Part 49 (2/2)
4. Haer. 78. c. 14.
5. Eus. l. 3, c. 5, Epiph. haer. 29, c. 7, haer. 30, c. 2.
6. L. de Pond. et Mensur. c. 15.
7. Demonst. l. 3, c. 5.
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SS. LEO AND PAREGORIUS, MARTYRS
From their ancient authentic acts in Ruinart, Bollandus, &c.
THIRD AGE.
ST. PAREGORIUS having spilt his blood for the faith at Patara, in Lycia, St. Leo, who had been a witness of his conflict, found his heart divided between joy for his friend's glorious victory, and sorrow to see himself deprived of the happiness of sharing in it. The proconsul of Asia being absent in order to wait on the emperors, probably Valerian and Galien, the governor of Lycia, residing at Patara, to show his zeal for the idols, published an order on the festival of Serapis, to oblige all to offer sacrifice to that false G.o.d. Leo seeing the heathens out of superst.i.tion, and some Christians out of fear, going in crowds to adore the idol, sighed within himself, and went to offer up his prayers to the true G.o.d, on the tomb of St. Paregorius, to which he pa.s.sed before the temple of Serapis, it lying in his way to the martyr's tomb. The heathens that were sacrificing in it knew him to be a Christian by his modesty. He had exercised himself from his childhood in the austerities and devotions of an ascetic life, and possessed, in an eminent degree, chast.i.ty, temperance, and all other virtues. His clothes were of a coa.r.s.e cloth made of camel's hair. Not long after his return home from the tomb of the martyr, with his mind full of the glorious exit of his friend, he fell asleep, and from a dream he had on that occasion, understood, when he awaked, that G.o.d called him to a conflict of the same kind with that of St. Paregorius, which filled him with inexpressible joy and comfort.
Wherefore, the next time he visited the martyr's tomb, instead of going to the place through by-roads, he went boldly through the market-place, and by the Tychaeaum, or temple of Fortune, which he saw illuminated with lanterns. He pitied their blindness; and, being moved with zeal for the honor of the true G.o.d, he made no scruple to break as many of the lanterns as were within reach, and trampled on the tapers in open view, saying: ”Let your G.o.ds revenge the injury if they are able to do it.”
The priest of the idol having raised the populace, cried out: ”Unless this impiety be punished, the G.o.ddess Fortune will withdraw her protection from the city.” An account of this affair soon reached the ears of the governor, who ordered the saint to be brought before him, and on his appearance addressed him in this manner; ”Wicked wretch, thy sacrilegious action surely bespeaks thee either ignorant of the immortal G.o.ds, or downright mad, in flying in the face of our most divine emperors, whom we justly regard as secondary deities and saviours.” The martyr replied with great calmness: ”You are under a great mistake, in supposing a plurality of G.o.ds; there is but one, who is the G.o.d of heaven and earth, and who does not stand in need of being wors.h.i.+pped after that gross manner that men wors.h.i.+p idols. The most acceptable sacrifice we can offer him is that of a contrite and humble heart.”
”Answer to your indictment,” said the governor, ”and don't preach your Christianity. I thank the G.o.ds, however, that they have not suffered you to lie concealed after such a sacrilegious attempt. Choose therefore either to sacrifice to them, with those that are here present, or to suffer the punishment due to your impiety.” The martyr said: ”The fear of torments shall never draw me from my duty. I am ready to suffer all you shall inflict. All your tortures cannot reach beyond death. Eternal life is not to be attained but by the way of tribulations; the scripture accordingly {430} informs us, _that narrow is the way that leads to life_.” ”Since you own the way you walk in is narrow,” said the governor, ”exchange it for ours, which is broad and commodious.” ”When I called it narrow,” said the martyr, ”this was only because it is not entered without difficulty, and that its beginnings are often attended with afflictions and persecutions for justice sake. But being once entered, it is not difficult to keep in it by the practice of virtue, which helps to widen it and render it easy to those that persevere in it, which has been done by many.”
