[Rank] St. Justini Martyr;;Duplex;;3;;vide C2 [Oratio] O God, Who through the preaching of the Cross, which is to them that perish foolishness, didst wonderfully teach unto thy blessed martyr Justin the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus Our Lord, grant unto us at his prayers the grace to cast off all false teaching and ever to hold fast to the faith. $Per eumdem [Commemoratio] !Commemoration of Sts. Tiburtius, Valerian et Maximus, Martyrs @Commune/C3:Oratio proper (sed tempore paschali) @Sancti/04-14-com-tp:Oratio proper $Oremus Almighty God, for Whom holy Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus uplifted their testimony, grant, we beseech Thee, unto all whosoever call the same to solemn memory, grace to imitate the example of their godly courage. $Per Dominum [Lectio4] Justin, the son of Priscus, was a Greek by race, but was born at Nablus in Palestine. He passed his youth in the study of letters. When he became a man he was so taken with the love of philosophy and the desire of truth that he became a student in the schools of all the philosophers and examined the teaching of them all. In them he found only deceitful wisdom and error. The light of heaven was given him, through an old man of worshipful aspect whom he knew not, and he embraced the philosophy of the true Christian faith. Henceforth he had the books of the Holy Scriptures in his hands by day and by night, and by meditating thereon the fire of God was so kindled in his soul that, himself possessing the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, he wrote many books, with all the learning which he possessed, to set forth the Christian faith and to spread it abroad. [Lectio5] Amongthe most famous of the works of Justin are his two Apologies or Defences of the Christian faith. These he brought before the Senate when the Emperors Antoninus Pius, and his sons, as also Marcus Antoninus Verus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, were savagely persecuting the followers of Christ, and by their means, and his vigorous disputations in favour of the same faith, he obtained a public edict from the government to stay the slaughter of the Christians. But Justin himself did not escape he had rebuked the life and infamous manners of the Cynic Crescens, and was accused and arrested through that person's plottings. He was brought before Rusticus, the President of Rome, who asked him what were the doctrines of the Christians, whereto he answered, in the presence of many witnesses, with this good confession: The right doctrine which we Christian men do keep with godliness is this, that we should believe that there is one God, Who is the Maker and Creator of all things, both those things which are seen and those things which bodily eyes do not see, and that we should confess the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who was foretold of old time by the prophets, and Who will come to be the Judge of all mankind. [Lectio6] In order to rebut the slanders of the heathen, Justin had in his first Apology given an open account of the gathering of the Christians for divine worship, and what were the holy Mysteries celebrated in these assemblies. The President therefore asked him what was the place where he and Christ's other faithful ones in the city were accustomed to meet. Justin, lest he should betray that which was holy unto God and his brethren, told only where was his own lodging, where he was used to abide and to teach his disciples, hard by the famous Church of the Shepherd, in the house of Pudens. The President then gave him the choice whether to sacrifice to the gods or to be hided with scourges over his whole body. The unconquered champion of the faith answered that he had always desired to suffer in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, from Whom he looked to receive a mighty reward in heaven. The President thereupon sentenced him to death, and then this excellent philosopher, giving praise to God, was first beaten and afterwards shed his blood for Christ's sake, and so received the crown of a glorious martyrdom. Some of the faithful secretly stole away his body, and buried it in a fitting place. The Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII. commanded that his Office and Mass should be used throughout the whole Church. [Lectio94] Justin, son of Priscus and of Greek extraction, was born at Nablus in Palestine. He was so possessed by love for philosophy that, in his search for truth, he enrolled in every philosophical school he could find. But in these he found nothing but fallacious wisdom, and, taught by enlightenment sent him from heaven, he embraced the philosophy of the Christian faith. Thereafter he studied the books of holy Scripture day and night and, when he had thus become learned in the supreme knowledge of Jesus Christ, he wrote many books to explain and to spread the Christian faith, among which his two Apologies are particularly well known. When he had presented these to the the emperors Antoninus Pius and his sons, and fought strenuously for the faith by disputations as well, he obtained a public edict from the princes to restrain the slaughter of Christians. But he himself was accused through the plotting of Crescens the Cynic, whose wicked ways he had criticized. He was taken prisoner by Crescens' followers and brought before Rusticus the prefect. When he firmly held to his confession of the faith, he was condemned to death, and went to his rest crowned with the glory of martyrdom. &teDeum [Lectio7] From the Holy Gospel according to Luke !Luke 12:2-8 In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, in so much that they trod one upon another, Jesus began to say unto His disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. And so on. _ Homily by St. John Chrysostom, (Patriarch of Constantinople) !On Matthew x. 26.) The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not, therefore: for] there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. It is as though He would say: It is comfort enough for you, if I, your Master and Lord, am a partaker in your reproach. But if it grieve you unto this present to hear these things, bethink you likewise that it is but a little while, and ye shall be free from that reproach. For what is it that grieveth you? is it that they call you tricksters and deceivers? Wait but a little while and all men shall call you the preservers and benefactors of the world. In a little while all the things which are dark now shall be made clear, and the falsehood of them that reproach you and your own goodness shall be shown in the light. For when that which cometh to pass shall itself show that ye are preservers and benefactors, and filled with all goodness, men will regard not the words of your gainsayers but the truth. They that now speak evil of you will be found out in the slanderers, liars, and calumniators, and ye shall be seen to be brighter than the sun; time shall make you known and shall preach you with a voice louder than the voice of a trumpet, and shall bring forward all men as the witnesses of your goodness. Let not, therefore, those things which are now spoken cast you down, but rather let the hope of the good things which are to come lift you up. For the things which regard you cannot be hidden. [Lectio8] And when He had freed them from pain, fear, and care, and set them above the reproaches of men, He spake unto them in due season concerning the freedom of preaching, What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops. It was not darkness when He uttered these words, neither was He speaking into their ear. These words were a figure He was speaking to them alone and in a little corner of Palestine, and therefore He saith in darkness and in the ear, as comparing this manner of speech with that boldness of speaking wherewith He was afterwards to inspire them. Preach, He saith, not in one nor two nor three cities, but throughout the whole world go over the earth and the sea, the land that is dwelt in and the land that is not dwelt in speak all things with great boldness to kings and to peoples, to philosophers and to rhetoricians therefore without any subtlety, but with all freedom, He saith, What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops. [Lectio93] !Commemoratio of St. Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus Valerian was a Roman, of a family as noble as that of the blessed maiden Cecily, to whom he was contracted in marriage, in the reign of the Emperor Alexander Severus. At her persuasion he and his brother Tiburtius were baptized by the holy Pope Urban. When it came to the knowledge of Almachius, the Prefect of the city, that they were become Christians, had given their substance to the poor, and were burying the bodies of the faithful, he sent for them and strongly rebuked them but as they constantly confessed that Christ is God, and that the gods of the heathen are but vain images of devils, he commanded them to be beaten with rods. But, forasmuch as no blows could force them to worship the image of Jupiter, but they seemed rather to wax strong in witnessing to the truth of the faith that was in them, they were beheaded at the fourth mile-stone from the city. One of the clerks of the Prefect, named Maximus, who had led them out to die, was so moved at the sight of their courage that he himself, with many other servants of the Prefect, owned to being a Christian they were sentenced to be scourged to death with whips loaded with lead, under the which torment, in a little while, all these, who had once been the devil's ministers, passed away as martyrs of Christ the Lord. &teDeum