The example of these martyrs condemns the sloth with which many Christians in this age celebrate the Lord's Day. When the judge asked them, how they durst presume to hold their assembly against the imperial orders, they always repeated, even on the rack: "The obligation of the Sunday is indispensable. It is not lawful for us to omit the duty of that day. We celebrated it as well as we could. We never passed a Sunday without meeting at our assembly. We will keep the commandments of God at the expense of our lives." No dangers nor torments could deter them from this duty. A rare example of fervor in keeping that holy precept, from which too many, upon lame pretences, seek to excuse themselves. As the Jew was known by the religious observance of the Sabbath, so is the true Christian by his manner of celebrating the Sunday. And as our law is more holy and more perfect than the Jewish, so must be our manner of sanctifying the Lord's Day. This is the proof of our religion, and of our piety towards God. The primitive Christians kept this day in the most holy manner, assembling to public prayer in dens and caves, knowing that, "without this religious observance, a man cannot be a Christian," to use the expression of an ancient father.
Footnotes:
1. These were, by laying her head on the altar to offer it to God, and
all her life after wearing her hair long as the ancient Nazarenes
did: (Act. p. 417. St. Optatas, l. 6. S. Ambr. ad Virg. c. 8.)
Whereas the ceremony of this consecration in Egypt and Syria was for
the virgin to cut off her hair in the presence of a priest.
(Bulteau, Hist. Mon. p. 170.)
ST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT OF AGAUNUM.
From his ancient short life, in Mabillon App. Sæc. l. Ben. The additions in Surius and Bollandus are too modern. See Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrol., p. 618.
A.D. 507.
ST. SEVERINUS, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that country. He forsook the world in his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the monastery of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, till the Catholic king Sigismund, son and successor to the Arian Gondebald, who then reigned in Burgundy, built there the great abbey of St. Maurice. St. Severinus was the holy abbot of that place, and had governed his community many years in the exercise of penance and charity, when, in 504, Clovis, the first Christian kin; of France, lying ill of a fever, which his physicians had for two years ineffectually endeavored to remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct him to court; for he heard how the sick from all parts recovered their health by his prayers. St. Severinus took leave of his monks, telling them he should never see them more in this world. On his journey he healed Eulalius, bishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb, also a leper at the gates of Paris; and coming to the palace, he immediately restored the king to perfect health, by putting on him his own cloak. The king in gratitude distributed large alms to the poor, and released all his prisoners.[1] St. Severinus returning towards Agaunum, stopped at Chateau-Landon, in Gatinois, where two priests served God in a solitary chapel, among whom he was admitted, at his request, as a stranger, and was soon greatly admired by them for his sanctity. He foresaw his death, which happened shortly after, in 507. The place is now an abbey of reformed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scattered the greatest part of his relics, when they plundered this church. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, and a large parish in Paris takes its name from this saint, not from the hermit who was St. Cloud's master.
Footnotes: 1. {Footnote not in text} See Le Boeuf, Hist. du Diocèse de Paris, t. 1, p. 151, 157, and Le Fevre, Calend. Hist de Paris, p. 40{}.
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