The mult.i.tude of Jews and Gentiles cried out to the judge to silence him. But he said, he allowed him liberty of speech, and even offered him his friends.h.i.+p if he would but sacrifice. The confessor answered: ”You seem to have forgot what I just before told you, or you would not have urged me again to sacrifice. Would you have me acknowledge for a deity that which has nothing in its nature of divine?” These last words put the governor in a rage, and he ordered the saint to be scourged. While the executioners were tearing his body unmercifully, the judge said to him: ”This is nothing to the torments I am preparing for you. If you would have me stop here, you must sacrifice.” Leo said: ”O judge, I will repeat to you again what I have so often told you: I own not your G.o.ds, nor will I ever sacrifice to them.” The judge said: ”Only say the G.o.ds are great, and I will discharge you. I really pity your old age.” Leo answered: ”If I allow them that t.i.tle, it can only be with regard to their power of destroying their wors.h.i.+ppers.” The judge in a fury said: ”I will cause you to be dragged over rocks and stones, till you are torn to pieces.” Leo said: ”Any kind of death is welcome to me, that procures me the kingdom of heaven, and introduces me into the company of the blessed.” The judge said: ”Obey the edict, and say the G.o.ds are the preservers of the world, or you shall die.” The martyr answered: ”You do nothing but threaten: why don't you proceed to effects?” The mob began to be clamorous, and the governor, to appease them, was forced to p.r.o.nounce sentence on the saint, which was, that he should be tied by the feet, and dragged to the torrent, and there executed; and his orders were immediately obeyed in a most cruel manner. The martyr being upon the point of consummating his sacrifice, and obtaining the accomplishment of all his desires, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, prayed thus aloud: ”I thank thee, O G.o.d, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for not suffering me to be long separated from thy servant Paregorius. I rejoice in what has befallen me as the means of expiating my past sins. I commend my soul to the care of thy holy angels, to be placed by them where it will have nothing to fear from the judgments of the wicked. But thou, O Lord, who willest not the death of a sinner, but his repentance, grant them to know thee, and to find pardon for their crimes, through the merits of thy only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
He no sooner repeated the word Amen, together with an act of thanksgiving, but he expired. His executioners then took the body and cast it down a great precipice into a deep pit; and notwithstanding the fall, it seemed only to have received a few slight bruises. The very place which was before a frightful precipice, seemed to have changed its nature; and the acts say, no more dangers or accidents happened in it to travellers. The Christians took up the martyr's body, and found it of a lively color, and entire, and his face appeared comely and smiling; and they buried it in the most honorable manner they could. The Greeks keep his festival on the 18th of February.
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FEBRUARY XIX.
ST. BARBATUS, OR BARBAS, C.
BISHOP OF BENEVENTO.
From his two authentic lives in Bollandus, t. 3, Febr. p. 139. See Ugh.e.l.li, Italia Sacra, t. 8, p. l3.
A.D. 682.
ST. BARBATUS was born in the territory of Benevento, in Italy, towards the end of the pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, in the beginning of the seventh century. His parents gave him a Christian education, and Barbatus in his youth laid the foundation of that eminent sanct.i.ty which recommends him to our veneration. Devout meditation on the holy scriptures was his chief entertainment; and the innocence, simplicity, and purity of his manners, and extraordinary progress in all virtues, qualified him for the service of the altar, to which he was a.s.sumed by taking holy orders as soon as the canons of the church would allow it.
He was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching, for which he had an extraordinary talent; and, after some time, made curate of St.
Basil's, in Morcona, a town near Benevento. His paris.h.i.+oners were steeled in their irregularities, and averse from whatever looked like establis.h.i.+ng order and discipline among them. As they desired only to slumber on in their sins, they could not bear the remonstrances of their pastor, who endeavored to awake them to a sense of their miseries, and to sincere repentance: they treated him as a disturber of their peace, and persecuted him with the utmost violence. Finding their malice conquered by his patience and humility, and his character s.h.i.+ning still more bright, they had recourse to slanders, in which, such was their virulence and success, that he was obliged to withdraw his charitable endeavors among them. By these fiery trials, G.o.d purified his heart from all earthly attachments, and perfectly crucified it to the world.
Barbatus returned to Benevento, where he was received with joy by those who were acquainted with his innocence and sanct.i.ty. The seed of Christianity had been first sown at Benevento by St. Potin, who is said to have been sent thither by St. Peter, and is looked upon as the first bishop of this see. We have no names of his successors till St.
