Saint of the day - August 17

Today we celebrate the memory of a group of seven monks of North Africa who were martyred during the Christian persecutions of the late 5th Century. They had each chosen to live monastic life under the inspiration of Saint Augustine’s early communities and chose to face death together, rather than deny their faith.

In 484, some 34 years after the death of Saint Augustine, the Arian Vandal king Huneric, published new edicts against the Catholics, and ordered that all their monasteries be demolished. The abbot Liberatus and six monks, Boniface, Servus, Rusticus, Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus, who were living in a monastery near Capsa, were summoned to Carthage. They were first tempted with great promises, but as they remained constant in their confession of the Trinity and of one Baptism, they were charged with irons and thrown into a dark dungeon.

The faithful, by bribing the guards, were able to visit the Saints to be instructed by them. They all mutually encouraged one another to suffer for the faith of Christ. The king, learning of this, commanded them to be more closely confined, loaded with heavier irons, and tortured with a cruelty never heard of before that time. Soon after, he condemned them to be put into an old ship and burnt with it at sea. The martyrs walked cheerfully to the shore, indifferent to the insults of the Arians as they passed by.

The youngest, Maximus who was only 15 years old, was particularly coerced to abandon his companions and his Christian way of life; but he refused, preferring to accept the same fate as the rest. He boldly told the persecutors that they would never be able to separate him from his brethren, with whom he had borne the labours of a penitential life for the sake of everlasting glory.

The tormentors filled an old vessel with dry branches, and the seven were placed on board, bound tightly to the wood. Fire was put to it several times, but went out immediately, and all efforts to kindle the wood went in vain. The tyrant then ordered that the martyrs' brains be dashed out with oars, and their bodies cast into the sea. Thus, the seven were martyred and the waves carried the bodies to the shore. The Catholics interred them honourably in a monastery at Bigua.

Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Clare of Montefalco
2. Saint Amor of Amorbach
3. Saint Anastasius IX
4. Saint John of Monte Marano
5. Saint Luke Kiemon

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