Clement the pope will be discussed below. But there was another disciple of Peter who was likewise called Clement. He was surnamed Flavius, a consul of the Romans and the uncle of Saint Clement the pope.
Baptized by Blessed Peter, he was sent with certain companions to preach in Belgic Gaul. He reached the city of Mentelem and was most dutifully received there by a certain host together with his companions.
The host asked who they were, whence they came, and why they had come. Clement answered: “We are servants of Jesus Christ, born of God the Father before all ages and of the Virgin Mary in time for the salvation of the human race.”
Hearing this and the pilgrims’ other words, their host sighed. “What you declare is very good,” he said, “if you show by deeds that what you say is true. I confess that your God has sent you here for our salvation and has also provided you with a most suitable place and time. This region, and especially this city, is exceedingly strong in power, always accustomed to wars and arms, rich in goods, and exceedingly wealthy.
“But alas, it has been worn down by a most terrible plague. Almost half its people and of all the animals serving human use now seem to have died from this pestilence’s savagery. Here there is an arena nobly built by Emperor Octavian and suitably formed into an amphitheater. In it dwells a poisonous dragon of indescribable size with its brood. Their breath corrupts the very air round about and even kills birds that happen to fly over it.
“Therefore, if your God has power and there is any truth in your preaching, behold a great and evident door for preaching and a ready approach for belief in your God: let so great a power of deadly evil be extinguished and former health restored to the sick.”
At this, Christ’s holy confessors rejoiced and dissolved into tears. Their host ran to the chief men of the city and invited them to hear things they had never heard before. At his words, all, noble and humble alike, hastened to see the holy men. In many of them the force of disease had grown so strong that they could scarcely stand upon their feet.
Compassionating their pains, Saint Clement first baptized his host and then the entire people after instructing them in the faith. Raised unharmed from the sacred font, they returned to their homes.
On the following day, after the solemnities of Mass had been celebrated and all those present had been refreshed by Holy Communion, Clement went with psalms and prayers to the cavern, with all the people following him. In Jesus Christ’s name he commanded and adjured the dragon to become gentle together with all its brood. He bound it with his stole and ordered it to follow him. When it had been led as far as the river, it disappeared entirely, as the saint commanded.
Thus that place was cleansed from all serpents’ malice, so that scarcely a tiny worm was found there. The blessed bishop then began to institute clerics, promote those he had trained through the several orders, and build churches.
§ I: Fronto
There was another disciple of Blessed Peter called Fronto. Devoted to God from his earliest age and ordained at Rome by the Apostle Peter, he was sent as the first bishop to Petragorica, the city in which he was born. There he gathered seventy monks to serve God.
While he dwelt with them and advanced in God’s work, he suffered persecution from Quirinus, governor of that city. Those whom the bishop baptized in Christ’s name, Quirinus condemned to the sword.
At length Fronto left the city with many companions and resolved to seek the wilderness naked. Gathering them all, he said: “What have we to do with the world, which we have crucified to ourselves? By dwelling among men we suffer great loss to our souls.”
When this pleased the brothers, they took three hundred mattocks and seeds of vegetables, left the city, and, with Christ as guide, traveled through the wilderness. They came to a place above the Dordonia River where a great dragon lived with a multitude of serpents. When the bishop’s followers saw them, they were struck with fear and began to retreat. But Fronto, trusting in the Lord, prostrated himself in prayer. When he had done so, the serpents appeared nowhere.
While the brothers lived in that place, they began to murmur: “Is chastity found only in the wilderness and not in cities? Does he who delights in the company of beasts hear only those who pray in the wilderness? Why do we not return to our own place and bless God?”
Hearing their murmurings, Saint Fronto burned with concern and prayed for them. Nevertheless, the office of divine song never ceased among them, nor did they fail in vigils when want assailed them.
One day after the vigils he called them to himself and said: “My little sons, if we seek God’s kingdom, why are we anxious about bodily food? Why does care for the flesh torment us, who will die after a little while? Let us therefore entrust care of ourselves to God and hold fast his promise: ‘I will not abandon you.’”
As Fronto prayed for them without ceasing, the Lord heard him. Through his angel he visited Governor Quirinus, appearing to him in dreams and saying: “You feast splendidly amid riches while my servants perish from hunger in the wilderness. Hasten at dawn and send my servants food from the goods the Lord has given you. If you delay, you will provoke God’s wrath against yourself.”
Hearing this, Quirinus was terrified in spirit. Rising in the morning, he explained the vision to his friends and asked what he should do, where those servants of God dwelt, and who knew the road to them. When all replied that they did not know, he did nothing.
The following night the angel not only reproached him for this but scourged him harshly because he had not obeyed. In the morning he again called his men, showed them the marks of the blows, and sought counsel.
One man, wiser than the rest, answered: “You have many camels. Load them with the foods used by hermits and release them under their burdens. If this visitation truly comes to you from the God of heaven, he himself will lead them to the assembly of his servants and, once they have laid down their loads, will return your animals unharmed.”
