April 26 — Saints Cletus and Marcellinus

the Apostles, he established five and twenty priests in the City. He was the first, who, in his letters, used those words : " Health and Apostolic benediction/' Having put the Church into admirable order, and having governed it twelve years, seven months, and two days, he was crowned with martyrdom under the emperor Domitian, in the second Persecution following that of Nero, and was buried in the Vatican, near the body of St. Peter.

Primus in litfceris verbis illis usus est: Salutem et Apostolicam benedictionem. Qui Ecclesia op time constitute, cum ei prsefuisset annos duodecim, menses septem, dies duos, Domitiano lmperatore, secunda post Neronem persecutione, martyrio coronatus est, et in Vaticano juxta corpus beati Petri sepultus.

The Life of St. Marcellinus is thus given in the Breviary.

Marcellinus, a Roman by birth, ruled over the Church, from the year two hundred and ninety-six to the year three hundred and four, during the terrible persecution of Dioclesian. He had much to suffer from the impious severity of those who reproached him with showing too much indulgence towards those that relapsed into idolatry, whence it ensued that he was defamed by calumny as though he had offered incense to idols. The truth is, that this blessed Pontiff was beheaded for the confession of the faith, together with three other Christians, Claudius, Cyrinus, and Antoninus. Their bodies, by the emperor's order, were left six and thirty days without burial, after which, the blessed Marcellus,

Marcellinus Romanus, ab anno ducentesimo nonagesimo sexto ad annum trecentesimum quartum in immani imperatoris Diocletiani persecutione Ecclesiao prsefuit. Multas pertulit angustias ob improbam eorum severitatem qui euni redarguebant de nimia indulgentia erga lapsos in idololatriam, quaeque causa fuit, ut per calumniam infamatus merit, quasi thus idolis adhibuisset. Verum hie beatus Pontifex in conf essione fidei una cum tribus aliis Christianis, Claudio, Cyriuo et Antonino, capite plexus est Quorum projecta corpora cum triginta sex dies jussu imperatoris sepultura caruissent, beatus Marcellus a sancto Petro in somnis admonitus, Presby-

PASCHAL TIME. teris et Diaconis, hymnis (in consequence of his receiv- ac luminibus adhibitis, ing, whilst asleep, an admoni- honorificesepeliendacuravit tion from St. Peter,) had in ccemeterio Priscillse, via them buried in the Cemetery

Salaria. Rexit Ecclesiam of Priscilla, on the Salarian annos septem, menses un- Road : at which burial were decim, dies viginti tres : quo present many Priests and tempore fecit Ordinationes beacons, who, with torches in duas mense decembri qui- their hands, sang hymns, in bus creavit presbyteros qua- honour of the Martyrs. Mar- tuor, episcopos per diversa cellinus governed the Church

Pray for us, O holy Pontiffs, and look with fatherly love upon the Church on earth, which was so violently persecuted in your times, and, at the present day, is far from enjoying peace. The worship of idols is revived ; and though they be not of stone or metal, yet they that adore them are as determined to propagate their worship as were the Pagans of former days to make all men idolaters. The gods and goddesses now in favour are called Liberty, Progress, and Modern Civilisation. Every measure is resorted to, in order to impose these new divinities upon the world ; — they that refuse to adore them are persecuted ; governments are secularised, that is, unchristianised ; the education of youth is made independent of all moral teaching ; the religious element is rejected from social life, as an intrusion : and all this is done with such a show of reasonableness, that thousands of well-minded Christians are led to be its advocates, timid perhaps, and partial, but still its advocates. Preserve us, O holy Martyrs ! from being the dupes of this artful impiety. It was not in vain that our Jesus suffered death, and rose again from loca quinque. seven years, eleven months, and twenty-three days. During this period, he gave two Ordinations in December, at which four were made Priests, and five Bishops for divers places. the grave. Surely, after this, he deserves to be what he is, — King of the whole earth, under whose power are all creatures. It is in order to obey Him, that we wish no other Liberty save that which he has based upon his Gospel ; no other Progress save that which follows the path He has marked out ; no other Civilisation save that which results from the fulfilment of the duties to our fellow men, which He has established. It is He that created human nature, and gave it its laws ; it is He that redeemed it, and restored it to its lost rights. Him alone, then, do we adore. O holy Martyrs! pray that we may never become the dupes or slaves of the theories of human pride, not even should they that make or uphold them, have power to make us suffer or die for our resistance.