ST. JULIAN AND ST. BASILISSA, though married, lived, by mutual consent, in perpetual chastity; they sanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic life, and employed their revenues in relieving the poor and the sick. For this purpose they converted their house into a kind of hospital, in which they sometimes entertained a thousand poor people.
Basilissa attended those of her sex, in separate lodgings from the men; these were taken care of by Julian, who from his charity is named the Hospitalarian. Egypt, where they lived, had then begun to abound with examples of persons who, either in the cities or in the deserts, devoted themselves to the most perfect exercises of charity, penance, and mortification. Basilissa, after having stood seven persecutions, died in peace; Julian survived her many years and received the crown of a glorious martyrdom, together with Celsus, a youth, Antony, a priest, Anastatius, and Marcianilla, the mother of Celsus.
Many churches and hospitals in the East, and especially in the West, bear the name of one or other of these martyrs. Four churches at Rome, and three out of five at Paris, which bear the name of St. Julian, were originally dedicated under the name of St. Julian, the Hospitalarian and martyr. In the time of St. Gregory the Great, the skull of St. Julian was brought out of the East into France, and given to Queen Brunehault; she gave it to the nunnery which she founded at Basilissa, at Paris.
REFLECTION: God often rewards men for works that are pleasing in his sight, by giving them grace and opportunity to do other works higher still. St. Augustine said, “I have never seen a compassionate and charitable man die a bad death.
WORD OF THE DAY
MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION. The explanation of some biblical person, object, or occurrence in the past as having a divinely intended meaning or function in the future. Thus Adam prefigured Christ, the Passover anticipated the Cross and the Eucharist, and the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century of the Christian era symbolized the end of the world. To be valid, the basis for the interpretation must be found in Scripture or sacred tradition.
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!)
There is also a Christmastide Meditation For Today
This article, JANUARY 9 – SS. JULIAN AND BASILISSA, MARTYRS. is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
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