Quirinus did this, sending seventy camels laden with provisions. Accordingly, while all the brothers were celebrating hymns together at the ninth hour, behold, the first camel arrived at the doors of their habitation with the others following it.
Seeing it, the bishop joyfully praised God and said to the brothers: “Wash the feet of the camels bringing us sustenance and give them food.” They did so.
“Behold,” he said, “almighty God has remembered us and sent us food. Let us not take everything, but return half to their lord.” This pleased them all. They stored thirty-five packloads in their barns for themselves. The camels returned to their master without a guide by the road on which they had come.
Then Quirinus, filled with great exultation because he had received the camels, exclaimed: “Great is the God of the Christians!”
[Running head: Sixth Title.]
Quirinus prayed: “I beg you to show me the road by which I may go to the place where your servants dwell, so that they may grant me the grace of baptism.”
When he reached the holy men, he asked for and received baptism, and the name Gregory was bestowed upon him. Thereafter, every year on the day on which those hermits had received provisions, he sent the same amount by camel, with the Lord guiding the animals.
§ II: Apollinaris
Blessed Apollinaris, a disciple of the Apostle Peter, was sent by him from Rome to preach in Ravenna, a city of Italy. There he healed a tribune’s wife, and she received Christ’s baptism together with her husband and household.
When this was reported to the judge, Apollinaris was immediately summoned and led to Jupiter’s temple to sacrifice. On arriving, he said that the gold and silver hanging there would be better distributed to the poor than hung before demons. He was seized and beaten with clubs. Left half dead, he was gathered up by his disciples and nursed for six months in the house of a certain widow.
He then came to the city of Classis to heal a certain mute nobleman. As he entered the house, a girl who had an unclean spirit cried: “Depart, servant of God, for I shall have you dragged from the city with your feet bound.” Apollinaris rebuked the spirit and immediately compelled it to depart.
When he invoked the Lord’s name over the mute man and healed him, more than five hundred people believed in Christ. But the pagans beat Apollinaris with clubs and forbade him to name Jesus. Lying on the ground, he cried that Jesus himself is the true God.
Then they made him stand barefoot upon burning coals. But because he preached Christ most steadfastly, they cast him outside the city.
At that time the patrician Rufus, duke of Ravenna, had a sick daughter and caused Apollinaris to be summoned to heal her. As soon as the saint entered his house, his daughter died.
Rufus said to him: “Would that you had not entered my house! The great gods were angered and therefore refused to heal her. What can you do for her?”
Apollinaris answered: “Do not fear. Swear to me that, if the girl rises, you will not prevent her from following her Savior.”
When Rufus had sworn, Apollinaris first prayed and the girl arose. Confessing Christ’s name with a loud voice, she received baptism together with her mother and a very great multitude, and she remained a virgin.
When Caesar heard this, he wrote to the prefect of the praetorium that he should either make Apollinaris sacrifice to the gods or send him into exile. The prefect therefore ordered him beaten with clubs and raised upon the rack because he refused to sacrifice.
When Apollinaris continued to preach God most steadfastly, the prefect had boiling water thrown into his fresh wounds. Finally he wished to send him into exile, bound beneath a heavy weight of iron.
Seeing so great an impiety, the Christians were inflamed in spirit, rushed upon the pagans, and killed more than two hundred of them. When the governor saw this, he hid himself and ordered Apollinaris thrust into a very dark prison.
He afterward placed him in chains upon a ship and sent him into exile with three clerics who followed him. A storm placed them in danger, and Apollinaris alone survived with two clerics and two soldiers. He converted those soldiers to the faith and baptized them.
He then came to Ravenna, where the pagans seized him and led him to Apollo’s temple. Seeing the idol, he cursed it, and it immediately fell. The priests presented him to the judge Thaurus.
After Apollinaris gave sight to Thaurus’s blind son, the judge believed in Christ and made Apollinaris remain on his estate for four years.
After this, when the priests accused him before Vespasian, the emperor decreed that anyone who wronged the gods must either make satisfaction or be deprived of the city. “For it is not just,” he said, “that we should avenge the gods. If they are angry, they themselves will be able to avenge themselves upon their enemies.”
The patrician Demosthenes then delivered Apollinaris, who refused to sacrifice, to a certain centurion who was already a Christian. At the centurion’s request, he went to a village of lepers to hide from the people’s fury. The pagans pursued him there and beat him for a very long time, nearly to death.
He survived for seven days. After admonishing his disciples, he surrendered his spirit to God under Emperor Vespasian. He was buried honorably and is praised in many ways by Ambrose in the preface.
§ III: Lucian
Saint Lucian, likewise a disciple of the Apostle Peter, was given by Blessed Clement to Saint Dyonisius as a companion, together with others. When he went to Gaul, he came to Beauvais, where a Roman garrison and military force resided.
