Saint Gorgon and Saint Dorotheus

The emperor, without answering them, ordered them to be suspended on the rack, and then had them torn with blows; their skin was torn off with iron claws, and these raw wounds were then sprinkled with vinegar mixed with salt. The holy martyrs, during this frightful torture, looked toward heaven with a smiling face and said: "Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, who have deigned to strengthen us in the midst of torments; our hearts turn toward you, and we hope to contemplate you soon face to face, and to enjoy your holy presence which is the joy of the angels, and which is in itself eternal life and eternal happiness." Diocletian, seeing this joy of the Blessed, felt his rage redouble, and no longer knew what to do to torment them further. While his cruel ministers set upon their victims, the latter rejoiced in the Lord, and seemed to feel no pain. Finally, the executioners, after consulting for a long time, resolved to place them on a gridiron over burning coals, so that the parts of their bodies that remained intact would be successively exposed to the fire, and that the pain would be felt all the more keenly as the burning would be slower.

The holy martyrs, seeing these preparations, felt their joy increase; and when they had been placed on the burning coals, they cried out: "Glory be to you, Lord, who have deigned to receive your servants as living hosts; the smoke that escapes from our bodies and rises toward you obtains for us the forgiveness of our faults; it will merit for us to sit in paradise beside your faithful martyrs whose sufferings we share. Remember, Lord, our fragility and your merciful goodness; strengthen us in this final trial. May your hand be raised and protect us against the assaults of the demon; come, Lord, shake us, and for the sake of your name, deliver your servants." Scarcely had they finished this prayer when all the heat of the fire that was consuming them was extinguished; their faces shone like the light of the sun; and it seemed to all those present that their limbs were resting on a bed of flowers, without feeling the slightest suffering.

They were then detached from the gridiron and raised up. The faithful who had witnessed their torture, and who had hidden their faith until that moment, felt their courage renewed upon seeing the constancy of the generous martyrs. They, however, continued to sing to the Lord with the Psalmist: 'It is better to trust in the God of heaven than in the princes of the earth.' As for Diocletian, he groaned to see himself defeated by their invincible steadfastness; and no longer hoping to triumph over them through torments, he passed a capital sentence against them. The executioners then seized them; but upon being brought to the place of execution, the martyrs obtained permission to pray for a few moments; their prayer finished, they gave the kiss of peace to the Christians who surrounded them, and surrendered themselves to the executioners. They were immediately bound; and the rope having been passed around their necks, they were cruelly put to death.

They are represented in a group, sometimes accompanied by Saint Peter, also a martyr in Nicomedia, because all three were chamberlains of Diocletian. ## CULT AND RELICS. The faithful, having collected the glorious remains of our holy Martyrs, gave them an honorable burial, and immediately numerous miracles occurred at their tombs: the infirm recovered their health there, the possessed obtained their deliverance there, through the merits of the blessed Martyrs, all-powerful before God. A few years later, the body of Saint Gorgon was transported to Rome and saint Gorgon Imperial officer and martyr under Diocletian. deposited on the Via Rome Birthplace of Maximian. Latina, between the two Laurels, where it was surrounded by the most magnificent honors. Christ willed by this to entrust to the blessed Martyrs a more glorious patronage, and after their entry into the eternal homeland, to divide their bodies, so that one might protect Greece and the other the holy Roman Church; but, although they are thus separated, their presence is felt entirely at each of the tombs that one comes to honor. In Greece, one implores the help of Dorotheus; and his divine companion who rests in Rome comes with him to grant the wishes of the suppliants; the Romans, in their turn, flock to pray at the sepulcher of Saint Gorgon; and the blessed Dorotheus hastens with him to favor the inhabitants of the great city.

The relics of Saint Gorgon were transferred in 766 by the venerable Chrodegand, Bishop of Metz, to the monastery of Gorze. Later Gorze Lorraine abbey that received the relics in 766. , they were given to the venerable Philippe de Gheidres, a nun at the monastery of Saint-Claire in Pont-à-Mousson, by her son, the Cardinal of Lorraine, Abbot of Gorze and Bishop of Metz, probably in 1542, after the ruin of the abbey by Guillaume de Furstemberg. On November 11, 1595, the Poor Clares returned two bones, one from a shoulder and the other from an arm, to the parish church of Gorze, which no longer possessed any: they must have perished during the great Revolution.

In 1791, the last abbess of the Poor Clares, Marie-Charlotte Barbel, took the reliq uary known as S Essey-en-Woëvre Place where the reliquary of Saint Gorgon was taken in 1791. aint-Gorgon to Essey-en-Woëvre, in the canton of Thiaucourt, where she died in 1815, and it has remained in the parish church. On November 20, 1796, July 8, 1805, and April 28, 1807, the relics contained therein were visited, recognized, and canonically approved. They consist of more than twenty large bones with numerous fragments, which belong to seven different subjects, including several of the female sex. Here is the explanation for this enormous fact. When the abbey church of Gorze was pillaged, probably in 1542, all the relics were thrown from their shrines and reliquaries onto the floor, then collected and gathered by the monks, as noted in this parchment note kept in the shrine of Enez: Relics of Gorze which were taken from the church when it was pillaged by armed men; and which was interpolated by the following addition, indicating a different hand and a more recent era: Relics of the body of Saint Gorgon. Thus, this shrine contains not only some relics of Saint Gorgon, but other relics venerated in the church of Gorze, and all are mingled and venerated under the same name. A fragment of the ulna was taken and deposited in the church of Envezin, which is nearby, on August 18, 1549; a fragment of the skull had already been removed from the same shrine by the Poor Clares and given to the parish church of Feys-en-Haye, in the same region, where it still remains; whether it is more certainly from the holy Martyr than the greater number of the bones in the shrine of Enez, we would not dare to say; but if the head, which was formerly in the Church of Metz and which is probably mingled in the kind of ossuary in the sacristy of Sainte-Glossinde (chapel of the bishopric) where numerous relics are gathered pell-mell, could be produced, it would be curious to compare it with the fragment venerated in the church of Feys.

We have extracted this biography from the Acts of the Martyrs, by the Reverend Bene dictine Fat Bénédictins Religious order that authored the biography extracted from the Acts of the Martyrs. hers, and we have supplemented it with notes through the kindness of Mr. Noël, parish priest of Bréley, and Mr. J.-F. de Blaye, parish priest of Imling.