From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   July 10th - Saint Felicity and her Seven Sons, Martyrs   
    (d. 150)   
      
   Saint Felicity was a noble Roman matron, distinguished above all for her   
   virtue.   
   This mother of seven children raised her sons in the fear of the Lord, and   
   after   
   the death of her husband, served God in continence, concerning herself only   
   with   
   good works. Her good examples and those of her children brought a number of   
   pagans to renounce their superstitions, and also encouraged the Christians   
   to   
   show themselves worthy of their vocation. The pagan priests, furious at   
   seeing   
   their gods abandoned, denounced her. She appeared with her pious sons before   
   the   
   prefect of Rome, who exhorted her to sacrifice to idols, but in reply heard   
   a   
   generous confession of faith.   
      
   "Wretched woman," he said to her, "how can you be so barbarous as to expose   
   your   
   children to torments and death? Have pity on these tender creatures, who are   
   in   
   the flower of their age and can aspire to the highest positions in the   
   Empire!"   
   Felicity replied, "My children will live eternally with Jesus Christ, if   
   they   
   are faithful; they will have only eternal torments to await, if they   
   sacrifice   
   to idols. Your apparent pity is but a cruel impiety." Then, turning to her   
   children, she said: "Look towards heaven, where Jesus Christ is waiting for   
   you   
   with His Saints! Be faithful in His love, and fight courageously for your   
   souls."   
      
   The Judge, taking the children one by one, tried to overcome their   
   constancy. He   
   began with Januarius, but received for his answer: "What you advise me to do   
   is   
   contrary to reason; Jesus, the Saviour, will preserve me, I hope, from such   
   impiety." Felix, the second, was then brought in. When they urged him to   
   sacrifice, he answered: "There is only one God, and it is to Him that we   
   must   
   offer the sacrifice of our hearts. Use all artifices, every refinement of   
   cruelty, you will not make us betray our faith!" The other brothers, when   
   questioned, answered with the same firmness. Martial, the youngest, who   
   spoke   
   last, said: "All those who do not confess that Jesus Christ is the true God,   
   will be cast into a fire which will never be extinguished."   
      
   When the interrogation was finished, the Saints underwent the penalty of the   
   lash and then were taken to prison. Soon they completed their sacrifice in   
   various ways: Januarius was beaten until he died by leather straps capped   
   with   
   lead; Felix and Philip were killed with bludgeons; Sylvanus was thrown   
   headfirst   
   from a cliff; Alexander, Vitalis and Martial were beheaded. Felicity, the   
   mother   
   of these new Maccabees, was the last to suffer martyrdom.   
      
   Sources: Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year. (Reprint of the work   
   of   
   John Gilmary Shea, with Appendix including recently canonized Saints)   
   (Benziger   
   Brothers: New York, 1955. Third Edition: Tan Books and Publishers: Rockford,   
   Ill., 1995); Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler's Lives of the Saints, and other sources by John Gilmary Shea   
   (Benziger   
   Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
    [The devil] dreads fasting, prayer, humility, and good works: He is not   
   able   
   even to stop my mouth who speak against him. The illusions of the devil soon   
   vanish, especially if a man arms himself with the Sign of the Cross. The   
   devils   
   tremble at the Sign of the Cross of our Lord, by which He triumphed over and   
   disarmed them.   
   -Saint Antony Abbot   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   By your patience you will possess your souls. (Luke 21:19)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A prayer to cultivate the "Heart of a Child," by Leonce de Grandmaison:   
      
   Holy Mary, Mother of God,   
   preserve in me the heart of a child,   
   pure and transparent as a spring.   
   Obtain for me a simple heart   
   That does not brood over sorrows;   
   A heart generous in giving itself,   
   Quick to feel compassion;   
   A faithful, generous heart   
   that forgets no favor   
   and holds no grudge.   
   Give me a humble, gentle heart   
   Loving without asking any return;   
   A great indomitable heart   
   That no ingratitude can close,   
   No indifference can weary;   
   A heart tortured by its desire   
   for the glory of Jesus Christ:   
   Pierced by His love   
   With a wound that will heal   
   only in heaven.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)