Feast Day: August 22 St. Symphorian was therefore dragged before the magistrate and accused of sacrilege and sedition about the year 180. There was a great procession of the heathen goddess Ceres, at Autun, in France. Symphorian refused to pay the ordinary marks of worship. When asked his name and condition, he replied, "My name is Symphorian; I am a Christian!' He came of a … [Read more...]
St. Agapetus
Feast Day: August 18 St. Agapetus suffered in his youth a cruel martyrdom at Palestrina, twenty-four miles from Rome, under Aurelian, about the year 275. His name is famous in the ancient calendars of the Church of Rome. Two churches in Palestrina and others in other places are dedicated to God under his name. Adapted from the Lives of the Saints by Fr. Alban Butler first … [Read more...]
St. Eusebius
Feast Day: August 14 St. Eusebius opposed the Arians, at Rome, with so much zeal. He was imprisoned in his room by order of the Emperor Constantius, and sanctified his captivity by constant prayer. Another Saint of the same name, a priest and martyr, is commemorated on this day. In the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, before they had published any new edicts against the … [Read more...]
St. Susanna
Feast Day: August 11 St. Susanna was nobly born in Rome, and is said to have been niece to Pope Caius. Having made a vow of virginity, she refused to marry, on which account she was impeached as a Christian, and suffered with heroic constancy a cruel martyrdom. St. Susanna suffered towards the beginning of Diocletian's reign, about the year 295. Adapted from the Lives of … [Read more...]
St. Liberatus
Feast Day: August 17 St. Liberatus and six monks named Boniface, Servus, Rusticus, Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus lived in a monastery near Capsa, in the province of Byzacena, were summoned to Carthage. Huneric, the Arian Vandal king in Africa, in the seventh year of his reign, published fresh edicts against the Catholics, and ordered their monasteries to be everywhere … [Read more...]