That blessed woman Felicity, whose Birth-feast we are keeping today, had as much dread of leaving her seven sons living after her in the flesh, as have carnal minded mothers of seeing them go dead before them. When she was taken in the strong pains of persecution, she braced up the hearts of her children by bidding them cleave to the Fatherland above, and became their mother for the spiritual, as she had aforetime been for the fleshly life, bringing them forth for God by her exhortation, as she had brought them forth for the world by her body. And shall I not call this woman a Martyr? Nay, more than Martyr. The seven whom she trusted to God were seven children sent before her to death. She suffered first and triumphed last.
Sermon by St. Gregory the Pope
That blessed woman Felicity, whose Birth-feast we are keeping today, had as much dread of leaving her seven sons living after her in the flesh, as have carnal minded mothers of seeing them go dead before them. When she was taken in the strong pains of persecution, she braced up the hearts of her children by bidding them cleave to the Fatherland above, and became their mother for the spiritual, as she had aforetime been for the fleshly life, bringing them forth for God by her exhortation, as she had brought them forth for the world by her body. And shall I not call this woman a Martyr? Nay, more than Martyr. The seven whom she trusted to God were seven children sent before her to death. She suffered first and triumphed last. Mennas was a Christian Egyptian soldier who had withdrawn himself into a desert place to do penance, but one day, during the persecution under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, upon the said Emperors' birthday, when the people were gathered together at a great show, stood forth in the theatre, and reviled with a loud voice the idolatries of the Gentiles. Thereupon he was arrested, and being bound at Cotyaeus, the chief city of Phrygia, under the authority of the Governor Pyrrhus, was first savagely lashed with thongs, then racked, then scarified with fire applied to his naked body, then had his wounds lacerated by rubbing with hair-cloth, then dragged through thorns and iron spikes with hands and feet tied, then lashed again with whips loaded with lead, and lastly slain with the sword, and thrown into a fire. The Christians saved his body thence and buried it, and it hath in after times been carried to Constantinople. The four crowned martyrs were Severus, Severianus, Carpoforus, and Victorinus, which by the commandment of Diocletian were beaten with plummets of lead unto the death. The names of whom could not be found, but after long time they were showed by divine revelation, and it was established that their memory should be worshipped under the names of five other martyrs, that is to wit Claudian, Castor, Symphorian, Nicostratus, and Simplician, which were martyred two years after the four crowned martyrs. And these martyrs knew all the craft of sculpture or of carving, and Diocletian would have constrained them to carve an idol, but they would not entail nor carve it, nor consent to do sacrifice to the idols. And then by the commandment of Dioc]etian they were put into tuns of lead all living, and cast into the sea about the year of our Lord two hundred four score and seven. And Melchiades, the pope, ordained these four saints to be honoured and to be called the four crowned martyrs before that their names were found. And though their names were afterward found and known, yet for the usage they be always called the four crowned martyrs. St Dionysius, also called St Denis, was the first Bishop of Paris. He was sent to Lutetia in the 3rd century, accompanied by the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius. After carrying out his mission there for several years, he was beheaded with his companions (which is why he is represented bearing his head in his hands) at Catulliacum, now St Denis, where they erected over his tomb a basilica; here the kings of France are buried. St. Denis is one of the 14 "Auxiliary Saints" The Collect and Gospel show forth the Christian heroism of these three Martyrs who fearlessly confessed the name of Christ before men and remained firm in the midst of their sufferings. In the ninth century St Dionysius was erroneously identified with Dionysius the Areopagite, whence the Epistle in the Mass relating the conversion of the latter saint which happened when St Paul passed through Greece on his second journey. Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, was the son of a Christian father, Duke Wratislas I, and an heathen mother named Drahomira. He had for his grandmother a most holy woman, named Ludmilla, who trained him up in godliness. He was a man eminent in all graces, and one who carefully held his virginity unsullied throughout the whole course of his life. His mother seized the supreme power by the foul murder of Ludmilla, and lived foully with her younger son Boleslas, and the nobles roused thereby to indignation, and wearied with her tyranny and wicked government, cast off the yoke of both of them, and hailed Wenceslas in the city of Prague as their King. He ruled his kingdom by his virtues rather than by force. To the orphaned, the widowed, and the destitute he was very charitable, so that some whiles in the winter he carried firewood to the needy on his own shoulders. He helped oftentimes to bury the poor, he set captives free, and went many times to the prisons at the dead of night to comfort with money and advice them that were detained therein. To a Prince of so tender an heart it was a great grief to be behoven to condemn any to death, however guilty. For Priests he had a most earnest respect, and with his own hands sowed the corn and pressed the grapes for the bread and wine which they were to use for the Sacrifice. He would walk around the Church at night with bare feet upon the snow and ice, leaving behind him bloody footprints that warmed the ground. For his Bodyguard he had angels. For when Radislas, Prince of Gurinna, invaded Bohemia, and Wenceslas, to save the effusion of his people's blood, went out to meet him in single combat, two angels were seen serving him with arms, and heard to say to the adversary: Strike not. Therefore, his enemy was stricken with terror, fell down in reverence before him, and begged his forgiveness. When he went to Germany, the Emperor saw two angels carrying a golden Cross before him as he drew night him, and arose from his throne, embraced him in his arms, created him a King, and gifted him with the arm of the holy Martyr Vitus. Nevertheless, his godless brother, at the exhortation of their mother, bade him to a feast, and when Wenceslas, with a foreboding of the death prepared for him, went afterwards into the Church, and was praying there, Boleslas followed him thither, together with some accomplices of his crime, and when they had wounded him, despatched him with a lance. The stains of his blood may still be seen upon the walls. By the judgment of God, his unnatural mother was swallowed up by the earth, and his murderers, in divers ways, perished miserably. Cosmas and Damian, who were eminent physicians in the time of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, were brothers, and Arabs by race, but born in the city of Aegea in Cilicia. Not more by their knowledge of medicine than by the power of Christ they healed diseases which had been hopeless for others. When the Prefect Lysias learnt to what faith they belonged, he commanded them to be brought before him, and questioned them as to their way of life, and the confession of their religion; and then, forasmuch as they freely owned themselves Christians and the Christian faith needful to salvation, he commanded them to worship the gods, under threats of torments and a most cruel death. But when he found that it was but in vain to lay such things before them, he said: Bind their hands and feet together, and put them to the sharpest of the question. And he was obeyed, but nevertheless Cosmas and Damian abode still of the same mind. Therefore they were cast into the depth of the sea, bound as they were, but they came forth again, whole and unbound. The Prefect, therefore, who would have it that it came to pass so by force of art magic, cast them into prison. On the morrow he haled them forth again, and bade cast them upon a great fire, but the flame turned away from them. He was pleased then to have them tormented in divers and cruel sorts, and lastly, smitten with the axe. Thus did they bear witness for Christ Jesus even until they grasped the palm of their testimony. Cyprian was firstly a warlock and lastly a Martyr. A certain young man having a violent lust after a Christian maiden named Justina, employed him to excite her to join in this lewdness, by dint of incantations and philters. Cyprian thereupon asked counsel of the devil, how he might best gain that end. But the devil answered him that these arts are only thrown away upon true worshippers of Christ. This answer troubled Cyprian, and he began to repent heartily of the course of life he had hitherto led. And then he forsook his arts magic, and gave himself wholly up to the faith of the Lord Christ. For this cause, he and the Virgin Justina were arrested together, beaten with blows and scourging, and cast into prison, if haply they might change their mind. Being brought out of the prison, but still standing fast in their Christian religion, they were dipped in a vessel full of hot pitch, fat, and wax, and in the end beheaded, at Nicomedia. Their bodies were thrown out, and lay unburied for the space of six days, at the end of which time some sailors took them secretly by night on board a ship, and carried them to Rome. They were first buried on the farm of the noble lady Rufina, but afterwards brought into the city, where they lie hard by the Baptistery in the Church of the