Posted on 07/29/2009 11:25:56 PM PDT by GonzoII
July 30
Spiritual Bouquet: I am the vine, you are the branches. St. John 15:5
The emperor Decius, enemy of Christians, had defeated the king of Persia and become master of several countries over which he reigned. He had already condemned to torture and death Saint Polychrome, with five members of his clergy. Saint Abdon and Saint Sennen, illustrious Persian dignitaries of the third century whom the king of Persia had highly honored, were secretly Christian; it was they who had taken up the body of the martyred bishop, which had been cast contemptuously before a temple of Saturn, to bury it at night, with honor. The two royal officials, now fallen under the domination of Rome, were grieved to witness the emperor’s cruelty towards the faithful, and believed it their duty to make known their love for Jesus Christ; thus, without fear of their new sovereign, they undertook by all possible means to spread and fortify the faith, to encourage the confessors and bury the martyrs.
Decius, learning of their dedication, was extremely irritated. He sent for the two brothers to appear before his tribunal, and attempted to win them over to sacrifice to the gods, by appealing to his recent victory as a sign of their favor. The Saints replied, however, that this victory was not at all a proof of such power, since the unique true God, Creator of heaven and earth with His Son, Jesus Christ, gives victory to some and defeat to others, for reasons hidden in the designs of His providence. They said they could never adore any but Him, and Decius imprisoned them. Soon afterwards, when he learned of the death of the viceroy he had left to govern in his place at Rome, he returned to Rome and took his two captives with him to serve as splendid trophies of his Persian victory. In effect, these magistrates were wearing jewels and rich fabrics under their chains.
He arraigned them before the Senate, in whose presence they again testified to the divinity of Christ, saying they could adore no other. The next day they were flogged in the amphitheater; then two lions and four bears were released to devour them. But the beasts lay down at their feet and became their guardians, and no one dared approach for a time. Finally the prefect sent out gladiators to slay them with the sword, which with the permission of God was done. Their bodies remained three days without burial, but a subdeacon, who afterwards wrote their history, took them up and buried them on his own terrain.
Under Constantine the Great, their tombs were discovered by divine revelation and their relics reburied in the Pontian cemetery, which afterwards was called by their names. We see them in a picture of the catacombs, crowned by Our Lord Himself. Their glorious martyrdom occurred in the year 254.
Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 9.
Germanus, according to appearances, was not of outstanding piety during his youth, though of noble birth; his forebears were lords of the county of Auxerre in Gaul in the 5th century. He studied eloquence and civil law in Rome, and practiced law there with distinction. He married a Roman noblewoman and became known to the emperor Honorius, who made him general of the imperial troops for his native province.
Returning then to Auxerre, he indulged his passion for hunting, and when advised by Saint Amator, the bishop of Auxerre, that his habits were not edifying, paid no attention to the admonition. But God made known to this holy bishop his forthcoming death, and that Germanus was destined to succeed him. Saint Amator therefore went to see the Prefect of Gaul and asked his permission to have this soldier as a member of his clergy; and the permission was granted. He then tonsured Germanus and clothed him with the ecclesiastical habit, taking him by surprise during an assembly of the faithful, and informing him there that he was destined to be his successor. Germanus dared not resist, fearing to oppose the Will of God. He was consecrated soon afterwards, in the year 418.
He immediately became another man, and making over his lands to the Church, he adopted a life of humble penance. He rapidly attained high perfection, and the gift of miracles was given him. He attempted to conceal it, but it became known when he obliged the demon, during a public exorcism, to reveal the place where stolen money was concealed. Afterwards there was never a time when all the roads leading to his residence were not filled with crowds of sick persons, waiting to address the bishop and beg his assistance. Many possessed persons were also delivered. Invariably his modesty caused him to attribute the multiplying prodigies to the relics of Saints which he wore around his neck, or to the sign of the Cross, or to the holy water he sometimes used, or to oil which he blessed. The furious demons tormented him with temptations and terrifying apparitions, but found themselves powerless to disturb his peace.
At that time the Pelagian heresy was laying waste the British Isles, and Germanus was chosen by the reigning Pontiff to go and deliver the Britons from the snare of Satan. With Saint Lupus he preached in the fields and highways throughout the land. Eventually he met the heretics face to face in a public conference, where each party was given an opportunity to speak. When the heretics had defended their position, the two holy bishops answered with such force that their adversaries were reduced to silence, and the faithful rejoiced in the triumph of the Catholic faith. He also led the British people to their famous alleluia victory over the Saxons.
Germanus visited England a second time to combat the Pelagian heresy which was still sowing its errors. On this visit he established public schools in Great Britain, which afterwards alleviated the ignorance of the people and preserved them from error. He ordained priests and established an archbishop, and many Saints were formed in the schools which his successors continued to found. After pursuing his good works on behalf of the peoples of both his adopted and his native land, he died while in Italy, where he had succeeded in appeasing the anger of the emperor against some rebels in Britain. Miracles had accompanied him all along the route of his journey. His holy death occurred at Ravenna in the year 450, the 31st of his episcopal office.
Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 9; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).
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