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SAINT LIBERATUS AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS - 23 MARCH

 

SAINT LIBERATUS AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

Saint Liberatus, a doctor, his wife, who was also a believer, his two (unnamed) sons, together with a 7-year-old boy from a noble family, whose name is also unknown, and the presbyter Crescentius (Cresconius), were martyred for their Catholic faith at the time of the Arian Vandal king Huneric.

Liberatus and his wife were mowed down, their sons and the other boy were thrown into the sea, and the presbyter Crescentius was locked up in a mountain cave near the town of Turgo, where he starved to death and was later found completely decomposed. 

Twelve other young boys, who distinguished themselves by their Christian heroism (their names are also unknown) are said to have been beaten so violently that they succumbed to their wounds. These too are said to have been highly honoured in Carthage. 

An eyewitness, Victor of Vita, says of the 7-year-old boy that when he was taken from his parents and his mother chased after the kidnappers in a state, with her hair loose, he kept shouting: "I am a Christian, I am a Christian!" 

When Liberatus' eyes filled with tears over the loss of his sons, his wife rebuked him with the words: "So you want to lose your soul because of your sons? Imagine they were not born; in any case, Christ will avenge them too." Their martyrdom took place in the year 484; but soon afterwards the tyrant Huneric, like Arius, perished miserably. (III. 461–462).


(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 3, Augsburg, 1869, pp. 809-10)

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Liberatus and Companions may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.



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