AUGUST 9, 2024 – ST. ROMANUS, MARTYR.

• St. Romanus (258). Martyr. (Traditional) Roman soldier that St. Lawrence converted
• St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) (1942). Martyr, Religious, Virgin. (Current)
• Sts. Marcellinus & Peter (304). Martyr. (Historical)

ROMANUS was a soldier in Rome at the time of the martyrdom of St. Laurence. Seeing the joy and constancy with which that holy martyr suffered his torments, he was moved to embrace the faith, and, addressing himself to St. Laurence, was instructed and baptized by him in prison. Confessing aloud what he had done, he was arraigned, condemned, and beheaded the day before the martyrdom of St. Laurence. Thus he arrived at his crown before his guide and master. The body of St. Romanus was first buried on the road to Tibur, but his remains were translated to Lucca, where they are kept under the high altar of a beautiful church which bears his name.

REFLECTION: We are bound to glorify God by our lives, and Christ commands that our good works shine before men. It was the usual saying of the apostle St. Matthias, “The faithful sins if his neighbor sins.” Such ought to be the zeal of every one to instruct and edify his neighbor by word and example.

WORD OF THE DAY

PERSECUTIONS, ROMAN. The ten great persecutions of the Church from apostolic times to the Edict of Milan (A.D. 313) are generally identified by the reign of the ruling emperor: 1. Nero (54-68) accused the Christians of being haters of mankind; 2. Domitian (81-96) took his victims mainly from the Christian nobility; 3. Trajan (98-117) considered Christianity an organized menace to the empire; 4. Marcus Aurelius (161-80) confiscated the property of the faithful and tortured his victims; 5. Septimus Severus (193-211) forbade fresh conversions; 6. Maximinus Thrax (235-38) persecuted the clergy; 7. Decius (249-51) ordered all subjects who would not sacrifice to the state gods to be put to death; 8. Valerian (253-60) forbade all Christian assemblies and concentrated on clergy and nobility; 9. Aurelian (270-75) allowed the anti-Christian legislation to remain but did not seriously enforce it; 10. Diocletian (284-305) reversed Aurelian’s policy and unleashed the bloodiest of all Roman persecutions.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

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