Showing posts with label Courage!. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Courage!. Show all posts

Sunday 28 January 2018

#105 St. Sergius – Young Martyr Dear to Our Lord: We are to Call Upon His Intercession – A Word of Encouragement


Note: According to the “Friends of Marie-Julie / Sanctuary Website”, Our Lord Himself recommended to witnesses of this ecstasy to pay attention to the life of St. Sergius, a youth that was a living image of the slain Lamb, he is particularly dear to Heaven.

St. Sergius was 15 years old and was martyred during the persecution of Diocletian in the early fourth century.


According to this information, he is not to be confused with the soldier saints St. Sergius and St. Bacchus, nor St. Sergius of Radonezh of the Russian Orthodox church. It is more likely he and his parents were one of the thirty-three martyrs who died with St. Cyriacus as there is a St. Sergius mentioned among their number in the Roman Martyrology. They died under Diocletian 304 AD.  If that is the case, St. Sergius is giving details about his life and martyrdom and that of his companions that was previously unknown.


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I am Saint Sergius. I suffered martyrdom in the spring of my age. I was very learned in the Holy Catholic religion by my father and mother whom I was a very religious treasure of innocence and purity. Seeing my devotion flourishing, the heavens made a distinction on my forehead, while amidst my companions. (i.e. had a miraculous mark or sign that was visible on his forehead.)


One day, the emperor who had made so many victims, learned the strength of my faith and passion for Jesus Christ and His Holy Mother. The sound reached his ears that my father, my mother and I went to visit in secret the Sanctuaries of God, hidden in the underground (the catacombs). We went there at night, to visit Our Lord. We were discovered. Our retreat was sacked and we had no more places where we could hide. I was denounced by many of my acquaintances who had denied the faith for their lives and were allied to the Emperor. I was seized and brought before the Emperor who posed to me very advanced questions, despite his cruelty. I answered and I was adamant. Heaven manifested on me in the palace, a bright wonder. Suddenly I was surrounded by a shining light, my forehead seemed adorned with a crown of martyrdom. I felt a strength, a love, a tenderness that I could not express. The Emperor sent his servants who examined the miracle and he remained silent for a moment. Then, soon, rage, anger, blasphemy rang around me and I was sentenced to death with my father and mother.


Many fellow Christians were chained and condemned to the same punishment. But their courage was less than mine. I spoke, I encouraged and congratulated the happiness of dying for Jesus Christ. There, the Emperor himself held a helmet of fire over his head and said, to insult me,


"I want you to suffer this torment until the time when you will decide to trample under your feet your false thoughts and ideas of Christ. "


I answered immediately: "You are a great man. You have the power to kill and give freedom. But my choice is made, I choose death."


These words excited his wrath. He had me beaten, tortured and then stoned. There were all sorts of torments that I have suffered with my family. My father persevered in martyrdom. My mother died and flew to heaven before us. She was called first.


The Emperor ordered us to be stripped from the arms to the shoulder and we had our arms pierced by long awls and broad blades. Then I was suspended from a pole by the tendons of the arms ... Then, our bodies were crushed in a mill. The Emperor ordered our torn flesh dispersed. But Heaven decreed otherwise. The Lord sent the Angels to pick up our flesh in shreds and they carried them to a safe place on a high mountain. Here, our bodies were buried with honour by the hands of the Elect of Heaven and they regained their form as they were before our martyrdom. The Lord did many miracles for us!


Call upon me in your interior and exterior pains. I suffered since the age when I had knowledge. (i.e., attained the use of reason.)


A word on behalf of Our Lord.


I too have seen die at the hands of ungodly men, the ministers of the Lord. It is their courage that still has the advantage of being (decorated) like mine. After the pain comes the reward. Sooner or later, the greatness of God will be manifested in His children! ...”


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