Sts. Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs, St. Victor, Pope and Martyr, St. Innocent I, Pope and Confessor

Start:

Jul 28, '10

SAINTS NAZARIUS and CELSUS
Martyrs
(1st century)

St. Nazarius' father was a heathen, and held a considerable post in the Roman army. His mother, Perpetua, was a zealous Christian, and was instructed by St. Peter, or his disciples, in the most perfect maxims of our holy faith. Nazarius embraced it with so much ardor that he copied in his life all the great virtues he saw in his teachers; and out of zeal for the salvation of others, he left Rome, his native city, and preached the Faith in many places with a fervor and disinterestedness becoming a disciple of the apostles.

Arriving at Milan, he was there beheaded for the Faith, together with Celsus, a youth whom he carried with him to assist him in his travels. These martyrs suffered soon after Nero had raised the first persecution. Their bodies were buried separately in a garden without the city, where they were discovered and taken up by St. Ambrose, in 395.

In the tomb of St. Nazarius, a vial of the Saint's blood was found as fresh and red as if it had been spilt that day. The faithful stained handkerchiefs with some drops, and also formed a certain paste with it, a portion of which St. Ambrose sent to St. Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia.

St. Ambrose conveyed the bodies of the two martyrs into the new church of the apostles, which he had just built. A woman was delivered of an evil spirit in their presence. St. Ambrose sent some of these relics to St. Paulinus of Nola, who received them with great respect, as a most valuable present, as he testifies.
-Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894].


Saint Victor I
Pope and Martyr
(† 198)
Third Class

Pope St. Victor governed the Church in the time of the Emperor Severus. He confuted Theodotus Coriarius and wrote on the question of Easter.

Crowned with martyrdom, he was buried on Vatican hill on the fifth day before the Calends of August.
-The Roman Breviary (1964).


Saint Innocent I
Pope
(† 417)

Pope St. Innocent, after condemning Pelagius and Caelestius, issued a decree against their heresy.

His body was buried in the cemetery called "Ad Ursum pileatum" [Bear with the Cap.]
-The Roman Breviary (1964).


~www.dailygospel.org