De sancto Bohifacio martire
The Unexpected Martyr
Boniface, a man living in sin, travels to Tarsus to collect relics but is moved by the Holy Spirit to confess Christ and suffer martyrdom himself.
The Passion of Saint Boniface the martyr, who suffered under Diocletian and Maximian in the city of Tarsus, but was buried in Rome on the road called the Via Latina. While he was the steward of a certain noble matron named Aglae, and was living with her in sin, they were both eventually moved by a divine impulse to decide that Boniface should be sent to seek out the bodies of the martyrs, in the hope that by serving and attending to them, they might deserve to be saved through their prayers. Arriving in Tarsus after a few days, Boniface said to his companions, "Men, go find us a place to stay; I am going to see those martyrs I long so much to see as they struggle." Hurrying to the place, he saw the most blessed martyrs: one suspended by his feet with a fire lit beneath him, another stretched out on four wooden beams and tortured for a long time, another flayed with iron claws, another with his hands cut off, and another with a stake fixed to his neck and raised off the ground. Seeing the martyrdoms arranged in such various torments by the impious executioner, and burning himself with love for Christ as he looked on from a distance, he began to cry out to the great God of the holy martyrs. He ran and sat at their feet, kissing their chains and saying, "Struggling martyrs of Christ, trample the devil! Persevere a little longer; the labor is small, but the rest that follows is great, and the satisfaction will be beyond words." "For these torments that you endure for the love of the Divinity are temporary and pass in a moment; yet after a very short time, they will carry you over to the joys of eternal happiness. There, rejoicing in the vision of your King and singing celestial praises among the choirs of angels, clothed in the beauty of immortality, you will see your torturers being tormented in the abyss of eternal calamity." The judge, Simplicius, looked at him, ordered him to be brought to the tribunal, and asked, "Who are you?" Saint Boniface replied, "I am a Christian, and my name is Boniface." Then the angry judge ordered him to be suspended and his body scraped with claws until his bones appeared; he then ordered sharp reeds to be driven under his fingernails. As the holy martyr of God looked toward heaven and endured the pain with a cheerful spirit, the wicked judge, seeing this, ordered his mouth to be forced open and boiling lead to be poured in. But the holy martyr said, "I give thanks to you, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God." Then the judge ordered a pot to be brought and filled with pitch, and he commanded that the holy martyr be thrown headfirst into the boiling pitch. But since he was not harmed at all, the judge ordered that his head be cut off with a sword.
The Discovery of Grace
The servants of Boniface, initially unaware of his transformation, discover his death and recover his body from the authorities.
When this happened, there was a great earthquake, so that many unbelievers, seeing the power of Christ in the martyr, came to believe; meanwhile, the servants of the martyr Boniface were searching everywhere for him, and not finding him, they said to one another, "He's probably off somewhere right now, busy with adultery or drinking in a tavern." As they were talking among themselves, it happened that one of the court officials met them. They asked him, "Have you seen a foreigner from Rome?" He replied, "Yesterday, a foreigner was beheaded in the stadium." And they asked again, "What did he look like?" They replied: "A man, square-built and thickset, with strong hair, dressed in a scarlet tunic." And he said: "The one you're looking for was martyred among us yesterday." It is finished. But they said, "The man we're looking for is an adulterer and a drunkard." He told them, "Come and see him." When he had shown them the body of the most blessed martyr and his precious head, they said to him, "This is the one we're looking for; we ask that you give him to us." He answered, "I cannot give you his body for free."
The Fruits of Repentance
The return of the martyr's body leads to the conversion and sanctification of his mistress, Aglae, who dedicates her life to God.
They gave him five hundred gold coins, took the body of the holy martyr, anointed him with spices, wrapped him in precious linens, placed him on a litter, and returned home rejoicing and glorifying God. However, an angel of the Lord appeared to his mistress and told her what had happened to the blessed martyr; she immediately went to meet the holy body with all reverence, built a worthy house for him, and laid him to rest in it, five stadia from the city of Rome. Boniface was martyred on the fourteenth of May at Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, and was buried in Rome on the ninth of July. The blessed Aglaes, however, renounced the world and its pomps, distributing everything she owned to the poor and to monasteries; she freed all her household from the yoke of servitude, and by devoting herself without ceasing to prayer and fasting, she earned such grace from the Lord Jesus that... ...she became renowned for miracles in his name. She lived for another twelve years in a religious habit and was buried near the aforementioned martyr, having been perfected by pious works.
