MARTYRS OF CILICIA - 16 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

 Saints celebrated on the 16th February

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.

MARTYRS OF CILICIA 

(Saints Elias, Jeremy, Isaias, Samuel, Daniel, and Other Holy Martyrs at Caesarea, in Palestine)

In the year 309, the emperors Galerius Maximianus and Maximinis continuing the persecution begun by Diocletian, these five pious Egyptians went to visit the confessors condemned to the mines in Cilicia, and on their return were stopped by the guards of the gates of Caesarea, in Palestine, as they were entering the town. 

They readily declared themselves Christians, together with the motive of their journey; upon which they were apprehended. 

THEY WERE BROUGHT BEFORE THE GOVERNOR

The day following they were brought before Firmilian, the governor of Palestine, together with St Pamphilus and others. The judge, before he began his interrogatory, ordered the five Egyptians to be laid on the rack, as was his custom. 

After they had long suffered all manner of tortures, he addressed himself to him who seemed to be their chief, and asked him his name and his country. They had changed their names, which, perhaps, before their conversion, where those of some heathen gods, as was customary in Egypt. 

HE ANSWERED, "JERUSALEM", MEANING THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM

The martyr answered, according to the names they had taken on, that he was called Elias, and his companions, Jeremy, Isaias, Samuel, and Daniel. Firmilian then asked their country; he answered Jerusalem, meaning the heavenly Jerusalem, the true country of all Christians. The judge inquired in what part of the world that was, and ordered him to be tormented with fresh cruelty. All this while the executioners continued to tear his body with stripes, whilst his hands were bound behind him, and his feet squeezed in the woodstocks, called the Nervus. The judge, at last, tired with tormenting them, condemned all five to be beheaded, which was immediately executed.   

THE HONOUR OF BURIAL OUGHT NOT TO BE REFUSED THEM

Porphyrius, a youth who was a servant of St Pamphilus, hearing the sentence pronounced, cried out, that at least the honour of burial ought not to be refused them. Firmilian, provoked at this boldness, ordered him to be apprehended; and finding that he confessed himself a Christian, and refused to sacrifice, ordered his sides to be torn so cruelly, that his very bones and bowels were exposed to view. He underwent all this without a sigh or tear, or so much as making the least complaint. 

SURROUNDED BY THE FLAMES, HE SANG THE PRAISES OF GOD

The tyrant, not to be overcome by so heroic a constancy, gave orders for a great fire to be kindled, with a vacant space to be left in the midst of it, for the martyr to be laid in, when taken off the rack. This was accordingly done, and he lay there a considerable time surrounded by the flames, singing the praises of God, and invoking the name of Jesus; till at length, quite broiled by the fire, he consummated a slow, but glorious martyrdom.   

Seleucus, an eye-witness of this victory, was heard by the soldiers applauding the martyr’s resolution; and being brought before the governor, he, without more ado, ordered his head to be struck off.   

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

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