From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   August 17th - Saint Liberatus, Abbot and His Companions, Martyrs   
    (d. 483)   
      
   The Arian Vandal king Huneric, in the seventh year of his reign in Africa,   
   published new edicts against the Catholics, and ordered that all their   
   monasteries be demolished. The abbot Liberatus and six monks, Boniface,   
   Servus, Rusticus, Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus, who were living in a   
   monastery near Capsa, were at that time summoned to Carthage. They were   
   first tempted with great promises, but as they remained constant in their   
   confession of the Trinity and of one Baptism, they were chained with irons   
   and thrown into a dark dungeon.   
      
   The faithful by bribing the guards were able to visit the Saints, and did so   
   day and night to be instructed by them. All mutually encouraged one another   
   to suffer for the faith of Christ. The king, learning of this, commanded   
   them to be more closely confined, loaded with heavier irons, and tortured   
   with a cruelty never heard of before that time. Soon after, he condemned   
   them to be put into an old ship and burnt with it at sea. The martyrs walked   
   cheerfully to the shore, indifferent to the insults of the Arians as they   
   passed by. Particular endeavors were used by the persecutors to gain the   
   young monk Maximus; but God, who makes the tongues of children eloquent in   
   His praises, gave him strength to withstand all their efforts. He boldly   
   told them that they would never be able to separate him from his holy Abbot   
   and his brethren, with whom he had borne the labors of a penitential life   
   for the sake of everlasting glory.   
      
   An old vessel was filled with dry branches, and the seven martyrs were   
   placed on board and bound tightly to the wood. Fire was put to it several   
   times but went out immediately, and all endeavors to kindle it were vain.   
   The tyrant, in rage and confusion, gave orders that the martyrs' brains   
   should be dashed out with oars, which was done, and their bodies cast into   
   the sea, whose waves carried them all to the shore. The Catholics interred   
   them honorably in a monastery at Bigua. They suffered in the year 483.   
      
      
   Reflection: Saint Peter wrote: "Let it not be as a murderer or a thief, a   
   malefactor or a coveter of other men's goods that any of you suffer; but if   
   it is for the name of Christian, let him be not ashamed, but glorify God in   
   that name." (First Epistle 4:15-16)   
      
   Source: 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:   
   I am astonished that you should find excessive the measures taken to confine   
   the flood that threatens to swamp us, when the [Modernist] error they are   
   striving to spread is much more deadly than that of Luther, because it aims   
   directly at the destruction not only of the Church but of Christianity.   
   -Pope St. Pius X   
      
   Bible Quote   
   10. Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and   
   who he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have   
   asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. (John 4:10)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Guardian Angel's Lament   
      
   Thou hast sorrowed the spirit that loved thee,   
   And watched o'er thy footsteps for years:   
   Thou hast made me at last sigh o'er thee,   
   In secret, in silence, and tears.   
      
   For my Father in Heaven I loved thee,   
   For His sake have I guarded thy ways.   
   Return, O return, I implore thee,   
   Him to love, to serve, and to praise.   
      
   O'er thy pathway through life still I hover.   
   Thee to comfort, to solace, to cheer;   
   With the love of a fond, saving brother,   
   Through this desert of trial and fear.   
      
   Oh! When shall I clasp thee---how fondly   
   And bear thee, all dangers no past,   
   To the arms of God Who dies for thee   
   To our home in the heavens at last!   
      
   ------Anon.   
      
   <><><><>   
   A sequence of prayers:   
      
   In the name of the Father + and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.   
   (Three times.)   
      
   -Glory be to Thee, our God; glory be to Thee!   
      
   O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth! Thou art everywhere present and   
   fill all things. Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life, come and dwell   
   within us, cleanse us of all stain, and save our souls, O gracious Lord.   
      
   -Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us. (Three   
   times.)   
      
   -Glory be to the Father + and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and   
   ever, and forever. Amen.   
      
   O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us; O Lord, cleanse us of our sins; O   
   Master forgive our transgressions; O Holy One, come to us and heal our   
   infirmities for Thy Names' sake.   
      
   -Lord, have mercy! (Three times.)   
      
   -Glory be to the Father + and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and   
   ever, and forever. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)