St. Pamphilus, MARTYR, A.D. 309.
by VP
Posted on Saturday June 01, 2024 at 12:00AM in Saints
"A PRIEST of great learning and sanctity, and particularly honoured by the historian Eusebius. He led a most austere life, retired from the world and its company. He was apprehended by order of Urbanus, the cruel governor of Palestine, and most inhumanly tortured with iron hooks. When the governor could no longer bear the horror of his own cruelty, he ordered the martyr to be cast into prison, to wait the coming of a new governor. Urbanus was succeeded by Firmilian, who passed sentence of death upon St. Pamphilus. He was beheaded on the 16th of February, in the year 309.
When you consider the torments of the martyrs, and then reflect how every peevish word, uneasy humour, and trifling contradiction, is too much now for your patience; have you not reason to blush and be confounded at your weakness, and think that on these days of martyrs you ought to ask for a better spirit, that you may approach something nearer to what you honour in them. O God, help this sinful, and yet proud impatient clay. Give us strength from heaven, for of ourselves we have none.
If you are united with the martyrs in faith, show your faith to be like theirs; that is, let it be accompanied with constancy and courage. You have frequent opportunities of trying it in public, when the irreligious, profane, and sinful discourses of others oblige you to espouse the cause of virtue and truth, for preventing ill impressions upon the hearers. You have as many trials of it when the difficulties of life, the obstinancy of temptations, and your own weakness overwhelm you. It is here that your faith must come to your assistance. What is your faith, if it be only vigorous in time of peace, and sinks in time of difficulties? This is not the faith of the martyrs.
Begin the month by a hearty oblation of yourself, and all under your care to Almighty God. Beg His blessing and protection; ask grace for the amendment of past failings, and let these put you upon resolutions of being more watchful, and avoiding all occasions of sin." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
