Under Nero suffered the soldier Vitalis with his wife Valeria, whose sons were Gervasius and Protasius.
[Running head: Sixth Title.]
When Vitalis entered Ravenna with the judge Paulinus, he was a Christian but remained hidden. He saw a certain physician named Ursicinus, who had manfully endured many torments for the faith of Christ, become frightened when he received sentence of beheading.
Vitalis encouraged him, saying in a loud voice: “Ursicinus, you who have been accustomed to cure others, do not destroy yourself and, after so many wounds, be deprived of the eternal crown.”
Recovering strength of spirit and repenting of that fear, Ursicinus knelt down and joyfully accepted martyrdom. Vitalis had him buried honorably and refused to return again to Paulinus.
Because of this, Paulinus had him arrested. When he refused to sacrifice to the gods, Paulinus ordered a deep pit to be dug, Vitalis to be buried in it on his back, and earth and stones to be piled upon him.
The priest of Apollo who had advised this was seized by the devil and for seven days cried, “You burn me, Saint Vitalis.” Finally he was drowned in a river.
When Vitalis’s wife Valeria was returning to Milan, certain Gentiles invited her to eat with them from foods sacrificed to idols. When she said that she could not do this because she was a Christian, they beat her so severely that within three days she passed to the Lord.
§ I: Their Sons Gervasius and Protasius
After the death of their parents, Gervasius and Protasius distributed all their possessions to the poor, made their little household freeborn, and devoted themselves for many years to prayers and sacred readings.
When Count Astasius, who was about to depart for war, arrived, the priests of the idols met him. They said that unless he made Gervasius and Protasius sacrifice to their gods, he could not bring back victory.
When they were presented before Astasius and did not consent to sacrifice to the idols, Gervasius was beaten with leaded scourges until he breathed out his spirit. Protasius was beaten with clubs and finally beheaded.
Their bodies were revealed to Blessed Ambrose, bishop of Milan, as he slept lightly in prayer. They were raised from the tomb that had been made known to him.
§ II: Martial, Kinsman of Stephen the Protomartyr
When Martial, a kinsman of Stephen the protomartyr, was fifteen years old, he was baptized with his parents by Blessed Peter at Christ’s command. He was one of Christ’s seventy-two disciples and adhered continually to him.
He is said to have been the boy who possessed the five barley loaves and two fish that Christ multiplied, as is found in John 6.
He came to Rome with Blessed Peter the Apostle and was sent by him into Gaul. In his company were Amator and Amator’s wife Veronica, who was a familiar and heartfelt friend of the Virgin Mary.
Saint Amator lived a solitary life upon the rock that is now called Amator’s and died there. Veronica followed Saint Martial as he preached in the territory of Bordeaux and grew old there. Blessed Martial, primate of all Aquitaine, built an altar to the Blessed Virgin Mary there for her.
When Martial was setting out for Gaul, one of the priests whom Peter had assigned as his companions died on the road. Martial returned to Rome and related the event. Peter gave him his staff so that he might place it upon the dead man’s tomb. When this was done, the dead man immediately rose.
For this reason the pope is said not to use a pastoral staff, because Peter first granted it to Martial. It is preserved in a certain church there, and when the pope resides in that place he uses it as his pastoral staff. Nevertheless, another spiritual reason is assigned for this custom.
Martial then departed for Limoges, preaching and shining with miracles. With his companions he was received by Susanna, a noble matron, and there he healed a madman.
As Martial proceeded to the theater, the priests of the idols seized him and cast him into prison after beating him severely. On the following day, while he prayed, an immense light illuminated the prison. The chains broke and the doors opened, and everyone present sought baptism.
At the people’s prayers, Martial raised the priests who had beaten him after they were killed by a lightning stroke, and twelve thousand people were baptized.
When Susanna died, she left a daughter named Valeria, who immediately vowed her virginity to the Lord. She heard that Stephen, lord of the province from the Rhône River to the sea, would come there. Knowing that he would take her vow badly, she distributed her wealth to the poor.
When he came and she refused to consent to him, he had her beheaded. The executioner saw angels bearing her soul to heaven with praises. When he reported this to Stephen, he immediately fell dead before him.
Then the commander of the army and his whole retinue began to fear. Clothed in sackcloth, he asked Martial to come to him. After Martial raised his arms bearer, the commander was baptized with certain others.
Later he went to Italy at Caesar’s command with a very great army. Having completed Caesar’s commands, he came to Blessed Peter barefoot and clothed in sackcloth, seeking pardon for his sins and telling him of his conversion to Christ.
