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“We thank Youfor Your goodness,but we also ask You toshow forth Your power”

Benedict XVIChristmas 2010

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from the Introduction of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of 18 February 2005 (elected Pope on 19 April 2005 with the name Benedict XVI)

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The healing of the woman with the issue of blood, Catacombs of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Rome

1. The comment, by way of a letter, of Don Giacomo Tantardini,on the phrase of Don Luigi Giussani reported on the cover of number 4/5 of 30Days of this year

2. Some excerpts from the radio message of Pope Pius XII on the solemnity of the holy apostles and martyrs Peter and Paul of 29 June 1941

3. The account by Lorenzo Cappelletti of the martyrdom of Saints John and Paul, and of the Saints Nabor and Felixand Saint Alexander

We publish as spiritual reading:

SP I R I T UA L RE A D I N G

1 Luigi Giussani, Un avvenimento di vita, cioè una storia [An event of life,that is a story] – introduction by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – Edit-Il Sabato, Rome1993, p. 104: “ A real persecution? That’s it. The wrath of the world today does notrise up before the word Church, it is quiet also before the idea that someone should de-fine himself Catholic, or before the figure of the Pope depicted as a moral authority.Indeed there is a formal deference, even sincere. The hatred is unleashed – barelycontained, but soon it will overflow – before Catholics who present themselves assuch, Catholics who act in the simplicity of Tradition”.

2 Ibid.

Rome, 17 June 2011

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust and hope in you

Dear friends,

Giussani’s words on the cover of 30Days (“Not agnosticism, but Gnosticism is thedanger for the Christian faith”. Thus Don Luigi Giussani to John Paul II in the early’nineties) and the two pages of commentary by Lorenzo Cappelletti (30Days, No. 4/5,

2011, pp. 58-59) are interesting. I would like to add just a small thingto help understand the words of Giussani, a little thing that was a dis-covery for me in these days.

So many times I had quoted Giussani’s words in the interview ofApril 1992 on the persecution of “those who act in the simplicity ofTradition”1.

But in these days, I was surprised (as by a ray of sunlight that illu-minates everything) by these words of Giussani also in the same inter-view of April 1992: “The hatred is unleashed – barely contained, butsoon it will overflow...” 2 .

These words of Giussani’s are the same words that the ApostlePaul wrote in his second letter to the Thessalonians (2 Thess 2,7), when he speaks of those who restrain (Giussani says, contain)the overflow of hatred toward those who act in the simplicity ofTradition.

Now it is clear to me (then, in April 1992, it wasn’t) what andwho restrained or contained in April 1992 the overflow of hatred(Giussani I would say almost explicitly suggests it during the sameinterview and precisely where he adds the adjective ‘bloody’ to theword ‘persecution’).

MENSILE SPED. ABB. POST. 45% D.L. 353/2003 (CONV. IN L. 27/02/04 N.46) ART.1, COMMA 1 DCB - ROMA.In caso di mancato recapito rinviare a Ufficio Poste Roma Romanina per la restituzione al mittente previo addebito. ISSN 0390-4539

Don Luigi Giussani dans un entretien

avec Jean Paul II au début des années Quatre-vingt-dix

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«Le vrai danger pour la foi chrétienne,

ce n’est pas l’agnosticisme,mais le gnosticisme»

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le dijo don Luigi Giussani

a Juan Pablo II

a principios de los años noventa

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«El peligro para

la fe cristiana

no es el agnosticismo,

sino el gnosticismo»,

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Palavras de Dom Luigi Giussania João Paulo II no início da década de 1990

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“Não é o agnosticismo; o gnosticismo, este sim, é que é o perigo para a fé cristã”

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Chefredakteur: Giulio Andreotti

in Kirche und Welt Chefredakteur: Giulio Andreotti

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„Nicht im Agnostizismus, sondern im Gnostizismus

liegt die Gefahr für den christlichen Glauben“Don Luigi Giussani in einem

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Thus Don Luigi Giussani

to John Paul II

at the beginning of the ’nineties

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“Not agnosticism,

but Gnosticism

is the danger

for the Christian faith”

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For that understanding that faith can give in the face of tragic examples of this bloodypersecution in recent decades, these words of Giussani must once again be recalled:

“‘There was evil also in Roman times...’ (the first Christians were also evil: enough toread the Letters of St Paul, the Acts of the Apostles; St Paul was betrayed by Christians, hedied because of the secret betrayal of Christians)”3.

According to some, those who restrained the overflow of hatred when the Apostle Paulwrote the second letter to the Thessalonians could have been the Roman Emperor (StThomas Aquinas says explicitly that who restrained the overflow of hatred was the “Imperi-um Romanum/the Roman Empire”). Evidently neither the emperor nor the officials of theEmpire were conscious of being an instrument of this Providence. And obviously they werenot Christians. It can happen similarly also that those who have been such in recent decadesand today also can be an instrument of this Providence.

Comment on the phrase of Don Luigi Giussani

330DAYS N. 6 - 2011

3 Luigi Giussani, An event of life, that is a story – introduction by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – Edit-IlSabato, Rome 1993, p. 295.

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30DAYS N. 6 - 20114

But, after the emperors Tiberius and Claudius, the hatred flowed over into the greatpersecution of Nero.

We ask in prayer today that there may be something or someone to contain or restrain“the mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess 2, 7). We ask this, as a request for miracles, in the prayerof the Holy Mass, which is the prayer of Jesus, and with the Holy Rosary, which is the prayerof the Mother of Jesus with her little and poor ones.

