thout any compulsion." The proconsul
threatened him with those little punishments with which children are
accustomed to be chastised, little knowing that God himself fights in
his martyrs. The child only laughed at him. The governor then said to
him: "I will cut off your nose and ears." Hilarianus replied: "You may
do it; but I am a Christian." The proconsul, dissembling his confusion,
ordered him to prison. Upon which the child said: "Lord, I give thee
thanks." These martyrs ended their lives under the hardships of their
confinement, and are honored in the ancient calendar of Carthage, and
the Roman Martyrology, on the 11th of February, though only two (of the
name of Felix) died on that day of their wounds.

{397}

* * * * *

The example of these martyrs condemns the sloth with which many
Christians in this age celebrate the Lord's Day. When the judge asked
them, how they durst presume to hold their assembly against the imperial
orders, they always repeated, even on the rack: "The obligation of the
Sunday is indispensable. It is not lawful for us to omit the duty of
that day. We celebrated it as well as we could. We never passed a Sunday
without meeting at our assembly. We will keep the commandments of God at
the expense of our lives." No dangers nor torments could deter them from
this duty. A rare example of fervor in keeping that holy precept, from
which too many, upon lame pretences, seek to excuse themselves. As the
Jew was known by the religious observance of the Sabbath, so is the true
Christian by his manner of celebrating the Sunday. And as our law is
more holy and more perfect than the Jewish, so must be our manner of
sanctifying the Lord's Day. This is the proof of our religion, and of
our piety towards God. The primitive Christians kept this day in the
most holy manner, assembling to public prayer in dens and caves, knowing
that, "without this religious observance, a man cannot be a Christian,"
to use the expression of an ancient father.

Footnotes:
1. These were, by laying her head on the altar to offer it to God, and
all her life after wearing her hair long as the ancient Nazarenes
did: (Act. p. 417. St. Optatas, l. 6. S. Ambr. ad Virg. c. 8.)
Whereas the ceremony of this consecration in Egypt and Syria was for
the virgin to cut off her hair in the presence of a priest.
(Bulteau, Hist. Mon. p. 170.)

ST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT OF AGAUNUM.

From his anc