Interim Saints - July 17th
SPERATUS and companions, martyrs (A.D. 200)
The very simply, and perfectly trustworthy Acts of these martyrs,
relate that Speratus, Narzalis, Cittinus, and three women, Donata,
Secunda, and Vestina were brought before the pro-consul Saturninus, at
Carthage . . . But when the pro-consul saw that they were so constant,
he gave sentence against them . . . "I order them to be decapitated."
HYACINTH, martyr (date uncertain)
At Amastris, in Paphlagonia, the people adored an immense tree. This
excited the wrath of a Christian, named Hyacinth, and one night he
hewed down the sacred tree. He was discovered, arrested, and tortured.
His teeth were knocked out, then sharp reeds were stuck into his
flesh, and he was cast into prison, where he died of the injuries he
had received.
MARCELLINA, virgin (about A.D. 398)
S. Marcellinus, the sister of the great Ambrose, and of Satyrius, at an
early age took the veil from the hands of Pope Liberius . . . after the
death of S. Ambrose, Marcellian probably settled at Milan, and died
there.
ALEXIS, confessor (end of 5th cent.)
S. Joseph [the Hymnographer] wrote a Canon on the Saint, from which we
gather the following particulars: - S. Alexis was born of a mother who
had long been sterile; he escaped from the nuptial chamber and
deserted his bride, he lived in exile from his country, in great
poverty . . . returned to his native place, where he took up his abode
in the house of his parents, unknown to them, and was ill-used and
mocked by the servants; he finally disclosed who he was to his
parents.
ENNODIUS, bishop (A.D. 521)
He lived a careless life at first, but was struck with compunction, and
with the consent of his wife lived thenceforth as a celibate, and took
on him deacon's orders.
Subsequently ordained Bishop of Pavia, he was twice sent as a papal
legate to Constantinople in the matter of the orthodoxy or otherwise of
the emperor Anastasius. I have already discussed this controversy in
"The Threatened Series," to which I refer the curious.
MARINA, virgin (about 8th century)
There was a father once, left a widower with a little daughter; and in
his desolation he resolved to renounce the world and retire into a
monastery. So he committed the little child to a relation, and became
a monk. But after a while . . . the father, whose name was Eugenius,
went to his kinsman and reclaimed his child, and he cut her hair, and
put her in boy's clothes, and changed her name from Marina to Marinus,
and brought her back to the monastery . . .
But when Marinus was prepared for burial, it was found that she was a
woman . . .
KENELM, martyr (A.D. 819)
King Kenwulf of Wessex died in 819, and left two daughters, Cwendrida
and Burgenilda, and a son, a child of seven years old, named Kenelm.
Cwendrida envied her little brother, and thought that if he were
killed, she might reign as queen. She therefore spake to Askbert, his
guardian, and gave him money, and said, "Slay me my brother, that I may
reign."
LEO IV, pope (A.D. 855)
The eight years of Leo's papacy were chiefly occupied in strengthening
and in restoring the plundered churches of SS Peter and Paul outside
the walls, and adorning Rome.
Oriens.
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