divine presence cherish and comfort his soul, and spread a
greater joy on his countenance. The judge, seeing the streams of blood
which flowed from all the parts of his body, and the frightful condition
to which it was reduced, was obliged to confess, with astonishment, that
the courage of the young nobleman had vanquished him; and his rage
seemed somewhat abated. Hereupon he ordered a cessation of his torments,
begging of the saint for his own sake, that if he could not be prevailed
upon to offer sacrifice to the gods, he would at least give up the
sacred books to be burnt, according to the order of the late edicts. The
martyr answered, that he feared his torments less than that false
compassion which he testified. Dacian, more incensed than ever,
condemned him to the most cruel of tortures, that of fire upon a kind of
gridiron, called by the acts the legal torture.[2] The saint walked with
joy to the frightful engine, so as almost to get the start of his
executioners, such was his desire to suffer. He mounted cheerfully the
iron bed, in which the bars were framed like scythes, full of sharp
spikes made red-hot by the fire underneath. On this dreadful gridiron,
the martyr was stretched out at length, and bound fast down. He was not
only scourged thereon, but, while one part of his body was broiling next
the fire, the other was tortured by the application of red-hot plates of
iron. His wounds were rubbed with salt, which the activity of the fire
forced the deeper into his flesh and bowels. All the parts of his body
were tormented in this manner, one after the other, and each several
times over. The melted fat dropping from the flesh, nourished and
increased the flames; which, instead of tormenting, seemed, as St.
Austin says, to give the martyr new vigor and courage; for the more he
suffered, the greater seemed to be the inward joy and consolation of his
soul. The rage and confusion of the tyrant exceeded all bounds: he
appeared not able to contain himself, and was continually inquiring what
Vincent did and what he said; but was always answered, that he suffered
with joy in his countenance, and seemed every moment to acquire new
strength and resolution. {195} He lay unmoved, his eyes turned towards
heaven, his mind calm, and his heart fixed on God in continual prayer.

At last, by the command of the proconsul, he was thrown into a dungeon
and his wounded body laid on the floor strewed with broken potsherds,
which opened afresh his ghastly wounds, and cut his bare flesh. His legs
were set in wooden stocks, stretched very wide, and strict orders were
given that he should be left without provisions, and that no one should
be admitted to see or speak to him. But God sent his angels to comfort
him, with whom he sung the praises of his protector. The jailer
observing through the chinks the prison filled with light, and the saint
walking and praising God, was converted upon the spot to the Christian
faith, and afterwards baptized. At this news Dacian chafed, and even
wept through rage, but ordered some repose should be allowed the
prisoner. The faithful were then permitted to see him, and coming in
troops wiped and kissed his wounds, and dipped cloths in his blood,
which they kept as an assured protection for themselves and their
posterity. After this a soft bed was prepared for him, on which he was
no sooner laid but he expired, the happy moment he had not ceased to
pray for ever since his torments, and his first call to martyrdom.
Dacian commanded his body to be thrown on a marshy field among rushes;
but a crow defended it from wild beasts and birds of prey. The acts in
Ruinart and Bollandus, and the sermon attributed to St. Leo, add, that
it was then tied to a great stone and cast into the sea in a sack, but
miraculously carried to the shore, and revealed to two Christians. They
laid it in a little chapel out of the walls of Valentia, where God
honored these relics with many miracles, as the acts and St. Austin
witness. Prudentius informs us, that the iron on which he lay, and other
instruments of his passion, were likewise preserved with veneration.
Childebert, king of France, or rather of Paris, besieging Saragossa,
wondered to see the inhabitants busied continually in making
processions. Being informed they carried the stole of St. Vincent about
the walls in devout prayer, and had been miraculously protected by that
martyr's intercession, he raised the siege upon condition that relic
should be given him. This he with great solemnity brought to Paris, and
enriched with it the magnificent church and abbey of St. Vincent, now
called St. Germain-des-Pres, which he built in 559, and which his
successor Clotaire caused to be dedicated.[3] In the year 855, his
sacred bones were discovered at Valentia, and conveyed into France, and
deposited in the abbey of Castres, now an episcopal see in Languedoc,
where they remain; but several portions have been given to the abbey of
St. Germain-des-Pres at Paris, and other churches; and part was burnt at
Castres by the Huguenots about the end of the sixteenth century.[4]
Aimoinus, a contemporary monk, wrote the history of this translation,
with an account of many miracles which attended it.[5] St. Gregory of
Tours mentions a portion of his relics to have been famous for miracles,
in a village church near Poictiers.[6] In the life of St. Domnolus,
mention is made of a portion placed by him in a great monastery in the
suburb of the city of Mans. But it is certain that the chief part of
this martyr's body was conveyed to Lisbon. To escape the cruel
persecution of the Saracen king Abderamene, at Valentia, many Christians
privately withdrew themselves, and, carrying with them the body of St.
Vincent, took shelter on the southwest cape, called {196} the Sacred
Promontory, and from these relics St. Vincent's, in the kingdom of
Algarb, then under the Saracens. Alphonsus Henry, the most pious first
king of Portugal, son of count Henry, having defeated five Moorish
kings, at Ourique, in the year 1139, received from those faithful
keepers the body of St. Vincent, sent it by sea to Lisbon, and built the
royal monastery of the Cross of regular canons of St. Austin, in which
he most religiously deposited this treasure, rendered more famous by
miracles, in the year 1148. This account is recorded by contemporary
unexceptionable vouchers in Bollandus, p. 406. Mariana, and especially
Thomas ab Incarnatione, a regular canon, in his Historia Ecclesiae
Lusitanae, printed at Lisbon, A.D. 1759, Saec. 4, c. 6, t. 1, p. 215. The
Portuguese, ever since the year 1173, keep an annual commemoration of
this translation on the 15th of September, which feast was confirmed by
Sixtus V.

