September XV

St. Nicetas, Martyr

From his Acts in Surius, and from Socrates, Sozomen, &c. See Stilting, t. 5, Sept. p. 38.

fourth age

Saints Sabas and Nicetas are the two most renowned martyrs among the Goths. The former is honored on the 12th of April, the latter, whom the Greeks place in the class of the great martyrs, is commemorated on this day. He was a Goth, born near the banks of the Danube, and converted to the faith in his youth by Theophilus, who was bishop of the Scythians and Goths in the reign of Constantine the great. When Valens ascended the imperial throne in the East, in the year 364, the nation of the Goths was divided into two kingdoms. Athanarie, king of the Eastern Goths, who bordered upon the Roman empire toward Thrace, being a savage prince, and a declared enemy to the Christian religion, in 370, raised a furious persecution against the Church in his dominions. By his order, an idol was carried in a chariot through all the towns and villages, where it was suspected that any Christians lived, and all who refused to adore it were put to death. The usual method of the persecutors was to burn the Christians with their children in their houses, or in the churches where they were assembled together; sometimes they were stabbed at the foot of the altar. In the numerous army of martyrs, which glorified God amongst that barbarous people, on this occasion, St. Nicetas held a distinguished rank. It was by the fire that he sealed his faith and obedience with his blood, and, triumphing over sin, passed to eternal glory.

By the lively expectation of a happy immortality, and the constant remembrance of the divine judgments, the saints courageously overcame all the assaults of the devil, the world, and their own flesh. We have these enemies to fight against, nor can we expect any truce with them so long as we remain in this mortal state. They are never more to be feared than when they lull us into a false confidence by seeming themselves to sleep. We must always watch, by assiduous prayer, self-denial, and flight of all dangerous occasions, that we may discover and shun all the dangerous arts and stratagems by which our crafty enemies seek to decoy or betray us into ruin; and we must always hold our weapons in our hands, that we may be ever ready to repulse all open assaults. Many have fallen in the security of peace who had vanquished the most violent persecutions. If we do not meet with the fiery trials of the martyrs, we are still in danger of perishing in a calm, unless we arm ourselves with watchfulness and fortitude.

St. Nicomedes, M.

He was a holy priest at Rome, who was apprehended in the persecution of Domitian for his assiduity in assisting the martyrs in their conflicts, and for interring their bodies. Refusing constantly to sacrifice to idols, he was beaten to death with clubs about the year ninety. His tomb was on the road to Nomento, and he is commemorated on this day in the sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, and in the Martyrologies of St. Jerom, Bede, &c. See the Acts of SS. Nereus and Achilleus.

St. John the Dwarf, Anchoret of Scete

St. John, surnamed, from his low stature, Colobus, that is, the Little or the Dwarf, was famous among the eminent ancient saints that inhabited the deserts of Egypt. He retired, together with an elder brother, into the vast wilderness of Sceté, and putting himself under the direction of a holy old hermit, he set himself, with his whole heart, and with all his strength, to labor in subduing himself, and in putting on the divine spirit of Christ. The first condition which Christ requires, the preliminary article which he lays down for his service, is a practice of perfect self-denial, by which we learn to die to ourselves, and all our vicious inclinations. So long as inordinate self-love and passions reign in the heart, they cannot fail to produce their fruits; we are imperceptibly governed by them in the circle of our ordinary actions, and remain habitually enslaved to pride, anger, impatience, envy, sensuality, and other vices, which often break forth into open transgressions of the divine law; and a lurking inordinate self-love, whilst it holds the empire in the affections, insinuates itself under subtle disguises, into all our actions, becomes the main-spring of all the motions of our heart, and debases our virtues themselves with a mixture of vice and imperfection. Virtue is generally defective, even in many who desire to serve God, because very few have the courage perfectly to vanquish themselves. It is strange that men should be so blind, or so cowardly, in a point of such infinite importance, since Christ has laid down the precept of perfect abnegation and humility as the foundation of the empire of his divine grace and love in a soul: upon this all the saints raise the edifice of their virtue. He who builds not upon it, builds upon sand. He who, without this precaution, multiplies his alms, his fasts, and his devotions, takes a great deal of pains to lose, in a great measure, the fruit of his labors.

