SS. SIMPLICIUS, FAUSTINUS, AND BEATRICE, MARTYRS - 29 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 29th of July 

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

SS. SIMPLICIUS AND FAUSTINUS, BROTHERS, AND BEATRICE, THEIR SISTER, MARTYRS

The two brothers were cruelly tormented, and at length beheaded at Rome in the persecution of Diocletian, in the year 303. Their sister Beatrice took up their bodies out of the Tiber, and gave them burial.

SHE LAY HERSELF CONCEALED SEVEN MONTHS IN A HOUSE OF A VIRTUOUS WIDOW

She lay herself concealed seven months in the house of a virtuous widow called Lucina, with whom she spent her time, night and day in fervent prayer, and in the exercise of other good works. She was discovered and impeached by a pagan kinsman, who designed to possess himself of her estate, which was contiguous to his own; she resolutely protested to the judge that she would never adore gods of wood and stone, and was strangled by his order in prison the night following. 

SHE WAS STRANGLED

Lucina buried her body near her brothers on the side of the highway to Porto, in the cemetery called Ad Ursum Pileatum.

THEIR RELICS

Their relics now lie in the church St Mary Major. With them is commemorated St Felix, pope and martyr, whose name is found in the Martyrologies on this day. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

➡️ Their entry in the Roman Martyrology