We ask this in prayer, also re-reading the words of the Apostle Paul:

‘We ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Je-sus Christ and our assembling with him, not to be shaken out of yourminds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oralstatement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day ofthe Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless theapostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomedto perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-calledgod and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God,claiming that he is a God.

Do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you thesethings? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be re-vealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.But the one who restrains is to do so only for the present, until he is re-moved from the scene. And then the lawless one will be revealed,whom the Lord (Jesus) will kill with the breath of his mouth and renderpowerless by the manifestation of his coming, the one whose comingsprings from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs andwonders that lie, and in every wicked deceit for those who are perish-ing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they maybe saved. Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so thatthey may believe the lie, that all who have not believed the truth buthave approved wrongdoing may be condemned.

But we ought to give thanks to God for you always, brothers lovedby the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvationthrough sanctification by the Spirit and belief in truth. To this end hehas (also) called you through our gospel to possess the glory of ourLord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions thatyou were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. Mayour Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved usand given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through hisgrace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deedand word.


530DAYS N. 6 - 2011

Finally, brothers, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord mayspeed forward and be glorified, as it did among you, and that we maybe delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith.But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from theevil one.

We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you(both) are doing and will continue to do. May the Lord direct yourhearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.’

(2 Thess 2, 1 – 3, 5)

In my poor prayer and in the Holy Mass, which is the prayer of Jesus, I thank you,deeply moved by the prayers for me and the love that you show toward me especially inthese times.

Don Giacomo

Post scriptumMay this letter be simply an occasion to request prayer. A request for prayer in His name

that is in His grace. How important it is, decisive, always, and especially at certain times, tolive and pray in the grace of God. Remember: “Whoever confesses well becomes holy”. Be-comes holy, that is he is donated, by a special help of grace, to live in the grace of God.

May this letter be thus a request for miracles. Yes, miracles, according to His promise.May the Lord also grant this love, this intelligent simplicity of children.

The Good Shepherd,

Catacombs of

St Callistus, Rome

Comment on the phrase of Don Luigi Giussani

O n this Solemnity of the Holy ApostlesPeter and Paul, your devoted thoughtand affection, dear children of the

whole Catholic Church, turns to Rome with thetriumphant verse: “O Roma felix, quae duo-rum Principum – es consecrata glorioso san-guine! / O happy Rome, that you have beenconsecrated by the glorious blood of these twoPrinces”. But the happiness of Rome, which isthe happiness of blood and faith, is also yourown, because the faith of Rome, here sealed onthe right and the left bank of the Tiber with theblood of the Princes of the Apostles, is the faiththat was announced to you, that is announcedand will be announced throughout the wholeworld. You rejoice in the thought and greetingfrom Rome, because you feel in you the leap ofthe universal ‘Romanity’ of your faith.

For nineteen centuries the Rome of the Cae-sars was baptized the Rome of Christ in the glori-ous blood of the first Vicar of Christ and the Doc-tor of the Gentiles, the eternal sign of the unfail-ing principality of the sacred authority and infal-

lible magisterium of the Church’s faith; and inthat blood the first pages of a magnificent newhistory of the sacred struggles and victories ofRome were written.

Have you ever asked yourselves what thefeelings and fears of the small group of Chris-tians scattered throughout the great pagan citymust have been, at the moment when, havinghastily buried the bodies of the two great mar-tyrs, one at the foot of the Vatican and the otheron the Via Ostiense, they gathered together,most in their small rooms of slaves or of poor ar-tisans, some in their rich homes, and felt aloneand almost orphans in that death of the twochief apostles? It was the fury of the storm un-leashed a short time previously upon the nas-cent Church by the cruelty of Nero; before theireyes there arose again the horrible vision of thehuman torches smoking at night in the gardensof the Caesars and of the lacerated bodies twist-ing in the circuses and the streets. It seemedthen that the implacable cruelty had triumphed,hitting and knocking down the two columns,

30DAYS N. 6 - 20116

In the storm,the tenderness of the Lordfor his children“The Heavenly Father continues and will continue to guide theirchild-like steps with firmness and tenderness, only if they allowthemselves to be led by Him and trust in the power and wisdom of His love for them”. Thus Pope Pius XII on the Solemnityof the Holy Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul in 1941

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730DAYS N. 6 - 2011

Pope Pius XII’s radio message of 29 June 1941

The crypt of Pope Cornelius in the Catacombs of St Callistus, Rome

30DAYS N. 6 - 20118

whose presence alone sustained the faith andcourage of the small group of Christians. In thatsunset of blood, how their hearts must have hadto experience the grip of the pain at findingthemselves without the comfort and companyof those two powerful voices, abandoned to theferocity of Nero and the formidable arm of Ro-man imperial grandeur!

But against the steel and the material powerof the tyrant and his ministers they had receivedthe Spirit of power and of love, more vigorousthan torments and death. And we seem to see,at the subsequent meeting, in the middle of thedesolate community, old Linus, he who was firstcalled upon to replace the dead Peter, taking inhis hands trembling with emotion the pages thatpreciously preserved the text of the Letter al-ready sent by the Apostle to the faithful of AsiaMinor and slowly re-read there the phrases of

blessing, trust and comfort: “Blessed be the Godand Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in hisgreat mercy gave us a new birth to a living hopethrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ… In thisyou rejoice, although now for a little while youmay have to suffer through various trials… Sohumble yourselves under the mighty hand ofGod… Cast all your worries upon him becausehe cares for you… The God of all grace whocalled you to his eternal glory through Christ (Je-sus) will himself restore, confirm, strengthen,and establish you after you have suffered a little.To him be dominion forever. Amen” (1 Pt 1,3.6; 5, 6-7.10-11).

