In the midst of the fury of persecution, St. Peter had set no bounds to his zealous teaching of the faith of Christ. He had celebrated the Holy Mysteries in the house of a Christian named Pudens; in the presence of Nero himself he had confounded the audacious heresy of Simon Magus; he had converted, among others, a female slave greatly loved by the wicked emperor, and when she forsook the court, and served God by a virtuous life, the tyrant's rage against the Apostles of Christ broke out with fourfold strength. {137} St. Peter was arrested and conveyed to the Mamertine prison, where he converted two of his guards to the Church. Then together were these glorious Apostles brought before the governor of Rome, together they confessed the faith, and together were condemned to die. A tradition of the early Church tells us that, before they died, the two Apostles prophesied the impending ruin of Jerusalem. Then St. Peter--the Jew--was beaten with rods, and crucified with his head downwards upon Mount Janiculum, and buried in the Aurelian Way, near the temple of Apollo, the spot upon which the Vatican now stands. {138} St. Paul--the citizen of Rome--must not die by crucifixion but by the sword. Upon the same day, the 29th June, he, the old man of well-nigh seventy years, who had borne hunger and thirst, scourging, imprisonment, and chains, was led out beyond the gates of Rome to give up life for God. In a place near the Fulvian waters, the crowd stayed their steps, and the executioner's sword severed the head of the old Apostle from his body. A beautiful legend tells us that three times that severed head leaped from the earth, and each time a clear fountain of water sprang up, to the amazement of all who witnessed the miracle. {139} There stands now upon that sacred spot the church of "Delle Tre Fontane," and visitors to the Eternal City, who go there to pray, have testified to the existence of these fountains. In the story of the life of St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr, we see the marvellous effects of God's grace. It was by grace, through the strength of Christ, that he laboured so long, so faithfully, so successfully. It was by grace he had courage to endure hardness, and by grace that his heart thrilled with such fervent love to Christ--a love which sustained him through all the trials of his long life. We read that St. Paul was exposed to one great trouble, a "thorn in the flesh," as Scripture terms it, and we are told that it was permitted for his humiliation. Three times he besought of God to take it from him, but the answer was, "My grace is sufficient for thee." {140}