De sanctis Simplicio et Faustino
The Martyrdom of the Siblings
Simplicius, Faustinus, and their sister Beatrix suffer for their faith and are buried with honor.
The brothers Simplicius and Faustinus endured many tortures in Rome under the Emperor Diocletian because they refused to offer sacrifice. Eventually, after a sentence was passed against them, they were beheaded and their bodies thrown into the Tiber; however, their sister, named Beatrix, recovered their bodies from the river and buried them with honor, but the prefect Lucretius and his deputy, while surveying their property, had her seized and ordered her to offer sacrifice to idols.
Divine Judgment and Conversion
The death of Beatrix is avenged by a miraculous sign that leads to the death of the persecutor and the conversion of witnesses.
When she refused, Lucretius ordered his servants to strangle her at night, and the virgin Lucia took her body and buried it next to her brothers. Afterward, the prefect Lucretius entered that same property. While he was hosting a banquet for his friends and mocking the martyrs, a nursing infant in swaddling clothes, sitting on his mother's lap, cried out to everyone listening: "Listen, Lucretius, you have killed and seized; behold, you have been given into the possession of the enemy." Immediately, Lucretius was seized by a demon in fear and trembling, and he was so tormented for three hours that he died right there at the banquet. Seeing this, those present converted to the faith and told everyone about the passion of the holy virgin Beatrix, which had been avenged at the banquet. They suffered, however, around the year of our Lord 287.
Read the original Latin
Simplicius et Faustinus fratres cum sacrificare contemnerent, sub Dyocletiano imperatore Romae multa supplicia pertulerunt. Tandem data super eos sententia decollati sunt et in Tiberim corpora eorum projecta, soror autem eorum nomine Beatrix eorum corpora de flumine levavit et honorifice sepelivit, Lucretius autem praefectus et ejus vicarius, dum praedium ipsorum ambiret, eanr teneri fecit et, ut ydolis immolaret, praecepit. Quam renuentem Lucretius nocte a servis suis praefocari praecepit, cujus corpus Lucia virgo rapiens juxta fratres suos sepelivit, Praefectus post hoc Lucretius praedium ipsum intravit, ubi facto amicis suis convivio cum martiribus insultaret, infantulus quidam lactens pannis involutus de gremio matris, quae ibi aderat, cunctis audientibus exclamavit: audi, Lucreti, occidisti et invasisti, ecce datus es in possessionem inimici. Statimque Lucretius timens ac tremens a daemone arripitur et per tres horas adeo est vexatus, ut in ipso convivio moreretur. Quod videntes, qui aderant, ad fidem conversi sunt et narrabant omnibus passionem sanctae Beatricis virginis in convivio vindicatam. Passi sunt autem circa annos domini CCLXXXVII.
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