We too, dear children, who through an in-scrutable counsel of God, have received, afterPeter, after Linus and a hundred other holy pon-tiffs, the mission to strengthen and console ourbrothers in Jesus Christ (cf. Lk 22, 32), We, like

Detail of graffiti found in the Catacombs of St Sebastian in Rome. It reads: “Paule et Petre petite pro Victore/ Paul and Peter pray

for Victor”


930DAYS N. 6 - 2011

you, feel our hearts tighten at the thought of thewhirlwind of evil, of suffering and of anguish,which rages over the world today ...

Faced with such a cumulus of evils, of trials ofvirtue, all sorts of tests, it seems that the humanmind and judgment may become lost and con-fused, and maybe in the heart of more than oneof you has arisen the terrible thought of doubtthat, already by misadventure, faced with thedeath of the two apostles, tempted or upsetsome less stable Christians: How can God allowall this? How is it possible that an omnipotentGod, infinitely wise, infinitely good, could allowso much evil that would be so easy for Him toprevent? And the words of Peter, still imperfect,at the announcement of the Passion rise to thelips: “God forbid, Lord!” (Mt 16, 22). No, myGod – they think – neither Your wisdom, norYour goodness, nor Your own honor itself can al-low that evil and violence dominate the world tothis extent, they mock You, and triumph in Yoursilence. Where is Your power and providence?Should we therefore doubt either Your divinegovernment or Your love for us?

“You are thinking not as God does, but as hu-man beings do” (Mt 16, 23), Christ replied toPeter, as he had said to the people of Judahthrough the prophet Isaiah: “For my thoughtsare not your thoughts, nor are your ways myways” (Is 55, 8).

All men are almost children before God,everyone, even the deepest thinkers and themost experienced leaders of nations.

They want immediate justice and become scan-dalized before the ephemeral power of God’s ene-mies, at the suffering and humiliation of the good,but the Heavenly Father, Who in the light of Hiseternity embraces, penetrates and dominates thevicissitudes of history, identical to the serene peaceof the world without end, God, Who is BlessedTrinity, full of compassion for human weaknesses,ignorance, impatience, but Who loves men sogreatly, that their faults will not let Him stray fromthe paths of His wisdom and love, continues tomake the sun rise on the good and bad, to rain onthe just and the unjust (Mt 5, 45), to guide theirchild-like steps with firmness and tenderness, onlyif they allow themselves to be led by Him and trustin the power and wisdom of His love for them.

What does it mean to trust in God?Trusting in God means to surrender oneself

with all the strength of will sustained by graceand love, despite all the doubts suggested by ap-pearances to the contrary, to the omnipotence,the wisdom, the infinite love of God. It is to be-lieve that nothing in this world escapes His Prov-idence, in the universal order, as in the particu-lar; that nothing great or small happens if notforeseen, wished or permitted, always directedby it to His highest ends, that in this world are al-ways ends of love for men ... ¬

Pope Pius XII’s radio message of 29 June 1941

The fractio panis, Catacombs of St Callistus, Rome

30DAYS N. 6 - 201110

Because of the faith that has languished in hu-man hearts, the hedonism that directs and en-chants life, men are inclined to judge as evils,and absolute evils, all the physical misfortunes ofthis earth. They have forgotten that pain is at thedawn of human life as the pathway to the smilesfrom the cradle; they have forgotten that most ofthe time it is a projection of the Cross of Calvaryon the path of the Resurrection; they have for-gotten that the cross is often a gift from God, agift necessary to offer to divine justice also ourpart of atonement; they have forgotten that the

only real evil is the sin that offends God; theyhave forgotten what the Apostle says: “I consid-er that the sufferings of this present time are asnothing compared with the glory to be revealedfor us” (Rm 8, 18); that we must fix our eyes onthe author and perfecter of faith, Jesus, Who inthe expectation of joy, endured the cross (cf.Heb 12, 2).

To Christ crucified on Golgotha, virtue andwisdom that convert the universe to Himself,they looked on the immense sufferings of thespreading of the Gospel, living nailed to thecross with Christ, the two Princes of the Apos-tles, Peter dying crucified, Paul bowing his headunder the executioner’s blade, as champions,teachers and witnesses that in the cross there iscomfort and salvation and that you can not livewithout suffering in the love of Christ. To thiscross, shining with the way, with truth and withlife, the Roman protomartyrs and the first

Christians looked in times of suffering andpersecut ion. Look you too thus, mybeloved children, in your sufferings; andyou will find the strength not only to acceptthem with resignation, but to love them, toglory in them, as they loved and gloried inthem, the apostles and saints, our fathersand older brothers, who were also moldedof the same flesh and clothed in the samesensibility as yours. Look at your own suf-ferings and your anxieties through thepains of the Crucifix, through the pains ofthe Virgin, the most innocent of creaturesand the most involved in the divine Pas-sion, and you will understand that con-formity to the image of the Son of God,King of pain, is the most august and safeway to heaven and triumph. Do not justlook at the thorns, where the pain affectsyou and makes you suffer, but again at themerit that from your suffering blooms like arose of a heavenly crown; and then you willfind with the grace of God the courage andfortitude of that Christian heroism, that is asacrifice and, at the same time, victory andpeace surpassing all sense; heroism, thatyour faith has the right to demand of you.

