Saint Nazarius
Saint Nazarius was the son of Blessed Perpetua, a most Christian woman of the noblest Roman stock who had been baptized by Blessed Peter, and of a most illustrious man named Affricanus, who was a Jew.
When Nazarius was nine years old, he wondered greatly to see his father and mother so different in religious observance: his mother followed the law of baptism, but his father the law of the Sabbath. He therefore doubted greatly which one he ought to follow, while each strove to draw him to that parent’s faith.
At length, by God’s direction, he followed his mother’s footsteps and was baptized by Saint Linus, who was not yet pope but became pope after Peter’s passion.
When his father learned this, he sought to turn Nazarius away from his holy resolve and described the various kinds of torments inflicted upon Christians. But Nazarius would not consent to his father’s counsel and publicly confessed Christ.
At the entreaties of his parents, who feared that he would be killed, he departed from Rome. He took seven pack animals laden from his parents’ wealth and, traveling through the cities of Italy, distributed the goods to the poor.
In the tenth year after his departure from Rome, he came to Piacenza and then Milan. There he found Saints Gervasius and Prothasius held in prison. When they heard Nazarius, they were encouraged to constancy in the faith.
Nazarius was quickly taken in chains before the prefect. Because he persevered in confessing Christ’s name, he was beaten with clubs and cast out of the city.
While he traveled from place to place, his mother, who had already died, appeared to him and admonished him in a dream to go to Gaul.
When he came to Genebellis and converted many there through preaching, a certain matron offered him her handsome son, a boy named Celsus, asking Nazarius to baptize him and take him along.
Hearing this, the prefect of Gaul bound Nazarius and the boy Celsus with their hands behind their backs, fastened a chain around their necks, and shut them in prison, intending to subject Nazarius to torments on the following day.
Then the prefect’s wife sent him a message saying it was an unjust judgment to kill innocent men and presume to avenge the almighty gods. Rebuked by her words, the prefect released the saints but forbade them to preach there.
Nazarius next came to Treveris. Preaching there and converting many, he built a church. When the imperial deputy Cornelius heard this, he reported it to Nero, who sent many soldiers to seize Nazarius.
They found him beside the oratory just mentioned and bound him, saying, “Great Nero summons you.”
Nazarius replied: “A disordered king has disordered soldiers. Why did you not come civilly and say to me, ‘Nero summons you’? I would have come.”
They led Nazarius bound to Nero and urged the weeping boy Celsus to follow by striking him in the face. When Nero saw them, he ordered them sent to prison until he could devise torments by which to make them perish.
Meanwhile Nero was wounded in the foot while hunting and suffered considerable pain. Remembering Nazarius and supposing that the gods were angry with him because he had allowed the saints to live so long, he ordered Nazarius kicked, the boy Celsus scourged with lashes, and both brought from prison before him.
[Running head: Sixth Title.]