Our holy anchoret, lest he should be in danger of missing his aim, resolved to neglect no means by which he might obtain the victory over himself. The old hermit who was his director, for his first lesson, bade him plant in the ground a dry walking-stick which he held in his hand, and water it every day till it should bring forth fruit. John did so with great simplicity, though the river was at a considerable distance. It is related that when he had continued his task without speaking one word, in the third year, the stick, which had taken root, pushed forth leaves and buds, and produced fruit; the old hermit gathering the fruit carried it to the church, and giving it to some of the brethren, said: “Take, and eat the fruit of obedience.”¹ Posthumian, who was in Egypt in 402, assured St. Sulpicius Severus, that he was shown this tree, which grew in the yard of the monastery, and which he saw covered with boughs and green leaves.² St. John used to say, that as a man who sees a wild beast or a serpent coming towards him, climbs up a tree to be out of their reach; so, a person who perceives any evil thoughts coming upon him, in order to secure himself against the danger, must ascend up to God by earnest prayer. Being yet a novice in the monastic state, and much taken with the charms of heavenly contemplation, he said one day to his elder brother: “I could wish to live without distraction, or earthly concerns, like the angels, that I might be able to serve and praise God without interruption.” Saying this, and leaving his cloak behind him, he went into a more secret part of the wilderness. After being absent a week, he returned, and knocked at the door of his brother’s cell. Being asked his name, he said: “I am your brother John.” “How can that be?” replied the other; “for my brother John is become an angel, and lives no more among men.” St. John begged pardon for his rashness, and acknowledged that this mortal state does not admit such a perfection, but requires that contemplation and manual labor mutually succeed and assist each other, and confessed that man’s life on earth is labor and penance, not fruition. It was one of this saint’s maxims: “If a general would take a city, he begins the siege by debarring it from supplies of water and provisions; so by sobriety, fasting, and maceration of the flesh, are our affections and passions to be reduced, and our domestic enemy weakened.”

How careful he was to watch against all occasions of danger, appears from the following instances. As he was praying and plying his work in platting mats, on the road to Sceté, he was one day met by a carrier driving camels, who reviled him in the most injurious terms. The saint, for fear the tranquillity of his soul should be any way impaired, threw down the work he had in his hands, and ran away. Another time, when he was reaping corn in the harvest, he ran away, because he heard one of the reapers angry with another. Happening, one day as he was going to the church of Sceté, to hear two persons wrangling together, he made haste back to his cell, but walked several times round it in profound recollection, before he went in, that he might purify his ears from the injurious words he had heard, and bring his mind perfectly calm to converse with God. By this continual watchfulness over himself, he acquired so perfect a habit of meekness, humility, and patience, that nothing was able to cloud or disturb his mind. When one said to him: “Thou hast a heart full of venom,” he sweetly answered: “That is true, and much more so than you think.” By the following example he inculcated to others the great necessity of overcoming ourselves, if we desire truly to serve God. A certain young man entreated a celebrated philosopher to permit him to attend his lectures. “Go first,” said the philosopher, “to the marble quarries, and carry stones to the river, among the malefactors condemned to the mines, during three years.” He did so, and came back at the end of that term. The philosopher bid him go again, and pass three years in receiving all sorts of injuries and affronts, and make no answer, but give money to those who should most bitterly revile him. He complied likewise with this precept, and upon his return the experienced tutor told him he might now go to Athens, and be initiated in the schools of the philosophers. At the gate of that city sat an old man who made it his pastime to abuse those who came that way. The young novice never justified himself, nor was angry, but laughed to hear himself so outrageously railed at, and being asked the reason, said: “I have given money these three years to all who have treated me as you do; and shall not I laugh, now it costs me nothing to be reviled?” Hereupon the old man replied; “Welcome to the schools of philosophy: you are worthy of a seat in them.” The saint added: “Behold the gate of heaven. All the faithful servants of the Lord have entered into this joy by suffering injuries and humiliations with meekness and patience.” To recommend tenderness and charity to those who labor in converting others to God, he said: “It is impossible to build a house by beginning at the top in order to build downward. We must first gain the heart of our neighbor before we can be useful to him.”

