SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ FEBRUARY 16TH:

MEMORIAL OF SAINT JULIANA OF NICOMEDIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR AND SAINT ONESIMUS, MARTYR – FEAST DAY ~ FEBRUARY 16TH: Today is the Memorial of Saint Juliana of Nicomedia (miracle-worker and is a Patron Saint of the sick) and Saint Onesimus, Martyr. May St. Juliana and all the Saints intercede for those who are sick and dying. 🙏

Most loving St. Juliana, patroness of the chronically ill, I humbly come before you asking your intercession on behalf of all those who suffer with chronic illness, especially those who are terminally ill and those suffering from cancers. Carry them to the Lord’s feet and beg that He bless them with the patience and courage needed to endure their illness and for relief from their pain and suffering. Plead their cause and ask that if it be God’s holy will that they be restored to health. If they must endure their illness, pray that God leads them to the best doctors and caregivers who will treat them with kindness, gentleness, understanding and dignity… Amen🙏

Saint Juliana of Nicomedia and Saint Onesimus, Martyr ~ Pray for us 🙏

SAINT JULIANA OF NICOMEDIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR: St. Juliana of Nicomedia also known as St. Juliana of Cumae, was a Christian virgin of Cumae, Italy, was born in the 3rd century in c. 270 A.D. at Nicomedia, a Greek city in ancient Turkey. St. Juliana was martyred by beheading for the faith when she refused to marry a Roman prefect. Although her father Africanus was a pagan and hostile to the Christians, St. Juliana secretly accepted baptism. She was scourged by her father Africanus because of her strong attachment to Christianity. Her father later arranged her marriage to a pagan nobleman and Roman senator, prefect Evilasius. When the time for her wedding came, St. Juliana refused her consent to be married unless her betrothed converted to the Christian faith. Her father retaliated by mercilessly abusing her, but Juliana would not give in. Her betrothed, prefect Evilasius, then denounced her as a Christian before the tribunal under the persecutions of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. When she refused to marry the prefect Evilasius, she was tortured by her father and then thrown into prison.

According to Legend,  while in prison Juliana wrestled with the devil who appeared in the form of an Angel. Despite terrible physical assaults on her body, St. Juliana refused to give up her Faith. She was unwavering in her faith, even after the devil himself appeared to tempt her during her sufferings, seemingly evil spirits could not move her after she suffered terrible ordeals. Eventually St. Juliana was condemned to death. Although thrown into a fiery furnace and later into a cauldron of boiled oil, she remained unharmed. As a result, she was beheaded. Some accounts say she died together with St. Barbara. Many were converted to the Christian faith upon witnessing her fortitude in the face of her tortures. According to legend, St. Juliana actually suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia and that her relics were later transferred to Cumae. St. Juliana is the Patron Saint of sickness and bodily ills.

PRAYER: All-powerful and ever-living God, You choose the weak in this world  to confound the powerful. As we celebrate the anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Juliana, may we like her remain constant in Faith.

“O God, who gladdens us today with the annual commemoration of blessed Juliana, graciously grant that we may be helped by her merits, just as our lives are lit up by the splendor of her example of chastity and fortitude. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever”…. Amen🙏

SAINT ONESIMUS, MARTYR: St. Onesimus was a native of Phrygia and slave to Philemon. St. Onesimus offended Philemon and fled in order to escape any sort of retribution. He then met St. Paul while St. Paul was in a Roman prison. The Apostle converted him to Christianity, baptized him, and sent him back to Colossae with a letter to Philemon, his former master, beseeching his pardon and freedom, so Onesimus could become one of his own assistants. This letter is the Epistle to Philemon and entreats Philemon to accept Onesimus “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me.” This letter written by the hand of St. Paul himself had the desired effect. St. Onesimus obtained pardon of Philemon and returned to St. Paul, whom he afterward faithfully served. We know that St. Paul made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his Epistle to the Colossians. (Col. 4:7-9)

The letter written by St. Paul of Tarsus to Philemon, Epistle to Philemon 1:10–16 reads (in part): “I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”

Later, as St. Jerome and other fathers testify, he became an ardent preacher of the Gospel and succeeded St. Timothy as bishop of Ephesus. St. Onesimus went from slave to brother to bishop. He was cruelly tortured in Rome, for 18 days, by a governor who was infuriated by his preaching on the merit of celibacy. St. Onesimus’ legs and thighs were broken with bludgeons before he was stoned to death. His martyrdom occurred under Domitian in the year 90.

PRAYER: Almighty, ever-living God, You enabled St. Onesimus to flight to the death for justice. Through his intercession enable us to bear all adversity and with all our strength hasten to You Who alone are life. Amen🙏