Saint Juliana of Nicomedia

Evilatius, in his capacity as prefect, immediately had her appear before his tribunal; although he was boiling with anger, the beauty he still loved so dazzled his eyes that he felt within himself a harsh struggle between love and indignation; but love triumphing over fury, he spoke to her gently, exhorting her to take him as her husband, and assuring her that he would not prevent her from being a Christian, and that he himself would become a Christian, if that could be reconciled with the respect he owed to the edicts of the emperors. He added that he was advising her as a husband what was most advantageous for her, because if she would not believe him, she would be condemned to death. The virgin, forewarned of the blessings of her heavenly Spouse, had ears neither for these orders nor for these threats; she replied with Christian generosity that, even if she were to be burned alive or devoured by wild beasts, she would not change her resolution. The prefect, irritated to the point of rage by this answer, had her cruelly whipped in a most extraordinary manner, for he commanded that she be suspended in the air by four straps, and, in this state, he had her beaten for so long with ox-sinews and rods of green osier that the executioners grew weary. And yet this tyrant said to her, while insulting her, that these blows were only the shadow of what he would make her suffer; but she replied that she hoped God would give her the strength and courage to suffer all tortures, and that he would be tired of striking sooner than she of suffering. Then she was suspended in the air by her hair, which lasted so long that there was not one hair that was not torn out; her eyes grew dim and her eyebrows rose to her forehead, while her sides were burned with sheaves of lit straw. Finally, this same judge had her hands pierced with a hot iron and sent her back to prison.

No sooner had she arrived than she began to pray; and, during her orison, the demon appeared to her in the form of an angel of light and said that the prefect had prepared much more horrible torments; but that God did not wish her to endure them, and that, upon leaving the prison, she should obey the will of the emperors and make no difficulty about sacrificing. The holy prisoner perceived well that this counsel came from a spirit of darkness and not from an angel of light. Therefore, she prayed to God to strengthen her always in her combats and to reveal to her the nature of the one who wished to deceive her under the mask of an angel. And then she heard a voice from heaven which said to her: "Juliana, have courage; I am with you; seize the one who speaks to you, I give you the power to make him tell his name." This voice was immediately followed by a miracle, for the virgin found herself healthy and free; and, having risen from the ground, she perceived a demon chained at her feet; she treated him like a slave and asked him who he was, why he had come there, and who had sent him. The demon replied that he was one of the principal ministers of Satan, who had sent him in order to seduce her as he had deceived an infinity of others. At these words, the innocent virgin bound him again and showered him with blows; this infamous monster showed that he felt them and complained that, after having triumphed over so many of the faithful, he now saw himself defeated by a girl.

However, the prefect, whose passion was not cured, ordered that Juliana, if she were still alive, be brought before his tribunal. She came there immediately, dragging her chained enemy behind her, and appeared as healthy as if she had suffered nothing, and with a beauty that was beyond anything one could imagine. Evilatius, astonished and still persisting in his fury, had an oven heated and ordered that the holy virgin be thrown into it. But the fire lost its strength; and by this new miracle, the people who were present were so touched that they began to cry out that there was no other God than the God of Juliana; more than five hundred people embraced the Christian religion and were put to death by the command of the prefect. There were also one hundred and thirty women who did the same and showed themselves no less vigorous than the men. All this served only to animate more and more the rage of this cruel judge. He then had the virgin thrown into a large cauldron full of boiling oil; but she found refreshment in it, and this flaming liquid splashed back onto the executioners and the ministers of injustice. Finally, the prefect, no longer knowing what to do, condemned her to have her head cut off; the demon, seeing her go to her punishment, urged the executioners to kill her quickly to be delivered from her hands; but the holy virgin, looking at him with a severe and terrible face, made him tremble with fear, and he immediately disappeared: which shows the power of the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Then Juliana, consoled in her soul, first offered to God the sacrifice of her lips through prayer; and afterwards, that of her life, presenting her head to the executioner, who dealt her the death blow. It is thus that her spirit flew to heaven to receive there the two crowns of Virgin and Martyr. It is not certain if today is the day of her death or that of her translation.

## RELICS AND CULT OF SAINT JULIANA.

A virtuous lady, named Sophia, passing through Nicomedia some time later, took her relics to carry them to Rome; but the ship having been driven by a storm to the coasts of Italy, they were deposited in the territory of Puteoli, where a beautiful mausoleum was erected for her. As for the wretched prefe ct Evilat Evilatius Noble, later prefect of Nicomedia, spurned suitor and persecutor of Juliana. ius, he was punished by the hand of God and paid, in this life, the penalty due for his cruelty; as he had embarked, the vessel perished in the storm, and all those who were inside were submerged: he alone, to increase the rigor of his death, was pushed by the waves to the edge of a desert, where he was undoubtedly devoured by wild beasts.

Saint Juliana is commemorated in all martyrologies, particularly in the Roman one, where one can see, through the learned remarks of Baronius, which authors have treated her life more expressly. Saint Gregory th e Great, writing to For Saint Grégoire le Grand Pope contemporary to Saint Psalmodius. tunatus, Bishop of Naples, speaks of her relics in epistles 84 and 85 of the eighth book. These precious remains made her memory very famous in several cities of France, such as Sens, Reims, Autun, Soissons, and Limoges; and particularly in Paris, where her sacred head was seen Paris Place of birth, ministry, and death of the saint. in the parish church of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, of which she is recognized as the Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas Parisian church of which Saint Juliana is the patron saint. patron saint. Something of it remains at Notre-Dame de Longpont, near Paris. The city of Brussels, in Flanders, als o possess Bruxelles City near the monastery where the court of the Count of Brabant resided. es considerable ornaments of her. She is invoked mainly against contagious diseases. The dioceses of Versailles, Chartres, Cologne, Autun, and Ajaccio celebrate the office of Saint Juliana on February 16. There exists at Val-Saint-Germain, near Bourdon, in the diocese of Versailles, formerly the diocese of Chartres, a church where the cult of Saint Juliana is very ancient and very famous. People come from all parts to invoke her against fever, pestilential diseases, and for the happy delivery of women in childbirth.

A poetic martyrology has summarized the torments she endured and the various ways in which she has been represented as follows:

Fusa vigut plumbe ; indit suspensa capillis : Rebur ferventis moras resumit aqua. Virgo, palam forti com damone pœlia gessit, Nec cessit danec victa trophaea tulit.

Molten lead leaves her intact: she is swung in space, suspended by her hair: she draws new strength from the boiling water in which she is plunged. A weak virgin, she struggles visibly against a power of hell and triumphs over it: she does not cease to live until the moment her hand has gathered the final palm.