June 14 — Saints Cyr and Julitta

ness, for she knew and felt that God was blessing that which was hfenceforth to be her life-long cherished labour. The milk which she was giving him was impregnating her little son with the manly boldness of her race, made braver still, because over-ruled by the dear name of the Lord Jesus. Rome, all conquering as she deemed herself, was t soon to make trial thereof and own herself vanquished.

The frightful persecution of Diocletian's day was then convulsing the earth; his bloody edicts were already posted up in Iconium. Julitta feared nothing for herself, but she dreaded the probability of pagan masters educating her boy, were she violently torn from him by torments and death. She saw that she must nGeds sacrifice all to this her primary duty of preserving her child's soul, of which she was guardian. Without hesitating a moment, she fled to a foreign land, leaving home, family, and riches, bearing away her one life's treasure. Two handmaids who followed her through devotedness, could not prevail upon her to let them ease her occasionally of her precious burden. When God, who delights in sating his angels' gaze with a spectacle fair as this, permitted her to fall into the hands of the persecutor, ever was she beheld bearing still her boy in her arms. Julitta and Cyr are inseparable ; together, they needs must appear before the judge, through whose cruelty they are to be together crowned in bliss.

Further on, we give the admirable scene that at once graced earth and ravished heaven. Let us remark that these details are as authentic as can possibly be, and are admitted by Dom IJuinart into his collection of Actes sincbres. But let us also remember that he alone thoroughly honours the saints by the study of their history, who profits by the lessons they have left to the world. Recent attacks on edu- cation have but too well proved that the heroism of Julitta is by no means intended to lie by, as a dead letter, or as an object of mere futile admiration; but rather that it is meant to serve as an example, called in thousands of cases into absolute and practical requisition by the troubles of these present times. Duty does not alter, from century to century; the difficulty of fulfilling it, which may indeed vary with circumstances of time and place, removes nothing of the inflexibility of its imperative demands.

On the other hand, let us not forget that the Church herself is likewise a Mother, and that she too owns it her bounden duty to suckle her children. Never have her protestations been hushed against the tyrants of any century who would separate her little ones from her. If then it should happen that a violent blow be so dealt as to tear a child from the arms of Mother Church, then be must know that it becomes a duty for him to imitate the brave little son of Julitta. Is he not likewise a son of the Dove i Then let him prove himself so; let him become holily obstinate in repeating that one word "Holy " Church;" let him struggle to reach her, all the more vigorously in proportion as efforts are made to drag him further from her. How could he but abhor the odious caresses of one who would dare to assume her place in his regard ? All other help failing, who could but applaud, if he, like Saint Cyr, were to repulse by such means as his feebleness can permit, the hand that would kill his body ? And is the soul that is in him less precious? and if need be, must he not sacrifice even his own body to save his soul ? We certainly ought to think so: and does it not seem that Providence bad the future in view, when, at so early a date, he permitted the precious relics of this son and mother to be brought to France ? The century that witnessed their bloody sacrifice to

SS. CYR AND JULITTA.

God, had not ran out, ere Cyr and Julitta seemed to choose the Gallic shore for their adopted home : an emigration fraught with graces for France ! Scarce had the turmoil of invasion oeased, than numberless sanctuaries were raised in honour of their loved name; which circumstance proves how popular was their cvltU8 amongst the chivalrous sons of the Franks. The symbol used in Christian art to distinguish Saint Cyr is a wild boar; the reason is that Charlemagne "was miraculously delivered from the fangs of one of these savage brutes by the intercession of Saint Cyr. In thanksgiving, the Cathedral of Nevers rebuilt by this emperor was placed under the invocation of this sainted child, who, together with his mother, is patron of the whole diocese, wherein no fewer than four feasts are celebrated in their honour during the year.

