ST MAMAS, MARTYR - 17 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 17th of August

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.

ST MAMAS, MARTYR 

(From the panegyrics composed in his honour by St Basil, hom. 26, and St Gregory Nazianzen, Or. 43. No use is made of the modern Greek acts of his martyrdom.)

[About the Year 275.] Saint Mamas [Mammas, Mammes] is ranked by the Greeks among the great martyrs. His martyrdom is placed under Aurelian. 

That prince was a Scythian, a native of Dacia or Moesia, and upon the death of Claudius II in 270, was chosen emperor by the army at Sirmium, and his election was confirmed by the unwilling senate. 

HIS ELECTION WAS CONFIRMED

Could the majesty of the Roman name be reduced to a meaner slavery than that of obeying any slave or barbarian whom the fortune of war had advanced in the army, and on whom it pleased the soldiery to bestow the empire? 

Aurelian was a good soldier, bold, enterprising, and severe in military discipline. Being raised to the imperial throne, he discovered his inclination to cruelty by putting to death many senators upon the slightest pretences, and was insolent, haughty, and proud, excessively fond of magnificence, pomp, jewels, and gold. Aurelius Victor says he was the first among the Roman emperors who wore a diadem. He was author of the ninth persecution raised against the Christians. To this he was excited in an expedition he made into Asia.   

HE WAS THE AUTHOR OF THE NINTH PERSECUTION RAISED AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS

Zenobia, queen of the East, by the concession of Gallien, was mistress of large dominions, the reward of her and her late husband Odenatus’s valour in bravely repulsing the Persians. Aurelian determined to divest her of her kingdom; but she defended herself by the counsels of Longinus, the most judicious critic and rhetorician, who had been her preceptor and counsellor. 

Aurelian defeated her armies, destroyed Palmyra in Syria, the capital city of her kingdom, in 273, took her and Longinus prisoners, basely put the latter to death, and led her in triumph. He indeed spared her life, and gave her very great estates in Italy, and she lived at Rome in great dignity many years till her death. 

HE PUBLISHED MOST BLOODY EDICTS AGAINST THEM

Zenobia had favoured the Christians in the East; and, though none of them had taken up arms against Aurelian, being returned to Rome from this war, he published most bloody edicts against them in 275, but was himself cut off by a conspiracy in Thrace, as he was marching at the head of his army against the Persians, in April the same year. Lactantius says, that by his persecution he drew down the divine displeasure on himself; and he lived not long enough to execute what he had designed, ending his days in the beginning of his rage. 

Nevertheless St Austin [Augustine] and others mention his bloody persecution, and the calendars testify that many suffered in it. 

ST MAMAS WAS A POOR SHEPHERD

Among these none is more famous than St Mamas. St Basil and St Gregory Nazianzen inform us that he was a poor shepherd’s boy at Caesarea in Cappadocia, who, seeking from his infancy the kingdom of God with his whole heart, distinguished himself by his extraordinary fervour in the divine service. 

Being apprehended by the persecutors about the year 274 or 275, he suffered the most cruel torments with a holy joy, and attained in his youth a glorious crown of martyrdom. 

HE ATTAINED THE CROWN OF MARTYRDOM

Sozomen and St Gregory Nazianzen tell us, that Julian the Apostate and his brother Gallus, being educated at Caesarea, diverted themselves, when children, in building churches to the martyrs, particularly one to St Mamas; but that while Gallus’s part advanced, that of Julian fell down again every day.   

EVERY CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO REJOICE THAT AN ETERNAL KINGDOM IS OFFERED HIM BY GOD

Every Christian ought to rejoice exceedingly, that, how mean soever his condition may be as to the world, an eternal kingdom, compared to which all the sceptres of the earth are mere shadows and dust, is offered him by God, and that it is in his power, through the divine grace, to obtain it; for heaven is justly called in the holy scriptures a kingdom, and all its glorious inhabitants are truly great kings, God communicating to every one of them a full partnership of that honour, in an entire possession of overflowing joy and unspeakable pleasure, of all riches, honour, power, and liberty of doing and commanding according to their own will, which is in all things subject and conformable to the divine. 

WE MAY PURCHASE AN ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY

Our faith must be exceedingly weak if we do not, with the saints, offer violence, and strain every sinew to make sure our election; if we do not find our joy in all sufferings and disgraces here, by which we may purchase an eternal weight of glory; and if we do not scorn from our hearts this little point of the earth, with all its empty and false enjoyments and promises, making no other use of its goods than as steps to conduct us to God’s immense and immortal kingdom, framed by his almighty hand to display his infinite power, munificence, love, and goodness in favour of his faithful chosen servants to all eternity.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)