July 29, 2018: SS. FELIX, SIMPLICIUS, FAUSTINUS, & BEATRICE
July 29, 2018: COMMEMORATION OF SS. FELIX II POPE, SIMPLICIUS, FAUSTINUS, AND BEATRICE, MARTYRS
The bodies of the saints are buried in peace; and their names shall live for ever.
The saints are arrived at their kingdom with palms; they have merited crowns of glory from the hand of God.
Choir of Martyrs, bless the Lord in the heavens, Alleluia.
Prayer (Collect).
Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that as the Christian people rejoice on the solemnity of thy holy Martyrs, Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrix; so they may partake of their eternal joys, and be one day possessed of that happiness, which at present they so earnestly desire. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Let us, in union with the Church, make a commemoration of Saints Simplicius and Faustinus, martyred in the persecution of Diocletian, together with their sister Viatrice, whose name was gracefully changed into Beatrice after she had gone to heaven. The sister had had time to bury her brothers; and after her own combat she was laid to rest beside them, by the last of the celebrated Lucinas. The hour for the triumph of the Church had not yet arrived; nevertheless the tomb of this illustrious trio, in the very grove of the Dea Dia of the Arvales, proclaims the victory of Christ over the most ancient superstitions of Rome. The holy Pontiff Felix, who shares the honours paid to this glorious company, suffered in the time of the Arians.
Another account of Beatrix, Simplicius, and Faustinus.
About A.D. 303
In the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, S. Beatrix, the sister of the blessed martyrs Simplicius and Faustinus, who had endured many torments, and had been flung over the bridge into the Tiber, rescued their bodies from the river, and consigned them to a grave in the cemetery of Sextus Philippus. She then sought a home in the house of S. Lucina (June 30th), and lived with her seven months.
Now there was a farm which had belonged to Simplicius, and on the death of the brothers, it fell to the possession of their sister Beatrix. This farm was coveted by a neighbour or a kinsman, who, to obtain it, threatened to accuse Beatrix before the magistrates of being a Christian. As she refused to adore the gods of the heathen, Lucretius, her kinsman, ordered his servants to confine her in a cellar, and there she was by his orders strangled by the slaves.
Taken from: The Liturgical Year - Time after Pentecost, Vol. IV, Dublin, Edition 1901;
The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Vol. VIII; and
The Divine Office for the use of the Laity, Volume II, 1806.
Also Read – July 29, 2018: St. Martha, Virgin.
Ss. Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrice, pray for us.