“Finally, (we will repeat with the words of StPeter) all of you, be of one mind, sympathetic,loving toward one another, compassionate,humble. Do not return evil for evil, or insult forinsult; but, on the contrary, a blessing…: so thatin all things God may be glorified through JesusChrist, to whom belong glory and dominion for-ever and ever” (1 Pt 3, 8-9; 4, 11). q

The papal crypt in the Catacombs of St Callistus, Rome


“How many souls regenerated in Baptism this day have lo-ved You, O Lord Jesus, and said, ‘Draw us after Thee, we

are running after the fragrance of Thy garments’ (Song of Songs),that they might drink in the fragrance of Thy Resurrection"

St Ambrose, De Mysteriis VI, 29

“L et us often remember Jesus Christ, because Christianity isthe announcement that God became man and only by li-

ving to the fullest possible our relations with Christ do we ‘risk’doing as He did”

Don Luigi Giussani, 11 February 2005,

eleven days before his death

The martyrdom of Saints John and Paul,Saints Nabor and Felix and Saint Alexander

Baptism.

Detail of a fresco in the third

cubicle of the sacraments,

in the Catacombs

of St Callistus, Rome

30DAYS N. 6 - 201112

A ll the information we have on themcomes from liturgical documents, someof which prove contemporary with their

times, and from the sixth century transcriptionof the Passio, causing turned up noses on manyfronts. As if Christian liturgy applied fairy talesinstead of factual records and ignoring that, dueto the indications in the Passio, the house inwhich John and Paul were killed was discoveredlast century, along with their graves dug in virgintufo stone and the Confessio, built a few yearslater on the spot by Byzante and Pammachius.

The two brothers are introduced to us as im-perial court dignitaries, heirs of Constantina(the daughter of Constantine) who died in 354AD. They were on bad terms with the EmperorJulian because of their inheritance, probablycalled in question by the emperor, and whichthey, as faithful Christians, didn’t allow to beconfiscated in favor of false gods. Perhaps itwas the same house as that found under theBasilica entitled to them on the Coelian hill, inRome, and which definitely documents thepresence of Christians.

The Passio opens up with Julian’s words (notpresented however as a personal intervention,respecting the historical data that maintains thatJulian never did come to Rome): “In the Gospelyour Christ states that he who does not give up

all his worldly goods cannot be His disciple”. Ju-lian attempts to justify the confiscation of thebrothers’ wealth by means of ethical blackmailinconceivable outside of Christian apostasy. Somuch so that in modern times it has become thenorm.

Invited to pledge loyalty to the Emperor, thetwo Christians refuse: “You have abandoned thefaith to follow ways which you know very wellhave nothing to do with God. Because of thisapostasy, we have refused to have anything todo with you”. Because of this, they added, wehave witdrawn from “societate imperii vestri”.

Julian then sends the brothers a message con-taining both flattery and threats: “You too havebeen brought up at court and cannot, therefore,avoid being at my side. Quite the contrary. Iwant you among my most important courtiers.But beware: if you scorn my request, I cannotconsent to your impunity”. (In effect Socrates,the historian, writes, “Julian persuaded manyChristians to make sacrifices, using both flatteryand gifts”. There were defections among mili-tary men in particular but they were not un-known even in the clergy).

The two brothers forwarded their reply. “Wedo not place another human being in front ofyou, therefore wronging you. But only God,who made the sky, the earth, the sea and all

Saints John and Paul26 June

They were two court dignitaries. The Emperor Julian the Apostate triedto convince them to renounce. But, seeing their refusal, he had them killed in secret. Their friends also underwent martyrdom. A Christian senator was the first to honor these martyrs.

by Lorenzo Cappelletti


1330DAYS N. 6 - 2011

things contained therein. Men attached to earth-ly things can thus fear your ire. We fear only thewrath of the eternal God. So we want you toknow that we will never adhere to your cult(numquam ad culturam tuam) nor will we fre-quent your palace”.

The Emperor gives them a further ten days to“think things over” so that “you decide to visitme of your own free will and not by force”.

The brothers responded: “Pretend that theten days have already passed” to which Julianadds; “Do you think Christians will consider youmartyrs?...”.

At this point John and Paul called theirfriends, Crispus, a priest of the Roman commu-nity, Crispinianus and Benedicta and explain thewhole situation to them. They all celebratedMass together then they invited other Christiansto join them, giving them instructions for the dis-posal of all their goods. Ten days passed and onthe eleventh, they underwent house arrest.

When Crispus and other friends received thenews they rushed to the place but were refusedentry. Terentianus, the field instructor, (the Pas-sio relates that he, after his conversion, was thenarrator of the story) and his guards were the on-ly ones who entered. He found the brothers inprayer and intimated to them to worship a falseidol or perish by the sword, “the public killing ofcourtiers being inopportune”. Julian wanted toavoid, at all costs, there being martyrs amongthe Christians but should that be impossible, thatit be at least covered up.

The two answered: “We have only one Mas-ter, the only God, Father, Son and Holy Spiritwhom Julian had no scruples in repudiating; andsince God has rejected him, he wants to dragothers down into ruin with him”.

A few hours later the two Christians were exe-cuted. It was 26 June 362. They were secretlyburied in the cryptoporticus of their home. Wordwas then spread that they had been sent into ¬

Person praying, cubicle of the ‘five Saints’, Catacombs of St Callistus, Rome

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exile. Crispus, Crispinianus and Benedictaimagined their fate but could do nothing exceptmourn and pray that the burial ground be re-vealed to them. And they were heard. But theythemselves were decapitated by Terentianus’sson. Pimenius and John (priests) and Flavianus,an illustrious former Roman prefect, secretly re-moved the bodies of the new martyrs and buriedthem also beside the bodies of John and Paul. Allthese burials in one house have given rise to dis-belief and even hilarity among skeptics. But to-day, now that the graves have been found...

The Passio narrates at this point that the sonof Terentianus, having come to the martyrs’house, began shouting that John and Paul weretormenting him. Terentianus, terrified by this,threw himself face down to the floor trying to jus-

tify himself: I’m a pagan, I only obeyed Caesar’sorders without asking questions. He convertedand was baptized the following Easter. But bothhe and his son were afterwards killed and thanksto Pimenius and John were also buried in Johnand Paul’s house.

