SS. CARPUS, PAPYLUS, AND AGATHODORUS, MARTYRS - 14 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 14th of April

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.

SAINTS CARPUS, PAPYLUS, AND AGATHODORUS, MARTYRS 

(SS. Carpus, Bishop of Thyatira, in Asia Minor, Papylus, His Deacon, and Agathodorus Their Servant, Martyrs.)

In the persecution of Decius, in 251, they were apprehended and brought before Valerius, governor of Lesser Asia, who resided sometimes at Thyatira, sometimes at Sardis. 

THEY SUFFERED MUCH IN DUNGEONS

The martyrs suffered much in dungeons in both those cities, and underwent three severe examinations; in the third, to intimidate the masters, Agathodorus was, in their presence; scourged to death with bull’s sinews. 

AT LENGTH THEY WERE CONSUMED BY THE FLAMES

When the proconsul went to Pergamus, which city was the birth-place both of the bishop and his deacon, the two saints were dragged thither, and first the bishop, then the deacon, was beaten with knotty clubs, their sides burnt with torches, and the wounds rubbed over with salt. Some days after they were laid on iron spikes, their sides were again torn, and at length both were consumed by the flames, together with Agathonice, a sister of Papylus. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

➡️ Their entry in the Roman Martyrology on April 13