Interim Saints - May 20th
BASILLA, virgin and martyr (3rd cent.)
The ancient martyrologies say that on this day Basilla, a virgin,
suffered death on the Salarian way at Rome.
THALLELÆUS and companions, martyrs (A.D. 284)
Thallelæus was a physician of Anazarbus, a city of Cilicia. On the
promulgation of the decree of the Eperor Numerian against Christianity,
he took refuge in an olive plantation, but was caught and dragged to
Ægæ on the sea coast, where he was brought before the governor,
Theodorus, who ordered a rope to be passed between the bone and tendon
of his feet behind the ankle, and that Thallelæus should be thus
suspended, head downwards. The executioners, Alexander and Asterius,
attempted to evade the performance of this cruel sentence, and were
punished for their compassion with death. The governor ordered the
martyr to be cast into the sea, and when he scrambled on shore, bade
his head be struck off.
ETHELBERT, king (A.D. 794)
Ethelbert was the son and successor of Ethelred, king of the East
Angles . . . The Saxon Chronicle says that Ethelbert's head was struck
off . . . It can hardly be doubted that Offa was privy to the
commission of the murder [hence the saying, "Offa with his head!" -
ed.]
BERNARDINE OF SIENA (A.D. 1444)
On the 8th September, 1380, S. Bernardine was born at Dassa, a little
town near Siena . . . In the year 1400 a terrible plague broke out in
Italy, and siena was not spared. Bernardine devoted himself to the
care if the sick at a time when fear of infection dried up the ordinary
springs of compassion.
MARTYRS OF NISMES (A.D. 1567)
It is hard to say on which side most atrocities were committed in the
religious wars in France, in the 16th century . . . At Nismes the
Huguenots attacked the churches, destroyed the altars, broke the
sculptured ornaments, trampled and spat on the Blessed Sacrament, and
taking the large crucifix from the principal church, publicly whipped
it, then hacked the figure of the Redeemer to pieces . . . On September
30th, 1567, the Huguenots rose against the Catholics, and drove a
number of Catholics, including the consul, Gui Rochette, into the
episcopal palace, shouting, "Kill all the Papists!" . . . By the dim
light of a few torches, between seventy and eighty unhappy wretches
were butchered in cold blood . . .
Oriens.
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