Januarius, by whom this church was exceedingly increased, and who was honored with the crown of martyrdom in 305. Totila, the Goth, laid the city of Benevento in ruins, in 545. The Lombards having possessed themselves of that country, repaired it, and king Autharis gave it to Zotion, a general among those invaders, with the t.i.tle of a duchy, about the year 598, and his successors governed it, as sovereign dukes, for several ages. These Lombards were at that time chiefly Arians; but among them there remained many idolaters, and several at Benevento had embraced the Catholic faith, even before the death of St. Gregory the Great, with their duke Arichis, a warm friend of that holy pope. But when St. Barbatus entered upon his ministry in that city, the Christians themselves retained many idolatrous superst.i.tions, which even their duke, or prince Romuald, authorized by his example, though son of Grimoald, king of the Lombards, who had edified all Italy by his conversion. They expressed a religious veneration to a golden viper, and prostrated themselves before it: they paid also a superst.i.tious honor to a tree, on which they hung {432} the skin of a wild beast, and these ceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulder. St. Barbatus preached zealously against these abuses, and labored long to no purpose: yet desisted not, but joined his exhortations with fervent prayer and rigorous fasting, for the conversion of this unhappy people. At length he roused their attention by foretelling the distress of their city, and the calamities which it was to suffer from the army of the emperor Constans, who, landing soon after in Italy, laid siege to Benevento. In their extreme distress, and still more grievous alarms and fears, they listened to the holy preacher, and, entering into themselves, renounced their errors and idolatrous practices. Hereupon St. Barbatus gave them the comfortable a.s.surance that the siege should be raised, and the emperor worsted: which happened as he had foretold. Upon their repentance, the saint with his own hand cut down the tree which was the object of their superst.i.tion, and afterwards melted down the golden viper which they adored, of which he made a chalice for the use of the altar. Ildebrand, bishop of Benevento, dying during the siege, after the public tranquillity was restored, St. Barbatus was consecrated bishop on the 10th of March, 653; for this see was only raised to the archiepiscopal dignity by pope John XIII., about the year 965. Barbatus, being invested with the episcopal character, pursued and completed the good work which he had so happily begun, and destroyed every trace or the least remain of superst.i.tion in the prince's closet, and in the whole state. In the year 680 he a.s.sisted in a council held by pope Agatho at Rome, and the year following in the sixth general council held at Constantinople against the Monothelites. He did not long survive this great a.s.sembly, for he died on the 29th of February, 682, being about seventy years old, almost nineteen of which he had spent in the episcopal chair. He is named in the Roman Martyrology, and honored at Benevento among the chief patrons of that city.
Many sinners are moved by alarming sensible dangers or calamities to enter into themselves, on whom the terrors of the divine judgment make very little impression. The reason can only be a supine neglect of serious reflection, and a habit of considering them only transiently, and as at a distance; for it is impossible for any one who believes these great truths, if he takes a serious review of them, and has them present to his mind, to remain insensible: transient glances effect not a change of heart. Among the pretended conversions which sickness daily produces, very few bear the characters of sincerity, as appears by those who, after their recovery, live on in their former lukewarmness and disorders.[1] St. Austin, in a sermon which he made upon the news that Rome had been sacked by the barbarians, relates,[2] that not long before, at Constantinople, upon the appearance of an unusual meteor, and a rumor of a pretended prediction that the city would be destroyed by fire from heaven, the inhabitants were seized with a panic fear, all began to do penance like Ninive, and fled, with the emperor at their head, to a great distance from the city. After the term appointed for its pretended destruction was elapsed, they sent scouts to the city, which they had left quite empty, and, hearing that it was still standing, returned to it, and with their fears forgot their repentance and all their good resolutions. To prevent the danger of penitents imposing upon themselves by superficial conversions, St. Barbatus took all necessary precautions to improve their {433} first dispositions to a sincere and perfect change of heart, and to cut off and remove all dangerous occasions of temptations.
Footnotes: 1. The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be; The devil was well, the devil no monk was he.
2. S. Aug. Serm. de Excidio Urbis, c. 6, t. 6, p. 627, ed. Ben.
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