Saints Nazarius and Celsus

Africanus had seen the hopes of honors and fortune that he had conceived and founded upon his son's future vanish. Thus, he employed promises at first, then threats, then mistreatment, to detach him from his faith and lead him to the worship of idols. Nazarius was unshakeable, and the father, defeated by this firmness and touched by grace, ceased his violent and importunate pursuits; he even returned all his affection to him, and, supporting the bold project he had conceived to go and preach the Gospel, he encouraged him to leave Rome, accelerated his departure, and gave him considerable sums for the journey. Our young Christian soon took the first step that leads to the perfect life; a new athlete, he stripped himself to better fight. All the treasures he had received from his father were distributed to the poor; and, free at last to listen only to the holy inspirations of his zeal, he traveled throughout Italy, sowing the faith among these idolatrous peoples, instructing them with his word, and edifying them with his virtues. Unfortunately, details are lacking regarding his apostolic journeys.

We find him, ten years later, in Milan. The prefect of this city, informed that he was destroying the worship of the gods, summoned him to his tribunal, and after having him cruelly beaten, drove him from the city with ignominy. Happy and full of joy to have been judged worthy to suffer, he too, for the glory of his divine Master, Nazarius left Milan, departed Italy, and went first to Cimiez, a small town located near Nice, in Cisalpine Gaul. It was there, according to our traditions, and not in Geneva, that a lady brought him her son Cels us, b Celse Young disciple and companion in martyrdom of Saint Nazarius. egging him to instruct him, to baptize him, and, if he were willing, to attach him to himself as his disciple. The docility of the son responding to the faith of the mother, Nazarius took Celsus with him; he was never to be separated from him again.

Conversions having multiplied, the governor of Cimiez became alarmed; the apostle was consequently arrested again, then beaten with rods and subjected to cruel tortures; he would have paid for his zeal and his successes with his life had the governor's wife not made her husband understand all the odiousness of such a persecution against weak and innocent young men. At the prayer of the wife of this new Pilate, freedom was returned to the martyrs, but on the express condition of no longer preaching in Cimiez.

Taking advantage of their deliverance and trusting in Him who gives the smallest birds their food, Nazarius and Celsus left the rich lands of the Mediterranean shores and climbed the rugged paths that lead to the summits of the Alps. All these mountains were, at the time of which we speak, covered with immense and solitary forests; the eye encountered little more than almost eternal glaciers, inaccessible rocks, and deep valleys in the midst of which lived, in a few rare and poor villages, coarse and idolatrous men. This sad aspect did not deter Nazarius and Celsus; they overcame all these obstacles and penetrated as far as Embrun. Soon their ardent word, and even more their holy life, brought forth numerous disciples to the faith; they raised a chapel to the true God in this city, and, leaving to others the care of watering this divine seed sown on land prepared by the sweat of their brow and at the peril of their lives, they went away, insatiable for new conquests, to evangelize the Viennese region. It was after having traveled as apostles throughout this province that they brought to Geneva, still idolatrous, the true doctrine of Jesus Christ. From Geneva, the two heroes of truth went to Trier: they made their way through Autun, where a respectable tradi Trèves Birthplace of the saint. tion holds that they announced the Gospel a hundred years before Saint Benignus and Saint Andochius. Why, indeed, would Nectarius, Bishop of Autun, have later placed his cathedral under the patronage of Saint Nazarius? Why did this same Nectarius also make the journey to Milan, where the missionaries had been crowned by martyrdom? Could it not be because he wished to venerate the relics of him whom a tradition, then still not far from its source, designated as one of the apostles of the Celses? It is even believed that before occupying the see of Rome, Saint Linus, the very one who baptized Saint Nazarius, had preceded him in Gaul and had spread the divine seed of the Gospel there. But let us follow Nazarius and Celsus to Trier: this city was then the seat of the prefect of the praetorium of Belgic Gaul. The success of their preaching, their striking miracles, and the construction of a chapel stirred up the idolatrous passions of the crowd against them. Cornelius, governor of the city, to whom they were denounced, informed the prefect of them.

The latter immediately sent a hundred armed men to seize Nazarius. His hands were tied behind his back and the troop took him away, saying: "The prefect commands you to come to him." He was thus led, bound, into the prisons of that city. Celsus, who followed him weeping, shared his captivity. After a few days, the prefect, reproaching himself for not having immediately delivered these Christians to torture, ordered them to be brought to him. His satellites therefore went down into the dungeons that held the two confessors, and, believing they would make themselves more pleasing to their master by exercising their cruelty toward the prisoners, they struck them brutally, knocked them down, trampled them under their feet, and then brought them, bruised and bloody, before the praetorian prefect. But, O wonder! they appeared to his eyes with faces dazzling and radiant with glory. Then, like that king of Egypt who attributed the wonders of the power of the God of heaven to magic, the obstinate pagan hardened his soul and had the martyrs led into a temple, with express orders to sacrifice to the gods of the empire if they did not prefer death. Scarcely introduced, Nazarius and Celsus prostrated themselves; they prayed to the one who strengthens the faithful Christian against all the powers of earth and hell, and suddenly the idols overturned and shattered. The prefect, at this news, was transported with fury; to satisfy his rage, Nazarius and Celsus were to perish under the waters, and if, by some new sorcery, they reached the shore, an immense pyre was ready; burned alive, their impious ashes would be cast to the wind. A boat was there; the two confessors boarded it; they moved away from the shore; they pushed toward the confluence of the Saar and the Moselle, forming in that place something like a very extensive lake or a small sea, and they threw them into the depths of the river. At the same instant a furious storm arose, it battered the skiff and threatened to engulf it. However, the glorious Martyrs walked calm and serene upon the solidified waves. Terrified by this new prodigy and on the point of perishing, the sailors cried out in distress, stretched their arms toward the holy Confessors, and called them to their aid. Then, touched by their faith and their repentance, Nazarius and Celsus commanded the angry element, which calmed down, then they returned to the boat. They were taken to land and they were implored, trembling, to go away forever.