It was a usual saying of this saint: “The safety of a monk consists in his keeping always his cell, watching constantly over himself, and having God continually present to his mind.” As for his own part, he never discoursed on worldly affairs, and never spoke of news, the ordinary amusement of the slothful. Some persons one day to try him, began a conversation with him, saying; “We ought to thank God for the plentiful rains that are fallen this year. The palm-trees sprout well, and our brethren will easily find leaves and twigs for their work in making mats and baskets.” St. John contented himself with answering: “In like manner when the Spirit of God come down upon the hearts of his servants, they grow green again, as I may say, and are renewed, shooting, as it were, fresh leaves in the fear of God.” This reply made them attempt no more any such conversation with him. The saint’s mind was so intent on God in holy contemplation, that at his work he sometimes platted in one basket the twigs which should have made two, and often went wrong in his work, forgetting what he was doing. One day, when a driver of camels, or a carrier, knocked at his door to carry away his materials and instruments for his work, St. John thrice forgot what he went to fetch in returning from his door, till he continued to repeat to himself, “the camel, my platting instrument.” The same happened to him when one came to fetch the baskets he had made, and as often as he came back from his door, he sat down again to his work, till at last he desired the brother to come in and take them himself.

St. John called humility and compunction the first and most necessary of all virtues. By the fervor and assiduity of his prayer and heavenly contemplation, all his discourse on God was inflamed. A certain brother coming one day to see him, designing to speak to him only for two or three minutes, being in haste to go back to his cell, so ardent and sweet was their conversation on spiritual things that they continued it the whole night till morning. Perceiving it day, they went out of the saint’s cell, the one to return home, the other to conduct him some steps and falling into discourse of heaven, their entertainment lasted till midday. Then St. John took him again into his cell to eat a morsel for his refection; after which, they parted. St. John seeing a monk laugh in a conference, sat down, and bursting into tears, said: “What reason can this brother have to laugh, whilst we have so many to weep?” A certain charitable devout young woman, named Paësia, falling into poverty, and gradually into a disorderly life, the monks of Sceté entreated St. John to endeavor to reclaim her from her evil courses. The saint repaired to her house, but was refused entrance, till persisting a long time, and repeating that she would have no reason to repent that she had spoken to him, he got admittance. Then sitting down by her, he said, with his accustomed sweetness: “What reason can you have to complain of Jesus, that you should thus abandon him, to plunge yourself in so deplorable an abyss?” At these words she was struck to the quick: and seeing the saint melt into tears, she said to him: “Why do you weep so bitterly?” St. John replied: “How can I refrain from weeping, whilst I see Satan in possession of your heart?” She said: “Is the gate of penitence yet open to me?” The saint having answered that the treasures of the divine mercy are inexhaustible, she replied: “Conduct me whither you please.” Hereupon, he, rising up, said: “Let us go.” The penitent followed him without saying another word, and without giving any orders about her household or servants; a circumstance which he took notice of with joy, as it showed how entirely she was taken up with the thought only of saving her soul. She spent the remainder of her life in austere penance, and died happily soon after in the wilderness, having no other pillow than a hillock to lay her head on. John learned by a revelation, that her short but fervent penance had been perfect before God. When our saint drew near his end, his disciples entreated him to leave them, by way of legacy, some wholesome lesson of Christian perfection. He sighed, and that he might, out of humility, shun the air of a teacher, alleging his own maxim and practice, he said: “I never followed my own will; nor did I ever teach any other what I had not first practised myself.” St. John died about the beginning of the fifth century. See Cotelier, Apoth. Patrum, litt. i. pp. 468 to 484. Rosweide, l. 5, Vitæ Patrum, translated into Latin by Pelagius, deacon of Rome, who was chosen pope in 558. Tillemont, t. 10, p. 427.

St. Aicard, or Achart, Abbot, C.

