MEMORIAL OF SAINTS MARCELLINUS AND PETER, MARTYRS; SAINT ERASMUS (ELMO), BISHOP AND MARTYR AND SAINT BLANDINA, MARTYR ~ FEAST DAY JUNE 2ND: On this feast of Corpus Christi, as we continue the Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in preparation for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Martyrs; Saint Erasmus (Elmo), Bishop and Martyr and Saint Blandina, Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick, we pray for God’s divine healing and intervention. We also pray for the poor and the needy, for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏🏽
SAINTS MARCELLINUS AND PETER, MARTYRS: Sts. Marcellinus and Peter are two fourth century Roman martyrs who suffered under the Diocletian persecution, about the year 304; St. Peter was an exorcist and St. Marcellinus was a priest. Eminent for their zeal and piety, they were condemned to die for their faith. Saints Marcellinus and Peter were highly venerated after the discovery of their tomb and the conversion of their executioner. In 302, the ruler changed his tolerant stance and pursued a policy intended to eliminate the Church from the empire. Diocletian and his subordinate ordered the burning of Catholic churches and their sacred texts, as well as the imprisonment and torture of clergy and laypersons. The goal was to force Christians to submit to the Roman pagan religion, including the worship of the emperor himself as divine. It was at the mid-point of this persecution, around 303, that a Roman exorcist by the name of Peter was imprisoned for his faith. While in prison, tradition holds that St. Peter freed Paulina, the daughter of the prison-keeper Artemius, from demonic influence by his prayers. This demonstration of Christ’s power over demons is said to have brought about the conversion of Paulina, Artemius, his wife, and the entire household, all of whom were baptized by the Roman priest St. Marcellinus.
After this, both St. Marcellinus and Peter were called before a judge who was determined to enforce the emperor’s decree against the Church. When St. Marcellinus testified courageously to his faith in Christ, he was beaten, stripped of his clothes, and deprived of food in a dark cell filled with broken glass shards. St. Peter, too, was returned to his confinement. But neither man would deny Christ, and both preferred death over submission to the cult of pagan worship. It was arranged for the two men to be executed secretly, in order to prevent the faithful from gathering in prayer and veneration at the place of their burial. Their executioner forced them to clear away a tangle of thorns and briars, which the two men did cheerfully, accepting their death with joy. Both men were beheaded in the forest called the Silva Nigra and buried in the clearing they had made. They were beheaded in secret so that their place of burial would remain unknown. The location of the saints’ bodies remained unknown for some time, until a devout woman named Lucilla received a revelation informing her where the priest and exorcist lay. With the assistance of another woman, Firmina, Lucilla recovered the two saints’ bodies and had them re-interred in the Roman Catacombs. By an irony of Divine Providence, the Martyr’s names Sts. Marcellinus and Peter that were doomed to oblivion have been inserted in the Western Church’s most traditional Eucharistic prayer, the Roman Canon of the Mass (that is, Eucharistic Prayer I) where they have been perpetuated over the centuries. Pope St. Damasus I, who was himself a great devotee of the Church’s saints during his life, he composed an epitaph to mark the tombs of the two martyrs. The source of his knowledge of the Saints, he said, was the executioner himself, who had subsequently repented and became a Christian and joined the Catholic Church. Their cultus was so important that after peace was restored to the Church, Constantine built a basilica in their honor.
PRAYER: God, You surround and protect us by the glorious confession of Your holy Martyrs, Sts. Marcellinus and Peter. Help us to profit from their example and be supported by their prayer. Amen🙏🏽
SAINT ERASMUS (ELMO), BISHOP AND MARTYR: St. Erasmus of Formia (d. 303 AD), also known as St. Elmo was born in the 3rd century. St. Erasmus name morphed into St. Elmo as it was passed along. He is also one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, saintly figures of Christian tradition who are venerated especially as intercessors, they are a band of saints whose intercession was asked for around the time of the bubonic plague. St. Erasmus or Elmo was an Italian bishop of Formia in Asia Minor. Formia, sits between Rome and Naples. When that city burned, he moved to the nearby town of Gaeta, and he remains the city’s patron. Both Formia and Gaeta sit on the west coast of Italy, and St. Erasmus was invoked by sailors who frequented their ports—today he is patron saint of those who make their living at sea. During storms at sea, sailors noticed a blue electrical discharges dancing in their rigging and masts, and took it as a sign of St. Erasmus’ protection. This meteorological phenomenon – the electrical discharge on ships at sea, gave the evolution of his name, we know this today as “St. Elmo’s Fire.”
St. Erasmus or Elmo was bishop during the reign of Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. According to legend, during their brutal persecution against Christians, St. Elmo left his diocese and fled to Mount Lebanon where he lived for seven years and being sustained by food delivered by a raven. An angel advised him to return to his diocese in order to vanquish his enemies. As he traveled there he was stopped and questioned by Roman soldiers. After declaring himself to be a Christian, he was brought to stand trial before Diocletian himself. St. Elmo confessed his faith in Christ and denounced the emperor for his impiety. For this rebuke he was tortured and thrown into prison, but an angel miraculously freed him so that he could continue on his journey and save many souls along the way. Two more times St. Elmo would endure the cycle of working miracles, baptizing thousands of people, getting arrested and mercilessly tortured, and being miraculously freed before arriving back in his own diocese. During his travels he suffered many horrible tortures at the hands of his enemies, but according to the oldest tradition he died at peace in Formia, though later accounts have him being martyred there by disembowelment. Died in 303 AD at Illyria. Relics of St. Erasmus rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. St. Elmo is venerated as the patron saint of those suffering from abdominal pain because he was martyred by being disemboweled. He’s the Patron Saint of sailors, mariners, abdominal pain, colic in children, intestinal ailments and diseases, cramps and the pain of women in labor, cattle pest, Gaeta, Formia, Fort St. Elmo, (Malta). His feast day is June 2nd.
PRAYER: Holy martyr Erasmus, who didst willingly and bravely bear the trials and sufferings of life, and by thy charity didst console many fellow-sufferers; I implore thee to remember me in my needs and to intercede for me with God. Staunch confessor of the Faith, victorious vanquisher of all tortures, pray Jesus for me and ask Him to grant me the grace to live and die in the Faith through which thou didst obtain the crown of glory. Amen🙏🏽
SAINT BLANDINA, MARTYR: St. Blandina, lived as a slave at Lyons, Gaul in the second century after Christ. She was a Christian martyr, one of the illustrious company of those martyred under the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Lugdunum. She was apprehended and taken into custody together with her master, who was also a Christian. St. Blandina was tortured for her faith; she endured every torment imaginable, to the extent that the tormentors confessed that they could not think of anything else to do to her. And to every question put to her, she gave the same answer: “I am a Christian, and we commit no wrong.” Brought to the arena for fresh torments, St. Blandina was bound to a stake and wild beasts were released upon her but refused to harm her. She witnessed the podvigs (struggles) of all her fellows, and was the last to suffer martyrdom, by being placed on a red hot grate, enclosed in a net, and thrown before a wild steer, who tossed her into the air with his horns. In this manner the great martyr of Christ received her crown. He body was burned and ashes thrown in the Tiber River. She is Patron Saint of those falsely accused of cannibalism, servant girl, torture victims.
PRAYER: Grant, O Lord, that we who keep the feast of the holy martyrs Blandina and her companions may be rooted and grounded in love of you, and may endure the sufferings of this life for the glory that shall be revealed in us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen🙏🏽