Nereus and Achilleus were first-century soldiers who became Christians. They decided that, as Christians, it was wrong for them to fight for the pagan Roman Empire. So they ran away to the island of Terracina (located southeast of the city of Rome); when they were found, they were beheaded. This occurred during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Trajan. Saint Damasus honored them with a tombstone some years later, at a church dedicated at the site of their deaths. “O miracle of faith!” wrote Damasus, “Suddenly they cease from their fury, they become converted, they flee from the camp of their wicked leader. Professing the faith of Christ, they are happy to witness to its triumph!”
Adapted from “Saints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Year”, by Beutner
Benedict was born into a well-to-do, Christian family in Nursia, Italy, around the year 480 and was sent to Rome to be educated when he was a teenager. He was revolted by the immoral behavior he saw there, so he quickly left Rome with his nurse (a caregiver-turned-housekeeper) to live a life of solitude in the mountains. Soon he realized that God was calling him to an even greater abandonment of the world. While he was searching for a place to live in complete solitude, he settled on the city of Subiaco, where he met a monk named Romanus. Romanus brought bread to Benedict every day (disobeying the monastery’s rules), while he lived in a nearby cave for three years. When other men found out about Benedict’s holiness and simple way of life, they wanted to follow him. Benedict settled the men who wanted to be his disciples into twelve separate monasteries, with twelve monks in each. Unfortunately, the monks began to resent him, and they even tried to poison him. (Benedict later decided that he had been too severe with them.) When the cup they tried to poison him with broke after he had blessed it, he recognized what they’d tried to do. He repented of his past severity with them and left them suddenly. He moved to Monte Cassino, the site of a former pagan temple, and around the year 530, he and those who followed him began to build a monastery. This ultimately became one of the greatest monasteries that the world has ever known. Learning from his experiences at Subiaco, Benedict gathered all his monks into one monastery, developed his famous rule for monastic life, and established the practice of ora et labora among his monks, in which they lived a structured life of both prayer and work. He cared for the sick people who lived outside the monastery and the poor who came to the monastery for alms and food. Benedict died in the year 547 as he stood in the monastery’s chapel, with this arms supported by his brothers and his hands lifted up to Heaven.
Saint Patrick was born in Britain around the time of the late 4th or early 5th century. His family were of modest means, his father being a Romano-British senator, tax collector, and deacon of the church. At some point in Patrick’s early life, probably his teen years, his family’s villa was raided by Irish pirates, and took him as a slave to Ireland. His captors had him tend sheep and he lived in horrible conditions. In his Confessio, an early autobiographical account of this life, he claims that while in his youth he was not particularly devout, he turned to God for strength in his captivity. Some years later, he escaped his captors, and convinced a boatman to sail him back to Britain to find his family. When disembarking, him and his party wandered the wilderness for weeks, nearly succumbing to starvation. His insistence that God would provide came to fruition, where the party finally happened upon some wild boar. This gained respect and trust from those around him, leading them to Christ.
During his early 20’s, Patrick continued to study Christianity and grow in his faith. One night he was given a vision, that he would return to Ireland and convert his captors. Acting upon this, he landed at county Wicklow in Ireland, where he was not welcome. He spent much of his early time in Ireland avoiding hostile pagan chieftains, but baptized and converted many to Christ throughout his travels. Legend says that during a sermon to the pagans, he plucked a clover from the ground near his feet and used it to explain to them the Trinity.
Eventually, Patrick arrived at the court of King Lóegaire, the high king of Ireland, where Druid priests displayed their demonic magic, theatrically plunging the hall into darkness. Instead of cowering in fright, Patrick observed aloud that these priests could create darkness but that they could not dispel it–which they could not. He then proceeded to use this incident as the theme of a sermon, in which he likened Christ to the light. Many of the assembled nobles converted to Christianity that day, and Patrick gained the king’s respect and protection.
In many ways, Patrick was more Irish than the Irish. He loved Irish legends, poetry and songs, and he insisted that this heritage be documented and retained. For their part, the Irish loved him and embraced him. Patrick lived his life in Ireland and died there. He left behind a Christian people, a civilized people, and he left behind towns, schools, seminaries and a love of learning perpetuated to this day.
The text of [Lutheran Service Book 604], “I Bind unto Myself Today,” is attributed to St. Patrick. This beautiful prayer, traditionally called “St. Patrick’s Breast-Plate,” is supposed to have been composed by Patrick in anticipation of his victory over paganism. The translation of the prayer in [Lutheran Service Book] from the old Irish text is a paraphrase by Cecil F. Alexander [1818-95]. The “Apostle of Ireland,” as Patrick is sometimes called, is also associated with the shamrock, which he used to explain the Trinity. “I Bind unto Myself Today” also deals with the topic of the Holy Trinity.
“I bind unto myself the name, The strong name of the Trinity By invocation of the same, The Three in One and One in Three, Of whom all nature has creation, Eternal Father, Spirit, Word. Praise to the Lord of my salvation; Salvation is of Christ the Lord!“
(Adapted from John Murphy Ball (March 1999), “In Search of St. Patrick”, Lutheran Witness. Hymn stanza for “I Bind unto Myself Today” (LSB 604): public domain.)