A skeptical critic could argue that such achain of crimes could be an expedient to linkevents which had evolved in different times anddifferent places, or to justify the amalgamationof simple relics, or even an imaginary inventionof additional names and facts to make the talemore attractive. In reality, however, it must beconsidered that if there is one certainty regard-ing the religious attitude of Julian the Apostate,it was his aversion to the cult of martyrs. This al-so because he believed it impeded the oracular

Resurrection of Lazarus, Catacombs of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Rome


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answers of the gods. A blind and fearful super-stition in the face of the simple reality of a me-morial. He wrote with contempt; “Christianchurches built usually on the tombs of martyrsare nothing but f i l thy morgues andcharnel-houses”. And again: “The Galileanshave done nothing other than fill the world withtombs and sepulchers”. Precious witness for usof the corporality and deeply-rooted historicityof the Christian event.

In the war against the Persians begun inMarch 363, the pagan gods to whom Julian hadonce again entrusted the fortune of the empire,seemed to still assist him. He celebrated one vic-tory after another, always to be found in the frontlines encouraging his soldiers. But on 26 June363, exactly one year after the martyrdom ofthe two brothers, the point of a spear put an endto his tragic utopia.

His successor, Jovianus, was an orthodoxChristian, authentic, that is, and the Churchbecame free again (because, as St. Augustineteaches, an emperor formally defining himselfas Christian does not always mean more free-dom). The new emperor, aware of the tragedyconsumed in the house on the Coelian Hill,summoned Senator Byzante, he too Christian,entrusting him with the search for the martyrs’remains. Byzante and his son Pammachius firstbuilt an oratory then a Basilica over the relics ofthose martyrs, whose names would also beconserved through the centuries along withthose of John and Paul: entitled either to Johnand Paul or to Byzante and/or Pammachius.That is why the story of Saint Byzante andSaint Pammachius, they too at home in thePalace, is linked so closely to that of the mar-tyred brothers.

Like his father, Pammachius was a senatorand patrician of the gens Furia. Most of thegreat Roman families were still pagan in theyears between the fourth and fifth centuries.Pammachius was an exception and the mostrenowned among the Christians in Rome and inthe senate. Three friends speak of him in a seriesof moving letters. And what friends! St Jerome,St Augustine and St Paul of Nola.

Jerome – who as a young man had gone toschool with Pammachius – describes him as “mycompanion and friend of times past”. In one ofthose letters he plays on the Greek origin of hisfriend’s name “which is prophetic and you showyourself to be a wrestler in every way against thedevil and adverse forces”. (In the sport of wrestlingpammacharii athletes were authorized to resortto any tactics to win). Julian the Apostate, in hilar-ite tristis, had never known the irony with whichour Roman senator faced the mockery of his col-leagues draped in purple when he presented him-self in the Curia senatus. Jerome wrote: “It is hewho laughs at those who make fun of him!” Ahighly useful quality for Christians and whichgained him the admiration of his holy friends whoasked for and appreciated his advice also on reli-gious matters. It was, in fact, Pammachius whobrought to the attention of the Roman bishop Siri-cius the heresies beginning to penetrate theChurch (for example, that of Jovinianus). And itwas Pammachius himself “with almost all of theRoman fraternity” who called the attention ofJerome to the Peri Archon of Origen, having justcome across Rufinus’ Latin translation of it. “Wehave discovered many parts which agitated our lit-tle brain,” wrote the Senator “and they seem tohave an unorthodox twist to them”.

St Jerome wrote a letter to Pammachius in397 offering his sympathy on the death ofPauline, Pammachius’ young wife: “A pearlshines even in the dirt, and a splendid sparklingjewel sends out its reflexes even in the muck.This is precisely the promise the Lord has madeus: ‘I will glorify those who offer glory to me’. Forthose who wish these words can easily be under-stood as regarding the future... Personally, I no-tice that this promise in him is being realized alsofor this life... We have received more than wehave given. We have left behind trifles and wehave come to possess great things; Christ hasmaintained his promises increasing their interesta hundredfold”.

Pammachius was overwhelmed by the fall ofRome, routed by Alaric’s hordes on 24 August410. But what does it matter when one is regis-tered in the census of the City of God!

Saints John and Paul

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T he Emperor Julian the Apostate (FlaviusClaudius Julian), the traitor par excel-lence, was born in Constantinople to-

ward the end of 331. He never knew his motherwho died a few months after his birth. A fewyears later he lost his father, who was killed inthe purge which systematically eliminated all themale members of Constantine’s family after thedeath, in 337, of the emperor who had thrownopen the gates of the Roman Empire to theChurch. Reasons of state, as is well-known, arenot to be questioned. No one was spared. Apartfrom Julian himself who was only six years oldand his step-brother Gallus, a little older but ofsuch delicate health as to suppose a natural andrapid death. Such a decision would supposedlypermit Constantine’s three male children (Con-stantine II, Constantius II, and Constans) toreign undisturbed.

Julian’s cousin, Constantius II, assigned Eu-sebius of Nicomedia, the true head of the Arianparty, to tutor him and on his death in 342, an-other Arian, George of Cappadocia. They werenot only formal heretics, but basically dishonest.The Arians were simply a political faction whichused the Christian faith for its own ends. FromConstantine’s times they had only one objec-tive: religious hegemony in the Imperial Courtand it was to such an end that the two tutors ded-icated their energies, disregarding the needs ofJulian. Their only influence on him was to killwhatever attraction he might have had for theChristian event. And such was the terribleplague of heresy which contaminated Julian.