The various Churches that keep the feast of Saints Cyr and Julitta borrow the Lessons of their Office from the following celebrated letter written regarding them, in the 6th century, by Theodore, Bishop of Iconium. The text we here give is taken from the Proper of the Church of Villejuif near Paris, which is richly endowed with theif, relics. Indeed the name Villejuif is said to be a popular corruption of ViUor Jvlittce.

From the letter of Theodore, Bishop of Iconium, concerning the martyrdom of Saints Cyr and Julitta.

J ulitta was born of the royal stock of Iconium. Persecution raging under Domitian, the Governor of Lycaonia, she fled from her native city, together with two handmaids and her Son, named Cyr, aged three.

Ex Epistola Theodori, episcopi Iconiensis de passione SS. Cyrici et Julittae.

Julitta Iconiorum regio orta semine, cum vehementior in christianos saeviret persecutio, Domitiano Lycaonise comite, fuga se cum duabus ancillis trimuloque filio suo Cyrico, Iconio,unde

218 time afte: et orta erat, proripuit. Substantia itaque qua valde locuples erat relict a, Seleuciam pervenit : quo ipso loco turbatas magis res christianorum oflfendens, Alexandro quodam Seleuciaa preside a Diocletian o constitute, a quo ipso recens edictum accepisset, quo jubebantur omni tormentorum genere excruciari aui idolis non immolarent, Tarsum abit. Velut autem ex condicto, commigrante illuc immani ac duri8&imo Alexandro, comprehenditur inclyta victrix martyr Juli tta, suis ipsa ulnis tenella valde aetate puellum Cyricum complectens. Ula tribunali adhibita, nomenque ac fortunam, patriamque ab Alexandro rogata,

Sraesidenti animo responens judici, Domini nostri Jesu Christi sibi nomen adscivit, dicens : Christiana sum. Ira itaque accensus Alexander, tolii ab ea puerum jussit, ac ad se adduci: matrem vero distentam crudis nervis immaniter caedi imperavit.

Vi autem abs strenuae matris sinu avulsum puerum, totumque in matrem gestentiem, nec ab ea ocellos avocantera, carnifices praetori afferunt. Acceptum praetor manu puerum blande deliniens, a fletu cohibere omnino nitebatur, genibusque impositum accipere osculo conabatur. Puer vero,

!> PENTECOST.

Having thus abandoned all her property, which was considerable, she came to Seleucia. But there, she found the Christians suffering even more. Alexander, the President placed there by Diocletian, had just received the Emperor's edict ordering to subject to every kind of torture, all such as refused to adore the idols. Juli tta therefore travelled to Tarsus. Now, just as though he were fain purposely to pursue her, it so fell out, that Alexander, that hard and harsh man, arrived at Tarsus as soon as she. Our noble victrix Julitta the martyr was arrested, bearing in her arms her little son Cyr of tender age. Being brought before the tribunal, Alexander demanded her name, condition, and country. She boldly replied, sheltering herself under the only name of our Lord Jesus Christ : " I am a Christian/' Alexander inflamed with rage, commanded that the child should be taken from his mother and brought to him, whilst sbe was being beaten cruelly with the sinews of oxen.

Only by main force could they drag the child from his mother's * bosom, for he kept clinging close unto her ; and when at last torn from her, he kept urging towards her with all possible movements of his little limbs, nor would he take his eyes off her, and thus the executioners handed him to the President He having got

CYR AND JULITTA. him in his grasp, began caressing the child, striving to stay his tears, dancing him on his knee, and trying to force the poor babe to let him kiss him. All to no purpose; the boy would fix nis eyes only upon his mother, pushing the President away and turning his little head from him : then making use of his hands be began to scratch the President's face ; at last like to the little nestling of the chaste dove, he would imitate the voice of his mother, and pronounce the very same confession he heard his mother making, crying out thus: "I am a Christian." Then did he kick with his feet against the sides of the Judge. No longer able to restrain his fury, this savage beast (for man he cannot be termed, who could not be touched by this tender harmless age), seized the babe by the foot, and ruthlessly flung him to the ground. The brains of this noble martyr were thus dashed out against the sharp corners of the steps, in the very act of this his confession, and the ground all about the tribunal was bespattered with his blood. Julitta exulting for joy cried out aloud: "I give Thee thanks, M O Lord, that thou hast been " pleased that my son should M consummate his sacrifice, beu fore myself, and that thou "hast therefore given unto " him the fadeless crown !"

