"So the religion of the emperor is not true!"
"How can I regard that religion as true, and that worship as true which consists in men running howling about the streets like rabid dogs with raw flesh in their mouths."[83]
"Hang him up and scrape him," said the proconsul. So Basil was suspended by his wrists and ankles, and his flesh was torn with rakes. And as he suffered he cried, "Lord God of ages, I thank thee that I am deemed worthy to enter into the way of life through these torments, walking through which I may behold the heirs of thy promises!" Then he was taken down and cast into prison. And after that the proconsul sent to the emperor Julian, to announce what had taken place, and to ask further orders. Then the emperor sent three renegade Christians, and advised the proconsul to endeavour by all means to persuade and flatter Basil into apostasy. But though all efforts were used to shake his resolution they failed, and Basil remained in chains till Julian himself passed through Ancyra on his way east to the Persian war. Then Basil was summoned before the emperor, and Julian endeavoured to persuade him to conform to his religion, but the holy martyr blazed forth in righteous zeal against the apostate. "Thou renegade hast abdicated the throne prepared for thee in heaven," he said; "And verily I believe that Christ whom thou hast abjured will take thee and pluck thee out of thy dwelling, that thou mayest know how great is that God whom thou hast offended. Thou hast not thought of His judgments, nor venerated His altar where thou wast given salvation; thou hast not kept His law which often thou didst declare with thy lips; wherefore the great emperor Christ will not remember thee, but will take from thee speedily thy earthly empire, and thy body shall be deprived of a sepulchre, and thou shalt breathe forth thy soul in greatest anguish."
Then Julian ordered him to be taken away, and seven thongs to be cut daily from his skin. This command was given to Frumentinus, Count of the Squires (Comes Scutariorum.) And when this had been done, the martyr gathered up one of the strips of skin cut off him, in his hand, and besought that he might be conducted before the emperor. And as Frumentinus believed that he was about to make adjuration of his religion, he brought him into the council hall before Julian. Then he cried, "Dumb and deaf and blind are thy idols, Apostate! To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He is my helper in whom I trust, and for whom I suffer. Here is meat for thee, Julian!" and he flung the strip of skin in his face.
Then the count, alarmed at having occasioned this scene, by suffering Basil to return into the emperor's presence, hurried him out and cast him into prison. On the morrow Julian departed for Antioch, without having seen the count, who feared that he had fallen into disgrace, and therefore vented his spleen on the martyr. He had iron spikes heated red-hot, and Basil thrown upon them, so that they burnt into his bowels. But Basil prayed, "Christ is my light, and Jesus is my hope, a calm port in tempest. I give Thee thanks, Lord God of my fathers, because thou hast saved my soul from the abyss; keep Thy Name inviolate in me, and make me an heir of eternal quiet, for the promise made unto my fathers by the great High Priest, Jesus Christ, our Lord; through whom I pray Thee receive my spirit into peace, persevering in my confession; for Thou art merciful and long-suffering and full of compassion; who livest and abidest through ages of ages. Amen." And when he had ended his prayer, as one overcome with slumber, he ceased and gave up his spirit.
S. DEOGRATIAS, B. OF CARTHAGE.
(ABOUT A.D. 456.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority:—Victor of Utica. Hist. Persec. Vandalorum, lib. i.]
Carthage was taken by Genseric king of the Vandals in October, 439, and then began that fearful Arian persecution of the Catholics which almost surpassed those of the heathen emperors in horror. Bishop Quodvultdeus had been sent adrift along with his clergy in a broken vessel, and had been carried by the wind in safety to Naples. The church of Carthage was without a chief pastor for about fourteen years, till in 454, Deogratias was created bishop.
In 455, Genseric entered Rome, which he found undefended. Pope S. Leo met him at the gates and obtained from him that the city should not be burnt, nor should the inhabitants be massacred, but that the Vandal conquerors were to content themselves with the pillage. Rome was therefore pillaged deliberately during a fortnight, and then the Vandals retired carrying with them an immense treasure, amongst other things of value, the sacred vessels which Titus had taken from the temple of Jerusalem. They returned to Africa also encumbered with crowds of captives whom they sold to the Moors and amongst themselves. Wives were separated from their husbands, and children from their parents. The holy bishop, stirred to the depths of his soul by the misery that he saw, sold all the gold and silver vessels of the churches of Carthage, and spent the proceeds in redeeming those slaves whose cases were most urgent and distressing. And, because there was not found any other place sufficiently capacious to receive the ransomed multitude, he devoted to their accommodation the church of S. Fausta, and the new church, which he filled with straw and with beds. As there were many sick amongst this crowd, some who had suffered from sea-sickness, and others from the disorders consequent on being crowded together in small vessels, the holy prelate visited them at all hours, with medicines, and proper food, and ministered to their necessities with his own hands. He did not even rest at night, but walked up and down the churches visiting the beds, and seeing that order and comfort prevailed. The emergency gave the aged and decrepid man new strength. The Arians envious of his virtue, made several attempts on his life, but they failed. The labour and exhaustion consequent on this tax on his energies overcame him, and he died peaceably after having held the see only three years. He was secretly buried, whilst the Catholics were engaged in their churches at prayer, for fear lest the people, who loved him as a father, should carry off his revered body. After his death Genseric forbade the ordination of bishops in the whole proconsular province and in Zeugitania, where there were as many as sixty-four. Thus, by deaths and imprisonment, the number of Catholic bishops in thirty years was reduced to three.