Saint Saturninus, martyr
Bishop of Toulouse
November 29
257 A.D.
Saint Saturninus went from Rome by the direction of Pope Fabian, about the year 245, to preach the faith in Gaul, where St. Trophimus, the first Bishop of Arles, had some time before gathered a plentiful harvest. In the year 250, St. Saturninus established his episcopal see at Toulouse, where he converted a great number of idolaters by his preaching and miracles, according to Fortunatus. This is about all that is known about St. Satruninus until his holy martyrdom.
It was fifty years after his death that his act were recorded to paper. It is written that he assembled his flock in a small church; and that the capitol, which was the chief temple in the city, lay in the way of the church and the saint’s dwelling. In this temple oracles were given, but the devils were struck dumb in the presence of the saint as he passed that way.
One day as the saint was passing by, the priests spied him and dragged him into the temple declaring that he should appease the dieties with sacrifices or expiate the crime with his blood. Saturninus boldly replied, “I adore only one God, and to Him I am ready to offer a sacrifice of praise. Your gods are devils, and are more delighted with the sacrifices of your souls than those of your bullocks. How can I fear them who, as you acknowledge, tremble before Christians?”
The infidels, incensed by this reply, abused the saint with all the rage that a mad zeal could muster, and after a great variety of indignation, tied his feet to a wild bull, which was brought to them to be sacrificed. The beast was driven from the temple and ran violently down the hill, so that the martyr’s skull was broken, and his brains dashed out.
His happy soul was released from the body by death, and fled to the kingdom of peace and glory, and the bull continued to drag the sacred body, and the limbs and blood were scattered on every side, till the cord broke. What remained of the trunk was left in the plain outside the city gates.
Two devout women laid the sacred remains on a bier and hid them in a deep ditch to secure them from any further insult, where they lay in a wooden coffin until the reign of Constantine the Great. Then, Hilary, Bishop of Toulouse, built a small chapel over his holy predecessor’s body. Silvius, bishop of that city, toward the close of the fourth century, began to build a magnificent church in honor of the martyr, which was finished and consecrated by his successor, Exuperius, who, with great pomp and piety, translated the venerable relics into it. This precious treasure remains there to this day with due honor. The martyrdom of this saint probably happened during the reign of Valerion in 257.
In the spirit of the primitive apostles of nations we see what that of a true disciple of Christ ought to be. What was a Christian in those happy times of fervor? He was a man penetrated with the most lively sentiments of his own nothingness; yet courageous and magnanimous in his humility; disengaged from and raised above the world; crucified to his senses, and dead to himself; having no interest but that of Jesus Christ; mild, affable, patient, full of tenderness and charity for others, burning with zeal for religion, always ready to fly to the remotest parts of the globe to carry the light of the gospel to infidels, or to die with the martyrs in defense of the divine truth. Such a spirit and such a life, is something far greater and more astonishing than any signs of external miracles.
November 29 2008 | The Other Saints | No Comments »
Saint Leonard, Hermit, C.
November 6
St. Leonard or Lienard, was a French nobleman of great reputation in the court of Clovis I, and in the flower of his age was converted to the faith by St. Remigius, probably after the battle of Tolbiac. Being instructed in the obligations of our heavenly warfare, the prize of the victory being assured a crown of immortal glory, Leonard resolved to put aside all worldly pursuits, left his position in the court, and became a constant disciple of St. Remigius. The holy instructions of that saint made every day deeper impressions on his tender soul, and Leonard seemed to have inherited the very spirit of his master, and to be animated with the same simplicity, disinterestedness, modesty, zeal and charity.
Leonard preached for some time but found it increasingly difficult to resist the king’s importunities calling him back to the court. His desire was to give himself entirely to the exercise of penance and contemplation and retired privately to the monastery of Micy governed by St. Mesmin (Maximin) in the territory of Orleans. Here he took the religious habit and lived under the direction of St. Mesimin and St. Lie (Laetus).
St. Leonard himself aspiring after a closer solitude, with the permission of St. Mesimin left his monastery, traveling through Berry, where he converted many idolaters, and coming into Lisousin, chose for his retirement the forest four leagues from Limoges. After building himself an oratory in a placed Nobiliac, he lived on wild herbs and fruits, and for some time had no other witness of his penances and virtues but God alone. His ardent zeal and devotion sometimes carried him to neighboring churches, and some who by his discourses were inflamed with a desire of imitating his way of life, joined him in his desert, and formed a community. As time passed, out of devotion to the saint’s memory, they became a flourishing monastery called Noblat, and afterwards St. Leonard le Noblat.
The reputation of his sanctity and miracles being spread very wide, the king bestowed on him and his fellow hermits a considerable part of the forest where they lived. The saint even before he retired to Micy, had been most remarkable for his charity toward captives and prisoners, and laid himself out with unwearied zeal in affording them both corporal and spiritual help and comfort. He also gained for many freedom. This became the favorite object of his charity. It is related that some were miraculously delivered from their chains by his prayers, and that the king, out of respect for his eminent sanctity, granted Leonard a special privilege of sometimes setting prisoners free; which at that time was allowed by certain holy bishops and others.
But the saint’s chief aim in this charitable endeavour was to bring malefactors and all persons who fell under this affliction, to a true sense of the enormity of their sins, and a sincere spirit of compunction and penance, and a prefect reformation of their lives.
When he had filled up the measure of his good works, his labors were crowned with a happy death about the year 559, according to the New Paris Breviary.
In a list of holidays published at Worchester, in 1240, St. Loenard’s festival is ordered to be kept a half-holiday, with the obligation of hearing Mass, and prohibition of labor except the plough. He was particularly invoked in favor of prisoners, and several miracles are ascribed to him. His name occurs in the Roman and other Martyrologies.
Solitude has always charms to the devout servant of God, because retirement from the world is very serviceable to conversing with heaven.This appears from the practice of the Nazarites, prophets, and devout persons in the old law, and from that of Christ and all the saints in the new. Isaac went out into a field when he would meditate; and when Moses met God, it was in the desert. Solitude and silence settle and compose the thoughts; the mind augments its strength and vigor by rest and collection with in itself, and in this state of serenity is most fit to reflect upon itself and its own wants, and to contemplate the mysteries of divine grace and love, the joys of heaven and the grounds of our hope. How shall a Christian who lives in the world practice this retirement? By not loving its spirit and maxims, by being as recollected as may be in the midst of business, and bearing always in mind that salvation is the most important and only affair; by shunting superfluous amusements and idle conversation and visits; and by consecrating every day some time, and a considerable part of Sundays and great festivals to the exercise of religious retirement, especially devout prayer, self-examination, meditatiion, and pious reading.
November 06 2008 | The Other Saints | No Comments »