Nothing more of these martyrs is known than the brief mention in Eusebius, quoting from Apollinaris of Hierapolis, that they were natives of Eumenia, and that they suffered at Apamea.

SS. CODRATUS, DIONYSIUS, AND OTHERS, MM.

(ABOUT A.D. 258.)

[Inserted in the Menologium of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogeneta, also in the Roman Martyrology. Authority:—A Greek life published by Bollandus, of uncertain date, and very questionable authority.]

In the persecution of Decius many Christians fled to the mountains and deserts until the tyranny was overpast. Amongst these was a woman who was expecting her confinement; she hid in a wild place amongst the rocks, and there brought forth a child whom she named Codratus. He was brought up in the desert during his infancy, and growing to maturity, was joined by other young men desirous of a retired life. They were taken before the governor Jason, at Corinth, and were executed.

THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE.

(ABOUT A.D. 320.)

[Roman Martyrology. Amongst the Greeks on March 9th; the ancient Martyrology attributed to S. Jerome on March 9th, as also that of Bede, and most ancient Martyrologies. In the Roman, it has been transferred to the 10th, because the feast of S. Frances is a double. Authorities:—The Ancient Latin and Greek Acts, the former a recension of more ancient Acts, made in 900; the latter of less antiquity, also the Armenian Acts. These saints are spoken of by S. Ephraem Syrus, (d. 378), and by S. Gregory Nyssen, (d. 396), and S. Basil has a sermon on them. There is also a homily upon them extant by S. Gaudentius, B. of Brescia, (375.) The invention of their relics is mentioned by Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. lib. ix. c. 2.]

When the Emperor Licinius had broken with his brother-in-law Constantine, he threw off the mask of toleration he had worn, and openly persecuted the Christians. When in Cappadocia, he published an edict commanding every Christian, on pain of death, to abandon his religion. Agricola, governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia, resided at Sebaste, where S. Blaise, bishop of that city, was one of the first victims. In the army which was quartered there was the Thundering Legion. Its commanding officer was Lysias. Forty soldiers of that legion, natives of different countries, but all young, brave, and distinguished for their services, refused to sacrifice to the idols. When Agricola announced the imperial order to the army, these forty brave men advanced to his tribunal, and announced themselves to be Christians. They were at once cast into prison, where they raised the 90th (91st) psalm, in solemn chant, as the darkness closed upon them; "Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High; shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Our blessed Lord appeared to them, and bade them play the man, and win the crown of victory. Then Cyrio, one of the confessors, said to his brethren, "It has pleased God to unite us forty brethren in one communion of faith and warfare, let us not part in life or in death. Let us ask of God to send us forty to our crown together."

Six or seven days after they were brought again before the governor, and were sentenced to be exposed naked through the bitter winter night on the ice of a pond; but he ordered that a fire and warm bath should be prepared in a small building opening on the pond, and that any of the confessors who should take advantage of this should be regarded as having apostatized.

Night closed in over the city. The shops were shut; the streets were still. Men went not willingly forth into the bitter cold. No friendly cloud hung in the sky—it was a clear, starry night;—the constellations glowed in the intense frost. The citizens heaped up their fires, and gathered closer around them. The soldiers canvassed the constancy of the sufferers. There, on the frozen pool, stood the martyrs of Jesus Christ. From the open door of the hut, a bright cheerful gleam of fire-light shone; reflecting itself on the clear dark ice. Some presently fell, and slept that sleep which ends only in death; some walked hurriedly up and down, as if to keep in the heat of life; some stood with their arms folded, almost lost in prayer; some consoled themselves and their brethren in the conflict. They prayed earnestly that He, who had in a special manner consecrated the number forty to Himself; who had bade Moses tarry in the mount forty days, who had fed Elijah with that food, in the strength whereof he went forty days and forty nights; who had given Nineveh forty days for repentance; they called on Him who had Himself fasted forty days, and had lain forty hours in death, not to fail them then. "Forty wrestlers," they said, "O Lord, we have entered the arena; let forty victors receive the prize!"

One of the soldiers guarding the pond was waiting by the fire, and slept. And in his sleep he beheld this vision. He stood by the side of the pool, and saw the martyrs in their conflict. As he gazed on them, an angel came down from the sky with a golden crown in his hands. Its brightness was not of this world; it was most bright, most beautiful. He brought another, and another, and another, till the dreamer perceived that he was charged with the everlasting diadems of the victorious martyrs. Nine-and-thirty crowns he brought, but he came not with the fortieth.

"What may this mean?" he asked, as he awoke. As he was wondering, there was a stir without, and the soldiers brought in one of the confessors. He could endure it no more, he had come to the fire and the warm bath. He who had dreamed went forth. Still the cloudless night; still the intense piercing blast from the range of the Caucasus. Most of the sufferers, on the frozen pool, had fallen where they stood. To them the bitterness of death was past; for they were in the last fatal sleep; and their diadem, though not yet attained, were certain. Others were praying, "Forty wrestlers we have entered the arena; let forty victors receive the prize."

O wonderful power of prayer in all! but most wonderful virtue of intercession in Christ's martyrs! At that moment a thought rushed into the mind of the soldier; a thought so sweet, so cheering, that the bitter Armenian night seemed to him as pleasant as the breath of a May morning. "One has fallen from his crown; I may attain to it."

In half-an-hour he had roused the governor from his sleep, and had professed himself a Christian. In half-an-hour more he stood himself on the frozen pool, a confessor among the other confessors. And there was yet life in some of the sufferers to hail this new brother in arms in the spiritual warfare. He, too, contending to the end, received the prize; the virtue of Baptism, as the Church has ever taught, being supplied to him in this case by the grace of that martyrdom whereof he was accounted worthy.