Because the people of Beauvais were always warlike, the Roman army was then stationed in those regions either because of their insolence or to guard the other cities.
Lucian was made a priest by Blessed Dyonisius and sent there to evangelize Christ. By his teaching he converted many to the faith. He was a man of marvelous patience and supreme abstinence, adorned with the grace of every abundance and endowment. His only food was green herbs, and he gave his weary body cold water to drink. During Lent he ate twice a week, for the power of heavenly nourishment sustained him.
When the prefect Julian was persecuting Christians under Emperor Domitian’s decree, he heard that Lucian had left the city to destroy idols and sent servants to find him. Hearing that he was staying at Beauvais, they went there and found him preaching to the people.
The man of God saw that they had come to kill him. Undaunted, he did not cease preaching, but exhorted the faithful with all his strength to remain in the faith. He began to give God thanks because God deemed him worthy to become the companion of his holy father Dyonisius, who had already suffered for Christ.
Lucian left the city with two young men, Maximinus and Julian. The agents of wickedness pursued them to a mountain three miles from Beauvais. The agents of wickedness killed the youths and, after subjecting Lucian to insults, beheaded the holy man. An immense light then shone over his lifeless body. A voice was heard from heaven: “Come, well done, good servant Lucian, who have shed your blood for me, to the dwelling prepared for you in heaven.”
When the executioners had left the place, the body raised itself, took up its severed head in its own hands, and began to travel like a living man with firm steps. Bearing it from the mountain and crossing the ford, it rested one mile from the city at the place Lucian had chosen for his burial.
A marvelous fragrance spread there, and about five hundred men were converted to the faith. During his life, thirty thousand people and more received baptism through his teaching, apart from women and children.
[Running head: Chapter Twenty-Seven, Folio 211.]
§ IV: Romulus
Saint Romulus was born of a noble Roman family. Orphaned of his parents, he was converted to Blessed Peter the Apostle’s teaching and baptized while Peter preached at Rome. He was then instructed by a certain holy man named Justin and began to shine through miracles.
A Roman named Carissimus had two sons, one possessed by a demon and the other gravely ill. He asked Blessed Peter to heal them, promising to believe if they were healed. Peter therefore sent Romulus to the man’s house. Romulus prayed and freed them, whereupon they believed and were baptized.
Afterward Blessed Peter sent Romulus and Justin to the city of Sutri. There they drew to the faith a certain Ygamus who denied that there was any life other than this one. They proved by miracles that another and most blessed life is reserved for the truly faithful.
Justin changed his humble tunic into a royal garment and his staff into golden splendor. Romulus changed a vessel of water set before him into the gleam of gems. At Sutri Romulus also healed the mute daughter of the widow Carisia. When many were converted to the faith, the Gentiles expelled them from Sutri.
Romulus returned to Rome, and Peter sent him to Fesulae and established him as bishop there. With him he sent Marchicianus and Carissimus, but directed them first to approach Vulterana, which was then called Antonia, to visit two of Peter’s disciples whom he had sent there to preach: Crescentius and Dulcissimus.
They found these two dwelling in prayer in a cave on the side of a mountain, for they had been expelled from that city because of their preaching of Christ. Greeting them, they took them into the city of Vulterana. There Romulus healed a boy already near death, on account of which many were converted to the faith.
Romulus then heard that the people of Fesulae were cruel and admitted no one who preached Christ. Desiring to bear fruit for God, he went to Brescia. There he raised a widow’s dead son, and very many people were baptized because of the miracle.
From that city he proceeded to Bergamo. Restoring two dead people to life and curing many sick people, he led many to Christ’s faith.
At last an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream and admonished him to go to Fesulae, to which Peter had sent him. He did so.
Romulus’s companions Marchicianus and Carissimus had separated from him for a time and preached first at Fesulae. The pagans beat them and expelled them from the city. Reunited with Romulus, they entered the city again and began steadfastly to preach Christ with him.
When Romulus freed the boy Celsus from a demon, the boy’s parents and many others placed their necks beneath faith’s yoke. Through his teaching and miracles, the Church multiplied there.
A certain Repercianus, ruler of the city, together with the Gentiles, commanded Romulus and his companions either to sacrifice to their gods or depart from the city.
Romulus answered: “I shall neither sacrifice to your gods nor abandon the sheep God has given me.”
Repercianus ordered them beaten with rods and, after they had been beaten, cast out of the city. At midnight an angel opened the city gates and led them in by divine power. On entering, they persisted in preaching. Romulus also healed a widow’s son who lay at the point of death.
Hearing his preaching, Repercianus imprisoned him with his companions and bound them in chains, but Christ appeared and comforted them. After they had remained there many days without food supplied by man, they were beaten most severely through the city.
At length a certain faithless man pierced Romulus with many blows and killed him. His companions were beheaded in the year of the Lord 90, or thereabouts.