From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Gratitude for God's Grace (IV)   
      
   Set yourself always in the lowest place, (Luke 14:10) and you shall be   
   awarded the highest; for the highest cannot stand without the lowest.   
   The Saints stand highest in God's eyes who are lowest in their own;   
   and the more glorious they are, the more humble is their spirit.   
   Filled with truth and heavenly glory, they have no desire for   
   vainglory. Grounded and established in God, they cannot be proud. They   
   ascribe all goodness to God; they seek no glory from one another, but   
   the glory, which comes from God alone (John 5:44). They desire above   
   all things, and strive always, that God be praised in themselves and   
   in all His Saints.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2 Ch 10   
      
   ============   
   February 25th – SS. Victorinus and his Companions, Martyrs   
   d. 284   
      
   VICTORINUS, Victor, Nicephorus, Claudian, Dioscorus, Serapion and   
   Papias were citizens of Corinth who had made a good confession of   
   their faith in their own country before Tertius the proconsul in 249,   
   at the beginning of the reign of Decius. After being tortured, they   
   passed into Egypt, but whether they were banished thither or went into   
   voluntary banishment is not stated. They completed their martyrdom at   
   Diospolis, the capital of the Thebaid, under the governor Sabinus in   
   the reign of Numerian. After the governor had tried the constancy of   
   the martyrs with the rack and scourge, he caused Victorinus to be   
   thrown into a great marble mortar. The executioners began by pounding   
   his feet and legs, saying to him at every stroke,  "Spare yourself,   
   wretch. It depends upon you to escape this death, if you will only   
   renounce your new God." But as he continued constant, the governor   
   became impatient and ordered that his head should be battered to   
   pieces. When Victor was threatened with the same death, his only wish   
   was that his execution should be hastened, and pointing to the mortar   
   he said, “Salvation and happiness await me there!” He was immediately   
   cast into it and pounded to death. Nicephorus, the third martyr,   
   leaped of his own accord into this engine of destruction. The judge,   
   angry at his boldness, commanded several executioners to beat him at   
   the same time. Sabinus caused Claudian, the fourth martyr, to be   
   hacked to pieces.   
      
   He expired after his feet, hands, arms, legs and thighs had been cut   
   off. The governor, pointing to his mangled limbs and scattered bones,   
   said to the other three, “It rests with you to avoid this punishment:   
   I do not compel you to suffer.” They answered with one voice, “We   
   would rather ask thee to inflict on us any still more excruciating   
   torment that thou canst devise. We will never violate the fidelity we   
   owe to God or deny Jesus Christ our Saviour, for He is our God from   
   whom we have our being and to whom alone we aspire.” The tyrant then   
   commanded that Dioscorus should be burnt alive and Serapion hung up by   
   the heels and then beheaded. Papias was cast into the sea with a stone   
   attached to his neck and drowned. This happened on February 25, the   
   day allotted to these saints in the Western martyrologies, but the   
   Greeks honour them on January 21, said to be the date of their   
   confession at Corinth.   
      
   The Syriac text of the acts of these martyrs was published for the   
   first time by Stephen E. Assemani in the 18th century with a Latin   
   translation. In modern times the Syriac has been re-edited from fresh   
   manuscript sources by Paul Bedjan. A French translation of the same   
   acts, by F. Lagrange, was printed in 1852. The substance of the   
   account is probably reliable, though we may suspect a certain amount   
   of embroidery in the details.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "To change your mind from good to bad is the height of  absurdity.   
   True goodness changes from evil to righteousness."   
   --Saint Polycarp   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  (Rom. 12:21)   
      
      
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   Whoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. -Lk. 14:11   
      
   "Here is one of the best means to acquire humility: fix well in mind   
   this maxim: One is as much as he is in the sight of God, and no more"   
   --Thomas a Kempis   
      
   St. Francis made a beginning of sanctity by trampling underfoot human   
   respect; for he had thoroughly penetrated the truth of this holy maxim   
   which he often revolved in his mind.   
      
   ("A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   The fear of the Lord is the lesson of wisdom: and humility goeth   
   before glory.  (Proverbs 15:33)    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)