From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

April 21st - SS. Simeon Barsabae, Bishop, and Comp., Martyrs
d. 341

PERHAPS the longest individual notice which occurs in the Roman
Martyrology is that devoted to a group of Persian martyrs on this day.
It runs as follows:

=C2 =E2=80=9CIn Persia the birthday of St. Simeon, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, who was taken by command of Sapor, King of the Persians,
loaded with chains, and brought before iniquitous tribunals. As he
refused to worship the sun, and bore testimony to Jesus Christ with
clear and constant voice, he was first of all kept for a long time in
prison with a hundred others, whereof some were bishops, others
priests, others clerics of divers ranks; then when Usthazanes, the
king's tutor, who some time before had lapsed from the faith, but w=
hom
the bishop had recalled to repentance, had suffered martyrdom with
constancy, on the next day, which was the anniversary of the Lord's
passion, the others were all beheaded before the eyes of Simeon, who
meanwhile zealously exhorted each of them; and lastly he himself was
beheaded. With him there suffered moreover the men of renown
Abdechalas and Ananias, his priests; Pusicius also, the overseer of
the king's workmen, fell by a cruel death, because he had strengthe=
ned
Ananias when he was wavering, wherefore his neck was severed and his
tongue removed; and after him his daughter also was slain who was a
holy virgin.=E2=80=9D

A hardly less lengthy eulogy is accorded on the next day to another
group of Persian martyrs. St. Simeon, called Barsabae, i.e. son of the
fuller, is mentioned in the first place among the martyrs in the
little supplement annexed to the Syriac =E2=80=9CBreviarium=E2=80=9D of 412=
under the
heading =E2=80=9CThe Names of our Masters the Confessors, Bishops of Persia= =E2=80=9D.
There can be no question as to the reality and the cruelty of the
persecution which was renewed by Sapor II in 340 or 341, for we hear
much about it in Sozomen and other authorities.

The best text of the Passion of St. Simeon Barsabae is probably that
edited by M. Kmosko in vol. ii o. Patrologia Syriaca, pp. 661-690. The
document had been published long ago by E. Assemani in his Acta
martyrum orientalium, and there is also an Armenian translation. As
has been pointed out by Fr Peeters in the Analecta Bollandiana (vol.
xxix, pp. 151-156, and vol. xliii, pp. 264-268) as well as in the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iv, pp. 419-421, several interesting
problems arise out of these acts. In particular the name which appears
in the Roman Martyrology as Usthazanes and in the Syriac as Guhistazad
is probably identical with the name Azadas which figures in the list
of Persian martyrs on the next day. A French translation of the acts
is printed in Dom Leclercq's Les Martyrs, vol. iii, pp. 145-162.


Saint Quote:
They who voluntarily commit sin show a contempt for life eternal,
since they willingly risk the loss of their soul.
--St. Gregory the Great

Bible Quote:
=E2=80=9CI passed by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the m=
an
lacking sense, And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles;
Its surface was covered with nettles, And its stone wall was broken
down. When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received
instruction. =E2=80=9CA little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of
the hands to rest,=E2=80=9D Then your poverty will come as a robber And you=
r
want like an armed man.=E2=80=9D=C2 =C2 {Proverbs 24:30=E2=80=9334}


<><><><>
A Morning Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Christ

Dear Lord, I adore Your Sacred Heart, which I desire to enter with
acts of love, praise, adoration and thanksgiving. I offer You my own
heart as I sigh to You from its very depths, asking that You will work
through me in all that I do this day; thus may I draw You closer to me
each day. I offer You all the crosses and sufferings of the world, in
union with Your life on earth, in expiation for sins. Please join my
every action and heartbeat to the pulsations of Your Heart. I unite
all my works of this day to those labors You performed while You were
on earth, bathing them in Your precious Blood, and I offer them to the
Heavenly Father so that many souls may be saved. - Amen.

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