Holy Martyrs of Charity of Alexandria
WHO DIED WHILE ASSISTING THE PLAGUE-STRICKEN
Martyrs of Charity
During the reign of Gallienus, as a devastating plague struck Alexandria, a group of clergy and laity devoted themselves to the service of the sick. Through their heroic charity, they contracted the disease and died, a sacrifice the Church honors as martyrdom. Their example is cited by Saint Dionysius of Alexandria to encourage those who assist the plague-stricken.
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SEVERAL HOLY CLERGY AND LAITY
WHO DIED WHILE ASSISTING THE PLAGUE-STRICKEN
Source and context in Alexandria
Saint Dionysius of Alexandria reports the acts of heroic charity during a period of sedition and plague under the Emperor Gallienus.
Help your brothers in the day of tribulation; the mercy you have shown them will be your salvation. Eccles., xx. We shall report here only what Saint Dionysius, Patriarch of Alexandria, wrote t o another Alexandrie Place of refuge and study during the persecution. bishop of a church in Egypt, named Hierax, concerning these holy ecclesiastics, martyrs of charity; we believed it our duty to state this for the consolation of so many generous persons who still expose themselves every day to assist their brothers in the dire conflagration of contagious diseases. At the time of the Emperor Gallienus, there arose in the city of Alexandria a sedition so horrible that it w ville d'Alexandrie Place of refuge and study during the persecution. ould have been easier to travel through all parts of the world than to go from one end of the city to the other without danger to one's life: murders and assassinations were so frequent that the streets and public squares seemed to be a new Red Sea; there followed a furious plague that harvested the greater part of the inhabitants, and the river Nile was more infected by it than it had been in the time of Pharaoh; the air became so contagious from the winds blowing from the sea and the vapors rising from the rivers that the dew which fell in the morning resembled absolutely the corrupt blood flowing from corpses thrown into the refuse heaps. However, several ecclesiastics, followed by some laypeople, inflamed with the holy zeal of Christian charity and fraternal guidance, so encouraged one another to love God and to work for the salvation of souls that they gave themselves most willingly to the service of the sick and the dead, taking equal care of both. They served the former assiduously as long as they still saw in them some hope of recovery; and, indeed, they saved many who returned to perfect health. As for those who passed away, after having assisted them until their last breath and helped them to make a good death, whether by leading them to contrition for their sins or by administering the last Sacraments, they took care to bury their bodies with all the honor that was possible for them.
The heroic charity of the Christians
Clergy and laity devote themselves to the care of the sick and the burial of the dead despite the risks of contagion.
It was not so with the pagans and idolaters; no sooner did they discover one of their own attacked by the disease than they drove them from their house, and even, if they could, from the city walls. Friends abandoned their friends, children their fathers, fathers their children, and exposed them half-dead in the streets and on the high roads, leaving their bodies to be devoured by dogs, instead of giving them burial.
Opposition with the pagans
Unlike the Christians, the pagans abandoned their sick relatives for fear of contagion, leaving them without burial.
Thus the faithful who, through this work of mercy, drew upon themselves the illness of their brothers, and who subsequently lost their lives therein, won such glory from this heroic action that their death was considered to approach martyrdom; therefore the Church has always commemorated them on this day in its Martyrology, like the other martyrs, following what our divine Savior said in his Gospel: 'No one can show greater charity than to lay down his life for his friends.' For who are our greatest friends, if not our brothers, for whom the Son of God gave his blood and his life, 'even when we were his enemies?'
Theology of the martyrdom of charity
The Church likens the death of these caregivers to a martyrdom due to the excellence of their fraternal charity.
It is not that one should believe that those who die of the plague while assisting the plague-stricken have at death the privilege of true martyrs, who are justified by the virtue of their action and exempt from all punishment, as if they were emerging from the baptismal font; an author has demonstrated this very well in a special treatise on martyrdom by the plague; but what is meant is that the ardor of charity, which appears in their death, can supply the virtue of martyrdom and give them, ex opere operantis, as the theologians say, that is to say by the excellence of their merit, what true Martyrs have, ex opere operato, that is to say by the efficacy of their action.
Life of Blessed Antoinette
Born in Florence, Antoinette became a widow and joined the Third Order of Saint Francis before becoming a superior in Aquila.
--BLESSED ANTOINET TE OR ANTONIA, POOR C ANTOINETTE OU ANTONIA Italian Poor Clare, foundress and superior at L'Aquila. LARE (1472).
Blessed Antoinette was born in F Antoinette Italian Poor Clare, foundress and superior at L'Aquila. lorence in the yea Florence City where Julie served as a maid. r 1400. Married young by the will of her parents, she had a son and became a widow early on. Attempts were made, but in vain, to have her enter into new engagements. She entered a house of tertiary sisters of Saint Francis, named Saint-Omophré, then governed by Blessed Angela of Foligno. Having been appointed superior of the convent of Aquila, in the Abruzzo, after a few ye Aquila City where Antoinette served as superior and founded a monastery. ars of residence in that city, she requested from the inhabitants the convent of Corpus Domini, in order to establish there the rule of
Foundation and trials at Aquila
She established the rule of Saint Clare at the Corpus Domini monastery and endured spiritual and family trials.
Saint Clare, which was granted to her. From that day on, she had much to suffer; God permitted her to be tested by temptations that troubled her soul without altering her piety. Her son, who had compromised his own fortune, gave her nothing but sorrow. Saint John of Capistrano, whom she had found in Aquila upon her arriv Aquils City where Antoinette served as superior and founded a monastery. al, and who had greatly supported her with his influence, had departed. The brethren did not share her solicitude for the new monastery of Poor Clares: the virtuous abbess sustained herself alone with the help of God. After seven years, painful infirmities forced her to resign from her office. Despite her sufferings, this worthy spouse of Jesus Christ spent a considerable amount of time in the church, even during the night. Several times a globe of fire was seen suspended above her head, which, in the darkness, filled the holy temple with light; several times also she was seen suspended between heaven and earth while she prayed.
Miracles and recognition of the cult
After a life marked by mystical phenomena, her body was found incorrupt and her cult was approved by Pius IX in 1847.
For a long time she had sighed only for heaven: the Lord finally exalted her ardent wishes. She was 74 years old when she surrendered her spirit into the hands of her Creator, on February 28, 1472. She was buried in the monastery cemetery; but some time later, her body having been found without corruption, it was transported into the churc h. Piu Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. s IX approved, on September 11, 1847, the cult that had begun to be rendered to her from the day of her first translation.
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