Prudentius finishes his hymn on this holy martyr by a prayer to him,
that he would present the marks of his sufferings to Christ, to move him
to compassion in his behalf.

* * * * *

God never more visibly manifested his power, nor gave stronger or more
wonderful proofs of his tenderness and love for his church, than when he
suffered it to groan under the most violent oppression and persecution;
nor does his grace anywhere appear more triumphant than in the victories
of his martyrs under the severest trials, and in the heroic virtues
which they displayed amidst torments and insults. Under the slightest
disappointments and afflictions we are apt to fall into discouragement,
and to imagine, by our sloth and impatience, that our situation is of
all others the most unhappy and intolerable. If nature feels, and we
implore the divine mercy, and a deliverance, if this may be conducive to
God's honor, we must be careful never to sink under the trials, or
consent to the least secret murmuring: we must bear them if not with
joy, at least with perfect submission; and remain assured that God only
seems to withdraw himself from us, that we may follow him more
earnestly, and unite ourselves more closely to him.

Footnotes:
1. He is named in the Roman Martyrology, January the 28th, and his
relics are kept with veneration at Saragossa, famous for miracles
wrought by them even in the last age. See Bollandus, January the
28th, p. 838.
2. Quaestio legitima.
3. S. Greg. Tur. Hist. Franc. l. 3, c. 29. Aimoin. de Gestis Franc. l.
2, c. 19 and 20. Ade In Chron. &c.
4. See Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrol. p. 378.
5. This Aimoinus is something more ancient than another monk of the
same name, who has left a history of France. His relation depends
upon the authority of Audald, a monk of Conques in the diocese of
Rhodes, who brought them from Valentia into Languedoc. See his
account in Bollandus, which yet the Spaniards deny, and say it could
only be a small part of these bones: or the body of another martyr
of the same name.
6. De Gk. Mart. l. 1, c. 90.

ST. ANASTASIUS, MARTYR.

From his genuine acts, which are commended in the seventh general
council, abut one hundred and sixty years after his death.

A.D. 628.

ST. ANASTASIUS was a trophy of the holy cross of Christ, when it was
carried away into Persia by Chosroes, in the year 614, after he had
taken and plundered Jerusalem. The martyr was a Persian, son of a
Magian, instructed in the sciences of that sect, and a young soldier in
the Persian troops. Upon hearing the news of the taking of the cross by
his king, he became very inquisitive concerning the Christian religion:
and its sublime truths made such an impression on his mind, that being
returned into Persia from an expedition into the Roman empire, he left
the army with his brother, who also served in it, and retired to
Hierapolis. In that city he lodged with a devout Persian Christian, a
silversmith, with whom he went often to prayer. The holy pictures which
he saw, moved him exceedingly, and gave him occasion to inquire daily
more into our faith, and to admire the courage of the martyrs whose
glorious sufferings were painted in the churches. At length, desirous of
baptism, he left Hierapolis, which city was subject to the Persians, and
went to Jerusalem, where he received that sacrament by the hands of
Modestus who governed that church as vicar during the absence {197} of
the patriarch Zachary, whom Chosroes had led away captive into Persia.
In baptism he changed his Persian name Magundat, into that of
Anastasius, meaning, according to the signification of that Greek word,
that he was risen from death to a new and spiritual life. He had
prepared himself with wonderful devotion for that sacrament while a
catechumen, and he spent in no less fervor the several days after it,
which persons baptized passed in white garments, in prayer, and in
receiving more perfect instructions in the faith. At the end of this
term, Anastasius, the more easily and more perfectly to keep inviolably
his sacred baptismal vows and obligations, desired to become a monk in a
monastery five miles distant from Jerusalem. Justin, the abbot, made him
first learn the Greek tongue and the psalter; then cutting off his hair,
gave him the monastic habit, in the year 621.

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