THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY

The Sixteenth Day of September

  1. The holy martyrs Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, whose memory is recalled on September 14.
  2. At Chalcedon, the birthday of St. Euphemia, Virgin and Martyr, who, under the Emperor Diocletian and the proconsul Priscus, over-came for Christ's sake torments, imprisonments, stripes, the punish-ment of the wheel, fire, heavy stones, beasts, scourging, sharp nails and burning pans; she was brought back into the stadium to the beasts, and when she prayed to the Lord that he would forthwith receive her spirit, one of them fixed its teeth in her holy body and she rendered up her immaculate soul to God, while the rest of the beasts licked her feet.
  3. At Rome, the holy martyrs Lucy, a noble matron, and Geminian, whom the Emperor Diocletian, when they had been afflicted with the keenest punishments and long tortured, at last commanded to be slain with the sword after their praiseworthy victory of martyrdom.
  4. The birthday of St. Martin I, Pope and Martyr. He called together a Council at Rome and condemned the heretics Sergius, Paul and Pyrrhus. And so by order of the heretical Emperor Constans he was taken prisoner by guile, brought to Constantinople and exiled to the Crimea; there he ended his life, being worn out with his labours for the Catholic faith and illustrious for many miracles. His body was afterwards brought to Rome and buried in the church of SS. Silvester and Martin. His feast is, however, observed on November 12.
  5. Also at Rome, the birthday of St. Cecily, Virgin and Martyr. She brought her husband and his brother Tiburtius to the faith of Christ and afterwards spurred them on to martyrdom. After their martyrdom Almachius, the prefect of the city, caused her to be arrested and slain by the sword after she had endured glorious suffering, passing through fire unscathed. This was done in the reign of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander. Her feast is observed on November 22.
  6. At Heraclea in Thrace, St. Sebastiana, Martyr, who was brought to the faith of Christ by blessed Paul the Apostle, and under the Emperor Domitian and the governor Sergius was at last slain by the sword, after being tested in various ways.
  7. At Rome, on the Flaminian Way, the holy martyrs Abundius, Priest, and Abundantius, Deacon. The Emperor Diocletian com-manded them to be slain with the sword, ten miles from the city, together with Marcian, an illustrious man, and John his son, whom these saints had raised from the dead.
  8. At Cordova in Spain, SS. Rogellus and Servideus, Martyrs, who were beheaded after their hands and feet had been cut off.
  9. At Whithorn in Scotland, St. Ninian, Bishop and Confessor.
  10. In England, St. Edith, Virgin, daughter of Edgar, King of the English, who was dedicated to God from her earliest years in a convent, and rather knew not this world than forsook it.
  11. At Monte Cassino, blessed Pope Victor III, who as the successor of Pope St. Gregory VII shed a fresh lustre on the Apostolic See, and with God's help gained a famous victory over the Saracens. Pope Leo XIII ratified and confirmed the cultus given him from time immemorial.

And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors and holy virgins. Thanks be to God.

Sep. 15 | Sep. 17
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