Saints Processus and Martinian

The news of this conversion having soon spread throughout the city, Pauli nus, a Paulin Roman magistrate who had the two saints tortured. most illustrious magistrate, had Processus and Martinian arrested and brought before his tribunal the very next day. When they were in his presence, he said to them: "What is this! My friends, have you been so foolish as to abandon the gods of the empire and the service of your prince for this new religion that the Romans do not know? I pray you, return to your senses and re-enter the worship of the all-powerful gods; do not abandon the ornaments of your military service, and make yourselves commendable by your obedience to the wishes of your sovereign; renounce this madness that has been put into your minds, and adore the immortal gods whom you have known since your childhood and in whose religion you were raised." — "We were in ignorance then," replied the generous confessors; "but now that we have been enlightened by a light from above, and have received the sacraments of the heavenly militia, we profess to be Christians, and we protest to you that we shall be all our lives the faithful servants of the true God, whom the blessed apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul announced to us, and do not expect us to be cowardly enough to abandon such a just cause. Neither your threats nor your tortures astonish us, and we are all ready to die for Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose faith we have embraced." Paulinus, seeing well by this intrepid confession that he would gain nothing from them, and that his words would make no impression on their hearts, which faith rendered invincible, had their teeth broken and their jaws shattered with stones. But this torture was far from shaking the constancy of the holy Martyrs; on the contrary, with their eyes raised to heaven, they sang with all their might canticles of praise, to thank God for the grace He granted them to suffer something for the glory of His name. Then, the tyrant having had an idol of Jupiter brought, commanded them to offer it incense, under pain of enduring new torments. But the brave soldiers of Jesus Christ, despising the threats of Paulinus, instead of sacrificing to this false divinity, loaded it with insults and spit upon it: the judge, irritated, had them immediately put to the torture; their limbs were dislocated with unheard-of cruelty, their sides burned with red-hot iron plates: they were so little troubled that, in the height of this torture, they sang these beautiful words: "Blessed be forever the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has called us to His knowledge through the blessed apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul!" Among the people watching this horrible spectacle, there was a Roman lady named Lucina, who exhorted them powerfully to perseverance. "Generous soldiers of Jesus Christ," she cried to them in the midst of the crowd, "show that you have heart: do not fear tortures that pass in a mo ment, Lucine A Roman noblewoman who supported martyrs and provided for their burial. you will be amply rewarded for all your pains." To prevent them from hearing the pious exhortations of this holy woman, they were shouted at in their ears, while their bodies were torn with scorpions: "If you want us to cease tormenting you, obey the orders of the emperor, do not refuse to sacrifice to the gods, and we will leave you in peace; do not delay any longer in recognizing the religion of the empire, and you will be set at liberty." But Processus and Martinian, far from letting themselves be touched by these words, fortified themselves on the contrary more and more in the faith and in the love of Jesus Christ, and mocked the cruel torments they were made to endure. However, God did not leave this cruelty unpunished; for, during this torture, Paulinus lost his left eye: and as, instead of recognizing the power of the true God, which shone forth through this first punishment, he had the holy Martyrs confined more tightly in prison, to reserve them for other tortures, three days later, the demon having seized his body made him die and carried his soul into hell. Pompinius, his son, wanting to avenge his father, ran immediately to the palace to demand justice against our holy Confessors; so that Nero ordered Caesarius, prefect of the city, to delay their condemnation no longer. This new judge had no sooner received this order than he executed it: having had them led outside the walls of Rome, he had them beheaded on the Aurelian Way, near the aqueduct, on July 2, in the year 68 of salvation, and the thirteenth year of the empire of Nero. Their bodies were left in the middle of the countryside to be devoured by dogs; but the virtuous Lucina, who had followed them with all her family, havi ng had them pro voie Aurélienne Site of the saints' execution. mptly removed, embalmed them with precious perfumes, and buried them on her estate, from where they were later transferred to a church that was built in their honor. But this church having been ruined, Pope Paschal I had the relics of the two Martyrs transported, around the year 820, into that of Saint Peter, at the Vatican Vatican Burial place of Saint Gelasius. , where they are still preserved today.

Saint Gregory the Great Saint Grégoire le Grand Pope and author of the Dialogues, primary narrator of the life of Servulus. , in the thirty-second Homily on the Gospels, which he delivered before the people on the day of their feast and in the presence of their relics, says that the sick who prayed at their tomb found their healing there; that those who had the temerity to make false oaths there were at that very hour seized by the demon, and that the possessed found their deliverance there. He also reports this account: a pious woman was accustomed to visiting the church of the holy Martyrs often; as she was leaving one day after having said her prayer at their sepulcher, they appeared to her in the form of two religious, who, approaching her, said: "You visit us now, and we, on the day of judgment, will seek you out among all other creatures to render you all the service that we can." Thereupon this great Pope exhorts the faithful to invoke these two martyrs, in order to have them as defenders on that terrible day, which will seize even the most innocent with fear.

Saint Processus and Saint Martinian are depicted: 1° guarding Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the Mamertine Prison, who converted them to the faith; 2° stretched on the rack and struck with lead-tipped whips or reed rods, known as scourges.

Acta Sanctorum. — Cf. History of Saint Peter, by Abbé Maletre.

Saint Processus and Saint Martinian are represented: 1st, guarding Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the Mamertine Prison, who converted them to the faith; 2nd, stretched on the rack and struck with whips armed with lead or with reed rods, called scourges.

Acta Sanctorum. — Cf. History of Saint Peter, by Abbé Maletre.