From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   January 9th - St. Marciana   
      
   At the end of the 3rd century in Rusuccur, a small city in Mauretania, Algeria,   
   there lived a young lady called Marciana, as pious as she was beautiful. While   
   very young, she consecrated her virginity to God, and abandoned everything to   
   live in a cave near that Roman city.   
      
   One day, certainly moved by some divine inspiration, she left her cell to walk   
   among the agitated and restless multitude of that city, for this was the time   
   of   
   the bloody persecution of Christians made by Diocletian throughout the Roman   
   Empire.   
      
   God gave St. Marciana the strength to destroy the statue of the goddess Diana -   
   Louvre Museum   
   Entering the city by the Tipasia door, Marciana saw a marble statue of the   
   goddess Diana in the middle of a square. At its feet flowed clear waters in a   
   pool also made of marble. The brave virgin could not bear the sight of that   
   impure idol. She stepped forward and threw the idol from its base, broke its   
   head and smashed the entire statue into pieces.   
      
   A furious mob dragged her to the Pretorium before an imperial magistrate. The   
   Christian virgin laughed at the stone and wood gods, and glorified the true God   
   she adored. In loud, eloquent words, she praised Him there in the Pretorium.   
   The   
   pagan judge handed her over to the gladiators to be infamously abused at their   
   pleasure. Marciana remained fearless and serene. For three hours the gladiators   
   were rendered immobile by an unknown terror, and were unable to touch the   
   virgin. Through her prayers one of them converted and professed Jesus Christ as   
   the true God.   
      
   Confused by this development of events, the judge remained firm in his hatred.   
   Unable to dishonor the virgin, he condemned her to be torn to pieces by wild   
   beasts. When the hour arrived, she entered the arena as to a joyful feast,   
   giving praise and thanks to Jesus Christ. She was tied to a stake and a lion   
   was   
   set upon her. The beast, however, approached her, touched her breast with its   
   claws, and then retired as though moved by a stronger force.   
      
   St. Marciana was not harmed by the lion in the arena   
      
   In admiration, the populace called out loudly demanding that she be set free.   
   But a group of Jews who were part of the multitude, always thirsty for   
   Christian   
   blood, changed the mood of the crowd by calling for a wild bull. The beast   
   gored   
   the breast of Marciana opening a terrible wound. The blood poured out and St.   
   Marciana fell to the sand in agony. Servants removed her from the arena,   
   stopped   
   the hemorrhaging, and nurtured what little life remained to her.   
      
   The judge, however, called for her to be tied to the stake again. She raised   
   her   
   eyes to Heaven, a smile illuminating her face marked by suffering, and spoke   
   her   
   last words:   
      
       O Christ, I adore and love Thee. Thou wert with me in the prison and kept   
   me   
   pure. Now Thou dost call me - O my Divine Master - and I go happily to Thee.   
   Receive my soul.   
      
   After she spoke these words, a ferocious leopard tore her apart, opening the   
   road of Heaven to her.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   It is a most beautiful selection that deserves some comments from a perspective   
   different from the first that appears.   
      
   What we see at first sight is the spectacle of an extraordinary, startling and   
   miraculous heroism. Marciana was a hermit near a small city in Africa during a   
   time when Northern Africa was made up of Roman colonies as Latinized as Eastern   
   Europe. St. Marciana, as the name indicates, was probably a Latin young woman.   
   One day, touched by the grace, she went to the city. She came across a statue   
   of   
   Diane, goddess of the hunt, placed over a fountain in a public square. She was   
   overcome by a just ire against that idol, a symbol affirming a religion opposed   
   to the religion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.   
      
   In this episode, St. Marciana revealed a strength that is not natural. The   
   selection presents her as gracious and beautiful, which normally supposes   
   fragility in a woman. But she became strong enough to push the idol from its   
   base, separate the head from the body, and smash the entire statue to pieces.   
      
   From a Roman point of view, this was a great crime. For a pagan, a statue is   
   not   
   only a representation of the god, but the god itself. They imagine the god is   
   inside the idol, which is why they are called idolaters.   
      
   So, filled with a beautiful epic spirit, she pushed the idol to the ground. The   
   fragile, young, and recollected hermit went to the city to accomplish a task   
   that strong Catholic men did not have courage to do: she broke the idol into   
   pieces.   
      
   Then, she stood before the tyrannical magistrate who, on behalf of Emperor   
   Diocletian, was condemning all Catholics to death. She faced death with   
   serenity. Here also she gave a demonstration of the strength of God.   
      
   Next, the magistrate handed her over to the gladiators, persons of the lowest   
   level, to abuse her as they so desired. Something truly incredible happened.   
   She   
   loved virginity above all else on earth, yet she remained serene in that   
   distressing situation. For three hours those men strong enough to do whatever   
   they liked were rendered immobile and could not approach her. A mysterious   
   force   
   prevented them. One of these gladiators converted, confirming the supernatural   
   presence of God.   
      
   Then, the judge condemned her to be killed by wild beasts in the arena. A lion   
   approached her, but only touched her and then walked away. It was yet another   
   intervention of God. The populace felt this and called for clemency. But the   
   Jews, always experts in maneuvering public opinion, created an agitation that   
   moved the fickle crowd from clemency to anticipation for another spectacle.   
   They   
   called for a bull to enter the arena against her.   
      
   What pagan ferocity did not achieve, Jewish perfidy managed to do. God defended   
   St. Marciana against the former; He did not defend her against the Jews. With a   
   strong blow the bull gored her. The purple blood of that maiden gushed   
   abundantly from the wound. Some tried to save her, but to no avail; a leopard   
   was released and it killed her. She died joyfully, calling out the name of God   
   Our Lord and announcing her entrance into Heaven.   
      
   This is what one sees at first glance in the episode.   
      
      
   Deepening the analysis   
      
   But we can go deeper. What is the significance of St. Marciana's epopee? Was it   
   only a manifestation of Catholic faith before Paganism?   
      
   God worked a series of miracles through her. Those miracles were to bear   
   witness   
   to the truth of the Catholic Faith and contribute to the conversion of the   
   peoples of the Mediterranean basin. The great work of the Church in the first   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)