After this brilliant miracle which had just taken from them, for a little while longer, the palm of martyrdom, Nazarius and Celsus resumed the road to Milan. Arriving in this city, they were soon arrested by the judge Anollin, who had received the strictest orders against the Christians. He was to exterminate them to the last and especially to take care that they did not take advantage, to preach the Gospel, of the word that was given to them in the interrogations to which they were subjected.

Nazarius and Celsus appeared before the *consilium* firm and unshakable. Neither caresses, nor threats, nor tortures, nor the sight of the final execution could for a single instant make their faith waver.

At the reading of the judgment which condemned them to have their heads severed, the two holy Martyrs burst into transports of joy; they threw themselves into each other's arms. "What happiness for us," cried Nazarius, "that the Savior has deigned to allow us to drink from his chalice and to receive today the palm of martyrdom!" — "I give you thanks, O my God," cried Celsus in his turn, "I give you thanks that, at a young age, you are willing to receive me into your glory." Then addressing Nazarius, whom he always called his father, he said to him: "Come, my good father, let us give our blood for the one to whom we owe our life, our salvation, and the conversion of so many souls."

They were then led to a public square, near the Roman gate, and there they had their heads severed around the year 56 of the Christian era and under the empire of Nero.

The death of these gener ous M Néron Roman emperor under whom the martyrdom took place. artyrs was a triumph for the Church, and their precious blood a seed of Christians whose number was one day to weary the fury of the persecutors, disconcert the policy of the senate, and end by subjugating the entire universe.

The bodies of the blessed Nazarius and Celsus were taken away during the night by the Christians and buried deep in a garden located outside the gate of Rome, in a place called the Three Walls. They remained there long ignored; the memory of them had eventually been lost. All that was known was that the owners of this garden forbade their descendants from ever selling this inheritance in which, they said, a rich treasure was buried.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Saint Ambrose, Archbishop of M ilan, instruct Saint Ambroise Father of the Church cited for a maxim on strength. ed by a divine revelation of the place where these precious relics rested, traveled there with all his clergy and had them raised from the earth in 395. The body of Saint Nazarius was found first, intact and perfectly preserved; the blood which, following the custom of the early Christians, filled a vial placed in his tomb, was red and vermilion as if it had been shed that very day. The faithful placed a few drops on handkerchiefs and made a kind of paste from the rest, a portion of which Saint Ambrose sent to Saint Gaudentius of Brescia. The head was separated from the trunk; one would have said it had just been washed and buried. An odor so sweet and so penetrating exhaled from the tomb that that of the sweetest perfumes could not be compared to it. The body of the Saint was placed on a litter adorned and prepared for this purpose and was transported into the city.

In another part of the same garden, excavations had also been made and the body of Saint Celsus discovered; reunited with that of Saint Nazarius, they were both deposited in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles, which Saint Ambrose had had built. Since then, the feast of the invention of these glorious relics has been celebrated; the Roman Martyrology places it on May 10. The Church of Milan, enriched by this new treasure, distributed a portion of it to other churches. Saint Paulinus made these relics one of the ornaments of his Church of Nola. Ennodius of Pavia sent some by his deacons to some bishops of Africa. The city of Embrun received a similar gift before any other city of the Gauls. Artemina, immediate successor of Saint Marcellinus, had himself made the request to Saint Ambrose. The precious deposit was placed in a church dedicated to Our Lady and built, it is believed, on the site where the old metropolis stands today.

The veneration of the people of Embrun for Saint Nazarius and Saint Celsus was from then on so profound, and their trust in the holy Martyrs such, that some authors believed that two other saints of the same name had been martyred in this city.

During the persecutions that arose and the invasions that followed, the relics of the two Martyrs were hidden to protect them from profanation, and on the same spot grew a pear tree whose fruits had, it is asserted, the singular privilege of healing people afflicted with any illness. Later, the holy treasure was unearthed and a church was built, in honor of the illustrious confessors, in the very place where the miraculous tree had aged.

Their feast is inscribed in the sacred diptychs on July 28; it is also on this same day that their office is celebrated in the diocese of Gap.

Until 1770, these two Saints were the titulars of the cathedral of Autun. In the time of Father Giry, an ancient coin was still preserved in this city which bore on one side this inscription: *Moneta sancti Nazarii*, and on the other these words: *Civitas ædua*.

Taken from the Hagiological History of the diocese of Gap, by Mgr Depéry.