Read the original Latin
Passio sancti Bonifacii martiris sub Dyocletiano et Maximiniauo apud Tarsum civitatem passi, sed Romae in via, quae latina nuncupatur, sepulti. Qui cum esset procurator rerum cujusdam nobilis matronae nomine Aglaes et eum ea in stupro misceretur, tandem utique divino nutu compuncti consilium habuerunt, ut ad requirendum corpora martirum Bonifaeius mitteretur, si quo modo servientes atque obsequentes eis per eorum orationes salvari mererentur. Perveniens igitur per dies aliquot Tarsum civitatem dixit ad eus, qui cum eo erant, Bonifacius: viri euntes requirite nobis hospitium, ego autem ibo videre eos, quos valde desidero, martires certantes. Festinans itaque ad locum vidit beatissimos martires, alium suspensum pedes igne supposito, alium in quatuor lignis extensum et diutissime afflictum , alium ungulis exaratum, alium manibus abscissum, alium stipitem in collo habentem affixum et a terra elevatum, et sic per diversa supplicia martiria ab impio carnifice disposita cum eminus fervens et ipse amore Christi respiceret, magnum Deum sanctorum martirum clamare coepit et accurrens consedit pedibus eorum deosculans vincula ac dicens: certantes martires Christi calcate dyabolum, modicum perseverate, parvus quidem labor, sed -multa requies et ineffabilis postmodum satietas. Ista enim tormenta, quae pro divinitatis amore palimini, temporalia sunt et quoque in momento transeuntia, post brevissimum tamen temporis spalium ad perpetuae felicitatis vos transmittite gaudia, ubi regis vestri visione gaudentes illique coelestium cantionum laudes inter choros angelorum immortalitatis decore vestiti referentes in aeternae calamitatis abysso üimpiissimos vivos videbitis cruciari tortores. Adspiciens autem Simplicius judex jussit eum applicari ad tribunal eique dixit: quis es tu? Sanctus Bonifacius dixit: christianus sum et Bonifacius vocor. Tunc iratus judex jussit eum suspendi et tamdiu corpus ejus ungulis radi, donec ossa ejus apparerent, deinde calamos acutos sub ungulas manuum ejus affigi, cumque sanctus Dei martir in coelum adspiciens alacriter dolores toleraret, videns impius judex jussit aperiri os ejus et plumbum bulliens infundi.
Sanctus autem martir dicebat: gratias tibi ago, domine Jesu Christe, fili Dei vivi. Deinde judex jussit afferri ollam et eam pice impleri atque verso capite sanctum martirem in bullientem picem mitti. Sed cum nihil laesus esset, jussit judex, ut gladio caput ejus abscideretur. Quo facto terrae motus factus est magnus, ita ut multi infideles virtutem Christi in martirem cernentes crederent, Gonservi vero martiris Bonifacii cireuibant ubiqne requirentes eum et non invenientes ad invicem dicebant: ille modo in adulterio aut in taberna positus epulatnr. Cum ergo inter se colloquerentur, contigit, ut obviaret iis unus de Commentariensibus. Quem interrogant: vidisti aliquem virum peregrinum romanum? llle ait: hesterna die vir peregrinus abscissus est capite in stadio. Et iterum interrogant: qualis erat adspectus ejus?
At illi dixerunt: vir quadratus et crassus, robusto capillo, coccinea armillasia indutus. Et dicit ille: quem quaeritis, apud nos hesterna die martirio est . finitus. At illi: quem nos quaerimus hominem, adulter est et ebriosus. Dixit iis ille: venite et videte eum. Cumque ostendisset iis beatissimi nfartiris corpus et pretiosum caput ejus, dixerunt ei? iste est, quem quaerimus; petimus, ut des nobis eum. Qui respondit: ego gratis corpus ejus vobis dare non possum.
llli autem dantes ei solidos quingentos acceperunt corpus sancti martiris et ungentes eum aromatibus involventesque linteaminibus pretiosis posuerunt illud in basterna et sic revertebantur gaudentes et glorificantes Deum. Angelus autem domini apparens dominae ipsius rem factam beati martiris indicavit, quae confestim cum omni veneratione obviavit sancto corpori et aedificans ei domum dignam reposuit illud in ea ab urbe Romana spatio stadiorum quinque. Martirisatus est autem Bonifacius quarto decimo die mensis Maji apud Tarsum metropolin Ciliciae et sepultus est Romae nona Juli. Beata vero Aglaes abrenuntiavit mundo et pompis ejus distribuens universa, quae possidebat, egenis ac monasteriis , relaxans universam familiam suam a jugo servitutis et ipsa sine intermissione vacans orationibus et jejuniis tantam gratiam a domino Jesu promeruit, ut. in ejus nomine virtutum claresceret signis. Supervixit autem in habitu sanctimoniali annis XII, sepulta apud praefatum martirem operibus piis consummata.
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