ST MAXIMUS, MARTYR - 30 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 30th 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.

ST MAXIMUS, MARTYR 

(A.D. 251.) Saint Maximus was an inhabitant of Asia, and a merchant by profession. Decius having formed an impious but vain design of extirpating the Christian religion, published edicts over the whole empire to enforce idolatry, commanding all to adore idols. 

HE WAS APPREHENDED FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN

Maximus having openly declared himself a Christian, he was immediately apprehended, and brought before Optimus, the proconsul of Asia, who, after asking him his name, inquired also after his condition. 

He replied: “I am born free, but am the slave of Jesus Christ.” 

Proconsul. “What is your profession?” 

Maximus. “I am a plebeian, and live by my dealings.”  

Proconsul. “Are you a Christian?” 

Maximus. “Yes, I am, though a sinner.” 

Proconsul. “Have not you been informed of the edicts that are lately arrived?” 

Maximus. “What edicts? and what are their contents?”.  

Proconsul. “That all the Christians forsake their superstition, acknowledge the true prince whom all obey, and adore his gods.” 

Maximus. “I have been told of that impious edict, and it is the occasion of my appearing abroad.” 

Proconsul. “As then you are apprised of the edicts, sacrifice to the gods.” 

Maximus. “I sacrifice to none but that God to whom alone I have sacrificed from my youth, the remembrance of which affords me great comfort.”.  Proconsul. “Sacrifice as you value your life: if you refuse to obey you shall expire in torments.” 

Maximus. “This has ever been the object of my desires: it was on this very account that I appeared in public, to have an opportunity offered me of being speedily delivered out of this miserable life, to possess that which is eternal.” 

Then the proconsul commanded him to be bastinadoed, and in the mean time said to him, “Sacrifice, Maximus, and thou shalt be no longer tormented.” 

Maximus. “Sufferings for the name of Christ are not torments, but comfortable unctions: but if I depart from his precepts contained in the gospel, then real and eternal torments would be my portion.” 

The proconsul then ordered him to be stretched on the rack, and while he was tortured said to him: “Renounce, wretch, thy obstinate folly, and sacrifice to save thy life.” Maximus. “I shall save it if I do not sacrifice; I shall lose it if I do. Neither your clubs, nor your iron hooks, nor your fire give me any pain, because the grace of Jesus Christ dwelleth in me, which will deliver me out of your hands to put me in possession of the happiness of the saints, who have already in this same conflict triumphed over your cruelty. It is by their prayers I obtain this courage and strength which you see in me.” 

THE DEATH SENTENCE FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN

The proconsul then pronounced this sentence on him: “I command that Maximus, for refusing to obey the sacred edicts, be stoned to death, to serve for an example of terror to all Christians.” 

St Maximus was immediately seized by the executioners and carried without the city walls, where they stoned him on the 14th of May. Thus his acts. The Greeks honour him on the day of his death: the Roman Martyrology on April 30. He suffered in 250 or 251.   

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)