S. NESTOR, B. M.
(A.D. 251.)
[Roman Martyrology, the ancient one called S. Jerome's, those of Bede, Ado, Usuardus, Notker, &c. By the Greeks on Feb. 28th. Authority:—The ancient and genuine Acts.]
IN the reign of Decius, Pollio was governor of Pamphylia. When persecution broke out, Nestor, bishop of Magida, an obscure town in that province, knowing that he was particularly feared by the pagans, and that the first stroke was sure to fall upon him, ordered his flock to disperse into places of safety, and then calmly awaited the officers of justice. They found him in prayer, and led him forth with his head covered with a hood (mafortium). And when he came into the forum, he was honourably received, all the court rising and saluting him. He said, "God pardon you, why have you done this?" They answered, "Thy manner of life is deserving of respect." Then he was taken apart from the public, and stools were placed for the magistrates and his advocates, and a chair for the bishop, and he was requested to sit down. He replied, "The honour of being summoned into your presence suffices me." Then the Irenarch said, "Sir, dost thou know the order of the emperor?" "I know the command of the Almighty, not that of the emperor," was the reply of the Bishop. "O Nestor," said the magistrate, "consent without difficulty, that we be not called to judge thee." "I obey the commands of the heavenly King," answered Nestor. "Thou art possessed," said the magistrate. "Nay," said the bishop, "not I, but thou, for thy gods are devils." "I shall have to send thee to the governor," said the Irenarch, "for they are true gods. Beware of torture." Then Nestor signing the cross on his brow, said, "Wherefore dost thou threaten me with torture? The only torments I dread are those of my God. Be well assured, in torture, or out of torture, Him shall I confess."
Then he was taken to Perga, where was the governor of the province, which he reached on the fourth Sabbath (Saturday.) And when the Irenach had presented him to Pollio the governor, Nestor was again urged with kind and courteous words to renounce his religion; but he as constantly refused. "Torment me as thou wilt," said he, "with chains or wild beasts, or sword, as long as there is any breath in my nostrils, I will confess the name of my Lord Jesus Christ." Then the judge ordered him to be suspended on the little horse, and to be cruelly tortured. The executioner laid his sides bare, tearing them with iron hooks; but Nestor chanted, "I will alway give thanks unto the Lord: his praise shall ever be in my mouth." (Ps. xxxiii.; (A. V. 34) 1.) The judge, astonished at his endurance, exclaimed, "Why, wretched man! art thou not ashamed to put thy faith in a man, and he short-lived?" "Let that be my confusion, and that also of all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus," answered the martyr. And when the crowd clamoured that he should be released from his sufferings, the governor asked again, "What, then, is thy final choice, to be with us, or with thy Christ?" Then the martyr exclaimed, "With my Christ have I ever been, with Him am I now, and with Him shall I ever be." Seeing his inflexibility, Pollio said scornfully, "Nestor, as thou hast rejected the immortal gods to follow the crucified One, I will not be so wanting in devotion to this God of thine, as to condemn thee to any other death. Thou shalt be crucified on the wood."
Then a cross was made ready, and Nestor, the bishop, was nailed to it. And as he hung, he exhorted the people, and at length he bid them kneel and pray to God through Jesus Christ; and all knelt, and when he had said the final Amen, he breathed forth his spirit.
S. DIONYSIUS, B. OF AUGSBURG, M.
(A.D. 303.)
[German Martyrology. No trustworthy authorities for his life and acts. The following account is from the Augsburg Breviary.]
Dionysius, together with his sister Hilaria, (August 12th), her daughter Afra, (August 7th), and the rest of his family, was converted and baptized by S. Narcissus the bishop, afterwards chief pastor of the Church of Gerona, in Spain, (March 18th.) As Narcissus was obliged to leave the little band of Christians at Augsburg, he instructed, and then ordained, Dionysius to be their priest, or, as some writers assert, their bishop. Thus Dionysius became the spiritual father of a little family of true believers, and was called to encourage them during the fiery trial of persecution. He saw his sister Hilaria, and her daughter Afra, glorify God by martyrdom. Knowing that his own turn had come, he fortified himself with the Holy Sacrament, yielded himself into the hands of those who sought his life, and dying a martyr's death, gained the crown and palm.
The relics of this saint, who is reckoned the first bishop of Augsburg, together with those of Quiriacus, were discovered in the year 1118, and were translated by the abbot Egino to the Church of S. Ulrich, in Augsburg, and enclosed in an altar. Later, in the year 1258, Hartmann, bishop of Augsburg, opened this altar, and placed them, on 26th Feb., in a new altar, dedicated to SS. Dionysius and Quiriacus, and he ordered that this day should be observed as the festival of S. Dionysius. The Church of Augsburg honours him as her first bishop, though the episcopal see of Augsburg was not regularly constituted till 250 years later, when Sosimus became the first of a succession of prelates which from that time to the present has not failed.