bly constant in their fidelity to God, before
tyrants, invincible under torments, and superior to them almost as if
they had been impassible. Their resolution never failed them, their
fervor seemed never slackened. Such wonderful men wrought continual
miracles in converting souls to God. We bear the name of Christians, and
wear the habit of Saints; but are full of the spirit of worldlings, and
our actions are infected with its poison. We secretly seek ourselves,
even when we flatter ourselves that God is our only aim, and while we
undertake to convert the world, we suffer it to pervert us. When shall
we begin to study to crucify our passions and die to ourselves, that we
may lay a solid foundation of true virtue, and establish its reign in
our hearts?

Footnotes:
1. Matt. xiii.55.
2. John vii. 5.
3. Acts i. 14.
4. Haer. 78. c. 14.
5. Eus. l. 3, c. 5, Epiph. haer. 29, c. 7, haer. 30, c. 2.
6. L. de Pond. et Mensur. c. 15.
7. Demonst. l. 3, c. 5.

{429}

SS. LEO AND PAREGORIUS, MARTYRS

From their ancient authentic acts in Ruinart, Bollandus, &c.

THIRD AGE.

ST. PAREGORIUS having spilt his blood for the faith at Patara, in Lycia,
St. Leo, who had been a witness of his conflict, found his heart divided
between joy for his friend's glorious victory, and sorrow to see himself
deprived of the happiness of sharing in it. The proconsul of Asia being
absent in order to wait on the emperors, probably Valerian and Galien,
the governor of Lycia, residing at Patara, to show his zeal for the
idols, published an order on the festival of Serapis, to oblige all to
offer sacrifice to that false god. Leo seeing the heathens out of
superstition, and some Christians out of fear, going in crowds to adore
the idol, sighed within himself, and went to offer up his prayers to the
true God, on the tomb of St. Paregorius, to which he passed before the
temple of Serapis, it lying in his way to the martyr's tomb. The
heathens that were sacrificing in it knew him to be a Christian by his
modesty. He had exercised himself from his childhood in the austerities
and devotions of an ascetic life, and possessed, in an eminent degree,
chastity, temperance, and all other virtues. His clothes were of a
coarse cloth made of camel's hair. Not long after his return home from
the tomb of the martyr, with his mind full of the glorious exit of his
friend, he fell asleep, and from a dream he had on that occasion,
understood, when he awaked, that