De sancto Simphoriano
The Harmony of a Holy Life
The name Simphorianus reflects the inner harmony of virtues he cultivated from his youth.
The name Simphorianus comes from the word symphony. He was like a musical instrument, producing a harmony of virtues, and within him, as in a musical vessel, three things were present. As Averroes says, a sound-producing object must be hard to resist, soft to sustain, and broad to fill; so too was Simphorianus like a musical instrument: hard toward himself through austerity, soft toward others through gentleness, and broad toward everyone through the breadth of his charity. Born in the city of Autun, Simphorianus was so full of gravity in his character while still a young man that he seemed to anticipate the life of his elders.
Faithful unto Death
Simphorianus rejects the empty promises of the world and embraces martyrdom, encouraged by his mother's faith.
When the pagans were celebrating the festival of Venus and carrying a statue before the prefect Heraclius, Simphorianus was present; and because he refused to worship it, he was beaten for a long time and thrown into prison. When he was brought out of prison and pressured to offer sacrifice, and many gifts were promised to him, he said: 'Our God, just as He knows how to reward merits, so He knows how to punish sins; the life that we are about to pay back to Christ as a debt, let us pay it as a vow.' It is a late repentance to have feared in the sight of the judge; your gifts, disguised with the sweetness of honey, bring forth poisons for poorly trusting minds. Your greed possesses nothing while having everything, because, bound by diabolical arts, it is dragged along by the shackles of miserable gain, and your joys, like glass, shatter the moment they begin to shine. Then the judge, filled with anger, passed sentence and ordered that Simphorianus be killed. As he was being led to the place of execution, his mother, crying out from the wall, said: 'My son, my son, remember the eternal life; look up and see Him who reigns in heaven. Your life isn't being taken away, but changed for the better.'
The Power of the Martyr's Witness
Following his death, the miraculous power of Simphorianus's relics continues to manifest God's glory.
He was soon beheaded, and his body was taken up by Christians and buried with honor. So many miracles occurred at his tomb that even pagans held it in the highest regard. Gregory of Tours reports that a certain Christian took three stones stained with his blood from the place where he was killed and placed them in a silver box, lined with wooden panels. When he had placed this in a certain fortress, and a fire had consumed the entire fortress, the aforementioned box was brought out from the midst of the fire safe and sound. He suffered around the years of the Lord...
Read the original Latin
Simphorianus dicitur a simphonia. Fuit enim tamquam vas müsicum, emittens harmoniam virtutum, in quo tamquam in vase musico tria fuerunt. Nam ut dicis Averrois: sonativum debet esse durum ad resistendum,lene ad continuandum, latum ad implendum, sic et Simphorianus tamquam vas musicum fuit, durus Sibi per austeritatem, lenis aliis per mansuetudinem, latus omnibus per caritatis amplitudinem. — Simphorianus in Augustodunensi urbe ortus dum adhuc adolescens esset, tanta morum gravitate pollebat, quod seniorum vitam anticipare videretur. Cum igitur pagani festum Veneris celebrarent et statuam ante Heraclium praefectum deferrent, Simphorianus affuit et nolens eam adorare diu caeditur et carceri mancipatur, et cum eductus de carcere ad sacrificium cogeretur et multa ei donaria promitterentur, dixit: Deus noster, ut novit remunerare merita, ita novit punire peccata; vitam, quam Christo soluturi sumus ex debito, solvamus ex voto. Sera poenitudo est sub judicis timuisse conspectu, Munera vestra fucata mellis permixta dulcedine male credulis mentibus venena parturiunt. Cupiditas vestra omnia habendo nil possidet, quia dyabolicis arlibus obligata miseri lucri delinetur compedibus et gaudia vestra in similitudine vitri, cum coeperunt splendere, franguntur. Tunc judex ira repletus data sententia praecepit, ut Simphorianus occideretur, Qui cum ad locum duceretur, mater ejus de muro exclamans ait: nate, nate, memento aeternae vitae; sursum respice ct regnantem in coelo intuere, tibi vita non tollitur, sed in melius commutatur.
Mox igitar decollatus est et a christianis corpus ejus sublatum honorifice est sepultum. Ad cujus sepulchrüm tanta fiebant miracula, ut etiam a paganis in honore maximo haberetur. Refert Gregorius Turonensis, quod de loco, ubi sanguis ejus efasus est, quidam christianus tres lapillos sanguine respersos sustulit et in capsa argentea tabulis ligneis circumsepta locavit. Quam cum in quodam castro locasset et totum castrum incendium consumsisset, de medio ignis praedicta capsa sana et integra est educta, Passus est circa annos domini
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