St. Gregory was born into a wealthy Christian family in the year 540. As a young man he studied law and quickly became governor of Rome as a result of his superior legal acumen. However, God ultimately led him to serve the Church through his talents and resources.
After the death of his father, Gregory turned his villa into a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew and took up the monastic life for himself. What he didn’t spend on religious buildings he gave away to the poor. Gregory’s dedication to charity and almsgiving lasted his whole life, but Gregory was not destined to remain a monk. He reentered the public sphere and was ordained a deacon by Benedict I and later ascended to the bishopric of Rome following the death of Pope Pelagius. During this time disease broke out, turning Gregory’s attention not only to his new role, but especially to the needs of the sick and needy in the face of an epidemic.
Gregory also is known for instituting the first ever large-scale mission work from Rome, known as the Gregorian mission, to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons in Britain to Christianity. His chosen missionary was a monk by the name Augustine, who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and was known as the “Apostle to the English”.
Gregory’s faith left him no option but to lead a life of servitude and humility, not only in regard to his neighbors but also in matters of the Church’s worship. His liturgical reforms were aimed at creating continuity in faithful worship, like when he had a companion to the missal made specifically for the priests and supported musical development in the Church. These had some influence on the simplified compositions created for choirs, what is known today as Gregorian Chant. Gregory’s habits of ensuring that the poor were served, creating concord with neighboring peoples, and sending out missionaries makes him stand out as an early Church father.
(Adapted from: Festivals and Commemorations, by Phillip H. Pfatteicher)
Perpetua and Felicitas were Christian women who lived in Roman-controlled Carthage in North Africa in the late second and early third centuries. Perpetua was a young, married noblewoman and new mother; Felicitas was a slave, who was pregnant when she was arrested. The two were catechumens, part of a group of newly converted Christians preparing for Baptism who were arrested for their illegal faith. Christianity was seen as anti-social by the Roman government, who enforced a polytheistic paganism that blended together lots of cultures’ native religions, in an attempt to keep the peace across their huge empire.
Perpetua’s father, who was not a Christian, visited her in prison three times to convince her to renounce her faith and save her life. He tried violence to scare her, he tried asking her to think of him and of her infant son, he tried grieving and great shows of emotion. Perpetua was deeply upset, but she refused to change course: She confessed that she was a Christian, prayed for and tried to comfort her father, and still refused to offer sacrifices to Caesar or renounce Jesus. For this, Felicitas and the others were condemned to the wild beasts in the amphitheater games held in honor of the emperor’s birthday. During their time in prison awaiting their fates, Perpetua was baptized, and Felicitas gave birth while in prison. It was illegal to execute a pregnant woman, and Felicitas had been worried that she would not be able to face martyrdom with her friends. She went into labor a month early, and so faced death alongside her brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Christians eventually went to their deaths in the colosseum with quiet joy and courage, in sure hope of Christ’s love and His promise of resurrection. While facing down the wild animals, Perpetua stopped to fix her hair, so that she would not appear disheveled or in mourning, and helped Felicitas back on her feet after she was trampled. They ultimately died by the gladiator’s sword. The editor of Perpetua’s prison diary describes the Christians’ deaths, noting that, before they died, they kissed one another with the kiss of peace.
(Adapted from The Lutheran Witness; “Our Great Heritage: Perpetua and Felicitas”, by Molly Lackey)
Scholastica (d. 543), twin sister of Saint Benedict, was born into a good family in Nursia, Italy. Scholastica lived a holy, secluded life before she founded a nunnery, but under Benedict’s direction. She and Benedict met only once a year and only for one day. The last time they met, when Benedict started to leave, Scholastica–believing she was soon to die–objected and begged him to stay. Benedict refused, saying that his Rule obliged him to return to the monastery. Scholastica bent her head and prayed, and a violent storm broke out. A brother to the end, Benedict blamed his sister for the storm and asked what she had done. Scholastica replied, “I asked a favor of you, and you refused it. I asked it of God, and he has granted it.” Since Benedict couldn’t leave, they spent the night talking about holy things and the joys of heaven. When Scholastica died three days later, Benedict is said to have seen a vision of her soul flying up to Heaven like a dove. (Adapted from Saints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Year, by Beutner)
Dorothy was a Christian from Caesarea, a region now in modern Turkey, who consecrated herself to Jesus Christ. During the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Diocletian in the year 311, she was arrested and condemned to death. According to tradition, as she was taken to her execution, a lawyer mocked her faith, but she told him she would send him flowers from Heaven. When he unexpectedly received roses after her death, he converted to the faith. (From Saints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Year, by Beutner)
Agatha, (d. ca. 250) was a beautiful, wealthy young Christian from Catania, Sicily, who consecrated her life to God during the days of the early Church. When she refused to marry a Roman consul named Quintian, he tried to punish her by forcibly putting her in a brothel. When she refused to be shamed into living such a life, he turned her in to the authorities, denouncing her as a Christian. To try to make her give up her faith, they tortured her, in which onlookers said she prayed deeply to Jesus Christ. Her torturers were careful not to torture her to death and threw her back into prison. After praying to be released from this world, she died. All this occurred during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Decius. (Adapted from Saints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Year, by Beutner)
Catholic Jonesboro 