ST JULIUS, MARTYR - 27 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 27th of May

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 JULIUS, MARTYR 

[Saint Julius the Veteran.] This martyr was a veteran soldier, and was impeached by his officers for the Christian faith, before Maximus governor of the Lower Moesia, which was afterward called Bulgaria.

Pasicrates and Valention, both of the same regiment, had received the crown of martyrdom a little before. 

HIS SENTENCE

The judge employed caresses, promises, and threats; but Julius professed that to die for Christ, in order to live eternally with him, would be the accomplishment of all his desires. Whereupon he was condemned to lose his head, and led forth to the place of execution. 

As he went, Hesychius, a Christian soldier, who was also a prisoner, and suffered martyrdom a few days after him, said: “Go with courage, and run to the crown which the Lord hath promised; and remember me, who shall shortly follow you. Commend me to the servants of God, Pasicrates and Valention, who, by confessing the holy name of Jesus, are gone before us.” 

"VOUCHSAFE TO RECEIVE MY SOUL"

Julius, embracing Hesychius, said, “Dear brother, make haste to come to us; they whom you salute have already heard you.” Julius bound his eyes with a handkerchief, and presenting his neck to the executioner, said, “Lord Jesus, for whose name I suffer death, vouchsafe to receive my soul in the number of thy saints.” 

His martyrdom happened on May 27, two days after that of St Pasicrates, about the year 302, in the reign of Diocletian, at Durostoro on the Danube, in the second Moesia. See his genuine acts in Ruinart, p. 615. Tillem. t. 5. (1)

Note (1): Mandata tua jam audierunt quos salutasti. Ruinart. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)