Morning broke at last, and a few still lived, amongst others Melithon, the youngest of the soldiers. Agricola ordered the legs and arms of those who survived to be broken, and as the order was carried into execution, they sang faintly with their frozen lips, "Our soul hath escaped out of the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we are delivered." The mother of Melithon was present. She raised him in her arms, and laid him with the other bodies in the wagon which was to convey them to a fire in which they were all to be consumed. Melithon still lived, and smiled faintly upon her. "Oh, son of my bosom, how glad am I to see thee offer to Christ the last remains of thy life. Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps that thou hast sucked!" And she followed the tumbril to the fire into which her yet breathing son was cast, together with the frozen bodies of his comrades.

A few fragments still remain of the church, which in after years was raised on the scene of the martyrdom. The names of these martyrs were Quirio or Cyrio, Candidus, Domnus, Melitho, Domitian, Eunoicus, Sisinius, Heraclius, Alexander, John, Claudius, Athanasius, Valens, Helianus, Ecditius, Acacius, Vivianus, Helias, Theodulus, Cyrillus, Flavius, Severian, Valerius, Chudio, Sacerdo Priscus, Eutychius, Smaragdus, Philoctimo, Aetius, Nicolas, Lysimachus, Theophilus, Xantheas, Augias, Leontius, Hesychius, Caius and Gorgo.

S. MACARIUS, B. OF JERUSALEM.

(ABOUT A.D. 335.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authorities:—Eusebius, Theodoret Socrates.]

S. Macarius was created bishop of Jerusalem in the year 314. He was present at the great council of NicÆa, against Arius, whom he always opposed from the beginning of his heretical teaching. The historian Socrates has preserved for us a letter written to him by the Emperor Constantine. There was another Macarius, bishop of the same see, in the reign of the Emperor Justinian, who was driven from his see for defending the heresy of the Origenists; but having recanted, was restored.

S. KESSOG, B. C.

(6TH CENT.)

[Aberdeen Breviary. Authority:—David Camerarius, Thomas Dempster, and the Lections in the Breviary.]

Kessog or Makkessog, as he is otherwise called, an Irish prince by birth, and an itinerary bishop in the province of Boyne, laboured for the spread of the Gospel in Scotland. He is said to have settled in Lennox; and Thomas Dempster says he was represented in art dressed as a soldier with a bow in his hand and a quiver at his back.

S. DROCTOVEUS, AB.

(ABOUT A.D. 576.)

[Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Usuardus, and Maurolycus. Authority:—An ancient life written after the destruction of the original life by the Danes when they burnt the monastery of S. Germain.]

S. Droctoveus, vulgarly called in France S. DrottÉ, was born in the diocese of Autun, in Burgundy. In his youth he was placed with S. Germain, in the abbey of S. Symphorian, at Autun, of which he was abbot. He was formed there upon the most perfect model of virtue. S. Germain having been elevated to the bishopric of Paris, wished to continue to live as a monk. Wherefore he withdrew his disciple Droctoveus from the abbey of S. Symphorian, and brought him to Paris. King Childebert having built a church in which to place the stole of S. Vincent, which he had carried back with him from Saragossa in the year 542, on his return from his Spanish expedition, and chosen this church as his place of sepulture, he was buried there in 558, and S. Germain dedicated the church on the same day as his burial, under the title SS. Cross and Vincent. He established a monastery adjoining it, over which he set S. Droctoveus, with whose virtues he was well acquainted. Droctoveus governed the monastery for twenty years, and established its fame. The monks afterwards embraced the rule of S. Benedict, and the house and church took the name of S. Germain after the body of that prelate had been transferred to it.

S. HYMELIN, P.

(8TH CENT.)

[Belgian Martyrology of Molanus, Aberdeen Breviary, and Anglican Martyrology. Authority:—A life founded on notices in the Martyrologies and popular tradition, by John Gilleman, about 1480.]

The Blessed Hymelin, priest and confessor, was a near relative of S. Rumbold, and an Irishman. Of his early life nothing is known. He undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, and on his return was attacked by a virulent fever at Vissenaeken, near Tirlemont, in Brabant. He sank exhausted on a bank, and a girl noticed his haggard looks and evident sickness as she was returning from the well with her pitcher. Hymelin extended his hands to her, and implored her to give him a draught of water, but she had received strict orders from her master, the curate of the place, not to let any one touch the pitcher, as the plague was then raging, and he feared infection. She therefore reluctantly refused the draught.

"I am very sick, and perhaps dying," said the Irish pilgrim; "I pray you deny me not this little gift."

"My good friend," answered the maid, "I would gladly refresh you, were it not that I am under orders. But come home to my master, and he will give you food and drink of the very best." "I cannot stir from this place, I am far too ill," said Hymelin; "I pray you let me taste the cool water. I am consumed with thirst." She looked at the man's ghastly countenance with fiery spots on the cheek, and was unable to refuse any longer, so she held her pitcher to his lips; he drank, thanked her, and she went to her master with the vessel. The curate took the pitcher, set it to his lips, and drawing it suddenly away, exclaimed, "Thou hast brought me wine, not water!" And it was so. The water had been converted into wine. Then she told him all that she had done; and he ran and brought the wayfarer to his house, and laid him on his bed, and nursed him till he died. And as the soul of Hymelin fled, the chimes of the church began to play sweetly in the air, though no man touched the bells. Hymelin was buried in the parish church of Vissenaeken, where his body still remains, and every year, on March 10th, attracts a large concourse of pilgrims.