Thread by @DouayRheims1

20th SEPTEMBER: ST EUSTACHIUS & COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

1. St Eustachius [one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers] was a martyr under the Emperor Hadrian, in the year 188. His feast is on 20 September; his emblems: a crucifix, a stag, an oven.
#StEustachius #Sep20 #FourteenHolyHelpers

2. Eustachius (before baptism, Placidus), a Roman general under Trajan, while still a heathen, saw a stag coming towards him, with a crucifix between its horns; he heard a voice telling him that he was to suffer much for Christ’s sake.

He received baptism, together with his

3. wife Trajana (after baptism Theopista) and his sons, Agapius and Theopistus. The place of the vision is said to have been Guadagnolo, between Tibur and Praeneste (Tivoli and Palestrina), in the vicinity of Rome.

For refusing to sacrifice to the idols after a victory,

4. they suffered death in a heated brazen bull. Baronius would identify him with Placidus mentioned by Josephus Flavius as a general under Titus. (From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

Fr Butler adds this comment: "Religion is the only basis on which true magnanimity
#Christian

5. and courage can stand. It so enlightens the mind as to set a man above all human events, and to preserve him in all changes and trials steady and calm in himself... and under afflictions and sufferings a source of unalterable peace, and overflowing joy
#JesusChrist #Jesus

6. which spring from an assured confidence that God’s will is always most just and holy, and that he will be its protector and rewarder.

Does religion exert this powerful influence in us? Does it appear in our hearts, in our actions and conduct?
#God #Christians #ThyWillBeDone

7. It is not enough to encounter dangers with resolution; we must with equal courage and constancy vanquish pleasure and the softer passions, or we possess not the virtue of true fortitude."