From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   July 30th - Saints Abdon and Sennen, Persian Martyrs at Rome   
      
   (d. 254)   
      
   The emperor Decius, enemy of Christians, had defeated the king of Persia and   
   become master of several countries over which he reigned. He had already   
   condemned to torture and death Saint Polychrome, with five members of his   
   clergy. Saint Abdon and Saint Sennen, illustrious Persian dignitaries of the   
   third century whom the king of Persia had highly honored, were secretly   
   Christian; it was they who had taken up the body of the martyred bishop,   
   which   
   had been cast contemptuously before a temple of Saturn, to bury it at night,   
   with honor. The two royal officials, now fallen under the domination of   
   Rome,   
   were grieved to witness the emperor's cruelty towards the faithful, and   
   believed   
   it their duty to make known their love for Jesus Christ; thus, without fear   
   of   
   their new sovereign, they undertook by all possible means to spread and   
   fortify   
   the faith, to encourage the confessors and bury the martyrs.   
      
   Decius, learning of their dedication, was extremely irritated. He sent for   
   the   
   two brothers to appear before his tribunal, and attempted to win them over   
   to   
   sacrifice to the gods, by appealing to his recent victory as a sign of their   
   favor. The Saints replied, however, that this victory was not at all a proof   
   of   
   such power, since the unique true God, Creator of heaven and earth with His   
   Son,   
   Jesus Christ, gives victory to some and defeat to others, for reasons hidden   
   in   
   the designs of His providence. They said they could never adore any but Him,   
   and   
   Decius imprisoned them. Soon afterwards, when he learned of the death of the   
   viceroy he had left to govern in his place at Rome, he returned to Rome and   
   took   
   his two captives with him to serve as splendid trophies of his Persian   
   victory.   
   In effect, these magistrates were wearing jewels and rich fabrics under   
   their   
   chains.   
      
   He arraigned them before the Senate, in whose presence they again testified   
   to   
   the divinity of Christ, saying they could adore no other. The next day they   
   were   
   flogged in the amphitheater; then two lions and four bears were released to   
   devour them. But the beasts lay down at their feet and became their   
   guardians,   
   and no one dared approach for a time. Finally the prefect sent out   
   gladiators to   
   slay them with the sword, which with the permission of God was done. Their   
   bodies remained three days without burial, but a subdeacon, who afterwards   
   wrote   
   their history, took them up and buried them on his own terrain.   
      
   Under Constantine the Great, their tombs were discovered by divine   
   revelation   
   and their relics reburied in the Pontian cemetery, which afterwards was   
   called   
   by their names. We see them in a picture of the catacombs, crowned by Our   
   Lord   
   Himself. Their glorious martyrdom occurred in the year 254.   
      
   Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et   
   Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 9.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   There is nothing which edifies others so much as charity and kindness, by   
   which,   
   as by the oil in the lamp, the flame of good example is kept alive.   
    -St. Francis de Sales   
      
   Bible Quote   
   1 At that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who thinkest thou is the   
   greater in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus calling unto him a little   
   child,   
   set him in the midst of them, 3 And said: Amen I say to you, unless you be   
   converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the   
   kingdom   
   of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,   
   he   
   is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And he that shall receive one   
   such   
   little child in my name, receiveth me.  (Matthew 18:1-5)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   TO THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN, MOTHER OF SORROWS   
      
    Mary, Virgin Mother of God, martyr of love and   
    sorrow, because Thou didst witness the pains and   
    torments of Jesus: truly didst Thou concur in the   
    great work of my redemption, first, by Thy   
    innumerable afflictions, and then by the offering   
    Thou didst make to the Eternal Father of His and Thy   
    Only Begotten, for a holocaust and victim to appease   
    His wrath for my sins. I compassionate Thee for the   
    bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I thank Thee   
    for that love, well nigh infinite, through which   
    Thou didst bereave Thyself of the fruit of Thy womb,   
    very God and very Man, to save me, a sinner; let Thy   
    intercession which is never in vain, be ever with   
    the Father and the Son for me, that I may steadily   
    amend my evil ways, and never, by further faults,   
    crucify anew my loving Saviour; that so, persevering   
    in His grace until death, I may obtain eternal life:   
    through the merits of His sad passion and death upon   
    the cross.   
      
    Three Hail Marys.   
      
    Let us pray,   
      
    O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, at the sixth hour of the   
    day, didst, for the redemption of the world, mount   
    the gibbet of the cross, and shed Thy precious blood   
    for the remission of sins; we humbly beseech Thee to   
    grant us, after our death, a joyful entrance into   
    the gates of Paradise.   
      
    Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, that   
    now, and at the hour of our death, blessed Mary,   
    ever Virgin, Thy Mother, may intercede for us,   
    through whose most holy soul a sword passed in the   
    hour of Thy passion; through Thee, Jesus Christ,   
    Saviour of the world, Who, with the Father and the   
    Holy Ghost, livest and reignest for ever and ever.   
    Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)