In the twenty-eighth year of his episcopate, the fifty-ninth year of his life, and the fortieth year after the Lord’s Ascension, Blessed Martial received a prior revelation from the Lord concerning his death. After exhorting the people, he was seized by fever and passed from this light, his soul carried to heaven by angels.
He was illustrious through many miracles. He raised six dead people, healed many sick people, and compelled demons expelled from bodies to appear in a horrible human form.
He always walked barefoot, even when afflicted by quartan fevers. He fasted continually on bread and water, taking food only in the evening, as he had learned from Blessed Peter.
§ III: Certain Other Disciples of Christ from the Seventy-Two
Among them were Savinianus, Potentianus, and Altinus, as Vincent relates in Book 10, Chapter 41 of the Historical Mirror. Because they restored many sick people to health and recalled from errors not so much by word as by miracles and signs as many as they could, Blessed Peter sent them into Gaul so that they might take it, devoted as it was to idolatry, away from the devil and offer Christ an acceptable gift.
Peter established Savinianus as primate of Gaul. When they came to the city of Sens, then most famous and populous, they did not cease recalling the people from the worship of demons to the true God.
Savinianus constantly and energetically exercised against unbelievers the pontifical authority he had received from Peter. So great a grace of the Holy Spirit had been poured into his heart that whomever he touched by speech he vehemently inflamed with the ardor of heavenly desire.
While he persisted in heavenly teachings, the devil stirred up against him certain men of his sect. When they saw that the worship of their images was ceasing and that the rites of paganism and sacrifices of the gods were despised, they decreed that the contempt of their gods should be avenged upon the holy man by mockeries and death.
They placed Savinianus in the midst of their pestilential assembly. On one of the days, after discussing disputes of faith for a little while, while stopping the ears of their hearts against the assertion of truth, they soon judged that he should be struck with a capital sentence.
Potentianus immediately succeeded him in the episcopate. While he ardently persisted in preaching, the devil stirred up the minds of unbelievers against him also and killed God’s servant as quickly as he could.
His lifeless body was exposed by the unbelievers to be devoured by birds and beasts, but by God’s providence it remained unharmed. Afterward it was secretly gathered by the faithful and buried in a suburb of Sens. Dissolved from the flesh, he shone no less through miracles than while living in it, for he drove demons from possessed bodies, enlightened the blind, restored hearing to the deaf, and health to the sick.
Finally the gracious company of friends followed the good shepherd Savinianus as he went before them on the roads of martyrdom: Saints Potentianus, Altinus, Eodaldus, and Serotinus. Walking in their master’s steps and propagating bands of believers in Christ’s faith, they alike attained the glory of martyrdom and were buried beside his monument.
In the year of the Lord 847, while the emperors Lothair, Louis, and Charles reigned, their bodies were translated by that city’s bishop to the nearby basilica of Blessed Peter. There angelic voices, like choirs singing psalms and the harmony of music, were heard not only by monks but by many from the common people.
[Running head: Chapter Twenty-Five, Folio 209.]
§ IV: Saint Julian
Four saints bearing this name are found to have lived at different times.
The first was bishop of Le Mans. He is said to have been Simon the leper, whom Christ cleansed from leprosy and who invited Christ to a banquet. After the Lord’s Ascension, the apostles ordained this disciple of Christ as bishop of Le Mans. Illustrious through many miracles, he raised three dead people and finally rested in peace.
He is said to be the Julian whom travelers invoke for good lodging because he received Christ as his guest. Yet it seems more true that it was not he but another Julian who unknowingly killed both parents, as will be said below.
There was another Julian of Auvergne, noble in family but nobler in faith, who in his desire for martyrdom freely offered himself to the persecutors.
When the governor Crispinus sent a servant to kill him, Julian perceived it, voluntarily sprang outside, and fearlessly offered himself to the man seeking him, receiving the blow he struck.
They lifted his head and carried it to Saint Ferreolus, his companion, threatening Ferreolus with a similar death unless he sacrificed to the idols. When he refused to consent, they killed him immediately.
They placed Saint Julian’s head with Saint Ferreolus’s body in one tomb. Many years later, Saint Mamertinus, bishop of Vienne, opened the tomb and found Saint Julian’s head between Saint Ferreolus’s hands, as uninjured and whole as if it had been buried that same hour.
There was also a third Julian, brother of Saint Julius. These two brothers approached Emperor Theodosius in zeal for the faith and obtained from him by their entreaties permission to destroy any temples of idols and erect churches of Christ there.
This most Christian emperor not only granted this but also gave letters of command that everyone should obey them in this and help them under penalty of death.
When Julian and his brother were building a church in a place called Gaudianum and all passersby helped them because of the emperor’s command, it happened that certain men wished to pass by with a wagon.