Auschaire, the father of this saint, an eminent officer in the court and armies of king Clotaire II. and Ermina his mother, were distinguished for their birth and riches among the prime nobility of Poitou. Ermina’s particular character was a tender devotion and extraordinary piety, and this treat sure she desired above all things to see her son inherit in that perfection in which it is possessed by the saints. There flourished at Poitiers at that time two renowned seminaries of piety and learning; one was the episcopa palace, the other the monastery of St. Hilary in the suburbs of the city (now a collegiate church, whereof the kings of France are abbots). In this latter Aicard had his education till he was sixteen years of age, when his father called him home in order to introduce him to court, and teach him to aspire to the highest military honors. The devout mother trembled at the thought of the dangers of forgetting God, to which she apprehended he would be exposed in that state, and earnestly desired, that, as their ambition for their son’s advancement ought to have no other view than that he should become a saint, whatever choice was made, this end alone should be considered in it. To terminate the debate between the parents, the youth was called upon to declare his inclinations. These he expressed to his father with so much earnestness, and in so dutiful and respectful a manner, as drew tears from the aged parent’s eyes, and extorted his consent upon the spot, that seeing his son chose God alone for his patron, he should be at liberty to consecrate himself to the divine service, in whatever manner he desired to consummate his sacrifice.

Aicard, without further delay, repaired to the abbey of St. Jouin in Poitou near the borders of that province, a house then renowned for the severity of its discipline, and the sanctity of its monks. From the first day that he entered this monastery, to the end of his life, he exerted all his endeavors and strength to become every day more resigned, more patient, more humble, more exact in every observance of his rule, and more fervent in the practices of devotion and penance, and in the divine love: thus he never suffered anything to abate his ardor, or to deaden the strong desires of his soul in the pursuit of virtue, studying always to discover whatever defects impaired the perfection of his affections or actions, severely condemning himself, and dalily saying with fresh vigor: I have said behold now I have begun. One day being in the garden he seemed to hear a voice which repeated the seventh verse of the eighty-third psalm, that the just shall always go forward from virtue to virtue, growing continually in wisdom, till they arrive at the vision of God; and was wonderfully delighted with this motto and characteristic of true virtue. The saint’s parents, after his retreat, founded the abbey of St. Bennet at Quinzay, about three miles from Poitiers, and committed the same to the direction of St. Philibert,* who, for fear of the tyranny of Ebroin, had been obliged to leave his monastery of Jumieges, which he had founded in Neustria, or what is now called Normandy. This holy abbot peopled Quinzay with a colony from Jumieges, as he had done a little before another monastery which he founded in the isle of Hero, on the coasts of Poitou. St. Philibert constituted St. Aicard first abbot of Quinzay, but finding it impossible to return himself to Jumieges, which he looked upon as the principal among all the religious foundations he had ever established, he resigned that abbacy to St. Aicard, and remained himself at Quinzay. There were then at Jumieges, nine hundred monks, among whom St. Aicard exceedingly promoted all the exercises of monastic perfection, and sacred studies among those whom he judged best qualified for them.¹ He at first exhorted his religious brethren only by his example; and this manner of exhorting, dumb as it was, proved most effectual.

