Saint Julian and Saint Basilissa

After this vow, they both prostrated themselves to pray, and at the same hour, the whole place trembled and the room was illuminated by an admirable light, in the midst of which appeared two choirs of celestial musicians, one of Saints, which was led by Our Lord, and the other of Saintly women, over which the most holy Virgin presided. That of the Saints sang: "You have conquered, O Julian, you have conquered." And that of the Saintly women replied: "Be blessed, O Basilissa, who have followed the holy counsels of your husband, and who, despising the vain pleasures of the world, have rendered yourself worthy of eternal life." After this, two men dressed in white, who held crowns in their hands, approached Julian and Basilissa and said to them: "Rise, you have won the victory, and you shall be enrolled among us." Then, another old man who held a book written in letters of gold, commanded Julian to read these words therein: "Julian, who has despised the world for the love of Jesus Christ, shall be written in the number of those who have not defiled themselves with women; and as for Basilissa, she shall be placed in the book of virgins where Mary holds the first rank." Immediately, all the choirs of the Saints said Amen, and returned to heaven, leaving the young spouses admirably consoled by this vision.

Some time later, the parents of both passed away and left them heirs to their great wealth; but they sold it all and distributed the proceeds to the poor, in order to follow Jesus Christ more freely; and to better attend to works of piety, they deemed it appropriate to live separately and to dwell in different houses. Then, many young men, of all kinds of stations, turned to Julian to be trained by him in the practice of the evangelical counsels and led along the narrow path of religious life, so that he became the father of more than ten thousand religious; while Basilissa, for her part, also became the mother of a very great number of daughters in Jesus Christ.

At that same time, the Emperor Maximin l'empereur Maximin II Roman emperor who persecuted Christians in the East. II renewed in the East the persecution begun by his predecessors Diocletian and Maximian; and at that time, Saint Julian and Saint Basilissa redoubled their prayers with greater fervor, so that it might please Our Lord to appease His anger against His people, or at least to preserve in His holy grace all the souls they had under their guidance. As Basilissa was making this prayer, God warned her that her husband Julian would end his life in the rigor of the torments he would endure for His name; but that, for her and her daughters, they would end theirs in peace. The Saint first gave notice of this to her husband; then, assembling all her daughters, she exhorted them to purify their consciences perfectly, so as to keep them prepared when their heavenly Spouse would come. As she was saying this, the place trembled, and there appeared a pillar of fire upon which one could read these words: "All the virgins of whom you are the mistress are very pleasing to me; come then, Virgins, and enjoy the good that I have prepared for you." This vision was not in vain, for all these holy daughters, who were about a thousand in number, died in less than six months, and Basilissa herself, while in prayer, rendered her beautiful soul to God to enjoy His glory forever in the company of the Virgins. In this way, following the promise of Our Lord, Basilissa and all her disciples avoided the furious storm that subsequently arose in Antioch against the Christians, and in which Julian and most of his companions died in the midst of torments, for the truth of the Gospel, as we shall see.

The emperor sent to Antioch, as a minister of his impiety, a lieutenant named Marc ian, a Marcien Advisor to Emperor Valerian. very cruel man and extremely thirsty for the blood of Christians. He first forbade anyone to sell or buy anything unless they had first offered incense to some idol, which he commanded everyone to have in their home. And knowing that Julian was maintaining several people in the fervor of Christianity, he had him seized and brought before his tribunal; but, after a long speech, the only response he obtained from the holy Confessor was that neither he nor any of those under his guidance would ever obey the emperor to worship his false gods. Marcian, blinded by fury, had fire set to the four corners of the house where Julian's disciples had retreated, so that they were all consumed by this cruel element and thus acquired the glorious crown of martyrdom. And the holocaust of these sacred victims was so pleasing to God that, for many long years, by a most remarkable prodigy, those who passed before the site of this house, at the hours when it is customary to sing the divine office in church, heard there a celestial music to the sound of which several sick people were healed.

After this conflagration was extinguished, Marcian had his prisoner appear a second time; but, seeing him invincible to all his artifices, he had him beaten cruelly with ropes and knotted sticks; it happened that an executioner accidentally struck one of the judge's officers and put out his eye. Then Julian, more attentive to doing good to his enemies than occupied with the harm he suffered at their hands, offered to the president to heal the man's eye; which the priests of the idols, he added, could never obtain from their false divinities, for what remedies could those give who have neither feeling nor life, and what prayers would be answered by those who have ears and do not hear? Therefore, after the demons had answered from within the idols that they were defeated by Julian, the holy Martyr, with a sign of the cross, healed the officer's eye. Immediately the soul of this man was enlightened with a true faith in Jesus Christ, which he confessed loudly, and for this, having been massacred on the spot, and baptized in his own blood, he acquired in a moment the illustrious crown of martyrdom.

This act of charity, capable of softening hearts harder than diamond, nevertheless further hardened that of this wicked judge; irritated by the victory of the holy Martyr, he ordered that, loaded with chains and irons, he be led through the streets of the city and tormented by some particular torture at every crossroads. Now, it happened that the only son of Marcian, running with the other schoolchildren to this spectacle, perceived a crowd of young men dressed in white, who, surrounding the Martyr, strove to place a crown upon his head. Then Celsus (t his w Celse Young disciple and companion in martyrdom of Saint Nazarius. as the child's name), throwing down his clothes and his books, ran to Julian, begging him with great insistence to admit him into his company, and crying out "that the God of the Christians was great; that from now on it was He whom he wished to serve, and not idols." Marcian, warned of this encounter, did everything possible to remove his son from the holy Martyr; but being unable to succeed, because God had deeply touched the heart of little Celsus, he had both thrown into a deep pit which, being immediately illuminated by a brilliant light, changed its natural stench into a pleasant perfume; this wonder caused twenty soldiers, assigned to guard the prisoners, to convert, recognize the truth of the Christian religion, and be baptized along with little Celsus by a holy priest named Anthony, who was sent there expressly by God, with seven other Christians who had come from Antioch.

