A Community of Love, Unity and Service

Holy Martyrs of Sebaste, The Forty

The Forty Martyrs were soldiers quartered at Sebaste in Armenia, about the year 320. When theirlegion was ordered to offer sacrifice to idols, they refused to betray the faith of their baptism, andreplied to all persuasive efforts, “We are Christians!” When neither cajolings or threats could changethem, after several days of imprisonment they were chained together and taken to the site ofexecution. It was a cruel winter, and they were condemned to lie without clothing on the icy surfaceof a pond in the open air until they froze to death.

The forty, not merely undismayed but filled with joy at the prospect of suffering for Jesus Christ,said: “No doubt it is difficult to support so acute a cold, but it will be agreeable to go to paradiseby this route; the torment is of short duration, and the glory will be eternal. This cruel night will winfor us an eternity of delights. Lord, forty of us are entering combat; grant that we may be forty toreceive the crown!”

There were warm baths close by, ready for any among them who would deny Christ. One of theconfessors lost heart, renounced his faith, and went to cast himself into the basin of warm waterprepared for that intention. But the sudden change in temperature suffocated him and he expired,losing at once both temporal and eternal life. The still living martyrs were fortified in theirresolution, beholding this scene.

Then the ice was suddenly flooded with a bright light; one of the soldiers guarding the men, nearlyblinded by the light, raised his eyes and saw Angels descend with forty crowns which they held in theair over the martyrs’ heads; but the fortieth one remained without a destination. The sentry wasinspired to confess Christ, saying: “That crown will be for me!” Abandoning his coat and clothing,he went to replace the unfortunate apostate on the ice, crying out: “I am a Christian!” And thenumber of forty was again complete. They remained steadfast while their limbs grew stiff andfrozen, and died one by one.

Among the forty there was a young soldier named Meliton who held out longest against the cold,and when the officers came to cart away the dead bodies they found him still breathing. They weremoved with pity, and wanted to leave him alive, hoping he would still change his mind. But hismother stood by, and this valiant woman could not bear to see her son separated from the band ofmartyrs. She exhorted him to persevere, and lifted his frozen body into the cart. He was just ableto make a sign of recognition, and was borne away, to be thrown into the flames with the deadbodies of his brethren. Their bones were cast into the river, but they floated and were gathered upby the faithful.

St. Eulogius, martyr

Saint Eulogius was of a senatorial family of Cordova, at that time the capital of the Moors in Spain. He was educated among the clergy of the Church of Saint Zoilus, a martyr who had suffered withnineteen others several centuries earlier, under Diocletian. In his own time still, many Christianswere resisting the efforts of the Moors to make the Christians apostatize. Without ever weakening,Eulogius, who was a priest and head of the principal ecclesiastical school at Cordova, combated theperverse influence of the invaders, and it is primarily because of him that the Church saw a new andmagnificent flowering of victims immolated for the faith, later to be the source of great blessings forSpain. Eulogius recorded the names and acts of these generous martyrs.

In 850, he himself was seized and imprisoned. In prison he wrote his Exhortation to Martyrdom,addressed to the virgins Flora and Mary, who were beheaded on the 24^th of November, 851. Sixdays after their death he was set at liberty. In the year 852 several others suffered the samemartyrdom. Saint Eulogius encouraged these martyrs, too, for their triumphs, and was the supportof the distressed flock. When the Archbishop of Toledo died in 858, Saint Eulogius was elected tosucceed him; but some obstacle hindered him from being consecrated, and his martyrdom wouldfollow in less than two months.

A virgin, by name Leocritia, of a wealthy governing family of Moors, had been instructed from herinfancy in the Christian religion by one of her relatives, and privately baptized. Her father andmother treated her cruelly, scourging her to compel her to renounce her faith. Having made hersituation known to Saint Eulogius and his sister, adding that she desired to go where she might freelyexercise her religion, they secretly procured for her means of escaping, and concealed her for sometime among faithful friends. But the matter was at length discovered, and they were all broughtbefore the Moslem magistrate, who threatened to have Eulogius scourged to death. The Saint toldhim that his torments would be of no avail, for he would never change his religion; continuing, heexposed vigorously the impostures and errors of the Moslem religion, and exhorted the judge tobecome a disciple of Jesus Christ, the unique Saviour of the world. At this, the judge gave ordersthat he be taken to the palace and be presented before the king’s council.

