A Time for Martyrs

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

   We live in a time of martyrs in the name of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. In so many parts of the world Christians are dying for their faith. Many are killed unexpectedly by bombs and sudden attacks, perhaps not being able to say, "I give my life willingly for Thee, O Lord." Others are told to worship a false god or be killed. They have the opportunity to rebuke their tormentors and die for Christ. Many have done so and more will.

   Throughout the Church's liturgical year, many days are devoted to saints from the earliest days of the Church. So many in those first centuries were martyrs, willing, even glad to lose their lives for Christ. I noticed that during the last days of January, there are many martyrs remembered in Holy Mass for the anniversary of their martyrdom.  Here are a few.

January 19: SS. Marius, Martha, Audifax and Abachum, Persian nobles who had come to Rome to visit the tombs of SS Peter and Paul. They were cast into prison, tortured, and martyred in 270 A.D.

January 20: St. Fabian, Pope, and St. Sebastian. St. Fabian was put to death under Decius in the year 230 A.D. St. Sebastian, an officer of the imperial cohort was first pierced with arrows, but survived, later to be flogged to death during the reign of Diocletian in 284 A.D.

January 21: St. Agnes, a noble and virgin was beheaded at age 13 when she refused to marry the son of the prefect of Rome. She had consecrated herself to Our Lord at age 10. Her tormentors first tried to take her virginity from her but were not able. They threw her into a fire and she was preserved. When she was to be beheaded she said to the executioner, "Strike without fear, for the bride does her spouse an injury if she makes him wait." The example she gave in her youth and weakness was honored by a basilica erected in her name in Rome. She died about the year 304 A.D.

January 22: SS Vincent and Anastasius. Vincent was a deacon of Saragossa and Anastasius a monk of Persia. Vincent, under Diocletian in the year 308 A.D., was burned over hot coals, as was St. Laurence before him. Anastasius was cruelly tortured and beheaded in 628 A.D. under Chosroes.

January 24: St. Timothy, a disciple of St. Paul, and to whom Paul wrote letters (Epistles) read in the liturgy, was stoned to death in Ephesus, where he served as Bishop.

January 26: St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John, and whom St. John made Bishop of Smyrna, lived to the old age of 86, but was martyred under Commodus in 166 A.D. He had written a letter to the Philippians in which he quoted St. John, that whoever "does not confess that Christ has come in the flesh is an anti-Christ." He defended against heresy, the fact that Jesus was Son of God.

I'll end this list of martyrs with February 1: St. Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius was a disciple of St John and was third successor of St. Peter at Antioch. He was condemned to the lions under Trajan. He said, "Let fire, cross, beasts, and all the torments of the devil come upon me, as long as I enjoy Jesus Christ." St. Ignatius was the first to refer to the Church as "Catholic," meaning universal, Christ's church to be spread throughout the world. He wrote many letters which affirm the Faith and are precious documents.  When he heard the roar of the lions he said," I am the wheat of Jesus Christ: may I be ground by the fangs of wild beasts and become a bread agreeable to my Lord Jesus Christ."  The Gospel read for his feast is John 12: 24-26, which says in part, "Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life, shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal. If any man minister to Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also shall  My minister be. If any man minister to Me, him will My Father honour."  Ignatius was an example of the wheat bearing much fruit. He died in 110 A.D.

The fact that we have letters, documents, records of these events add to the fullness of the history of the Church and give us much to be grateful for. The saints, many of them martyrs, who are named by the Chruch to receive special remembrances, are models for our own lives. Heaven is full of saints, and all who enter there are indeed saints. We all hope to be among them. There are simply some, who because of what is known about them, sometimes with miracles attributed to their intercessions with Our Lord, are held up to us to emulate.

   And how would we act if called to martyrdom? It is not an impossible event in these days when the devil is set loose in so many quarters and by so many entities. Are we willing to be ground into wheat to become bread agreeable to Our Lord? Could we, like the Christians being slaughtered in the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and now in some parts of Europe, defend our Faith to the point of death? I wonder. Pray much. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.