Saint Bademus

A prisoner with seven other religious of his community. They were all cruelly tormented for the space of four months, and especially Bademus, as the leader and superior of the others. He was subjected to many outrages, and was often flagellated with a cruelty that is inconceivable. But, however violent these torments were, they could never shake his constancy, nor diminish in any way that firmness he had in the fear and love of God, and in the confession of the name of Jesus Christ.

At that time, Ne rsan, Nersan Lord of Aria, apostate Christian and executioner of Bademus. lord of a city named Aria, was als Aria City or region of which Nersan was the lord. o in prison as a Christian, and had already suffered much for having refused to worship the sun; but the end did not match such fine beginnings: for this wretched prince, fearing other torments that had been prepared for him, and which were to complete his crown, lost all his resolve, renounced the faith of the Gospel, and allowed the idols to be worshipped if they would deliver him and return his goods that had been confiscated.

The king, being informed of his resolution, felt extreme joy; and, to use his infidelity against the unshakable courage of Saint Bademus, he sent word to him that if he wished to recover his goods and return to his good graces, he must seal his apostasy by putting to death, with his own hands, this holy Religious who would not imitate him in his return to idolatry. Thus, Nersan was released and Bademus was led to the place where he was. This wretched prince, who had abandoned God, and whom God had abandoned, hearing the sentence of the tyrant, immediately took up his sword to strike the holy Martyr; but God permitted, to give him still an opportunity to repent, that, fear having seized him, he remained as if immobile, and could not raise his hand. Thus Bademus had time to say to him, with much zeal, compassion, and tenderness: "Ah! wretched Nersan, how far do es your malice go malheureux Nersan Lord of Aria, apostate Christian and executioner of Bademus. ? Not content with having renounced the faith that you owed to your Creator and to your Good, do you still wish to persecute His servants and take away their lives? What will you do on that dreadful day when you will be obliged to appear before the tribunal of His Majesty to render an account of your actions, and there hear the sentence of your condemnation? Where will you flee, and how will you be able to avoid the eternal torments to which you will be condemned? As for me, I offer myself willingly to death for the glory of my Master Jesus Christ, but I confess that I would wish to die by another hand than yours, and that it were a pagan, and not a Christian apostate, who made me a martyr."

These words were sharp enough, this tone pathetic enough, to move Nersan and open his eyes; but the blindness of his spirit had become so great, and the obstinacy of his heart so invincible, since the demon of avarice had taken hold of it, that, regaining new strength through a redoubling of rage, he set upon the Saint and dealt him several blows to put him to death. As they were all extremely weak, one cannot believe how much he made him languish. The Gentiles themselves felt horror at it, and detested, on one hand, the cruelty of the king, who had invented this abominable means of destroying the Saint, and, on the other, the perfidy of Nersan, who had passed all at once from the status of Christian to that of executioner of Christians. Shortly after, the Martyr died from his wounds: which happened on April 8, in the year of Our Lord approximately 343.

The Acts of this glorious Martyr were drawn from the Menolo gion of the Emper l'empereur Basile Byzantine emperor associated with the Menologion. or Basil, the Greek Synaxarion, and a life repo rted b Surius Hagiographer and compiler of saints' lives. y Surius and the compilers of the Boll Bellandus A society of Jesuit scholars who publish the Acta Sanctorum. andists.