The judge ashamed of himself and still more infuriated, intentis in matrem luminibus, prsetorem abs se submovebat ac caput avertebat; manibusque obnitens, pretoris faciem unguiculisscalpebat ; velut denique castre turturis pullus, aemulam sanctus Cyricus vocem pronuntiavit, eaindem ipsius matris predication em edens, ac clamans : Christianus sum. Calcibusquoquejudicis latus petebat ; quamobrem excandens agrestis ilia fera, nec enim homo nuncupandus sit qui nec in rudem ac innoxiam mitescat setatern, pede arreptum e sublimi solio puerum terre allidit Preclari vero martyris cerebra ea in conf essione ad graduum angulos colliso, circum late tribunalis area cruore opplebatur. Julitta exsuperanti gaudio repleta: Gratias tibi ago, Domine, aiebat, quod filium me priorem consummatum, lmmarescibilem coronam dignanter consequi voluisti

Judex sortem ipse depiorans, suspense ligno seu equuleo valide fodi latera, exque lebete haustam picem buflientem pedibus affundi jubet. Tumque praeconis voce jubente, atque dicente : Julitta, tui ipsa miserere diisque sacrifica, ne eamdem ac Alius malam necem reportaveris; generoso ilia proposito tormentapertulit, damans ac dicens: Ego daemonibus non sacrifico, sed Christum Dei Filium unigenitum colo, per quern Pater eondidit omnia, ac festino meum assequi filium, quo illi socia in regno coelorum efficiar. Ubi, omnem vicens insaniam, saavus judex constantem in pugna advertit martyris animum, adversu earn sententiam dicit, caedi gladio feminae cervicem, filii cadaver in damnatorum locum projici jubens. Consummatur Christi gratia turn triumphatrix martyr Julitta, turn gloriosus atque inclytus ejus filius Cyricus, decimo septimo Kalendas AugustL Hos martyres PatronosEcclesia Nivernensis agnoscit, necnon et inter alias plures Ecclesias et Monasteria hujusce regni, vicus prope Parisios Villa Judaea dictus, qui utriusque Martyris reliquiarum non modica portione gloriatur, et cum summa veneratione colit. caused Julitta to be now hoisted on the rack • commanding her sides likewise to be torn, and boiling pitch to be poured upon her feet During the execution, a crier proclaimed : " Julitta, take pity on thyself "and sacrifice to the gods; "dread the same unhappy " death that hath befallen thy " son." But the valiant martyr unmoved in the midst of torments cried out, in her turn: " I will never sacrifice to de- " mons, but I pay homage to " Christ, the Only Son of God, " by whom the Father creat- " ed ail things ; I am in haste " to rejoin my child, and so be " united to him for ever in the " heavenly Kingdom." Them the cruel Judge, pushing his folly to the last extreme, pronounced his sentence against her whose constancy he despaired of vanquishing in combat: "This woman, so ran the sentence, " shall have her " head cut off by a sword, and " the body of her son shall "be thrown where criminals " corpses are cast." It was on the seventeenth of the Kalends of August that Julitta the noble martyr, and Cyr her glorious son consummated their triumph, through the grace of Jesus Christ The Church of Nevers claims them as her patrons, as do likewise many other Churches and Monasteries of the kingdom, amongst which the parish of Villejuif, near Paris, glories in possessing a considerable portion of the

SS. CYR AND JULITTA. relics of these two Martyrs, and surrounds them with highest veneration.