All this was reported to the emperor, who ordered his president to put Julian and all his adherents to death without remission. This cruel judge immediately had thirty-one vats prepared for them, filled with oil and pitch-resin. As the martyrs were being led to the place of execution, the Gentiles passed by, carrying a dead man to the earth; the judge had them stopped, saying to Julian in mockery that if he had so much confidence in God, he should resurrect this dead man. The Saint knew very well the ill will of this judge; however, hoping to convert many souls, he prayed to God to restore life to this deceased person, which was done: for the dead man rose again and said aloud that Jesus Christ was the true God, and that, since He had restored his life, he wished to use it to serve Him and to do penance for his crimes. What did Marcian do at this spectacle? He had this newly resurrected man led to prison, in order to have him die with the other holy Martyrs; but not before he had received a new life by means of baptism which was conferred upon him.

However, the judge, unable to resolve himself to see his son suffer in his presence, referred the case to one of his assessors, who at that very hour executed the sentence and threw the thirty-one Martyrs into vats of boiling oil. But the sovereign Master of creatures, to console His Saints, caused this same burning liquid and molten pitch-resin to be a refreshing bath for them, in the midst of which they sang this verse of the Psalmist: "Lord, we have passed through water and fire, and You have brought us to refreshment!" This wonder being reported to the president

Marcian, he had the Saints led to prison and sent his wife Marcionilla there to visit her son, who had asked for her. She went willingly, believing by this means to triump h over the Marcionille Wife of Marcian, converted by her son Celsus. resolution of Celsus, but she was won over herself; so that, uniting in the same faith with the Martyrs, she received holy baptism, and this dear son, only seven years old, served as her godfather.

If this conversion was a new subject of joy for the Martyrs, it was a new cross for the unnatural Marcian; transported with rage, he had the heads of the twenty soldiers who had converted cut off and the seven illustrious brothers who had come from Antioch burned alive; reserving the priest Anthony, Saint Julian, the resurrected dead man who was named Ana stasius, Anastase Martyr companion of Saint Marcellus. his own wife, and his son, to deliberate on what he would do with them. He therefore decided to have the temple of Jupiter extraordinarily adorned and to assemble all his priests there, as if to offer a solemn sacrifice; then, having the holy prisoners brought there, he asked Saint Julian, his wife, and his son to request of the God they worshipped that it might please Him to annihilate all these idols. At that very hour, as the Martyrs offered their prayers, the earth opened and swallowed all these statues, along with a crowd of priests, ministers of Satan, who had been found Métaphraste Byzantine hagiographer, author of the Acts of the Saints. there; Metaphrastes, who wrote this life, adds that until his time, one could see rivers of fire issuing from that place. Marcian, no longer knowing what to do, sent the Martyrs back to prison; there, around midnight, as they were singing the praises of God, the twenty soldiers appeared to them, along with the seven brothers, clothed in robes shining with brightness, as well as several other holy Priests and illustrious Martyrs, and Saint Basilissa with a choir of virgins, who made various canticles of joy resound. This saint warned Saint Julian, her husband, that the end of his struggles had come, and that soon he would receive, with his companions, the crown of martyrdom that he desired with such ardor. Indeed, the very next day, the cruel judge had them all thrown into the fire; but this fire, burning only their bonds, left them free and without pain. Afterward, Marcian had the skin of the head torn from Saint Julian, Anthony, and Anastasius, and he would have done the same to his wife, had God not permitted the hands of the executioners to remain numb and as if dead when they sought to touch her. All these holy Martyrs were thrown to wild beasts; but these animals, forgetting their natural ferocity, lay down at the feet of the Saints in order to lick them. Finally, Marcian, despairing of defeating them, had their heads cut off in the company of some murderers and evildoers, so that their bodies, being mixed among these infamous ones, would be deprived of the honor that other Christians might wish to render them.

However, God, who carefully guards all the bones of His Saints, knew well how to make them recognizable; for, a horrible storm having arisen, the pagans took flight and gave the Christians and priests the leisure to go that same night to the place of the Martyrs. As soon as they were there, they perceived from afar the souls of the holy Martyrs, who, appearing like young virgins, were resting each upon her own body. Furthermore, their blood had congealed and formed into a mass, like a white paste, whereas that of the murderers had soaked into the earth. The Christians were thus able to give them an honorable burial, particularly to Saint Julian, whom Our Lord has illustrated with several miracles, not only at the place of his sepulcher, where ten lepers were healed in a single day, but also in several places throughout Christendom. His martyrdom occurred on the ninth day of January, in the year 313.

Saint Julian and Saint Basilissa, his wife, are always joined together: a lily is placed in their hands, a symbol of the virginity they vowed to God on the day of their marriage; the two spouses perceive in the sky the book of life where their names are written. The Latin Martyrologies mark their feast on this same day. One may see in the remarks that Cardinal Bar cardinal Baronius Disciple of Philip, historian and cardinal, author of the Annales ecclesiastici. onius made on the Roman Martyrology, which authors have treated of their martyrdom.