Eulogius boldly proposed the truths of the Gospel to these officials. But in order not to hear him,the council condemned him immediately to be decapitated. As they were leading him at once toexecution, one of the guards gave him a blow on the face for having spoken against the prophetMahomet; he turned the other cheek, and patiently received a second. He received the stroke ofdeath with great cheerfulness, on the 11^th of March, 859. Saint Leocritia was beheaded four daysafterwards, and her body thrown into the Guadalquivir River, but salvaged for burial by theChristians.

St. Gregory I, the Great

Saint Gregory the Great was a Roman of noble Christian birth, the son of a canonized Saint, hismother, Saint Silva; and he was the nephew of two others, Saints Tarsilla and Emiliana. At thirtyyears of age he became the Prefect of Rome, the highest civil dignity of that city. On his father’sdeath in 574 he gave his great wealth to the poor, turned his house on the Caelian Hill into themonastery which now bears his name, and for several years lived as a perfect monk. His famousexposition of the Book of Job dates from his monastic years.

The Pope drew him from his seclusion in 578 to make him one of the seven deacons of Rome; andfor seven years he rendered great service to the Church as what we now call Papal Nuncio to theimperial court at Constantinople. He had been sent there to obtain assistance against the Lombardinvasions, but returned with a conviction which was a foundation of his later activity, that no helpcould any longer be obtained from that court. When he was recalled to Rome he became Abbot ofhis Monastery, then known by the name of Saint Andrew’s.

While still a monk the Saint was struck by the sight of some fair-complexioned boys who wereexposed for sale in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were pagans. “And of what race arethey?” he asked. “They are Angles.” “Worthy indeed to be Angels of God,” said he. He at onceobtained permission from the Pope to set out to evangelize the English. With several companionmonks he had already made a three-days’ journey when the Pope, ceding to the regrets of theRoman people, sent out messengers to overtake and recall them. Still the Angles were not forgotten,and one of the Saint’s first cares as Pope was to send, from his own monastery, Saint Augustine andforty more monks to England.

On the death of Pope Pelagius II, Saint Gregory was compelled to take upon himself the governmentof the Church, and for fourteen years his pontificate was a perfect model of ecclesiastical rule. Hehealed schisms, revived discipline, and saved Italy by converting the wild Arian Lombards who werelaying it waste; he aided in the conversion of the Spanish and French Goths, who also were Arians,and kindled anew in Britain the light of the Faith, which the Anglo-Saxons had extinguished in blood. He set in order the Church’s prayers and chant, guided and consoled her pastors with innumerableletters, and preached incessantly, most effectively by his own example. Many of his sermons are stillextant and are famous for their constant use of Holy Scripture. His writings are numerous andinclude fourteen books of his letters.

Saint Gregory I died in 604, worn out by austerities and toils. The Church includes him among herfour great Latin doctors, and reveres him as Saint Gregory the Great.

St. Euphrasia

Saint Euphrasia, born in Constantinople, was the daughter of noble and pious parents, honored bythe pious Emperor Theodosius and the Empress of that city. After the early death of Antigonus, herfather, her mother consecrated her widowhood to God, and retired with their only child into Egypt,where she possessed a very large estate. In those days there were many monasteries of nuns as wellas of holy cenobites; in one single city there were twenty thousand such holy women, consecrated toJesus Christ. Euphrasia’s mother chose to reside near a monastery of one hundred and thirty nuns,which she often visited, accompanied by Euphrasia. When the little girl, seven years of age, beggedthat she might be permitted to serve God in this monastery, the pious mother wept for joy.

Then the mother led her before an image of our Redeemer, and lifting up her hands to heaven said,“Lord Jesus Christ, receive this child under Your special protection. It is You alone whom she lovesand seeks; to You she recommends herself.” Then leaving her in the hands of the abbess, she wentout of the monastery weeping. She continued her life of prayer and mortification, and a few yearslater, when this good mother fell sick, she slept in peace.