Thy desire is fulfilled, O Julitta, thou hast rejoined thy child! Ye form conjointly a fair ornament of the heavens, just as on earth ye did ever abide in one. The angels are in admiration at the sight of such a mother and child united thus in endless praise unto the thrice holy God. They realise the great truth that the creation of their sublime hierarchies exhausted not the Wisdom of the Creator. The nine choirs, all unfolded simultaneously beneath the gaze of the Eternal, communicated light and love one to the other, in perfect order; there was naught to betoken in the wondrous assemblage any further design of the Lord, conceived in favour of other created beings to be equally brought into relationship with himself, for his glory's sake. Yet so it was to be : human nature has this advantage over the angelical, namely, that it imitates, in its manner of intercommunication, the essential relation of God the Father and of his Word ; that which the highest Seraphim can say to none, man in his own person can repeat to his fellow man, that utterance of God himself: "Thou art my son!"1 This filiation, without which man cannot attain to the terrestrial, perishable life of this lower world, he again receives a second time, none the less really, yea, eternally,— in the supernatural order; for nature is but a frail image of the realities which are the portion of God's Elect. Thus was it, 0 Julitta, that thou didst become, twice over, the mother of that saintly child thou didst bear in thine arms; ah! how far was thy first maternity outstripped by the second, whereby,

1 Ps. ii. 7. thou didst bring him forth unto glory ! In intensity of suffering likewise, did this second child-birth of thy martyrdom outdo the first ; but this is only the law common to all maternity, since the fall: the sentence that touched Eve has its echo even in the world of grace.

Now dost thou remember no longer thy travails !* The sacrifice of mother and of son, begun in the anguish of a dolorous confession, is this day become a sacrifice of praise and of gladness. For this your mutual oblation is continued in heaven : it remains for ever the basis of those powerful and sweet relations wherein God finds his glory ; it is the source of those benedictions which the Lord showers upon earth on your account. Would, then, O holy Martyrs, that you could hasten the return of the East to the true Light, that East which gave you life, and to which, in return, you gave your precious blood ! Bless the West also, where so many churches are raised to your honour and celebrate your feast. May France. especially, your second country, ever feel the potent effects of a patronage that can be traced on historic annals, up to the earliest dates of her existence. Charlemagne, that mighty emperor, on his knees before thee, O Cyr, is a fact all eloquent of thy powerful intercession, O thou little son of Julitta! Nevers too, in these our own days, can prove the same ; for to thee she justly attributes her preservation from the Prussian invasion, when all the neighbourhood was devastated by the hostile troops !

At present not only France, but other countries, are suffering from trials worse even than invasion, trials in many ways resembling yours, 0 holy Martyrs! Uphold the faith in the breasts of Mothers, O Julitta; uphold their Christian instincts to the full height of

1 Gen. iii. 16. * St. John, xvi 21.

SS. CYK AND JULITTA. the lofty teachings conveyed in the story of thy glorious combat. In the face of tyranny which would fain lay grasping hold on education in view of poisoning the immortal souls of children, do thou, 0 Cyr, stir up among these little ones, faithful imitators of thyself! Not long ago, some have shown this noble spirit ; under the hateful pressure of impious masters who persisted in dictating to them lessons condemned by Holy Church, they dared to write out nothing but the Credo they had learned at their mother's knee. Well done, brave and noble hearted children ! Thou, 0 Cyr, didst surely thrill with gladness at such a sight, rivalling thee in magnanimity. All then is not lost for France and these other afflicted lands. May thine intercession, blended with that of thy mother, develop more and more in the breasts of the little ones of God's Church, this consciousness of the holy liberty which is their portion by their very baptism. Such consciousness as this, maintained and exhibited, the while it bends them in dutiful submission to all power emanating from God, will nevertheless prevail at last over the prince of this world with his Ccesarism I Yea, the very safety of society depends on such noble independence as this, in the Christian sense, in face of all abuse of power !