St. Paul never recalled to mind this his wonderful conversion, without raptures of gratitude and praise to the divine mercy. The church, in thanksgiving to God for such a miracle of his grace, from which it has derived such great blessings, and to commemorate so miraculous an instance of his almighty power, and to propose to penitents a perfect model of a true conversion, has instituted this festival, which we find mentioned in several calendars and missals of the eighth and ninth centuries, and which pope Innocent III. commanded to be observed with great solemnity. It was for some time kept a holy day of obligation in most churches in the West; and we read it mentioned as such in England in the council of Oxford in 1222, in the reign of king Henry III.[18]
Footnotes: 1. Acts, xxi. 29, xxii. 3. 2. Ibid. xxii. 3. 3. Ibid. xxvi. 4. 4. Ibid. xxvi. 5. 5. Rabbi Juda says, "That a parent, who neglects his duty, is as criminal as if he taught his son to steal." See Grotius and Sanctius on Acts xviii. 3. 6. These tents were for the use of soldiers and mariners, and were made of skins sewn together. {} think that his business was that of making tapestry and hangings for theatres. 7. Gal. i. 14. 8. Serm. 301. 9. Ibid. l. 16, c. 4. Acts, vi. 10. Acts, viii. 3, xxii. 4, xxvi. 10. 11. Acts, xxvi. 9. 12. Heb. x. 32. 13. Acts, x. 1. 14. Acts, ix. xiii. xxvi. 15. So the Greek word [Greek: akoein] is often used in scripture, as in J{} xiv. 2. And thus the text is very reconcilable with Acts. xxii. 9. 16. Qu. Evang. l. 2, c. 40, et præf. 1, de doctr. Christ. p. 32. 17. St. Austin doubts not but Ananias was a bishop, or at least a priest. The Greeks give him a place in their calendar on the 1st of October, and style him bishop of Damascus and martyr. 18. Conc. Labbe, t. xi. p. 274.
SS. JUVENTINUS AND MAXIMINUS, MARTYRS.
From the elegant panegyric of St. Chrysostom, t. 2, p. 578, ed. Montf., and from Theodoret, Hist. l. 3, c. 11.
A.D. 363.
THESE martyrs were two officers of distinction in the foot-guards of Julian the Apostate.[1] When that tyrant was on his march against the Persians, they let fall at table certain free reflections on his impious laws against the Christians, wishing rather for death than to see the profanation {220} of holy things. The emperor, being informed of this, sent for them, and finding that they could not be prevailed upon by any means to retract what they had said, nor to sacrifice to idols, he confiscated their estates, caused them to be cruelly scourged, and, some days after, to be beheaded in prison at Antioch, January the 25th, 363. The Christians, with the hazard of their lives, stole away their bodies, and after the death of Julian, who was slain in Persia on the 26th of June following, erected for them a magnificent tomb. On their festival St. Chrysostom pronounced their panegyric, in which he says of these martyrs: "They support the church as pillars, defend it as towers, and repel all assaults as rocks. Let us visit them frequently, let us touch their shrine, and embrace their relics with confidence, that we may obtain from thence some benediction. For as soldiers, showing to the king the wounds which they have received in his battles, speak with confidence, so they, by an humble representation of their past sufferings for Christ, obtain whatever they ask of the King of heaven."[2]
Footnotes:
1. Julian, surnamed the Apostate, rebelled against Constantius, his
cousin-german, in the spring, in 360, and by his death, in November,
361, obtained the empire. He was one of the most infamous
dissemblers that ever lived. Craft, levity, inconstancy, falsehood,
want of judgment, and an excessive vanity, discovered themselves in
all his actions, and appear in his writings, namely, his epistles,
his satire called Misopogon, and his lives of the Cæsars. He wrote
the last work to censure all the former emperors, that he might
appear the only great prince: for a censorious turn is an effect of
vanity and pride. He was most foolishly superstitious, and
exceedingly fond of soothsayers and magicians. After the death of
Constantius, he openly professed idolatry, and by besmearing himself
with the blood of impious victims, pretended to efface the character
of baptism. He was deceived in almost every step by ridiculous
omens, oracles, and augurs, as may be seen in his heathen historian,
Ammianus Marcellinus, (b. 22.) Maximus, the magician, and others of
that character, were his chief confidants. He endeavored, by the
black art, to rival the miracles of Christ, though he effected
nothing. He disqualified Christians from bearing offices in the
state; he forbade them to teach either rhetoric of philosophy, that
he might deprive them of the advantages of human literature, a thing
condemned by Ammianus himself. He commanded, by an edict, that they
should be no longer called Christians, but Galileans, and though he
pretended to toleration, he destroyed more souls by recompenses,
caresses, and strategems, than he could have done by cruelties. He
levied heavy fines and seized the estates of Christians, saying, in
raillery, that he did it to oblige them to follow the gospel, which
recommends poverty. He often put them to death, but secretly, and on
other pretences, that he might deprive them of the honor of
martyrdom: which artifice might have its influence on philosophers,
the lovers of vanity; but not on the servants of God, who desired to
be known to him alone, and to suffer, regardless of the applause of
men, as St. Gregory Nazianzen observes. (Or. 3, in Julian.) That