They said to one another: “What excuse can we make so that we may pass freely and not be occupied in this work? Come, let us lay one of us upon his back in the wagon, cover him with cloths, and say that we have a dead man in this vehicle. Thus we will be able to pass freely.”
They took one of their number, placed him in the wagon, and said: “Close your eyes and lie as though dead until we have passed.”
After they covered the man as though dead and came to God’s servants Julian and Julius, the saints said to them: “Little sons, stop briefly and help us a little in this work.”
They answered: “We cannot stop here, because we have a dead man in the wagon.”
Julian said to them: “Why do you lie in this way, sons?”
They answered: “We do not lie, but it is as we say.”
Julian said: “According to the truth of your words, so may it happen to you.”
Goading their oxen, they passed freely from there. When they had gone some distance, they began to awaken the man, calling him by name and saying: “Rise now and goad the oxen so that we may pass more quickly.”
When he did not move or answer in any way, they uncovered and touched him and found him dead. So great a fear seized them and the others that no one thereafter dared mock the saints.
There was also a fourth Julian, who unknowingly killed both his parents.
One day, while this Julian, as a young nobleman, was hunting and was pursuing a deer he had found, the deer suddenly turned toward him and said: “You pursue me, but you will be the killer of your father and mother.”
Hearing this, he was stunned. Lest what the deer said should happen to him, he secretly abandoned everything and departed for a very distant region. There he attached himself to a certain prince and conducted himself so energetically both in war and in the palace that the prince made him a knight and gave him as wife a noble widow who held a castle, which Julian received as her dowry.
Meanwhile Julian’s parents, grieving exceedingly from love for their son, wandered everywhere and diligently sought him. At last they reached the castle over which Julian presided, but by chance he was then absent.
His wife saw them and asked who they were. When they related everything that had happened to their son and how they wandered in search of him, she understood that they were Julian’s parents, because she had frequently heard this from her husband. She received them honorably, gave them her own chamber for rest, and prepared another little bed for herself.
When morning came, the lady of the castle went to church, leaving Julian’s parents to rest from their weariness in her bed. Meanwhile Julian returned home. Entering the bedroom to awaken his wife, he found his parents sleeping there. Not knowing they were his parents, he suspected that his wife was lying there with an adulterer. Silently drawing his sword, he killed them both.
When he left the house, he met his wife returning from church. He asked her who the people were whom he had found in his bed. She told him they were his parents, whom she had honorably received and placed in her chamber when they came seeking him with the tenderest love.
Hearing this, Julian became as though lifeless and began to weep most bitterly, saying: “Woe to me, for I have killed my sweetest parents. What shall I do? Behold, the word of the deer has been fulfilled. By leaving my home and homeland to avoid it, I have fallen into it. Farewell now, my sweetest sister, for from this time I shall not rest until I know that God has accepted my penance.”
[Running head: Sixth Title.]
Julian’s wife answered him: “Far be it from me, sweetest brother, that I should abandon you. Just as I shared your joy, so shall I share your grief and your penance.”
Departing from there, they built a great hospice beside a certain large river where many people were placed in danger. There they might perform their penance, ferry those who wished to cross the river, and receive the poor as guests.
After a long time, on a certain night when Julian had retired weary and the frost was intense, he heard a voice lamenting tearfully and calling Julian to ferry him across. Hearing it, Julian rose quickly. Finding the man already failing from the cold, he carried him into his house, lit a fire, and sought to warm him. Afterward he led him to his own bed and covered him with blankets.
A little later the one who had appeared sick and seemingly leprous became radiant and ascended into the heavens. He said to his host: “Julian, the Lord sent me to you to make known that he has accepted your penance.” For he was an angel of the Lord, and he added that both Julian and his wife would soon rest in the Lord. Thus he disappeared.
Filled with alms and good works, they surrendered their souls to the Lord not long afterward.
In Julian’s honor, therefore, some travelers say the Lord’s Prayer or another prayer, so that good lodging may be granted them and they may be defended from dangers. But the practice of some who say the Lord’s Prayer for the souls of Saint Julian’s parents is foolish superstition.
The fifth Saint Julian is treated under the brother of Diocletian.
§ V: Saturninus and Certain Other Disciples
When Saturninus heard the fame of John the Baptist, he left his parents in the city of Patras and came to see John. Having witnessed the austerity of his life and heard his preaching about the kingdom of heaven and the coming of the Messiah and Savior, he remained with him for a time so that he might see Christ.
He was the man who, together with the Apostle Andrew, heard their master John say, “Behold the Lamb,” as he pointed out Jesus passing by. Saturninus then followed Jesus with Andrew.
