Sts. Primus & Felician, Martyrs

SAINTS PRIMUS and FELICIANUS Martyrs (†286) These two martyrs were brothers who lived in Rome, heirs of a family of great wealth, toward the latter part of the third century. It was through the assiduous love of Pope Felix I that they had the happiness, in their mature years, of being converted to the Christian faith; afterwards they encouraged each other for many years in the practice of all good works. They seemed to possess nothing but for the poor, and often, during the persecutions, they spent both nights and days with the confessors in their dungeons, or at the places of their torments and execution. Some they exhorted to persevere; others who had fallen, they raised again. They made themselves the servants of all in Christ, that all might attain to salvation through Him. They were heirs of a family of great wealth. It was through the assiduous love of Pope Felix I that they had their happiness, when in their mature years, they were converted to the Christian faith. They suffered martyrdom about the year 297 during the Diocletian persecution. The "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" gives under June 9 the names of Primus and Felicianus who were buried at the fourteen milestone of the Via Nomentana (near Nomentum, now Mentana). They seemed to possess nothing of their own. But for the poor, they would spend both nights and days with them and their confessors in their dungeons, or at the places of their torments and execution. Some they encouraged to perseverance, others who had fallen they raised again, and they made themselves the servants of all in Christ that all might attain to salvation through Him. Though their zeal was most remarkable, they had escaped the dangers of many bloody persecutions, and were grown old in the heroic exercises of virtue when it pleased God to crown their labors with a glorious martyrdom. The Pagans raised so great an outcry against them, that by a joint order of Diocletian and Maximus Herculius they were both apprehended and put in chains. This must have happened in 296, soon after Maximus was associated in the empire, for the two emperors never seemed to have met together in Rome after that year. These princes commanded that both Primus and Felicianus be inhumanly scourged, and then sent them to Promotus at Nomentum, a town twelve miles from Rome, to be further chastised, as avowed enemies to the gods. This judge caused them to be cruelly tortured, first both together, afterwards separate from each other; and sought by various arts to cheat them into compliance, as by telling Primus that Felicianus had offered sacrifice. But the grace of God strengthened them, and they were at length both beheaded. Their names occur on this day in the ancient western calendars, and in the Sacramentary of Saint Gregory the Great. Their bodies were thrown into the fields; but taken up by the Christians, and interred near Nomentum. They appear to be the first martyrs of whom it is recorded that their bodies were subsequently reburied within the walls of Rome. In 648, Pope Theodore I translated the bones of the two saints (together with the remains of his father) to the Church of Santo Stefano Rotondo, under an altar erected in their honor where they remain. The Chapel of Saints Primo e Feliciano contains mosaics from the seventh century. The chapel was built by Pope Theodore I. One mosaic shows the martyrs Saints Primus and Felicianus flanking a jeweled cross. Other depictions of the saints can be found at Venice, in Saint Mark’s Basilica (13th century) and at Palermo, Sicily, in the Cappella Palatina (12th century). Though their zeal was very remarkable, they had escaped the dangers of many bloody persecutions; they had grown old in the heroic exercises of their virtue, when it pleased God to crown their labors with a glorious martyrdom. Primus was about 90 years old, when the pagans raised so great an outcry against the brothers that they were apprehended and put in chains. They were inhumanly scourged and tortured, and then sent to a town twelve miles from Rome to be chastised again, as avowed enemies to the gods, by a prefect who detested the Christians. There they were cruelly tortured to make them renounce their faith, both together and then separately, but the grace of God strengthened each of them. Felicianus was nailed by his hands and feet to a post and left without food or water for three days; Primus was beaten with clubs and burnt with torches. God spared them amidst these tortures, and wild beasts in an arena imitated their God's mercy. Finally, they were beheaded on June 9, 286. Thoughts. A soul which truly loves God regards all things of this world as nothing. The loss of goods, the disgrace of the world, torments, sickness, and other afflictions are bitter to the senses, but appear light to the one who loves God. If we cannot bear our trials with patience and silence, it is because we love Him only in words. "One who is slothful and lukewarm complains of everything, and calls the lightest precepts hard," says Thomas a Kempis. St. Primus and Felician Parish Church in Maria Woerth on Lake Woerthersee, Carinthia, Austria