The eunuch Mardonius, more in daily con-tact with the child Julian, was a teacher able toencourage in him a love of Greek philosophyand culture. He was later substituted by Max-

imus of Ephesus, a neoplatonic philosopher(his true ‘maestro’ and author, in the words ofDante) who would initiate Julian into all kindsof magical-religious practices. The high idealsof the neoplatonic idealism was reduced tocheap theurgy.

At about twenty, Julian abandoned his Chris-tian faith. He concealed his apostasy for morethan a ten-year period during which he marriedHelen, an obviously unsuccessful marriage inthat she was sister of the detested Constantius IIwho, in 354, had his half-brother Gallus killed toremind Julian of the kind of destiny that everloomed over him. In effect, sending him to Gaullike Caesar in 355, Constantius II intended to ridhimself of Julian since Gaul then was an admin-istrative and military hell, forming the mainfrontier where the fate of the empire was in con-stant movement. But Julian displayed the best ofhimself in that very place. He became an idol tothe troops who declared him “Augustus” al-ready in 359. Destiny finally seemed to take afavorable turn for him and his gods.

Julian was proclaimed emperor upon thedeath of Constantius II in 361; it was then thathe rendered public his repudiation of Christiani-ty and activated works for the reinstatement ofpaganism. Temples of pagan worship were re-opened, the cult of the gods was restored in thearmy and Christians were banned from teachinggrammar and rhetoric!

Yet Julian wanted not so much a return to asmuch as a reform of paganism, but the resultsare a decadent substitute of the Christian faith.He desired an exemplary pagan priestly hierar-chy and dictated the organization of the cultdown to the smallest details. He demanded thepreaching of the dogmata hellenica by his pa-

IT IS EASY TO CALL SOMEONE TRAITOR

A portrait of the apostate emperorwho left the Christian faith to return to the gods


1730DAYS N. 6 - 2011

gan priests (dogmatic paganism is in reality amonstrum) and exhorted charity. Julian wroteto Theodore, the pagan pontifex of Galatia: “Itis shameful that while among the Jews noneasks alms, the Galilean misbelievers [Christians]support not only their own beggars but ours al-so, while our needy are without any apparenthelp on our part”.

There is something fatal in Julian’s aposta-sy. He utopistically pursued the intent to revi-talize paganism; he demanded coherence fromhimself and others and yet he abandoned him-self to mystical meanderings, all this in exactcontrast to the rationalizing Arian Christianity,

scheming and unattractive, imposed on him asa child. He did not realize that it was the way ofperpetuating the curse. Not only did the pagangods not come back, but the grace of JesusChrist became even farther off. Thus also Ju-l ian’s ostentatious tolerance posing as aphilosopher (modeled on Marcus Aurelius) andhis repudiation of bloody persecutions some-times proved to be more violent than open per-secution. Above all in the East and in Africawhere dissent was more accentuated, the mar-tyrs are numerous. But also in Rome, on 26June 362, two brothers, John and Paul, metwith martyrdom. q

Niches of the anonymous catacomb in Via Anapo, Rome

Saints John and Paul

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“O ne can easily imagine the surpriseand joy” (he himself expressed it likethis) of Giovanni Battista Montini,

Archbishop of Milan, when, on Christmas Eve1959, he received news from the Bishop of Na-mur that the skulls of the martyred saints Naborand Felix had fortunately been found there. Mon-tini continued: “We must declare ourselves luckyfor this outstanding event that recalls us to thestudy of our religious history, joined, by the sameknot which St Ambrose tied, to the memory ofthese saints, and invites us to consider the impor-tance that the veneration of these relics has hadin our Ambrosian spirituality and encourages usto renew our devotion to these pignora of ourfaith”. They were pignora of Christian Milan, infact, those two soldiers; who were at the sametime sure signs, deposits and hostages, accordingto the different meanings of the Latin term. Onthe foundations of the Church of Milan, still smallat the time of Diocletian’s persecution and ster-ilem martyribus (without martyrs), as St. Am-brose was then to say, some names were finallywritten. Finally in those bodies it began to havethe deposit of its faith.

To that Church of Milan a pledge from the dis-tant lands of Western Africa was given. Theywere Mauri genus, that is they came from Mau-ritania and perhaps belonged to that tribe ofGaetuli that constituted one of the reserveswhich the armies of the Lower Empire drew on

Saints Nabor and Felix 12 July

297 A. D. Two soldiers of the imperial army arrived in Milan from Africa.They were martyred in Lodi. Even though they were foreigners and guests,Ambrose considered them the mustard seed from which the Church of Milan arose



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in preference. They were stationed in Milan,then residence of the Augustus Maximian Her-culean and also of his choice troops. “Solo hos-pites terrisque nostris advenae / guests of oursoil, and passing through our lands”, St Am-brose says of them. Yet they are par excellencethe Mediolani martyres (the Milan martyrs), be-cause their true birthday (dies natalis) did not oc-cur in the Gaetulian blood of their bodily mother,but in the blood of martyrdom (two small glasscontainers still conserve traces of the blood that,with care, as so often happened, some Chris-tians had gathered).

They were slain by the sword, after being iden-tified as Christians, in that anticipation of Dioclet-

ian’s persecution of 297 involving the purging ofthe army, or in any case by degrading methodsfor those who refused idolatrous worship.

Nothing of the fabulous or fabricated in thisand many other martyrdoms of soldiers.

