Monday, 16 September 2024

16 SEPTEMBER – SAINTS EUPHEMIA (Virgin) AND LUCY AND GEMINIANUS (Martyrs)


On this day at Chalcedon, the virgin Euphemia was martyred under the emperor Diocletian and the proconsul Priscus. For faith in Our Lord she was subjected to tortures, imprisonment, blows, the torment of the wheel, fire, the crushing weight of stones, the teeth of beasts, scourging with rods, the cutting of sharp saws, burning pans, all of which she survived. But when she was again exposed to the beasts in the amphitheatre, praying to our Lord to receive her spirit, one of the animals having inflicted a bite on her sacred body, while the rest licked her feet, she yielded her unspotted soul to God.

At Rome, Lucy, a noble matron, and Geminian, were subjected to most grievous afflictions and a long time tortured, by the command of the emperor Diocletian. Finally, being put to the sword, they obtained the glorious victory of martyrdom.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The fourth Ecumenical Council was held at Chalcedon in the church of Saint Euphemia. Beside the tomb of this holy virgin, the impious Eutyches was condemned and the twofold nature of the God-Man was vindicated. The ‘great martyr’ seems to have shown a predilection for the study of sacred doctrine: the faculty of theology in Paris chose her for its special patroness, and the ancient Sorbonne treasured with singular veneration a notable portion of her blessed relics. Let us recommend ourselves to her prayers, and to those of the holy widow Lucy and the noble Geminian, whom the Church associates with her.
Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, at a place on Via Flaminia, ten miles from the city, the holy martyrs Abundius, priest, and Abundantius, deacon, who the emperor Diocletian caused to be struck with the sword, together with Marcian, an illustrious man, and his son John, who they had raised from the dead.

At Heraclea in Thrace, St. Sebastiana, martyr, under the emperor Domitian and the governor Sergius. Being brought to the faith of Christ by the blessed Apostle St. Paul, she was tormented in various ways and finally beheaded.

At Cordova, the holy martyrs Rogellus and Servideus, who were decapitated after their hands and feet had been cut off.

In Scotland, St. Ninian, bishop and confessor.

In England, St. Editha, virgin, daughter of the English king Edgar, who was consecrated to God in a monastery from her tender years, where she may be said to have been ignorant of the world rather than to have forsaken it.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.