The Lives of the Saints, Volume 02 (of 16): FebruaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 02 (of 16): February
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
Then he was taken to Perga, where was the governor of the province,
which he reached on the fourth Sabbath (Saturday.) And when the
Irenach had presented him to Pollio the governor, Nestor was again
urged with kind and courteous words to renounce his religion; but he
as constantly refused. "Torment me as thou wilt," said he, "with
chains or wild beasts, or sword, as long as there is any breath in my
nostrils, I will confess the name of my Lord Jesus Christ." Then the
judge ordered him to be suspended on the little horse, and to be
cruelly tortured. The executioner laid his sides bare, tearing them
with iron hooks; but Nestor chanted, "I will alway give thanks unto
the Lord: his praise shall ever be in my mouth." (Ps. xxxiii.; (A. V.
34) 1.) The judge, astonished at his endurance, exclaimed, "Why,
wretched man! art thou not ashamed to put thy faith in a man, and he
short-lived?" "Let that be my confusion, and that also of all who call
on the name of the Lord Jesus," answered the martyr. And when the
crowd clamoured that he should be released from his sufferings, the
governor asked again, "What, then, is thy final choice, to be with us,
or with thy Christ?" Then the martyr exclaimed, "With my Christ have I
ever been, with Him am I now, and with Him shall I ever be." Seeing
his inflexibility, Pollio said scornfully, "Nestor, as thou hast
rejected the immortal gods to follow the crucified One, I will not be
so wanting in devotion to this God of thine, as to condemn thee to any
other death. Thou shalt be crucified on the wood."
Then a cross was made ready, and Nestor, the bishop, was nailed to it.
And as he hung, he exhorted the people, and at length he bid them
kneel and pray to God through Jesus Christ; and all knelt, and when he
had said the final Amen, he breathed forth his spirit.
S. DIONYSIUS, B. OF AUGSBURG, M.
(A.D. 303.)
[German Martyrology. No trustworthy authorities for his life and
acts. The following account is from the Augsburg Breviary.]
Dionysius, together with his sister Hilaria, (August 12th), her
daughter Afra, (August 7th), and the rest of his family, was converted
and baptized by S. Narcissus the bishop, afterwards chief pastor of
the Church of Gerona, in Spain, (March 18th.) As Narcissus was obliged
to leave the little band of Christians at Augsburg, he instructed, and
then ordained, Dionysius to be their priest, or, as some writers
assert, their bishop. Thus Dionysius became the spiritual father of a
little family of true believers, and was called to encourage them
during the fiery trial of persecution. He saw his sister Hilaria, and
her daughter Afra, glorify God by martyrdom. Knowing that his own turn
had come, he fortified himself with the Holy Sacrament, yielded
himself into the hands of those who sought his life, and dying a
martyr's death, gained the crown and palm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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