Saint Galation

Galation Galation Martyr of Emesa, son of Clitophon and Leucippe. had for his father Clitophon and for his mother Leucippe, both among the most honorable of the city of Emesa in Phoenicia (today Hems or Homs, in Syria, on the Orontes). As Leucippe was long without children, and the idols she still worshipped with her husband did not heed her prayers to deliver her from her sterility, she lived in mortal pain and sorrow, all the more so because her husband had little affection for her on this account, and on the contrary, often mistreated her with words and made bloody reproaches against her. This was at the time when Second, governor of the city, deputy of the Emperor Alexander Severus, was cruelly persecuting the Christians. Many had been put to death; others had fled and gone to hide in the woods and deep caverns; others still, who could not leave their homes, expected every day to be seized to account for their faith and then end their lives through all sorts of tortures. In such a horrible storm, a holy hermit named Onuphre, moved by zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, took on the habit of a poor man and began to beg for alms, in order to have the means, on one hand, to strengthen the faithful, and on the other, to convert the idolaters and draw them to the faith of Jesus Christ. He presented himself one day at the door of Clitophon, and finding Leucippe there, he begged her insistently to give him charity. She, who was then overwhelmed with melancholy due to some insults her husband had spoken to her, sent him away dryly and had the door closed on him. He did not cease to pray, and, exposing his misery in a sad and lamentable voice, he conjured the lady to have pity on him and send him at least a piece of bread. He knew well that he was asking only to give her himself a treasure more precious than all the riches of the world. Leucippe had compassion on him; she had him enter, ordered that alms be brought to him, and, during this time, she herself exposed to him the pain she suffered because she was sterile, that her husband reproached her for it, and that she had not been able to obtain her healing through an infinity of sacrifices she had had offered to the gods. Onuphre did not lose this opportunity to announce Jesus Christ to her. He told her that she should not be surprised if her gods had not answered her, since they were men who, having lived in crime, had no other fate than to burn with the demons in hell; but that if she would recognize the only almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, he assured her that in a short time she would have a son for her consolation and that of her husband.

Grace then acted so powerfully in the heart of Leucippe that, recognizing the falsity of her religion and the impiety of idolatry, she believed in God and in Jesus Christ, and even received the holy Baptism in secret. Shortly after, she conceived, and, using this occasion to reveal to her husband what had happened, and to communicate to him the lights she had received, she also drew him to Christianity. Onuphre, this hermit disguised as a poor man, was called. He catechized him, baptized him, and, by this sacrament, clothed him with Jesus Christ. At the end of nine months, Leucippe brought into the world a son who was also regenerated by the holy hermit and named Galation for the spiritual whiteness that was conferred upon him. Nature and grace were so favorable to this child that one saw him grow more in virtue and wisdom than in age. His historian says a very surprising thing about him, if he does not say it by exaggeration: it is that he became in a short time more skilled in the sciences than the masters who were given to instruct him. At twenty-four years old, his mother having died, he took for a wife, by the order of his father, a young girl named Episteme, whom her nobility, beauty, prudence, and chastity made extremely commendable. He had the intention of keeping his virginity ; his wi Épistème Wife and companion in martyrdom of Galation. fe complained to him about it, persuading herself that he did not love her; but he told her that, as she was not a Christian, he could have no commerce with her. She listened to this proposition, and, being touched by a celestial light, she renounced the idols and embraced Christianity, so as to have only one religion with her husband and her father-in-law. Galation baptized her himself, because the persecution had scattered all the priests, and the grace of this sacrament acted so powerfully in her soul that it spread the love of purity there; so that she no longer thought of seeing her husband except in the capacity of a brother, just as she had done before.

They were both in the school of the Holy Spirit rather than that of men, and this Holy Spirit inspired them to sell all their possessions, to give the proceeds to the poor, to separate from one another, and to withdraw each apart into a solitude where persecution had already caused many Christians to flee. They executed this plan point by point, and sent their riches ahead of them to heaven through the hands of the poor. Galation withdrew to Mount Publion, near Sinai, w ith ten sol mont Publie Monastic retreat of Galation. itaries, and he placed Episteme in a small community where four virgins occupied themselves only with heavenly things. They lived for three years in these different hermitages in all the practices of the evangelical and monastic life. Galation exercised himself there in prayer, fasting, silence, obedience, and the mortification of the senses and the spirit, and he was so austere that one day each week he ate only a little bread.

Episteme, for her part, had almost no other exercise than prayer, and she found extreme sweetness in it, because she enjoyed the chaste embraces of the heavenly Spouse. After these three years, the emperor having incited one of the bloodiest persecutions that had ever been in the Church, the archers, who were searching for Christians, came to the monastery where Galation was and seized him. Episteme had had, a few days before, while at prayer at midnight, an admirable vision in which she was shown a magnificent palace, where her husband and she would receive a crown of glory. Informed that her dear Galation was being taken to be presented to the president, she ran after him and followed him generously to have a share in his torments and his happiness. As soon as she had reached him, she cried out that, having promised each other never to abandon one another, it was not right that he should die or go to heaven without her. She was taken at that very moment, and they were both led together to the judge's tribunal.

He did not question them about their country or their religion; but, as their clothes made them sufficiently known, he first ordered that they be whipped with all the strength the executioners' arms were capable of. A miracle occurred on this occasion which caused the conversion of several of those present: for, as the Saint was being stripped, she prayed to her divine Spouse to spare her the shame of nudity; and, at that very moment, fifty-three men who surrounded the governor were struck with blindness. This punishment gave them the light of truth; they recognized the power of Jesus Christ, confessed it, and thereby recovered the sight they had lost. The judge, more irritated than ever by this event, after having the martyrs scourged, ordered that reed spikes be driven between their flesh and their nails. It was in this torment that our Saints displayed an invincible generosity: the more the pain seemed destined to overwhelm them, the more joyfully they preached the name and glory of Jesus Christ. But, to deprive them of the means to thus proclaim his praises, their tongues, feet, and hands were cut off. Finally, without diminishing any of their firmness or spiritual joy, they were beheaded on November 5, and thus ceased to live in order to go and reign eternally in heaven. This was in the year 233 or thereabouts.

They are depicted either being scourged or tortured in various other ways, as we have reported. — They are also found represented kneeling, asking God for the strength to suffer martyrdom, and then being crowned by Jesus Christ.

Their life and martyrdom were written by Met aphrastes, Métaphraste Byzantine hagiographer, primary source of the narrative. and it is from him that Lipoman and Surius reported them. The Roman Martyrology martyrologe romain Official catalogue of the saints of the Catholic Church. makes mention of them.