The army had been for some time then, atleast since the mid-third century, the fulcrum ofimperial power, and along with it, the otherpower point considered essential by the imperialpower of the moment was the recovery of an-cient religious traditions: fidelity to which wasnow recognized as the sole criterion of truth,morality and order. Not by chance had Dioclet-ian and Maximian, the two Augustus’, heads ofthe Empire, assumed the titles since 289 respec-tively of Iovius and Herculius, wanting to basetheir authority through auto-adoption into thefamily of traditional Roman divinities. On theone hand, some philosophers given to politics,such as Teotecnus or the neo-Platonic Hiero-cles, with furious impatience, gave theoreticalcoverage and more refined reasons to that reli-gious policy. On the other hand, the powerfulcaste of diviners, traditional custodians of theEtruscan-Roman paganism, fomented this samereligious policy by denouncing the presence ofChristians as a reason for the “silence” of the di-vinity, that is, the ineffectiveness of the oracles.

So, Nabor and Felix – who seem to have beenChristians already, as their Passio of the fifthcentury recounts: and therefore they didn’t evenreceive the faith in Milan, as on the other handSt Ambrose seems to suggest in his Inno(hostages yes, pignora, but totally donated, notdue) – underwent the ritual of interrogation andwere pressed into sacrificing to the gods of theEmpire. Their refusal involved capital executionin Lodi, where perhaps an even more conspicu-ous Christian community to terrorize existed.Their remains, however, removed surreptitious-ly by a matron, were brought back to Milan (alsoas victims they were again donated to this com-munity) and began to be objects of great venera-tion. Until, that is, Ambrose discovered close totheir graves the bodies of Saints Gervasius ¬

Lion Cubicle, Catacombs of Commodilla, Rome

30DAYS N. 6 - 201120

and Protasius, whose traces had been lost, eventhough not entirely unknown to the memory ofthe oldest among the Milanese Christians.“Senes repetunt audisse se aliquando horummartyrum nomina, titulumque legisse. Per-diderat civitas suos martyres quae rapuitalienos / The old repeat that they have heardthe names of these martyrs [Protasius and Ger-vasius] and read an inscription. The city thatstole the martyrs of others had lost its own [Pro-tasius and Gervasius]”.

The cult of the re-found martyrs supplantedNabor and Felix and so did the new Basilica,built by St Ambrose for Protasius and Gervasius,compared to the small and ancient NaborianBasilica, of which then in modern times, the verytraces themselves were lost.

They couldn’t have had any other other fate,those pignora. “Granum certe sinapis res estvilis et simplex: si teri coepit vim suam fun-dit... Granum sinapis martyres nostri sunt Fe-lix, Nabor et Victor: habebant odorem fideised latebant. Venit persecutio, arma po-suerunt, colla flexerunt, contriti gladio pertotius terminos mundi gratiam sui sparseremartyrii, ut iure dicatur: in omnem terramexiit sonus eorum. / A mustard seed is indeed avery humble and simple thing: only if you takeand break it does it spread its power... A grain ofmustard seed are our martyrs Felix, Nabor andVictor: they possessed the fragrance of faith, butin secret. The persecution came, they laid downtheir arms, bent their necks; killed by the sword,they spread the grace of their martyrdom to theends of the world, so that it can be rightly said: ineach land their voice was spread”.

But whereas Victor took permanent resi-dence in Milan and separate from his compan-ions in the militia and in martyrdom, the grain ofthe saints Nabor and Felix had not finishedspreading its strength to the ends of the world.

The place where they still reposed, increasing-ly downgraded, had become by 1200 home to achurch and then a Franciscan monastery. In theautumn of 1797 it was used as a barracks first forthe Cisalpine cavalry and then for the Frenchtroops passing through. Nabor and Felix, “torn

away from impious barracks” – as Saint Ambrosesays in the Inno dedicated to them – ended upthere once again! But very soon they were stolenaway, in the midst of the indescribable confusionof those years, hidden (latebant, as in the past) intheir precious busts with which some soldier be-came infatuated, or from which he wanted to de-rive profit. And so they came to Namur, thenFrench as most of Europe, that Namur which hassuch a strange similarity with the Latin name Na-bor or Navor according to another writing. To bereconsigned to that Archbishop of Milan who asPope would have to cultivate much other than“the religious history” or “Ambrosian spirituali-ty,” as he expressed it in 1959. Reduced to skinand bones and his voice broken by tears, Paul VIwould have to shout out his allegiance to JesusChrist, renouncing the precious cultural shell inwhich he had been formed and that had becomea suffocating cocoon, to make of him an emptychrysalis. That cry freed his flight, beyond anyconceivable imagination of his, making him a dis-ciple in the present and in the flesh of those holymartyrs. Jesus said to Peter: “Amen, amen, I sayto you, when you were younger, you used todress yourself and go where you wanted; butwhen you grow old, you will stretch out yourhands, and someone else will dress you and leadyou where you do not want to go. He said this sig-nifying by what kind of death he would glorifyGod” (Jn 21, 18-19). q

Madonna and Child, the Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome


2130DAYS N. 6 - 2011

A group of Christians were in flight from Mi-lan, seat of the Augustus of the West, Max-imian Herculean, and his court. They

were heading in the direction of Como and it wasprobably the summer of 303. But the exactmonth and day are also unknown. Tradition, how-ever, has conserved the names of those men.They bore the name of the Lamb on their fore-heads so oblivion could not have been their fate.The signifer Alexander, an officer who com-manded the first ranks of triarii (selected soldierswho were the last to enter the fray of a battle); his

military companions were Cassius, Severinus,Secundus, and Licinius; Fidelis, the faithful god-son of the holy bishop of Milan, Maternus; twoimperial officials, Carpoforus and Exanthus whoshowed themselves Christians at the moment ofthe arrest of Alexander and his companions.These were the components of that heteroge-neous group, but so intent were they in profess-ing the one faith that they astonished the pagan(impius) prison guard Sillanus with the miracleof their unity (forte viderat miraculum: it hap-pened that he witnessed a miracle). ¬

Saint Alexander26 August

It was the year 303. A group of soldiers converted to Christianity were imprisoned for their faith. Their unity astonished the prison guards.They escaped. Their path of escape became the way to glory.