father, when he knew him a student at Athens, in 355, prognosticated
(Or. 4, in Julian, p. 122) from his light carriage, wandering eye,
haughty look, impertinent questions, and foolish answers, what a
monster the Roman empire was fostering and breeding up. In his march
to his Persian expedition, he was made a subject of mockery and
ridicule at Antioch, on account of his low stature, gigantic gait,
great goat's beard, and bloody sacrifices. In answer to which, he
wrote his Misopogon, or Beardhater, a low and insipid satire. He
everywhere threatened the Christians upon his return from the
Persian war. The oracles of Delos, Delphos, Dodona, and others,
promised him victories, as Theodoret, St. Gregory Nazianzen,
Philostorgius, and Libanius himself, (Libanius, Or. 12,) a heath,
and the chief favorite of Julian, testify: all the pagan deities
wherever he passed, gave him the like assurances, as he himself
writes (Julian, ep. 2.) But in Persia he rashly ventured into wilds
and deserts, with an army of sixty-five thousand men, where he was
defeated and slain in June, 363. Ammianus, who was then in the army,
only says that he was mortally wounded in the battle, and died in
his tent the same day, before noon. Theodoret, Sozomen, and the acts
of St. Theodoret the martyr, say, that finding himself wounded, he
threw up a handful of blood towards heaven, crying out: "Thou hast
conquered, O Galilean, thou hast conquered." It was revealed to many
holy hermits, that God cut him off to give peace to his church.
2. Hom. in SS. Juv. et Max. t. 2, p. 583.
ST. PROJECTUS, BISHOP OF CLERMONT, M.
CALLED AT LYONS ST. PRIEST, AT SENS ST. PREST, IN SAINT-ONGE ST. PREILS, AT PARIS AND IN PICARDY ST. PRIX.
THE episcopal see of Auvergne, which was founded by St. Austremonius, in the middle of the third century, has been honored with many holy bishops, of whom twenty-six are ranked among the saints. Of these the most eminent are St. Alidius, called in French Allyre, the fourth bishop, in 380, St. Sidonius Apollinaris in 482, St. Gallus in 656, St. Prix in 674, and St. Bont in 710. About the year 1160, the title of bishops of Auvergne was changed into that of Clermont, from the city of this name. St. Prix was a native of Auvergne, and trained up in the service of the church, under the care of St. Genesius, first archdeacon, afterwards bishop of Auvergne, and was well skilled in plain song, (which was esteemed in that age the first part of the science of a clergyman,) and in holy scriptures and church history. The parish of Issoire, and afterwards the nunnery, of Candedin, (now probably Chantoen, a convent of barefooted Carms,) were the chief theatres of his zeal, till about the year 666 he was called by the voice of the people, seconded by Childeric II., king of Austrasia, to the episcopal dignity, upon the death of Felix, bishop of Auvergne. Partly by his own ample patrimony, and partly by the great liberalities of Genesius, the holy count of Auvergne, he was enabled to found several monasteries, churches, and hospitals; so that all distressed persons in his extensive diocese were provided for, and a spirit of fervor in the exercises of religion, and all Christian virtues, reigned in all parts. This was the fruit of the unwearied and undaunted zeal, assiduous sermons and exhortations, and the admirable example and sanctity of the holy prelate; whose learning, eloquence, and piety, are exceedingly extolled by the two historians of his life. The saint, on his road to the court of king Childeric, whither he was going for the affairs of his diocese, restored to health St. Damarin, or Amarin, a holy abbot of a monastery in the mountains of Voge, who was afterwards martyred with him. This king caused Hector, the patrician of Marseilles, whom the saint had severely rebuked for having ravished a young lady of Auvergne, a rich heiress, and having unjustly usurped considerable estates belonging to his church, to be put to death for this rape and other crimes. One Agritius, imputing his death to the complaints carried to the king by St. Prix, in revenge {221} stirred up many persons against the holy prelate, and with twenty armed men met the bishop as he returned from court, at Volvic, two leagues from Clermont, and first slew the abbot St. Damarin, whom the ruffians mistook for the bishop. St. Prix, perceiving their design, courageously presented himself to them, and was stabbed in the body by a Saxon named Radbert. The saint, receiving this wound, said, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, for they know not what they do." Another of the assassins clove his head with a back-sword, and scattered his brains. This happened in 674, on the 25th of January. The veneration which the Gallican churches paid to the memory of this martyr began from the time of his death. His name was added to the calendar in the copies of the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, which were transcribed in France, and churches were erected under his invocation in almost every province of that kingdom. The principal part of his relics remain in the abbey of Flavigny, whither they were carried about the year 760. Some portions are kept in the abbey of St. Prix at St. Quintin's, of the congregation of Cluni; another in the priory of St. Prix near Bethune, and in certain other places. See the two lives of St. Prix, the first written by one who was acquainted with him, the other by one of the same age, both extant in Bollandus, pp. 628, 636, and in Mabillon Act. Ben. t. 1, pp. 642, 650.