It is read of another Saint Saturninus that, after Christ’s disciples made him a bishop, he was sent to the city of Tholosana. When he entered it, the demons ceased giving responses.
One of the Gentiles said: “Unless you kill Saturninus, you will be able to obtain nothing from the gods.” The people therefore seized him. When he refused to sacrifice to the gods, they bound him to the feet of a bull, goaded it, and hurled him down the steps of the Capitol from the summit of the citadel. His head was broken and his brains dashed out, and thus the martyr passed to heaven. Whether this was the Saturninus who was Andrew’s companion is unknown.
There was also another Saturninus at Rome. Long wasted away in the squalor of prison, he was afterward raised upon the rack, beaten with clubs and scorpions, burned in the sides, and finally beheaded for Christ’s name.
There was another Saturninus in Africa, who was crowned with martyrdom together with his brother Satyrus and Perpetua.
Vicisinus, who is also said to have been Nathanael, the brother of the Apostle Philip, is said to have been sent by Peter to Bituricas, and there he rested.
Cleophas was traveling with a companion to the village of Emmaus on the day of the Resurrection. The Lord showed himself to them as a pilgrim. According to some, as Ysuardus relates, Cleophas was killed by the Jews in the house in which the risen Christ had appeared to him and his companion and had been recognized in the breaking of bread.
§ VI: The Seven Deacons and Other Disciples
Of the seven deacons appointed by the apostles, Stephen was stoned, as was said above.
Timon, who elsewhere is called Timothy—but not the Timothy said by Ysuardus to have been Paul’s disciple—was the first teacher of the faith at Beroea. He went to Corinth to preach. There the Jews and Greeks cast him into the flames; when he remained unharmed, he was afterward crucified.
The third, Prochorus, received the palm of martyrdom at Antioch. Parmenas, the fourth, accepted martyrdom for Christ’s name at Philippi and passed to heaven. Nichanor, the fifth, rests in Cyprus. Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, was a heresiarch. Although some excuse him, the Apocalypse shows that he erred.
Alexander and Rufus were brothers and sons of Simon of Cyrene, who was compelled to carry the cross behind Christ. They are treated in the Ecclesiastical History.
Amaon was the companion of Cleophas on the road where Christ joined them in the appearance of a pilgrim. Luke is silent about this companion’s name, as Ambrose and Augustine testify.
Lazarus was bishop of Marsilia: the man whom Christ raised after he had lain dead for four days, and the brother of Mary Magdalene and Martha, of whom mention was made above.
Some write that Demas, together with Cerinthus, Ebion, Apollos, and certain others, belonged to the seventy-two disciples chosen by Christ. But after transgressing the way of truth they became evil men and heretics who turned back. John the Evangelist speaks of them in his first epistle: “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” Paul calls them false apostles and workers of iniquity.
They also say that, just as the apostles chose Matthias for the apostolate in Judas’s place, so in place of the men just named they chose others to restore the number of seventy-two: namely Eutropius, Zacchaeus, Clement—not the man who became pope, but another—the eunuch baptized by Philip, and others.
As Jacobus de Voragine relates in the Legend, Longinus was a centurion who, at Pilate’s command, stood at Christ’s cross with other soldiers and pierced the Lord’s side with a lance.
He afterward converted to the faith. The chief cause, according to some, was that his eyes had become clouded through sickness or old age, but when Christ’s side was pierced, a drop of Christ’s blood ran down the lance and happened to touch his eyes. Immediately he saw clearly.
Renouncing military service and instructed by the apostles, he led the monastic life for twenty-eight years in Caesarea of Cappadocia and converted very many to Christ by word and example.
When the governor of the region arrested him and invited him to sacrifice to idols, he refused. The governor ordered all his teeth knocked out and his tongue cut off. He did not, however, lose the power of speech because of this. Inflamed with zeal for the faith, he took an axe, broke and shattered all the idols, and said, “Let us see whether they are gods.”
Demons came out of the idols and rushed upon the governor and his companions. Raving and tearing themselves, they prostrated themselves at Longinus’s feet.
Longinus said to the demons, “Why do you dwell in idols?”
They answered: “Where Christ is not named and his sign has not been placed, there is our dwelling.”
When the governor went mad and lost his eyes, Longinus said to him: “Know that you cannot be healed until after I have been killed. Then I shall pray for you, and you will receive the health of both soul and body.”
The governor therefore had him beheaded. When this had been done, the same governor cast himself tearfully before Longinus’s body and received his health. Converted to Christ, he ended his life in good works.
[Running head: Chapter Twenty-Six, Folio 210.]