Saviour, built by Constantine. Pope Linus was by birth a native of Velletri in Tuscany, and was the immediate successor of Peter in the government of the Church. His faith and holiness were such that he not only cast out devils, but also raised the dead. He wrote the acts of Blessed Peter, and especially the history of his strife with Simon Magus. He forbade women to enter the Church without having a veil upon their heads. His own head was cut off, on account of his firmness in confessing Christ, by command of the godless Consul Saturninus, an unthankful wretch whose own daughter he had delivered from being tormented by a devil. He was buried upon the Vatican Mount, hard by the grave of the Prince of the Apostles, upon the 23rd day of September. He sat as Pope eleven years, two months, and twenty-three days. He held two December ordinations, wherein he made fifteen Bishops, and eighteen Priests. The virgin Thecla was the daughter of noble parents at Iconium, and a disciple of the Apostle Paul. She is the subject of extraordinary praises by the holy Fathers. In the eighteenth year of her age, she parted from one Thamiris, to whom she had been betrothed, and her kindred accused her of being a Christian. A pile was set a-fire for her, unless she should deny Christ, but she made the sign of the Cross, and willingly entered it, and rain came, and put out the fire. She came to Antioch, where they threw her to wild beasts; and strove to tear her asunder, by tying her to oxen driven different ways; and cast her into a pit with many snakes; but by the mercy of Jesus Christ she was delivered from all. The warmth of her faith and the holiness of her life brought many to Christ. She returned into her own country, and withdrew to be an hermit, alone on a certain mountain, and passed away to be with the Lord, aged ninety years, and famous for many good works and miracles. She was buried at Seleucia. It came to pass one day at Capernaum, that Christ went forth and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom; and he said unto him: Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house. This Levi is the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew. After that Christ was risen again from the dead, and while he was yet in Judea, before he set forth for that land which had fallen to the lot of his preaching, he wrote the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Hebrew tongue, for the sake of them of the circumcision who had believed. His was the first written of the four Gospels. Thereafter he went to Ethiopia, and there preached the Gospel, confirming his preaching with many miracles. Of his miracles, the most notable was that he raised the King's daughter from the dead, and thereby brought to believe in Christ the King her father, his wife, and all that region. After that the King was dead, Hirtacus, who came after him, was fain to take his daughter Iphigenia to wife, but by the exhortation of Matthew she had made vow of her maidenhood to God, and stood firm to that holy resolution, for which cause Hirtacus commanded to slay the Apostle at the Altar while he was performing the mystery. He crowned the dignity of the Apostleship with the glory of martyrdom upon the 21st day of September. His body had been brought to Salerno, where it was afterwards buried in a Church dedicated in his name during the Popedom of Gregory VII, and there it is held in great worship and sought to by great gatherings of people. Sermon of St Jerome The other Evangelists, out of tenderness towards the reputation and honour of Matthew, have abstained from speaking of him as a publican by his ordinary name, and have called him Levi. Both names were his. But Matthew himself (according to that that Solomon hath: The just man is the first to accuse himself, and again, in another place: Declare thou thy sins that thou mayest be justified) doth plainly call himself Matthew the publican, to shew unto his readers that none need be hopeless of salvation if he will but strive to do better, since he himself had been all of a sudden changed from a publican into an Apostle. Porphyry and the Emperor Julian the Apostate will have it that the account of this call of Matthew is either a stupid blunder on the part of a lying writer, or else that it sheweth what fools they were who followed the Saviour, to go senselessly after any one who called them. But there can be no doubt that before the Apostles believed they had considered the great signs and works of power which had gone before. Moreover, the glory and majesty of the hidden God, which shone somewhat through the Face of the Man Christ Jesus, were enough to draw them which gazed thereon, even at first sight. For if there be in a stone a magnetic power which can make rings and straws and rods come and cleave thereunto, how much more must not the Lord of all creatures have been able to draw unto himself them whom he called? |
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