SAINT FEAST DAY 7 AUGUST: ST AFRA

SAINT AFRA, PENITENT

The persecution of Diocletian was carried on with great cruelty, and at Augsburg, in Rhetia [Germany], the officials apprehended a woman called Afra, known to have formerly been a common prostitute.

"I am informed," said the judge, by name Gaius, “that you are a prostitute. Sacrifice, therefore, as you are a stranger to the God of the Christians, and cannot be accepted by him." Afra replied: "Our Lord Jesus Christ hath said, that he came down from heaven to save sinners. The gospels testify that an abandoned woman washed his feet with her tears, and obtained pardon, and that he never rejected the publicans, but permitted them to eat with him." The judge said: "Sacrifice, that your gallants may follow you, and enrich you." Afra answered: "I will have no more of that execrable gain. I have thrown away, as so much filth, what I had by me of it."

"MY SAVIOUR IS JESUS CHRIST"

Gaius said: "Sacrifice to the gods, and they will save you." The martyr replied: “My Saviour is Jesus Christ, who upon the cross promised paradise to the thief who confessed him."

Then the judge passed sentence upon her as follows: "We condemn Afra, a prostitute who hath declared herself a Christian, to be burnt alive, because she hath refused to offer sacrifice to the gods."

THEY STRIPPED HER AND TIED HER TO A STAKE

The executioners immediately seized her, and carried her into an island in the river Lech, upon which Augsburg stands. There they stripped her and tied her to a stake. Whilst the executioners were heaping a pile of vine branches about her, and setting fire to them, she was heard to say: "I return thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, thou who hast vouchsafed to offer thyself upon the altar of the cross a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, the just for the unjust, and for sinners. I offer myself a victim to thee, O my God." Having spoken these words she gave up the ghost, being suffocated by the smoke.

"I OFFER MYSELF A VICTIM TO THEE"

Three maids of the martyr, Digna, Eunomia, and Eutropia, who had been sinners as well as their mistress, but were converted and baptised at the same time by the holy bishop Narcissus, stood all the while on the banks of the river, and beheld her glorious triumph. After the execution they went into the island, and found the body of Afra entire.

A servant man who was with them swam back, and carried the news to Hilaria, the martyr’s mother. She came in the night with some holy priests, and carried away the body, which she interred in a sepulchre she had built for herself and family, two miles from the city. Whilst Hilaria and her attendants were still there, Gaius was informed of what they had done. He, therefore, sent soldiers with an order to persuade the whole company to offer sacrifice, and if they refused, to burn them alive without any other formality. The soldiers used both mild words and threats; but finding all to no purpose, they filled the vault of the sepulchre with dry thorns and vine branches, shut the door upon them, and having set fire to the sticks went away.

Thus St Afra, her mother, and three servants were honoured with the crown of martyrdom on the same day, August 7, 304.

Source: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Afra may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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