His assiduity in prayer, his modesty, his meekness, the austerity of his penance, and his scrupulous observance of every part of the rule, made every one extremely desirous to hear him speak whom they saw do so well. He soon satisfied their impatience, by giving them admirable lessons on all the duties of Christian perfection, especially on self-denial and the entire disengagement of the heart from the world and all creatures. His instructions were delivered in so tender and pathetic a manner, that every word made a deep impression on the hearts of all that heard him. It was the custom in his community for every monk to shave his crown on all Saturdays. St. Aicard having once been hindered on the Saturday, began to shave himself very early on the Sunday morning, before the divine office; but was touched with remorse in that action, and is said to have seen in a vision a devil picking up every hair which he had cut off at so undue a time, to produce against him at the divine tribunal.² The holy man desisted, and passed the day with his head half shaved; and in that condition grievously accused and condemned himself in full chapter with abundance of tears. Those who truly consider the infinite sanctity of God, and the great purity of affections and fidelity in all duties which we owe to him, watch, like Job, with holy fear over their hearts in all they do, being well assured that no failures will escape the vigilance of their accusers, or the all-piercing eye and rigorous justice of their Judge. St. Aicard, in his last moments, being laid on ashes and covered with sackcloth, said to the monks, “My dear children, never forget the last advice, and, as it were, the testament of your most tender father. I conjure you in the name of our divine Saviour always to love one another, and never to suffer the least coldness toward any brother to take place for a moment in your breasts, by which perfect charity, which is the mark of the elect, may suffer any prejudice in your souls. In vain have you borne the yoke of penance, and are grown old in the exercises of religious duties, if you do not sincerely love one another. Without this, martyrdom itself cannot render you acceptable to God. Fraternal charity is the soul of a religious house.” Having spoken these words, lifting up his hands and eyes towards heaven, he happily surrendered his soul into the hands of his Creator on the 15th of September, about the year of our Lord 687, in the sixty-third of his age. A church was built at Jumieges in his honor. During the incursions of the Normans and Danes his relics were conveyed to Hapres, a priory between Cambray and Valenciennes, dependent on the great abbey of St. Vaast, and have since remained at the disposal of this monastery. See the life of St. Aicard in Surius and Baillet, 15 Sept. and another, older and more accurate, in Mabillon, Act. Bened. Sæc. 2, p. 954, &c. Also the commentaries and notes of Perier the Bollandist, t. 5, Sept. p. 80, and, on his translation, Baldericus, in his Chronicon Cameracense.

St. Aper or Evre, B. C.

He was born at Troyes in Champagne, as was his sister, the holy virgin Apronia, honored at Troyes and Toul on the 15th of July. Upon the death of St. Auspicius, sixth bishop of Troyes, in Champagne, about the year 486, he was chosen to fill that chair, for which he was prepared by a life devoted to the divine service from his infancy. Baronius, F. Peter Chifflet, and F. Longueval think him the same with Aper, who was married, had been a judge, and, after having led for some years a worldly life, was converted to God, and served him with great fervor, as we learn from three letters of St. Paulinus to him. But the authors of the new Gallia Christiana, and Calmet, in his history of Lorrain, show, that this Aper must have been above one hundred years old before he could have been bishop, which is incredible. Nor does it appear that the bishop had ever been married; on the contrary, he had served God in continency from his youth. He might, however, be the same to whom Sidonius Apollinaris wrote with respect. In the history of his life, his zeal, austerity, devotion, and miracles are set forth. He governed that diocess seven years, and was buried in the new church which he had begun to build in the suburbs, and which was finished by his successor. This church was dedicated under the title of St. Martin, but very soon after bore the name of St. Aper, whose relics and miracles rendered it famous. A monastery was soon after built to this church; and, in the decline of the sixth century, the abbot Apollinaris governed both this church and that of Agaunum. St. Leo IX. bishop of Toul, afterward pope, carried certain relics of St. Mansuetus (first bishop of Toul in the reign of Constantine the Great) and of St. Aper with him, and by them cured many of his attendants of the pestilence on the road, as is related by Wibert, archdeacon of that holy pope, in his life. The chief part of the relics of St. Aper is to this day kept with veneration in his church. See the life of St. Aper among the lives of the bishops of Toul, published by Martenne, t. 3, Anecd. Col. 991, and by Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, t. 1, inter Instrum. col. 121, ed. 2da; also The History of the Bishops of Toul, &c.

¹ Cotelier, Apoth. Patr. litt. i. n. 1, p. 468. Rosweld, Vitæ Patr a Pelagio Latine versæ, l. 5, &c.

² S. Sulpicius Severus, Dial. l. c. 19, p. 422.

* St. Philibert is honored on the 22d of August.

¹ Rivet. Hist. Littér. de la France, t. 3, pp. 429, 439.

² Vit. S. Aicard and Avis sur les Devoirs Monast. t. 2.

 Butler, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) III, 664-671.