When Baithene reached the Aventine, he found the family absent in the basilica, at the Festival of St. Peter and St. Paul. He followed them thither, and through the betrothal veils recognized Ethne and Lucia, with Damaris, Fabricius, and Marius. And resounding through the lofty pillared spaces, once more he heard the voice of Leo in grave warning and remonstrance. “The religious devotion, beloved,” he said, in deep and mournful tones, “with which, at the time of our chastening and our liberation, all the people of the faithful flowed together to render thanks to God in acts of praise was soon neglected by almost all. This has given sore pain to my heart, and has also smitten it with fear. For the peril is great when men are ungrateful to God, and by their forgetfulness of His benefits show that they neither feel compunction at reproof, nor rejoice in their remission and pardon. Therefore, beloved, I dread lest this voice of the prophet should be applicable to us—‘I have scourged them and they have not mourned, they would not accept correction’; for how can correction have been accepted by hearts so turned away? It shames me to say it, but it is necessary not to be silent; more is rendered to demons than to apostles, and insane spectacles are more frequented than the shrines of the martyrs. Who has restored this city to safety? Who has rescued her from captivity? Who has defended her from slaughter? Is it the games of the circus? or is it the care of the saints, through which the sentence of Divine condemnation was softened, so that we who had deserved wrath might be preserved for pardon? “I beseech you, let this saying of the Saviour touch your hearts, Who, when by His might and His compassion He had cleansed ten lepers, observed that only one of them came back to give thanks; signifying that those ungrateful ones, although by an act of pity they had obtained health of body, retained, through their impiety, disease in their souls. Lest such a sentence should be pronounced, beloved, on you, turn ye back and consider, and understand the wonderful things that He has deigned to accomplish for us; that, no longer attributing our liberation (as some impious ones have done) to the operation of the stars, but to the unspeakable mercy of Almighty God, Who deigned to soften the hearts of the furious barbarians, we may unite together in full vigour of faith in the commemoration of such a benefit. Grave negligence must be remedied by testimonies of gratitude all the greater.” Then tenderly reminding them of the sufferings of the saints and martyrs, Peter and Paul, whom they were commemorating, he commended them to the mercy of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.