On receiving the news of her death, Theodosius sent for the noble virgin to come to court, as heconsidered himself her protector, and already during her childhood had arranged for her to bemarried to a young senator of Constantinople, when she would reach a suitable age. But the virginwrote him, refusing the alliance, repeating her vow of virginity, and requesting that her estates besold and divided among the poor, and all her slaves set at liberty. The emperor punctually executedall her wishes, shortly before his death in 395.

Saint Euphrasia was a perfect pattern of humility, meekness, and charity. If she found herselfassaulted by any temptation, she immediately sought the advice of the abbess, who often on suchoccasions assigned to her some humbling and painful penitential labor, which she would execute toperfection. Once she moved a pile of great rocks from one place to another, continuing for thirtydays with wonderful simplicity, until the devil, vanquished by her humble obedience, left her in peace. She became powerful over the demons, and delivered many possessed persons. She cured a childwho was paralyzed, deaf and dumb, making the sign of the cross over him and saying, “May He whocreated you, heal you!” She was favored with other miracles also, both before and after her death,which occurred in the year 412, the thirtieth of her age.

St. Mathilda

This princess, the greatest glory of her noble family, was the daughter of Theodoric, a powerfulSaxon count, and Reinhilde, a princess of Denmark. Her parents placed her very young in themonastery of Erfort, of which her grandmother Maude had become the Abbess. The young girlbecame in that house an accomplished model of all virtues and domestic arts. She remained thereuntil her parents married her to the virtuous and valiant Henry, son of Otto, Duke of Saxony, in 913. On the death in 919 of the Emperor of Germany, Conrad I, Henry was chosen by his troops tosucceed him. Henry was a pious and diligent prince, and very kind to his subjects. By his arms hechecked the insolence of invading neighboring armies, and enlarged his dominions by adding to themBavaria.

Saint Mathilda, during those years, gained over the enemies of God spiritual victories yet moreworthy of a Christian and far greater in the eyes of heaven. Blessed with five children, whom sheraised in the fear of God, she nourished in their souls the precious seeds of devotion and humilitythrough prayer and good works. It was her delight to visit, comfort, and exhort the sick and theafflicted; to serve and instruct the poor, and to afford her charitable assistance to prisoners. Herhusband, edified by her example, concurred with her in every pious undertaking which she proposed,and his military victories served for the propagation of the Gospel in pagan lands. The twosovereigns labored concertedly for the reign of justice in all their domains, and for the happiness andwelfare of their subjects, constructing hospitals, churches and monasteries. Their three sons becameSaint Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne; Otto the Great, who succeeded his father as emperor ofGermany; and Henry, Duke of Bavaria. The two daughters married Louis d’Outremer, King ofFrance, and Hugh Capet, first of the Capetian race of French kings.

After twenty-three years of marriage God was pleased in the year 936 to call the king to Himself. Before his death, he thanked his worthy companion for having moderated his sometimes too-severejustice, and praised her in the presence of the entire court. Saint Mathilda persevered long in prayer,continuing her good works as before, but could not avoid the difficulties which jealousy ofsovereigns almost invariably provokes. She was successfully accused to her own son, Otto, ofconcealing great riches, and he caused guards to be posted around her, and he led his brother Henryinto his own error, to oblige her to leave the court. Without bitterness towards them, she tookrefuge elsewhere. Eventually Edith, wife of Otto, saw in the mortal illness threatening Henry, a signof God’s anger provoked by their conduct toward their mother, and recommended the return of SaintMathilda. Her sons begged her pardon with tears, and afterwards perfect understanding reignedbetween the mother and sons.

Henry died not long afterwards, and his mother thereafter retired almost completely from court lifeto concern herself with the care of prisoners, the poor and the sick, and the construction of a verylarge monastery for women at Nordhausen. Eventually she herself entered it, and on March 14, 968,after spending her final years in prayer and penance, she died lying on the floor, having spread ashesupon her head herself. She was venerated as a Saint immediately after her death.

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