The fractio panis, Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome

30DAYS N. 6 - 201122

Evidently because of the positions theyheld, the important people of the group, Car-poforus and Exanthus, were able to freeAlexander and his companions from prison,and with Fidelis they were helping them toflee. Their intentions were that flight wouldspare Alexander and his companions the se-vere test of prison and torture, which mighthave forced them to apostasize. These Chris-tians knew that there was no need to gloatabout their faith. Even a way of flight wouldserve to glorify God.

Because they were Christians, Alexander andhis companions were imprisoned (in cippo con-stricti) in Milan’s Zebedeus prison over which, atthe end of the fifth century, a church would be

erected that was to be one of the oldest Milaneseparish churches.

In effect, between 297 and 298, the persecu-tion initially ordered by the Emperor Diocletianhimself, had begun to strike military ranks, themost exposed target because they were dutybound to honor the gods of the Empire publicly.However, there was no desire for bloodletting.One reason was that the times demanded themaximum solidarity within army ranks. For ex-ample, the Theban Legion, to which these sol-diers belonged, was about to move towards Gaulwhere for the past decades locally inspired anar-chy had reigned. Discipline had to be observed.And part, if not most, of this discipline entailedacts of worship celebrated in conjunction with

The Greek chapel, Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome


2330DAYS N. 6 - 2011

symbolic anniversaries. The troops’ loyalty andthe maxime of the officers were measured bythese acts (what’s different in our times?).Alexander and his companions seem not to havecomplied with some of this cult worship andwere imprisoned as a result. They then devisedan escape route, as we have seen.

But it was not long before they were trackeddown. The Passio dedicated to them claims thaton 7 August Carpoforus and Exanthus werecaught and murdered in the locality of Selvotta(Como); and the Roman Martyrology sets thesame day as the dies natalis of Cassius, Severi-nus, Secundus, and Licinius, although no Passiomakes mention of these latter four. Fidelis, as hisPassio narrates, became separated from hiscompanions, and is said to have been capturedsoon afterwards and killed at Samolaco (Son-drio). Alexander was the only one reported tohave been taken back to Milan to the Emperorand there, because, as his Passio narrates, hewas dear to the Emperor, he was asked in vari-ous ways to make a ritual sacrifice. “Usque nuncquidem adhaesisti mihi / in truth until now youwere dear to me”. In an era that was by then offi-

cially Christian, that is between the fourth andfifth centuries, stories were starting to circulate,as the Passio Alexandri states, and which coulddate back to that period at least in its originalform, that the Emperor Maximian and otherEmperors were ferocious and cruel tyrants. ThePassio Alexandri also used the words “saevis-simus et crudelissimus”, moreover contradict-ing itself, as we have seen. Certainly, these werepowerful men without too many scruples, butMaximian and his predecessors, like their offi-cers, did not exercise gratuitous cruelty towardChristians. Tradition and the law obliged them todemand acts of formal obedience. Christianshad experienced and therefore understood thatnothing was any longer formal, but for the pa-gans formality was everything and principally re-ligion, which in its precise meaning meant“scrupulous repetition of ceremonies” (religio,or religare).

It was not surprising, then, that a search waslaunched for this group. The order, according tothe Passio Alexandri, was not to kill them, butto take them back to prison (then, as was oftenthe case, they were treated cruelly). What may

Saint Alexander

Adoration of the Magi, Greek chapel, Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome

¬

seem surprising yet historically feasible (sincethe prisoner was an officer) is that only Alexan-der escaped death, and most surprising of allwas the persuasive insistence with which theytried to spare him the death sentence, to thepoint that they used physical force to convincehim to make a ritual sacrifice.

However, rebelling even on this occasionAlexander, according to the Passio, managed toescape again, by crossing the Adda this time. Hetook refuge in the woods near Bergamo. But, re-captured, he was not able to escape decapitationthis time, after refusing to make the pagan sacri-fice yet again. A woman called Grata, with amixture of instinctive compassion and opennessto grace (like Mary Magdalene, Mary of Salomeor James’ Mary) gathered his remains and of-fered them to Bergamo as a pretiosissimus the-saurus, to serve as a sure historical and uncon-ventional foundation of the Church there.

Who knows if the Italian novelist from Lom-bardy, Alessandro Manzoni, who bore the name

of the martyr, in memory of his grandfather, didnot intend in chapter XVII of Promessi Sposi(The Betrothed) that his hero, Renzo, run againthrough the woods and fields of that same escaperoute from Milan to Bergamo that the signiferAlexander had used. Like Alexander, Renzo fledalone and frightened, but unlike him, Renzo, noteven in the fictional romance, had to offer up hisbody. The body had already been offered in sacri-fice, despite themselves, by those soldiers when,between Milan, Bergamo and Como, it was notyet even known what Christianity was. They hadrefused, with an illogical stubbornness in the eyesof the pagans, to offer sacrifice to idols, in orderto offer themselves as a living sacrifice to the liv-ing God. Without, perhaps, even knowing thewords of Paul, they brought them to life: “I urgeyou therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, tooffer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy andpleasing to God: this is your spiritual worship”.Loghikèn latreìan: that only logical devotion,worthy of man. q

Man in prayer, Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome

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